[Mr. K]

If I picked up some junk at a garage sale that was worth $200 million- i would go back to the original owner and offer them a (small) cut - maybe 10%

it would be a decent thing to do

other wise i bet they feel like slashing their wrists

[beaversmom]

That’s what I was thinking too. I wonder if he remembers where he got them. The times I have been to garage sales, we go to a bunch, and I couldn’t remember 10 days on let alone 10 years on where the houses were located.

[library user]

10% is still $20 million. So not bad.

[Hayzo]

Somtimes, you ‘don’t know what you got till it’s gone!’ to quote an 80’s hair-metal band, Cinderella.

What is Caveat Emptor for ‘Seller beware’.

[CaptainK]

Unfortunately in this litigious society the sellers , instead of being grateful, would turn around and sue you for the entire amount.

I’m sure there are lawyers who would happily line up to take the case.

[goseminoles]

Hell, I’d throw the guy a mil.

[ConservativeWarrior]

i would go back to the original owner and offer them a (small) cut - maybe 10%

My father once bought a Henry rifle at a widow's estate sale for $500. It looked in pretty rough shape when he bought it, but it cleaned up very well.

He immediately went back and gave her another $2,000. He sold it 5 years later for a little over $10k.

[Quix]

i AGREE.

I think 25% would be reasonable.

[FreedomNotSafety]

First I would ask them if they would give me some of my money back if there was concealed damage. If they said no then I would walk with a hearty laugh.

Giving them a cut would generosity not decency.

[Bigg Red]

I was thinking the same thing about giving the seller a bit of the dough.

[Richard Kimball]

All I can say is, “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.”

[oldvike]

On the flip side, in today’s sue-happy society with a bunch of leaches that want something for nothing, that person would probably sue you for the full value of the negatives.

[Daffynition]

Decent and kind. Qualities lacking today, I’m *afeared.*

Norsigian said he tried to contact the original purchaser after learning of the negatives’ true value but has had no success. Also, Norsigian said the man who sold him the negatives said he bought them in the 1940s from a salvage warehouse in Los Angeles.

[Ditter]

Nice thought but it was 10 years ago, he probably doesn’t remember where he bought them, especially if picking through garage sales was something he did regularly. I certainly wouldn’t.

[supremedoctrine]

The best thing I ever found at a yard sale about 20 years ago was a large “scrapbook” style portfolio, bound together with a ribbon, about 18” x36”, and interleaved within were
about a hundred old fullcolor comics pages from various New York and Philadelphia newspapers from the turn of the 20th century to about 1912. I think I got it for 5 or 10 bucks.
Included in them was a fullpage Little Nemo in Slumberland, one of the greatest of all American cartoons, by Winsor McCay. The revelation of most of these, though,was just how wonderful the artwork and draftmanship was in even the most humble of weekly ‘syndicated’ cartoons. They stayed in my basement for many years, then I sent them to my nephew, a musician, and now a painter, in New Orleans, to see if he could integrate them into his paintings. Gotta find out if he ever used them, it’s been about a year. He said he was going to be color Xeroxes made of all of them , rather than use the actual pages themselves.