Lesson learned
In the summer of 1998 I drove see my parents in central Indiana for a weekend and I stopped at a little out-of-the way antique shop. I found an uncut color sheet of Fro Joys and purchased it for $40, convinced I'd made a great find. The sheet "looked old" and was a bit tattered around the edges. Surely it had to BE OLD!
When I returned home from my trip I looked the sheet up on a new website I'd recently joined -- something known as "eBay." I quickly learned that my sheet was indeed a fake and that it could be had for about $5-6.
That sheet is framed and in a fairly prominent spot in my home office - a constant reminder to myself to always do my homework before purchasing an item I know nothing about. Interestingly, people always seem drawn to that sheet when they visit our home, and I like telling the story about it. I guess I've gotten more than $40 worth of entertainment value out of it!
I don't think I've been burned (at least not by my own ignorance) on a purchase since then.
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