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.
Watch out for things that look like a bunch of junk.
When people help you move or fix up your apartment for free, they traditionally ask for something to take with them.
One person asked for my huge jar of beach glass. Of course it looked like a bunch of garbage but it represented many happy hours of beachcombing on Fire Island over many summers. Probably worth a bunch too.
Someone else asked for an old toy of my daughter’s, one of the early Casio keyboards for kids. I said oh sure. After I said yes, he told me it was worth a fortune.
Kids’ books by famous people should be snapped up in quantity and kept pristine, because the kids ruin 99 percent of them and condition is everything. Get it autographed and your grandkids are set for life.