Almost-didnt-get-it stories.

[Piledriver]

Almost-didn't-get-it stories.

I love reading the stories on this forum.

I want to hear about how a great buy almost didn't happen.

One of the best things I ever got out of a yard sale is a woodworking calculator that adds fractions of sixteenths and eighths. It came from my daughter's sale.
At the end of the sale she just gave it to me, and I didn't realize what it was until I got it home.

 

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[jerseyben]

We buy gold place dumped the contents of a few lincoln wheat cent folders into a large plastic container because they buy them at 2 cents each across the counter. I asked if they had any wheat cents for sale to which they replied that they just roll them up and sell them for $1.50 per roll to a wholesaler. I said, I will buy them all at $1.75 per roll. Ended up with over 25 UNC 1909 VDB cents and 2 1909-S cents plus many more semi-key dates.

Ok this is not my story but I was there and it is too perfect to keep to myself:

A good friend and I were at a coin show. He was at a dealer's table asking about colonial coins while I was across the room doing the same thing. An attendee walks up to the dealer's table where my friend was standing and offers a binder full of coins for sale. The dealer thumbed through it and decided to pass on buying it. The dealer then pushes the binder over to my friend and tells the attendee, "this guy might be interested". My friend thumbed through it and quickly offered the guy a couple hundred bucks for the entire binder of coins. The attendee was thrilled and quickly accepted the offer. My friend came and found me and he was grinning ear to ear and shaking! He showed me what he had just bought. The binder was full of mediocre coins totaling maybe $100... except for one coin. A VERY scarce variety of a fairly obscure coin in one of the best known conditions was in the binder and it was labelled as some sort of generic colonial coin on the holder. I believe that 1 coin is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5000 (but my friend is not selling it). Remember, the attendee had been walking around the coin show offering the entire binder to several dealers and THEY ALL SAID NO THANKS!

 

[Beachkid23]

I almost blew one recently. I had left the card her the house and the lady called me back saying that she would like to set up an appointment for me to come over and check out what she had. She want me to come over that night but wasn't sure what time she would be home at so we set up a meeting at 6:30 that evening. She told me she would call though before I came over to make double sure she was home.

I guess I didn't hear that part though, I heard 630 at night so I went to her house at 6:30. Nobody was home and it was a good 30 minutes from my house so I called her.. She told me that she would be back in about 20 minutes but she was exhausted and did not want to do the transaction tonight but to wait until the next day. I wanted no part of that I wanted to do it tonight so I told her I'm sorry I think I misunderstood I thought you wanted me to come out here tonight at 6:30 and I'm already here but I can leave and go home that's fine. And call you tomorrow. She said no she was kind of sounding frustrated that I was there already however, I could come look at the stuff but she didn't know if she was going to sell it tonight or not. So when she came home her coffee machine wouldn't work. So that frustrated her a little bit more. Because she wanted a cup since I was there instead of her going to bed. She made it very known that she was upset that I was actually there.

Then I pulled the I bought you something for sitting here and going through this with me and taking the time. I'm sorry I came out here this late and I misunderstood our conversation earlier.(because I had tunnel hearing) and I went out into my car and gave her a bag of large M&Ms which all women love chocolate!! I had stopped at CVS earlier and they had them buy one get one so I bought two bags for my kids but I thought maybe giving her one would cheer her up a little bit. And it did the trick I meant to be there for 10 minutes she ended up showing me some stuff that her mother gave her and some coins but she wasn't ready to sell them. She showed me some stuff that her late husband had collected and some military items as well. Ended up leaving close to 10 o'clock at night. She just called today and I went back over there and bought some more stuff. Thank goodness for these:

 

[Tallone]

A few years ago, I went to an estate sale. I believe the home was owned by a physician. People were only allowed in an out through the garage so everyone had to pass through one door and they had set up a pay station just outside that door. LOTS of people coming and going through that door. I went in, looked around for 30 minutes or so and found a few good items including some late 1800s, leather bound medical texts I picked up for a dollar each (check the prices of those on eBay!). When I went to check out there was a line of people at the pay station. As I was standing there, I noticed there was a built-in shelf right next to me. On that shelf, right at eye level, were about 10 different characters of these:



I had no idea what they were worth but I thought they were cute and well-crafted so I bought them all for $2 each. Turns out these are hand-carved in Austria and sell for $40 to $60 each so I made about $500 on a $20 purchase that dozens of people could have scooped up before me. There must have been 100 people walk right by them, including me! Probably 20 people walked by them while I was standing in line and never even glanced at that shelf.

BTW, PileDriver, your avatar is giving me a migraine!

