accidental scores

[jerseyben]

This thread is to tell your stories about accidental scores.

1. Was record shopping for myself at a b&m store, which is something that I don't normally do. I came across a soundtrack that I thought a friend might enjoy so, for $3, I bought it. Turns out my friend already had a copy so I was stuck with it. Well, check out completed listings on ebay for the Back to the Future Soundtrack on LP. It is roughly a $20 record. Not a huge score but an accidental one for sure!

2. Was browsing the record bins at a local thrift store for interesting LP's. Found nothing until the last album in the bin, literally. It was unusual and it was songs featured from a local record pressing plant. I am typically attracted to items with a "local" connection. So, I figured for $1, why not buy it as to not leave empty handed. Well, turns out the record is very rare! Check out completed listings on ebay for the Pitman Family of Music LP.

3. Was bidding on a colonial coin at my local coin club. I wanted the coin for my own collection, as I did not already own an example of this type. Bidding approached $50 and I almost tapped out as this was nearing the retail value of the coin (about $75). I stuck it out and won the coin for $55. Turns out, the coin ended up being a "Discovery Piece" for a never before identified die variety. The man who wrote the book on this particular type of coin confirmed that this die marriage was not included in the book. He provided me with a new attribution number for this newly discovered die variety. I was quoted an approximate value on the coin at around $1000 (of course something this unique would be hard to narrow down an exact value as it could swing wildly in either direction).

Who else wants to share?

 

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[Punatic]

I bought a Revell model for 1$ and in it was a circa 1950s map of Disney land that sold on eBay for almost $60.

Dumb luck really!

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

About a decade ago, I purchased a Don Martin (of Mad Magazine) book at a yard sale for a quarter. One of those collection type books that could fit in your back pocket. On the inside cover was an autograph by Peter Criss of KISS with the cat makeup drawing, a "1978" and the line "I'll be right home to you".

I'm a huge KISS fan so I was very excited when I opened the cover later in the day and saw it. I didn't know it was in there when I bought it.

I've never had it authenticated. It looks exactly what I see on image searches and that is good enough for me. I bought the book for the book, not the autograph!

 

[Joe777Cool]

I was at a yard sale and saw a small box with 2 tie clips in it. I saw one was marked sterling and purchased for $1. I got home and looked at the other one and it was the same as this one: John F Kennedy JFK Campaign Tie Clip PT 109 Boat | eBay

 

[FloridaHunter]

About two years ago I was at a yard sale looking for the usual items. The lady running the sale, along with her friend,were trying to sell me items that she thought I would be interested in. Of course i'm only half-listening, just doing my usual looking, as this happens from time to time. So I politely just nod yes, and remark, oh yeah, that's nice, those are great, pretty cool and so on...Finally she picks up these 3 boxes, the size of a board game each, which are beat up and tattered. She says they are old Christmas vintage bubble lights in the original boxes and are from her childhood. The lights inside look intact, although some are loose. Some are still attached to the original cord. She is really nice, but keeps going on about how much they are worth. I am thinking, yeah, right, whatever. I have heard that so many times. Finally, I don't know why, I bought all 3 boxes for 3 dollars I think, just to make her happy. She literally had to talk me into it. I got them home and they did seem to go for a few bucks, so I listed them on Ebay. To my immense surprise, the 3 boxes went for over $300 and I was absolutely stunned. I have never seen any since but have always been on the lookout.

 

[Everester]

I bought an empty Tiffany ring box for $1 at a rummage and I was going to use it for a Tiffany ring I found. Got looking the box up and it sold by itself for as much as the ring I was going to put in it. I was just going to give it away free with the ring. I sold the box last week for $89.99.

