Gloat of the Century

[Jim Koepke]

Imagine going to a yard sale and finding the most amazing thing you can and then talking the seller down to $45 from their $70 asking price.

Ten years later, an art appraiser is saying it is worth $200 MILLION!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/07/27/ansel.adams.discovery/index.html?hpt=C1

I guess I could buy a few tools for the shop.

jim

[Lee Schierer]

I had a close experience to that. I bought an antique clock in Egypt for $20 and it was appraised for over $800 when I got it home. That was nearly 40 years ago.

[David G Baker]

Maybe I should check out the glass negatives I bought at a garage sale in California over 20 years ago. Never looked at them just put them in a box and stored them. I think that they are probably studio family photos from the 20's or 30's.
That was an amazing discovery. Ansel Adams was one of my favorites.

[Eric DeSilva]

Turns out it isn't such a deal...

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/07/29/ansel-adams-garage-sale-mystery-apparently-solved/#more-13151

Short story, they aren't Ansel Adams negatives. They are Uncle Earle's.

[David Weaver]

I wonder how much of the newly discovered super-rare super-valuable stuff found these days is just an elaborate con job.

I'll bet there's plenty of it, just like there are more and more "vintage" fenders and other makes on ebay every day.

[Jim Koepke]

Didn't Frank Zappa once write a song about Uncle Ernie?

Now the wool has been pulled both ways.

jim

[Dave Lehnert]

There was a story here in Cincinnati, The home of Kenner toys, A person purchased a box full of metal Star Wars figures for a cheap price at a yard sale. Turns out they were the original dies used to make the plastic molds.
Worth some major $$$$$