Featured Best Finds Ever?

Hi all, what's your very best find from a charity shop or auction?
After buying inexpensive job lots from auction houses in the UK I have found one that is much better than the rest.
Many items hiding in a mixed box of maybe 30 items have come up trumps.
Not retirement money but many for less than a £1 on average sold for circa £100 a good few times.
Exiting hobby.
Whats your very best?

 

I've had a number over the years. A £5 caricature from a junk shop turned out to be by Harry Rountree and sold to a golf academy in the US for over £2k. A Liverpool teapot turned up in a box of junk bought for a few pounds and went for £1500. The Bois jug that I asked about on here and was helped thanks to "Say It Slowly' was £25 at auction and went for £900 on eBay. Plenty of bad buys too!!!

I wrote a novel Mr Prendergast's Fantastic Find which is about finding a bargain on eBay. I self published it but it's getting lots of good reviews 99p on Amazon (hope you don't mind that plug moderators).

 

i think this was my favourite find from a charity shop, and stupidly sold it.
put it up for a come and buy me price as i thought it was bound to do well
hardly any watchers, then somebody bid the £35 asking price at last minute
i wouldnt sell it for £135 if i still had it, marvelously weird

 

Hi,
My favorite was a junk store find. I thought it was an Egyptian plant stand four feet high with brass decorations.
Showed on the old EBay board and got shot down with comments like from an old hotel etc. Wondered why the dang thing was so heavy. The top contained 300 old silver dollars. I bought the stand for 50 dollars. Sold the silver dollars for for 4 thousand and still have the plant stand. My best junk store purchase.
greg

 

Amazing stories - keep them coming and yes I will buy the Book - A funny read no dount

 

What a fun topic!
I purchased a box lot at an online auction that they had listed as "Abraham Lincoln Stuff". Opening bid was $30 and I won it at that price. In that box were 48 original Alexander Hesler photos of Lincoln made by King Holstick who owned the original glass. They had documentation with them. Cowans sold the collection over time...but I kept 2 of them!

 

Just this past month, found in a thrift store for a grand total of...$12



Tea pot, coffee pot, creamer, sugar and tray, all 800 silver

Not old, probably 1960s, but who cares!

 

I see that this is in the Pottery forum and I'd be hard pressed to say which of my pots was the best find. (though I can't get to the one I'd nominate at the moment)

This is a repeat from a few years ago but surely the best thing from a thrift I've found so here it is again. It's a Dublin sterling basket, 14" long from 1809. Weight 1175 grams, price $7.





Original thread:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/irish-sterling-basket-and-a-lebanese-bowl.13479/

 

I don't have photos but years ago at my local thrift shop I found
a complete set of Pink Elephant Glass Mugs in perfect shape.

I also found a First Edition Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child at that same thrift shop. The people there have no clue about books but price everything else sky high.

 

Went to a small auction once and started bidding on a set of Haviland Baltimore Rose dishes. Looked like I was going to win them for about $40, but then suddenly some man came in at the last minute and I ended up paying $160. I remember that I got $1,000 for just the tea cups and saucers. There were also plates and other items. The odd thing was that they had been in a neighborhood garage sale the week before and hadn't sold.

 

This is a fun thread!

I've found some cool things that were certainly worth more than I bought them for... some memorable ones:

A pearl necklace with a 14K clasp... bought for $1.50. Jeweler said worth $150.

A green glass "Jumbo" peanut butter jar in good shape with the lid... bought for .50 cents and sold for over $200.

A Fostoria etched dish...bought for .50 cents and sold for over $100.

A 10K filigree gold ring and a white gold Deco era wedding band with 5 small diamonds - virtually free in bulk boxes of jewelry.

Probably my best find was a Western Union Ticker Tape "stand" (no machine). I bought the base stamped "WU" for $4 and Roadshow gave an appraisal for (someone elses) machine only as $8,000 to $10,000 and with their base worth $20,000... so I'm guessing my base (only) is worth somewhere between $8 to $10,000.

I've certainly found lots of lace deals...

Cheerio,
Leslie

 

My best thrift find was a signed lithograph that I bought for $4-$5. Sold it for $380 online to a prominent rare book shop. Just recently sold a piece of thrift store jewelry for $130, paid under $20 for it, possibly much less, I don’t recall.
I got a beautiful oak topped music stand for $10-$15 that sells for $200 or so on average. That one I keep and put pictures on it.