 

[diggummup]

Nothing major lately. My latest unexpected find was inside a large cardboard tube poster holder (cardboard with a metal screw on cap) that stands about 3 ft. tall last week for $1. Inside looked to be a few posters (like 5) rolled up that I didn't pay much attention to when I bought the tube. There were a few lobby posters inside including The Titanic and Indiana Jones Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, also there was one poster that was still in the plastic wrap. It was a 1989 Andy Warhol Retrospective Chicago Art Institute Poster like this one that sold for $325. I'm sure I won't get that much but it was an unexpected find. Rare 1989 Andy Warhol Retrospective Chicago Art Institute Poster

My favorite unexpected find was a set of sterling WW1 aviator wings. I paid $40 figuring that worst case scenario I could break even on them. They were made by Shreve & Co. and turned out to be a pretty rare set of wings. I sold them for $2250 off ebay on a militaria collectors website. Here's a pic-

 

[Tallone]

I bought a box at an auction for $25 because of this Hartmann shoulder bag:



There was also a black leather motorcycle vest in the box. What I didn't know was that underneath those two items was this:



That little kit bag sold recently on eBay for $149.00! The Hartmann bag, by the way, is probably only worth about $50 but I'm giving it to my daughter as a gift for successful completion of the first two years of med school.

 

[Baltimore]

I think my best accidental find was when I bought a big box of hats that looked good from the top few layers, but the bottom two thirds were almost all junk hats or water damaged. I was pretty bummed because I had shelled out $150 for the thing (seemed ok for $200+ hats). However, one of the hats had a bunch of Loyal Order of Moose pins on it, three of which turned out to be 14k gold with diamonds! Ended up selling one for $80, another for $50, and the rest of the pins in a lot for about $25. That plus the few good sports hats in the box saved my butt!

 

[billjustbill]

The "Garage sale/Estate sale, as it was listed, was out in the county, at least 20 miles from our home. We left very early, at the time between darkness and dawn. As we drove up, the front gate was still locked, but we were actually the first ones there. Inside the fence line, a well known land specialist and high end real estate agent's 4ft.x8ft sign was posted up next to the paved Farm-to-Market road.

The sale was not in the house or its attached garage. It was in a detached 4-car garage with an epoxy coated concrete floor. Although it was the last half of June, artificial Christmas trees were still assembled, standing 10 feet tall, and could be seen through the opened zippers of the tall nylon storage bags that covered all but the heavy reproduction cast iron Christmas tree stands.

Walking through one of the overhead garage doors, I quietly asked if they had any costume jewelry. One of the helpers of the owner pointed to 3'x3' by 10" deep cardboard box sitting on top of a card table. My wife and I headed directly to the area and began pulling clear baggies of jewelry into each hand. Beside the large box were a few individual jewelry cases for rings and earrings. Not trying to give the appearance of a Feeding Frenzy, yet and to any sane person, we looked a bit wild-eyed and just short of foaming at the mouth. Though, the giddy subdued laughter and rapid head and arm moves were enough to draw the attention of the first helper to come over and watch...

To help us with the slick baggies, I asked her if she had a larger plastic bag we could put all our finds in, and that got her attention directed to finding a suitable bag and off of us. Some things were cheap and some things were just crazy cheap! The more I saw, the more I grabbed as other buyers were walking by and peering into the cardboard box. After letting the helper hold the bag she had found, and "guard" the substantial number of baggies inside, my wife picked up a red jewelry box with the word Mikimoto stamped on the satin lid lining in gold lettering. The name didn't ring a bell with me; I thought it was the name of a to eat.... But SHE knew the name, and the name meant that the Pearl earrings were real, the studs and backings would be at least 14kt. gold, and the small sparkles were from diamonds. The cloth box was marked just, "$5."

After leaving a scattering few baggies inside the box, all I wanted to do is grab a wad of bills and fling it toward the cashier and run for the car. Embarrassingly and painfully slow, people began to gather around the lady and her printing calculator to watch the amount of baggies being totaled and the growing length of the paper tape..... The total came to just over $100.00.

The drive home was ten times longer than the drive to get to the sale. To me, the large white plastic bag seemed to pulsate with a life of its own as it laid behind the front seats and on the rear seat floorboard. Miles from home, and then blocks from where we live, I obeyed every traffic sign, hard as it was. Then, with one hand, my finger was already pressing excessively hard on the garage door-opener button as the other wildly spun the steering wheel to right to make the turn into our drive way.

