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I don't know if this is an ongoing show or just a one off. It was on last night and was very interesting. Basically a story about someone who came across something or found something that was worth a lot of money and they received it for free or for next to nothing.
One of the stories concerned some meteorites that fell into a small town in Ohio intact. Not a wealthy community but metorite fragments were everywhere. People picked up them up and sold them. A geologist mentioned that they were worth their weight in gold and he bought $500,000 worth of meteorites himself.
It got me thinking, what has been your best find to date on Ebay and outside of Ebay....not necessarily something that was worth a fortune per se but something that is very memorable for you.
Outside of Ebay, my favorite find was a vintage Washington Redskins pennant found in a local antique shop. It is an antique shop that has many vendors and you really don't know what you might stumble across. It sounds crazy but I did walk in there with the intent of trying to find an old Redskins pennant but what are the chances? Sure enough there was one in a booth and the dealer happened to be there. I asked him about it and he told me it belonged to his grandfather and that it was from the 1960's. The price tag was $30 which I thought seemed reasonable not knowing a darn thing about pennant values. I brought it home and just had a weird feeling by looking at it that it looked older than 1960's. I did a little research on the internet, and found that the pennant was actually from the 1940's and not the 1960's. The pennant ended up being worth about $250. I love the Redskins and still have the pennant to this day (it also got me hooked on collecting additional Redskins pennants which I have been collecting for at least a decade and am guessing that I have one of the best Washington Redskin pennant collections around).
Ebay purchase. I found a hidden auction for some Anri hand carved bottle stoppers that I collect. In the collection was a holy grail piece (which is a very rare Santa Claus bottle stopper). Even better is that there were two of them along with other rare stoppers. I ended up paying about $150 for the entire lot and sold off one of the duplicate Santa Stoppers on Ebay (properly listed for $300 alone). It wasn't my most profitable find but it was exciting to find the elusive stopper that I had been hunting for years and better off, I essentially got mine for free.
Finally, I do have a rock that I found as a kid that may be a meteorite. I was walking with my siblings and uncle behind our house along a creek bed and stumbled across it. I picked it up, my uncle looked at it and said he had never seen anything like it and thought it might be a meteorite. I still have it but have never bothered to find out if it truly is or not. The interesting thing about the rock is that it looks like nothing I have ever seen before. It has a spherical shape and looks like it was cracked in half so it looks like a turtle shell. After watching the TLC episode last night, a geologist pointed out some unique qualities of meteorites one being that they often have iron ore in it or something else that will attract a magnet to it and the rock will actually fell heavier in your hand than what you would expect when you pick it up. This morning I picked up the rock that has been sitting for years on a bookshelf and put a magnet to it. Sure enough, the magnet was attracted to it...not strong but you could definitely tell it had something in it that attracting it. I also noticed it did feel heavier than a normal rock of that size. It also has the odd oval type shape to it unlike anything I have ever seen. My kids were really excited when I showed them and based on what I could tell, if this is truly a meteorite, it might be worth $20-$30K because I think it weighs in excess of two pounds. I don't know if I will ever go find out for sure. Just the thought that it may be one has made it fun.
So, I'm interested in what your most interesting find is to date inside and outside of Ebay.
One of the stories concerned some meteorites that fell into a small town in Ohio intact. Not a wealthy community but metorite fragments were everywhere. People picked up them up and sold them. A geologist mentioned that they were worth their weight in gold and he bought $500,000 worth of meteorites himself.
It got me thinking, what has been your best find to date on Ebay and outside of Ebay....not necessarily something that was worth a fortune per se but something that is very memorable for you.
Outside of Ebay, my favorite find was a vintage Washington Redskins pennant found in a local antique shop. It is an antique shop that has many vendors and you really don't know what you might stumble across. It sounds crazy but I did walk in there with the intent of trying to find an old Redskins pennant but what are the chances? Sure enough there was one in a booth and the dealer happened to be there. I asked him about it and he told me it belonged to his grandfather and that it was from the 1960's. The price tag was $30 which I thought seemed reasonable not knowing a darn thing about pennant values. I brought it home and just had a weird feeling by looking at it that it looked older than 1960's. I did a little research on the internet, and found that the pennant was actually from the 1940's and not the 1960's. The pennant ended up being worth about $250. I love the Redskins and still have the pennant to this day (it also got me hooked on collecting additional Redskins pennants which I have been collecting for at least a decade and am guessing that I have one of the best Washington Redskin pennant collections around).
Ebay purchase. I found a hidden auction for some Anri hand carved bottle stoppers that I collect. In the collection was a holy grail piece (which is a very rare Santa Claus bottle stopper). Even better is that there were two of them along with other rare stoppers. I ended up paying about $150 for the entire lot and sold off one of the duplicate Santa Stoppers on Ebay (properly listed for $300 alone). It wasn't my most profitable find but it was exciting to find the elusive stopper that I had been hunting for years and better off, I essentially got mine for free.
Finally, I do have a rock that I found as a kid that may be a meteorite. I was walking with my siblings and uncle behind our house along a creek bed and stumbled across it. I picked it up, my uncle looked at it and said he had never seen anything like it and thought it might be a meteorite. I still have it but have never bothered to find out if it truly is or not. The interesting thing about the rock is that it looks like nothing I have ever seen before. It has a spherical shape and looks like it was cracked in half so it looks like a turtle shell. After watching the TLC episode last night, a geologist pointed out some unique qualities of meteorites one being that they often have iron ore in it or something else that will attract a magnet to it and the rock will actually fell heavier in your hand than what you would expect when you pick it up. This morning I picked up the rock that has been sitting for years on a bookshelf and put a magnet to it. Sure enough, the magnet was attracted to it...not strong but you could definitely tell it had something in it that attracting it. I also noticed it did feel heavier than a normal rock of that size. It also has the odd oval type shape to it unlike anything I have ever seen. My kids were really excited when I showed them and based on what I could tell, if this is truly a meteorite, it might be worth $20-$30K because I think it weighs in excess of two pounds. I don't know if I will ever go find out for sure. Just the thought that it may be one has made it fun.
So, I'm interested in what your most interesting find is to date inside and outside of Ebay.
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