I recently found a Renoir being thrown away with a bunch of other stuff. I took a picture of it and sent it to an auction gallery. Turns out it was not a drawing but a lithograph and is only worth about $200. But always check. You never know.
Years ago in England I bought a wardrobe at auction and it had a bunch of old German porcelain doll heads in it. When I left England I sold the wardrobe at the same auction house. The man that bought it paid several times the price of the wardrobes worth. The doll heads were still in the wardrobe. I thought they were of no value. I turned to my wife and said, “why did he pay so much for that?”
I am an antique dealer today in retirement. Today I realized I gave away several thousand dollars. Such is life. But what the hell. I received 3 times what I paid for the wardrobe. I suspect he just took the doll heads and told the auction house to sell the wardrobe at the next auction.