Every year, as the end of January rolls around, my Instagram fills with posts heralding friends’ finds at the White Elephant Sale. When I see worm-shaped bookends, a vintage table runner, or a collection of bizarre magnets, I know it’s time to slip on comfortable shoes, hydrate, pack a snack, and get ready to sift.
Since its launch in the 1960s, the weeks-long, pop-up rummage sale — billed by organizers as the “oldest and largest” in Northern California — has raised more than $30 million for the Oakland Museum of California. It’s easy to see why. Located in a 96,000-square-foot warehouse in Jingletown, the sale is impeccably organized. There are no piles of broken plastic toys or racks of stained t-shirts; instead, each section (art, clothes, books, bric-a-brac, kitchen appliances, to name a few) is run by its own team of fiercely organized and knowledgeable volunteers, nearly all over the age of 60. Not sure what type of lampshade you need? There are shelves where they’re organized by attachments (uno, or spider, for example). Vintage jewelry experts can tell you the history behind a piece. Bikes are sold by volunteer mechanics. There’s a whole section for lace handkerchiefs, and a Doreen, Mabel, or Lucille on hand to show you exactly where.
I’ve been going for more than a decade, and over the years I’ve collected an incredibly heavy 1960s food processor sold to me by a man who tested the blade himself, then told me they “don’t make them like this anymore”; a mid-century-modern side table; a little glass jar with a painted flower lid; an old salt shaker; cookie-cutters that years later I have yet to use… you get the idea.
It’s a warehouse filled with the beautiful and bizarre. So when I stumbled across this “priceless” children’s frog urinal — where a stream of pee can spin the yellow plastic — I asked myself: What are the strangest things in this place?
Have you ever seen a frog-shaped children's training urinal? Now you have. (Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective)
There were so many contenders. It is, by nature of being a rummage sale, filled to the brim with peculiar things. But a few took the cake — like this absolutely, zero doubts, 100% haunted clown cookie jar from the 1940s, listed for a cool $60.
It's unclear why this clown is in a barrel, but he definitely has cookies for you. (Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective)
If you’re into objects that have spirits inside of them, may I suggest visiting this guy across the way. The clock section is incredible; ornate vintage pieces sit proudly in a case, and an experienced volunteer explains their intricacies. This dapper gentleman, he says, has eyes that move with each tick.
Ever feel like you're being watched? Now, you can be sure you are; his eyes will follow you everywhere. Photo: Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective
Across from the row of rocking chairs, resting between dressers, sits this treasure: a baby’s cradle, possibly crafted in the late 1890s. It’s large, and if lined with pillows could fit many babies, or a fully-grown standard poodle. Oddly enough no one has claimed this jewel yet; it’s been marked down from $600 to $300, but now the price is “FIRM.”
This vintage baby cradle was manufactured in Vienna at the turn of the (last) century. (Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective)
The art section is always golden. Alongside limited-edition prints of otters and rabbits are kids’ paintings of their pets, clay sculptures, and this incredible trunk of dolls, buttons, and chairs. Its label, “re-thinking cos play,” says it all.
It's like a doll house, sort of. Photo: Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective
The search for the weird and zany was fun until I found this incredible piece of history, and I wished with all my heart that I had a few thousand dollars to buy it: original IT’S IT neon, from a sign that used to sit at Playland-at-the-beach in San Francisco from 1928 to the 1970s.
The Bay Area's famous ice cream sandwich-makers used to hold it down at a seaside amusement park in San Francisco. (Nuala Bishari/COYOTE Media Collective)
What else did I find? Loads of other cool things, and also so many gay people. The White Elephant Sale is inarguably one of the queerest hot spots in town, as newly U-Hauled lesbians browse the rows of credenzas and discuss the merits and pitfalls of a vintage rattan sofa. You can bet with 100% certainty that you’ll run into at least one ex in the taco truck line outside.
I also saw Boots Riley heading into the kitchen section, and it took everything in me not to follow him at a distance and see what he purchased. Was it the haunted clown cookie jar? Please say yes!
“But everything good may be gone,” you might think. My friends, it’s still a 96,000-square-foot warehouse filled with stuff. I bet that vintage baby cradle is still swinging around, waiting just for you.
What did we miss? Send your weirdest and wildest White Elephant Sale finds to hello@coyotemedia.org
Nuala Bishari is an investigative journalist and opinion columnist who's reported on the Bay Area since 2013. She writes about public health, homelessness, LGBTQ+ issues, and nature.