 

[dejapooh]

We buy gold place dumped the contents of a few lincoln wheat cent folders into a large plastic container because they buy them at 2 cents each across the counter. I asked if they had any wheat cents for sale to which they replied that they just roll them up and sell them for $1.50 per roll to a wholesaler. I said, I will buy them all at $1.75 per roll. Ended up with over 25 UNC 1909 VDB cents and 2 1909-S cents plus many more semi-key dates.

Ok this is not my story but I was there and it is too perfect to keep to myself:

A good friend and I were at a coin show. He was at a dealer's table asking about colonial coins while I was across the room doing the same thing. An attendee walks up to the dealer's table where my friend was standing and offers a binder full of coins for sale. The dealer thumbed through it and decided to pass on buying it. The dealer then pushes the binder over to my friend and tells the attendee, "this guy might be interested". My friend thumbed through it and quickly offered the guy a couple hundred bucks for the entire binder of coins. The attendee was thrilled and quickly accepted the offer. My friend came and found me and he was grinning ear to ear and shaking! He showed me what he had just bought. The binder was full of mediocre coins totaling maybe $100... except for one coin. A VERY scarce variety of a fairly obscure coin in one of the best known conditions was in the binder and it was labelled as some sort of generic colonial coin on the holder. I believe that 1 coin is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5000 (but my friend is not selling it). Remember, the attendee had been walking around the coin show offering the entire binder to several dealers and THEY ALL SAID NO THANKS!

I had a hit on a Washington Colonial Token. Paid $250, sold for $15k (Complete story on here somewhere). Perhaps the best dollar coin I've done was a Low 17 Hard Times Token back in the late 1980's. Paid $1 for it, sold it for $100. It is a common token with a running Jackass (for Jackson), but on Low 17, the Jackass is a Gelding... Less than a millimeter difference from a $1 token and a $100 token.

 

[Paleo_joe]

A few years ago, I went to an estate sale. I believe the home was owned by a physician. People were only allowed in an out through the garage so everyone had to pass through one door and they had set up a pay station just outside that door. LOTS of people coming and going through that door. I went in, looked around for 30 minutes or so and found a few good items including some late 1800s, leather bound medical texts I picked up for a dollar each (check the prices of those on eBay!). When I went to check out there was a line of people at the pay station. As I was standing there, I noticed there was a built-in shelf right next to me. On that shelf, right at eye level, were about 10 different characters of these:



I had no idea what they were worth but I thought they were cute and well-crafted so I bought them all for $2 each. Turns out these are hand-carved in Austria and sell for $40 to $60 each so I made about $500 on a $20 purchase that dozens of people could have scooped up before me. There must have been 100 people walk right by them, including me! Probably 20 people walked by them while I was standing in line and never even glanced at that shelf.

BTW, PileDriver, your avatar is giving me a migraine! View attachment 1161249

Similar story. People lined up in the garage waiting to enter the house. I was there "late" (30 mins early) and was at the back of the line. As I walked in, I passed a table right by the door, where all sorts of dealers had been standing for a long time, and there was a commemorative metal model of a WW2 ship from the shipyard where it was made. A gift for VIPs. Paid a few bucks, sold for a couple hundred I think.

Tables by doors are good pickings in general, people are looking beyond.

 

[trdhrdr007]

I bought a huge coin collection a couple years ago. In the collection was a complete Washington quarter set. I pulled the key dates & stuck the rest in my display case at the antique mall priced at melt plus 10-15%. It was worth more than that due to the condition of the quarters but at the time I had so much invested I was just trying to make a small profit & get my money back. A couple months later silver dropped about $5/oz so I brought the set home. I figured if it didn't sell by then it darn sure wasn't going to sell with silver down. Fast forward a few more months & I was sitting around the house doing nothing. I pulled the set back out & started checking for varieties. Turned out I had missed one from the 40's that was a very dramatic doubled die in MS condition. I'd have to get my butt off the couch to see what the date was(42, 46 ??) but it's a $600 plus coin.

 

[Tallone]

This is a bit off topic as it is sort of the flip side of the almost-didn't-get-it theme. This is a could-have-had-it-but-didn't-get-it story. I think I may have told this story before in some other thread but, what the heck, it's worth repeating anyway. This happened long before I got into buying and selling stuff but every time I think of this I imagine what could have been.

I grew up in Southern California having moved there in the late 1950s when I was very young. Disneyland was the big new attraction. For several years, we lived only a few miles from Disneyland and went there many times. There was a time (probably the early 1960s) when the Disney people set up a huge table (probably four times the size of a standard dining room table) in Fantasyland and filled it with original, hand-drawn and hand-colored animation cels from Disney movies and cartoons. I'm guessing there were several thousand cels on that table. They sold them for a dollar each. I remember I bought a few Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cels and stuck them on my bedroom wall with thumbtacks. I'm sure they got ragged after a while and were tossed out. I wish my parents had purchased a few hundred and held on to them. Oh well.... woulda, coulda, shoulda...

