Like Christmas Day....

[slidekellyslide]

Ever purchase a lot with terrible photos on a whim holding out hope that there is a lot of hidden treasure? I did that with a pinback lot recently in which I could only make out a few of the pins...I was hoping for some great baseball and sports pinbacks, but only got a few in the lot...the lot was definitely worth it value wise because of all the great advertising and political pins. The first picture shows the lot as I saw it (yes, that's really how they listed this lot)...the bottom two pics show the sports pins I got...the last one appears to be a rowing team, I don't know from where, but I surmise it is Minnesota because a large majority of the pins are related to MN in some way.

[ctownboy]

About three years ago, a local auction house that I often go to had a group of pins listed on their web site but didn't show any individual ones, just a group shot from a long distance.

From what I could see, the pins looked older.

I woke up early the day of the auction and was prepared to go then, at the last moment, decided against it and went back to bed. Dumb idea.

A person that I know sells on eBay bought some of the pins and listed them that next week. One of the pins he listed was a Cameo Pepsin pin with the paper backing. Both the pin and the backing were in nice shape. The pin sold on eBay for over $400 dollars.

A few weeks later I went to the auction and asked the guy about the pins and he said the auctioneer let people buy the pins by choice and then sold the rest as a group. He picked out four that he liked and let somebody else get the rest. I asked what he paid for the pins but he didn't tell me. However, based on his starting prices on eBay, I know it was less than $30 dollars a pin and probably much less.

So, whenever I see a group of pins like the one that is shown, I always remember what I missed out on because I didn't want to take the time and drive 20 minutes to an auction.

David