Much like an Air Raid Drill of the 1950's, I exited the car and move with a purpose into the house as I held the bag of unknown treasure. I turned the large plastic bag upside down and watched the clear baggies filled with jewelry spill onto my old folding metal TV tray. Some slid against the others and slid off onto the floor. With my lighted magnifying glass in hand, I picked the runaways from the carpeting and settled into my computer chair to see what treasure we brought home....

Here are some of the baggies as we found them. Only then, as your eyes give you queues, can you understand and grasp the hopeful blindness of what could be inside them and what was really there. In one baggie, marked $4, thee were three Sterling flower necklaces, that by themselves weighed over 95 grams. Here is the baggie holding two silver bracelets as it laid flat, and showing the writing on it that openly disguised a treasure of precious metals..

One bracelet, on the right, was Sterling Silver. And, the other? The other bracelet of flowing round links was White Gold, 18kt White Gold....

Bill

 

[Ahakunut]

Here are some of the baggies as we found them. Only then, as your eyes give you queues, can you understand and grasp the hopeful blindness of what could be inside them and what was really there. In one baggie, marked $4, thee were three Sterling flower necklaces, that by themselves weighed over 95 grams. Here is the baggie holding two silver bracelets as it laid flat, and showing the writing on it that openly disguised a treasure of precious metals..

One bracelet, on the right, was Sterling Silver. And, the other? The other bracelet of flowing round links was White Gold, 18kt White Gold....

Bill

[/QUOTE]
Billjustbill, Do you know the value of those butterfly rings in the picture? Or any other info about them? My mother-in-law has a lot of those. Thanks!

 

[Beachkid23]

When I first started out I sold baseball cards. Everything I had collected for the last 15- 20 years went on eBay. I decided to go to some yard sales to see if I can find anything to sell. However I did not know squat about anything. One house I stopped at the lady said everything was a dollar. She wanted to get rid of it. I don't remember too much of what I bought except for one thing was a solid brass or bronze head on a post. It was signed and it was heavy. And I thought I would just take it to the scrap yard on the way home.
I decided to take it home and see if I could find any information on it. With no luck I decided to put it on eBay for $599 or best offer and see if I got any interest on it. I would give it a month and if not I would just take it to the junkyard.

It's sold in about three minutes of listing it for the $599. I have no idea who it was. Or what it was worth but it looked a lot like this guy. Except for mine had the eyes completely open.

I was hooked from there!

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=181781369926

 

[JimDon]

Not really a pick but was going thru some Hardy Boys books from the 30's that belonged to me Dad. In one page was a piece of paper and on it was a baseball starting line up of his baseball team. Not valuable but priceless to me. He played 3rd base.

 

[billjustbill]

Here are some of the baggies as we found them. Only then, as your eyes give you queues, can you understand and grasp the hopeful blindness of what could be inside them and what was really there. In one baggie, marked $4, thee were three Sterling flower necklaces, that by themselves weighed over 95 grams. Here is the baggie holding two silver bracelets as it laid flat, and showing the writing on it that openly disguised a treasure of precious metals..

One bracelet, on the right, was Sterling Silver. And, the other? The other bracelet of flowing round links was White Gold, 18kt White Gold....

Bill

Billjustbill, Do you know the value of those butterfly rings in the picture? Or any other info about them? My mother-in-law has a lot of those. Thanks![/QUOTE]

I don't know about the curved butterfly/turquoise ring. The turquoise that is finished and curved/carved into the shape makes it appear labor intensive. The owner apparently traveled extensively, so it must have appealed to her tastes.

Post any info you come up with, too.

Bill

 

[diggummup]

Billjustbill, Do you know the value of those butterfly rings in the picture? Or any other info about them? My mother-in-law has a lot of those. Thanks!

I don't know about the curved butterfly/turquoise ring. The turquoise that is finished and curved/carved into the shape makes it appear labor intensive. The owner apparently traveled extensively, so it must have appealed to her tastes.

Post any info you come up with, too.

Bill[/QUOTE]

Tibetan Turquoise Butterfly ring | eBay