Flea markets, antique stores, Goodwill, etc..

[dbrown]

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

[forceplay sport]

best I have ever done was an estate sale, picked up a bunch of 1968 Topps baseball, all divided by teams in #10 envelopes, paid $35 bucks and was happy till I got to the stars envelope and they where all there. The Ryan, Bench, Mantle, Clemente , pretty much all the stars, it was a great day !!!

[JackW]

I like buying boxed lots at auctions and estate sales, hoping that there will be a few small items of value that make the price for the box worthwhile. Best one I ever bought contained a Babe Ruth locker tag that I flipped for $300 at a local card show (this was in the late 1990s).

[brianp-beme]

My stroke of late 1990's antique store luck has been mentioned before on this board but I think it is worth a repeat. A case in an antique store mall in Northern California had plastic sheets of what was labeled as 'black and white cards' in a display case. I checked them out, and decided to make an offer on them. The person at the front counter called the owner, and I was able to get the price down from $3.00 a card to $2.00 a card.

They were mid-1920 Zeenut cards, about 100, the vast majority of them 1925, and overall in above normal Zeenut condition, with the position of the player written on their backs. At the time they were probably worth $7 to $8 each (thus qualifying for this thread), and now are worth 2 to 3 times that amount. It kickstarted me into collecting Zeenuts, starting of course with the 1925 year.

Brian

[ctownboy]

As far as sports items goes nothing big in the last 20 years or so but back in the day I found a quilt made with tobacco felts. The inner felts were flags but around the outer edge were 170 B 18 blankets. I paid $600 for the piece and then consigned it to a sports auction where it sold for $3600.

Now the one that REALLY hurts.

About seven years ago, I was at a local Goodwill and found a nice looking vase the was different than every vase I usually see. I took it off of the shelf and looked at the bottom and saw what looked like the letters O D K. I called my mother and had her look on eBay for something with these initials and she didn't find anything.

I put the vase in a cart and walked around for awhile looking for more stuff. After not finding anything else to buy, I decided that since mom couldn't find anything on eBay about the vase, I didn't want to risk the $7.99 they were asking and I put the vase back on the shelf and left.

Fast forward a few years and lo and behold, Antiques Roadshow was in Indianapolis and this vase was on the show. What I thought was O D K on the bottom of the vase was instead O B K and stood for Overbeck Pottery. The vase was from the 1920's and was appraised to be worth between $50,000 to $100,000 dollars.

Makes me sick every time I think about it.

David

[baseball tourist]

I have a hard time passing a thrift shop or flea market. Love vintage clothing stores too. Found my best score ever in 2011 here in Vancouver - a 1965/‘66 Max McGee Packers home game worn jersey. Paid $26 and sold it the same year through Heritage for almost $9k.