 

[jerseyben]

This is a bit off topic as it is sort of the flip side of the almost-didn't-get-it theme. This is a could-have-had-it-but-didn't-get-it story. I think I may have told this story before in some other thread but, what the heck, it's worth repeating anyway. This happened long before I got into buying and selling stuff but every time I think of this I imagine what could have been.

I grew up in Southern California having moved there in the late 1950s when I was very young. Disneyland was the big new attraction. For several years, we lived only a few miles from Disneyland and went there many times. There was a time (probably the early 1960s) when the Disney people set up a huge table (probably four times the size of a standard dining room table) in Fantasyland and filled it with original, hand-drawn and hand-colored animation cels from Disney movies and cartoons. I'm guessing there were several thousand cels on that table. They sold them for a dollar each. I remember I bought a few Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cels and stuck them on my bedroom wall with thumbtacks. I'm sure they got ragged after a while and were tossed out. I wish my parents had purchased a few hundred and held on to them. Oh well.... woulda, coulda, shoulda...

I would imagine most folks of your generation have a similar story. Remember, there really weren't collectibles in that era. The things that we now "collect" are the things that were never intended to be collectible in the first place. Baseball cards, comics, etc...

 

[Tallone]

Very true! I wish I had kept all those baseball cards I collected as a kid. I never bought many comics but I used to read a lot of them standing by the comic book rack in the store. I very likely read the first Spiderman at some point. Should have bought and kept THAT one!

 

[OldSowBreath]

On a rare Sunday garage sale, a women had just opened her garage door and it was filed to the brim with stuff. Up front was a real junk drawer (handle and everything that was filed to overflowing with small items. I started looking through and picked up a few tokens, pin buttons, and some jewelery but there was probably a thousand items in there. I finally said that it would take days to look through it and asked her want she wanted for the whole thing. She said to make her and offer. So I offered $20.00 and she starts yelling at me saying there's lots of very valuable things in there and she was really insulted by the offer. She keeps at it and I am just seconds away from walking off. So I just started to gather a few items to see what she wanted and she said $25.00. I said, "for just these four items?" She says no, $25.00 for the whole drawer. Deal. I am still going through this drawer. There are tokens galore, medallions from the turn of the century, some gold jewelry, political pins going back to FDR, Communist Party buttons, Victorian jewelry, Mexican silver jewelry, tons of union buttons, automotive items, nd a lot of items I've never seen before that were tagged apparently by a relative who had an antiques store (the lady selling had inherited some storage units.) The tags add up to around a thousand bucks already (not that they are the best indicators of value), and they are old tags. It will take a lot of work to sell this stuff.

 

[dejapooh]

I went to a Fund Raising sale for a local Boy Scouts Troop. They had a Flip Camera, new in box. I asked how much, they said, $20. I offered $10 (because I am cheap, and it was not my son's troop), and they accepted. After I paid, the people said, I could have bought a raffle ticket and had it for $5. They had been trying all morning to sell raffle tickets for the camera, and had not sold one. The drawing was supposed to be 5 minutes before I bought the camera. I didn't feel so cheap after that. Sold it this week for $150.

 

[Sony the Fox]

I found a box of jewelry at a yard sale once but it was not priced so I put it back and almost left it. Another guy walked by, picked it up, looked at it but set it back down. I asked about the price (it was $5) and bought it, there was a hard rock cafe pin in it that I sold on eBay for $10. The major find was a sterling S Kirk and Son cuff bracelet (worth about $70). I kept that!

 

[mugsisme]

Hehe, today I got to goodwill when it was going to open. Another lady shows up. I know there are jars on there. I make a bee line to the big jar, and walk over to the other counter. Darn, the other lady is looking over the three jars. She grabs it close and says, I'm looking at these. Ok. Fine. She passes on the jars and walks away. Right on the side is a 10k vintage earring. Haha. I was laughing to myself the whole time.

 

[bigcaddy64]

I think it might of been my first post on this site but my "almost-didn't-get-it" was a HUGE find!!

For years I worked 7:00-3:30pm and after starting a new job, my hours shifted to 5:00-1:30. Once I started doing sales, I worked out an arrangement where I could work 10 hour days and have Friday's off for sales. When it got busy, I would work a Friday, all overtime. It's a sweet arrangement but sometimes I need that Friday off, no matter how busy!

So it happened to be one of those busy weeks and I already knew they were going to ask me to work on Friday. I told them no, (family stuff happening) and had the next day off.

I was out running errands and, while taking a shortcut through a neighborhood, noticed people standing in a driveway full of yellowed cardboard boxes. Curious, I turned around and masked if they were having a garage sale. The couple replied they were tomorrow but I could help empty the garage and buy what I found. It was a really good garage!! It was packed with WWll radio gear, tools and other random items.

