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Posted By: barrysloate

I've told this story before but it is worth repeating here. Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I auctioned an Allen & Ginter baseball poster for a family from Pennsylvania. It realized 29K and is probably worth at least that today. The owner told me the story that a few years prior to our meeting, her community held an antiques appraisal day similar to the roadshow and encouraged people to bring in old things to have them appraised. Since she received the poster as a gift (some gift) she had no idea of its value and brought it to the expert to find out what it was worth. The appraiser told her around $200. If that wasn't bad enough, she got a call a few days later from the same woman who now made an offer of $500. The only thing that made her suspicious was that the offer was so much higher than the appraisal. Had it first been appraised for $500, she admitted she might have sold it. So here was an afternoon activity scheduled for a senior citizen's community to help them get an idea of what their antiques were worth and it was just a big scam. I guess it must happen all the time.