Sleepers ?

ODD-JOB

Anybody have any good stories of buying something rare for little money only to discover the item was actually quite expensive ?

Dr Strange

ODD-JOB wrote: »

Anybody have any good stories of buying something rare for little money only to discover the item was actually quite expensive ?

Good one. Would be interesting to hear about people's stories. I, unfortunately, never found something like that but I live in hope.

kowloon

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054869885

Someone found out they had a little medal horde

Wibbs

I've gotten lucky once or twice. The biggest was with a watch. I've collected mechanicals when they were out of fashion and before they got to be mad money. I got this particular one on a trip to France in the late 80's. Saw it in a junk shop come aintiques place. It was a WW2 german pilots observation watch. Looked like one of these;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/equationoftime/Azimuth%20Bombardier/beobachtungsuhr.jpg
It was rougher looking though, the dial was very aged and barely legible. It was huge, barely wearable(about the size of the top of a beer can). Got it for 300 quid at the time(the most I've ever paid for a watch). Turned out it was one of the IWC ones. Any of them are in the 3 grand upwards range anyway, but the IWC have the biggest cache. Sold it a few years back for 8,000. If had been in better nick then it could have gone for a lot more. They can go for up to 15000 nowadays apparently. Even more since they brought out the smaller big pilots watch copy. Not wearable though so I wasn't too sad to see it go.

Got two Rolex bubblebacks for 100 quid too. They went for 1500 ish each years later.

Dr Strange

Wibbs wrote: »

I've gotten lucky once or twice. The biggest was with a watch. I've collected mechanicals when they were out of fashion and before they got to be mad money. I got this particular one on a trip to France in the late 80's. Saw it in a junk shop come aintiques place. It was a WW2 german pilots observation watch. Looked like one of these;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/equationoftime/Azimuth%20Bombardier/beobachtungsuhr.jpg
It was rougher looking though, the dial was very aged and barely legible. It was huge, barely wearable(about the size of the top of a beer can). Got it for 300 quid at the time(the most I've ever paid for a watch). Turned out it was one of the IWC ones. Any of them are in the 3 grand upwards range anyway, but the IWC have the biggest cache. Sold it a few years back for 8,000. If had been in better nick then it could have gone for a lot more. They can go for up to 15000 nowadays apparently. Even more since they brought out the smaller big pilots watch copy. Not wearable though so I wasn't too sad to see it go.

Got two Rolex bubblebacks for 100 quid too. They went for 1500 ish each years later.

WOW, Wibbs, that's what I call lucky :eek:

kowloon

I'd say you have a good eye for these things, not luck alone

Wibbs

Some eye mostly luck though. It's getting harder with the advent of ebay, I reckon. While it has made the market more open and broad, especially for buyers, it has also driven up prices, as richer collectors fight over fashionable pieces. I certainly saw that with watches. I collected early trench wristlets and they were fairly easy to get at OK prices. You could even pick up the "big" names at quite reasonable rates even three years ago. Now the big names are very pricey and what's left is the cheapy low quality stuff at prices like the big names were 2 years ago. Finite supply of course and with ebay and the like that finite supply is shrinking much more rapidly.

Quality is what I look for. If it was expensive and well made in the first place it'll likely hold it's value. Fashion comes and goes and prices go up or down accordingly. Buy stuff that was high quality even if it's not "fashionable" now. It will go up. There are exceptions though. Rolex trench watches were always a but pricey, even though they were of inferior quality to other marques.

Other stuff I found over the years were things like Dunhill desk lighters. Picked up two of those for a song on separate occasions(20 quid each or so). They would be worth a few bob now.

It's down to knowledge too though and buying what appeals. I mean I could look at porcelain all day and night and I couldn't spot anything nice. Most of just looks like a plate or teapot to me. Same with silver. So unless it had some seriously nice form it wouldn't even be on my radar(though I did get a nice precolumbian bowl a few years back).

I like really ancient stuff too and antiquities were serious bargains for a long time, but there are sooooo many fakes now even museums are getting caught out.

cathy01

I bought a STIFF bear, with the pin in its ear for €1.00
still have it put safely away.Not sure what its worth but would imagine a few bob more then €1.00

ODD-JOB

I bought an old bronze vessel amongst a heap of rubbish one time . £35 (pounds)
To the average man , this looked like total rubbish.

I found on research , that it was in fact a 16/17th century "Kudeo box" from Ghana.
Apparently It was a little treasure box , owned by the king of the tribe. In it he would have held gold dust and small valuables etc.
An extremely early example of African art, I love it and the histroy it carries

How can I post an image of it ?....... I have it on my pc, but no url address .

ODD-JOB

this is my one

I found an example in a Sotheby's catalogue from the mid 1970's.
It carried an estimate of 400-600 sterling back then.

birdflan

I bought a load of old 78 records in a Antique/secound hand shop in Portobello, Dublin, Last November. I paid 10 euro for the lot. I had just got myself an old gramephone and wanted something to play on it. When i got home i discovered one of the records was a private recording made by James Joyce reciting Ulysses. I have looked it up on line and it would appear to be only a few of these recording around. I believe Joyce recorded the record to give as presents to friends.I have not had it valued, but it must be worth big money, as American go mad for joyce material. Maybe somebody on this board maybe able to help point me in the direction of getting it valued and or where to sell it..

ODD-JOB

Wow,.... what a difficult thing to value.
generally , valuers are basing thier estimates on comparisons , so when something is so rare , it can be difficult to give an accurate peice.
Of course, if 2 people turn up that really want it , and money is no problem to them , you could see it go thru the roof.

however if only one person turns up that really wants it , he will be getting it cheap.that is the lottery of auctions...

if your going private , then you'll only be guessing/haggling to find a price.