I found a huge box full of car manuals which I proceeded to fill with my "treasures". Once the garage was cleaned out, 2 other guys had been helping since before I arrived, we paid the couple for our finds and were all on our way

It wasn't until 2 days later that I actually looked in the very bottom, under the manuals, of my box and found what it contained. I don't remember the exact count but it was somewhere between 65-72 uncirculated Carson City Morgan silver dollars, in the original GSA packaging from the large sell-offs they held in the 60s, 70's and 80's

I would of never found them if I hadn't taken the day off AND taken that shortcut!

 

[jerseyben]

Best thread I have seen on Tnet in a long time! Keep the stories coming...

 

[mugsisme]

Sorta long story, but you need the background to understand my motives.
A new GoodWill was opening. I got there a little later than I planned to. Some woman made a bee-line to the jewelry when the store opened, and blocked everyone else from getting there. She started grabbing every jar. Another woman said, Are you taking all the jars? The b*tch answered, YUP! So I said, seriously Every jar? There were like 8 jars! YUP, Every single jar!!! (She was fat and bent over and her pants were revealing a plumbers smile; not a nice site!)
(I did get some gold she missed sitting right there, next to the jars!)
So when I left totally dejected, I thought to myself, Would I have done the same thing? Embarrassingly enough, probably! I remembered the time there was a lot of jars and another lady hunter I know came. I had 5 of them in front of me, and I wouldn't let her look at them until I finished. I ended up taking 3 or 4. At that point, I realized how she must have felt. So right then and there I decided not to be greedy anymore.
Fast forward 2 or 3 weeks later ... 3 jars ... I want one for sure. The second one maybe, the third one, eh, I'm not so sure. Finally, I say, OK, I'll be greedy and take them all. Right then another hunter (an oriental guy who recognizes me and I, him) walked up. Oh man, did I feel bad. I handed him the third jar, and said, HERE, take this. He said no. I shoved it in his hand, and said, at least look at it. There was a lot of kiddie stuff, so he said no again. I handed him the second jar, and said, What about this one? He also said no. I asked him several times if he was sure. NOPE, he didn't want them.
When I got home, I opened the 3rd jar first.
THERE WAS AN 18K BRACELET IN THAT ONE!!! Oh man! I almost gave that sucker away! I sold it to Beachkid, who sold it on Ebay for a nice profit. (I no longer have a picture; maybe Justin does?) The second jar had some 18K in that one too.

Lesson I took away is ... don't be greedy and be willing to share, because we all get what we are supposed to get.

 

[Piledriver]

We stepped into an inside sale where nothing in particular looked interesting, but the lady told us there were things in a back room.
It was evident that the things there had not been sorted at all. While I have had no experience with clocks at all, I noticed a weight driven wall clock lying on a table, with a mess of chains around it.

Now how does a guy like me who knows nothing about clocks check out a clock? There was no pendulum or weights, but when I pulled on one of the chains, I could hear ticking.

Next, I pulled on the other chain, but nothing. I set it down, looked around, came back and picked it up again.

Hmm...pulled on the other chain while moving the minute hand (there was no glass) and BEAUTIFUL chimes came out.

I thought, she probably wants too much.
When asked, she demanded three dollars, saying, "it will make a good project".
I knew then, she knew more about it than I did.

When I got it home, I tried jury-rigging a home-made pendulum to the thing, and no dice.
Initially, I used a pipe wrench on one side, and a huge cable-tightener on the other for weights.
Still couldn't get it to to keep going.

A little research on line let me know that I needed a spring, a leader, a pendulum, and two four lb. weights.

Cut to chase....a trip to the clock shop, $35.00, and two blob-top round bottomed soda bottles for weights.

It was a Schatz 8-day movement in an American clock body. One of my most favorite buys.

 

[Beachkid23]

It was better then this one. Don't have a pic no more. It sold in January I believe.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=400311827424

 

[jochart]

This is my best almost didn't get it story: A lady that lives a few miles from me has a sale about once a month. She buys storage units and sometimes she gets in good junk. There was a box of watches on her table and I found a very unusual Movado-Zenith El Primero Automatic mens watch. It was pretty grimy and the crystal was all scratched up. I asked how much and she said $100. I said that's too much for me since it needs some work. I looked through her other stuff, but left without buying anything. When I got home I googled the watch and was shocked to see only 5000 were made and it had a 31J movement (same movement developed for the rolex daytonas). There was only one for sale at a high end jewelers and they were asking over $3000. I jumped in my car and headed back to the ladies house. I bought the watch, paid a jeweler to put a new crystal on it and lightly clean it. I sold it to a watch collecter in LA a few weeks later for $1800. Here's a link to the watch:Pre-Owned Movado El Primero Automatic Chronograph - Zenith 31 Jewel Movement PVU249-7999