 

I have had several that stick with me, but the really fun ones are when you have no clue when you buy it.

1) A large Waterbury clock with a porcelain face & a sweep second hand. This thing was huge & likely hung on the wall of a local jewelry store. It was part of the contents of a watchmaker's room that I bought about 8 years ago. I had no clue the clock was anything great & was more interested in what was inside all of the drawers of the probably 25+ cabinets. Not my cheapest buy as I gave $2300.00 for everything. The clock sold for over $3600.00 & at last count the total is up to $13,450.00 with more still to sell.

2) I bought a shelf lot at an auction for some plates that were included. I didn't even see the glass hurricane style shade in the back corner & had no clue what the embossed ACL meant. I listed on eBay with a starting bid of like $4.99 & had multiple bids almost immediately. A local guy contacted me to see if he could see it in person. I ended up ending the listing when he offered me $2200.00.

3) I bought a small metal box of jewelry & other assorted mementos for $22.00. I found a ticket stub from an early 1900 reading by Samuel Clemens. It sold for $248.

 

Sometimes it doesn’t go so well. When starting on eBay in 1999 I found a fabulous studio pottery piece at an antique fair for 50p.
It looked fabulous but there were no forums like this and I didn’t have the book of potters marks so I put it on eBay where it sold for about £10.

The feedback was the most gushing ever. I knew my gut feeling had been right and eventually, after buying the book, I found the mark.

Anybody recognise it?

 

Neither do I...?

 

I already mentioned this in "The Sleeper Thread- Treasures & Ultimate Scores", and the "Finds" thread, but I'm happy to mention it again, LOL.

I was browsing at my local Salvation Army and, despite not being a "glassie", I could tell this stuff was "vintage". I knew there were some ruby red glass dishes that sold well so I decided to look it up. I got on my smart phone and, as luck would have it, I found the pattern with only a minute or two of searching… woo-hoo!!!

Into my shopping cart went a boxful of ruby red American Sweetheart dishes by MacBeth-Evans, circa 1930-1936. There was one 12-inch plate, 14 8-inch plates, one creamer, 7 sherbets (which don't have the impressed pattern), 12 cups and 12 saucers. The set was priced at $24.95 US but kitchenware was 25% off that evening so I paid under $19 for the lot! I pieced it out and in the end it totaled about $2000 in fast and easy sales. It paid for my summer vacation that year.

BTW, it's only the ruby red and Ritz blue (cobalt blue) pieces that are truly woo-hoo items. The pattern was also done in white, pink, and clear but those are much more common.

 

I am sorry I didn't explain. There should be a law about posting when you are that tired.

ACL stands for Atlantic Coast Line which was a railroad line here in the southeast. The globe was for a specific model of railroad lantern that was only used for a few years in the 1890's to early 1900's. The guy who ended up buying it had the lantern but no globe.

I will never forget the moment when he first picked it up, it was like he was touching the holy grail. His comment to me was "you have no idea what you have here do you?" My reply was "of course not, I started the bidding at $4.99 & it is now at over $600!!!" He went on to explain exactly what it was & why he wanted to see it in person so he could measure it for himself. Seems this particular globe was just slightly shorter & fatter than the later models. It would only fit into that frame.

His first offer was for $2,000, but I was hesitant because I didn't want to screw up if I could get more. However when he immediately said $2,200.00 I asked him where he did his banking.

That was back in the days of eBay displaying user ID's of buyers & if you collected in certain niche categories everyone got to know everyone else both from eBay as well as local shows etc.

I told him he had to be the top bidder for me to end the listing & when I did he looked down the list of bidders then told me I would definitely hear from one in particular. Sure enough minutes later I got a message that said "I hope (called him by name) paid you at least $2,000.00 because that is what my buyer was prepared to pay me for this piece".

 

Definitely not my most valuable pottery, glass etc find, but “best” as in “I’ll never sell her” - my Staffordshire archer figure. This is a photo from the moment I picked her up in the charity shop; no partner in sight, and historic damage to the bocage but I love her face and any bocage wins points with me. £2.50, thank you so much St. Francis’ Hospice!

 

Would have to be the blue monochrome qianlong period porcelain bowl I got at Savers for 1.99 and sold here:

https://www.sothebys.com/buy/1edbab...0d5/lots/9217bb03-0354-4700-a128-1bc371ec5c5c

 

Wow