Sometimes people strike lucky and find something precious during their house clearance. Let’s have a look at the following crazy examples…
In Harrogate, near Leeds, relic hunter Wallace Hartley bought a box of items for £55 from a house clearance. In the box he found a black and white picture of a man. He tried to sell the picture for 50p at a car boot sale, however a woman approached him and asked why he wanted to sell a picture of Wallace Hartley. He had no idea who that was so he started to do some research on him. Only then he realized the significance of the picture. Wallace Hartley was the bandleader aboard the Titanic, who directed his band even when the vessel was sinking. When people speak about the Titanic disaster of 1912 the bravery of the band is one of the most talked-about stories. The picture will be auctioned in Dublin and will take place on November 10. To be continued…
In Ohio a man found a collection of baseball tickets when he was cleaning out his aunt’s attic. The cards, neatly placed in a box, were already lying there for a century. He moved the box to a dresser for two weeks because he was busy cleaning and went through the box, that contained 700 cards, at work. After some research he realized he was holding a fortune in his hands. He recognized some baseball players good enough to be in the Hall of Fame and moved the cards to a bank vault. Experts told him the cards were from 1910 but still in a very good condition. The cards belonged to the man’s uncle and his wife who had died a few months earlier and left the house to her 20 nephews and nieces. The family hopes to sell the 37 best cards in Baltimore at a sports collection convention for about £300,000. The rest of the cards will be divided equally over the twenty relatives.
Our last example brings us to London where a mother and son decided to sell a Chinese porcelain vase two years ago. It had been on the bookcase in the living room of a semi-detached house for several decades. Because the item was insured for 800 pounds it wouldn’t have mattered if it fell. Or at least, that’s what they thought…
After the husband/father had died they decided to get rid of the vase. Lawyers estimated it, for probate property valuation purposes, at only £800. The auction house estimated it to be worth between £800,000 and £1.2million hoping it will rise by a few million with luck. After a slow start, with nine bidders in the game, there were only two interested parties left. The two interested bidders took it from £20 million to the final price.
The item was sold to the highest bidder for a stunning £ 53 million. The bid created tremendous excitement amongst the people visiting the auction at Bainbridge’s in North-London, because it became the most expensive Asian piece of art ever sold. It has been branded as one of the most important Chinese vases offered in this century. The mother and son had no idea about it’s value and they were hopeful when the auction started, but were absolutely amazed with the final offer. Cleaning a house has never been so profitable!
This article has been written by Rens van der Windt, working for searchstarz.com
