Salon - - One Man's Trash (A True Story)

Steve Taylor · #1 06-09-2002, 12:46 AM

I have a small collection of beer mugs that I started when I was a teenager. Among them are two original Budman Steins circa 1975. I kind of lost interest in them and they have been sitting in my shed for about the last 5 years.

Earlier this week my wife told me she was going to have a garage sale and wanted to know if I wanted to get rid of all of those mugs and I said yes. As I was pulling them out I showed her the Budman mugs and said "Mark these up, people will pay it."

I walk out this morning and there is this man holding one of them and showing his wife and she told them they were too much and "What are you going to do with that anyway?" He puts it back down and walks away. I walk over and my wife has a
$ 2.00 price tag on each of them. I had a funny feeling so I picked them up and took them into the house, got on Ebay and found that they were selling for $200.00 to $320.00.

Folks before you get rid of anything check Ebay or you may be sorry like I almost was.

Steve

Ed_L · #2 06-09-2002, 05:55 AM

Wow Steve. What a surprise for you. I keep telling me wife that I save things because I'll probably need them some day. She keeps getting rid of my "junk".

So far, I haven't found anything that had much value though.

Ed

thomasgeorge · #3 06-09-2002, 07:58 AM

Thanks Steve!! Now when I bring back treasure from the dump I can use your story to defend myself!! Tom

DJ Dubovsky · #4 06-09-2002, 09:58 AM

Steve,
Excellent advice. You would have been sick if they sold and you found that out later.
Everytime I watch Antiques Roadshow and they appraise some piece with an astronomical value, the owner usually always says, my wife bought it at a garage sale for $2. Well, not always but you get the picture.

After that I have been checking the Ebay prices myself. It is so easy to overlook something really valuable just because it's been collecting dust for years and who would think we had burried treasure in our homes.

DJ

chris h · #5 06-09-2002, 02:13 PM

DJ,

I dont know wether you've seen the episode of antiques roadshow where a young chap turns up with a plastic bag full of 16th century silver items cups etc collected by a deceased relative,value £100,000 +. I thought the appraiser was going to have a heart attack as one by one the items came out of the bag !

DJ Dubovsky · #6 06-09-2002, 03:30 PM

No I missed that one. I love seeing their faces when the appraised price is mentioned. Actually I haven't seen any British versions since I was in Belgium. They have the American copy of it going here every week. I did see an episode where some guy had a cerimonial sabre from the Revolutionary war and just found it in the attic of some house they bought. So he cleaned it up and was using it to carve watermelons. That turned out to be well into the hundred thousands. He was told not to even handle it with bare hands and the appraiser almost fainted when the guy said he slices watermelon with it.

They are pretty cool shows and the American is about the same as the British.
DJ

Steve Taylor · #7 06-12-2002, 01:30 PM

The one I put up for auction sold today for $278.00. The other mug had a broken thumblift on it. I contacted a guy who does pewter repairs and he bought it as is for $165.00

What is that something like 11,000% over the garage sale price?

DJ Dubovsky · #8 06-12-2002, 05:50 PM

Steve,
You're instincts have paid off. Wow!! That's fantastic. Too bad you can't find that couple who thought it was to pricey at $2 a piece.

DJ

fugitive · #9 06-12-2002, 06:08 PM

There was this little poll, I think on NPR.................

What is the most expensive markup per Lb.?

Heroin
Saffron
Popcorn