A few years ago, at a pretty bad flea market in the northeast, I found a nice 1930s scrapbook from a teenager. Really nicely made, I don't collect scrapbooks but this one had some personality and then I saw there was a Cab Calloway autograph in it, so I paid the $15.
An hour later, when I was back home, I found it also contained a Babe Ruth-signed 1938 world series ticket stub.
In 40 or so years of collecting and picking, that was my most jaw-dropping moment. Almost unbelievable.
Here it is; I think it sold for way too little, but I couldn't bear to take it off the page and get it encapsulated.
https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1...ription-071515
At a tag sale a couple years ago I bought a rare, sealed Aurora model (related to the monster models) for $10, it brought $1100 on ebay.
15 years or so ago I was in a marginal auction house that was selling stuff that maybe hadn't sold at auction; bought a set of 3 paintings by the California artist Ed Moses for about $100, sold them later for $3k.
Few and far between -- but they are out there.
David