A couple years ago my auction buddy and I were bored on a Friday night in March and decided to take in an auction in an exclusive gallery in the Detroit suburbs, certain we were going to observe only. As I entered I noticed a lovely set of German china marked Fraureuth. There was service for 12, complete with several serving dishes, including a 3 piece butter dish, cream and sugar, oval covered vegetable and 3 sizes of platters. I knew I'd enjoy watching it sell.

As luck would have it, the set went up early in the auction while many bidders were in another part of the gallery bidding on a fantastic book collection. I opened the bidding at $45, was upped to $55, and walked off with 83 pieces of 1920's china. It took me 2 hours to pack it up!

Appraisal value: $3000+

Scanning the pot and pan section of a small town Goodwill, I saw a heavy old handle sticking out from beneath a pile of worthless, shredded teflon pans. I grabbed it and immediatly saw that it was connected to a large copper frypan. Underneath that pan was yet another heavy copper frypan. I knew from the weight that they weren't the usual, cheap, thin, "for decoration only" copper you usually find at thrift shops. My suspicions were confirmed when I turned it over and saw "Made in France" stamped near the handle. That's when I got giddy. The price on each was marked $2.99 -- cheap even for Goodwill. New, down at William-Sonoma, these pans are worth $150+ a piece.

A very old 48-star U.S. flag.

I was browsing a used book store and found a copy of the only cook book I ever saw in my grandmother's house. "The Modern Family Cook Book" by Meta Given. My grandmother's copy fell apart many years ago and was thrown away during a move. This one is pristine. It has the best waffle recipe!

An old print of "The Last Supper" from probably the 1920's for $3; a 48-star flag; a little table for $2 that will (someday) have a mosaic top if I ever get around to it!...copper cake molds at Goodwill for $1 ea., "Paul's Pies...Deposit" metal pie tins for $1 at an estate sale (that I now see in Country Home magazine)...

not to mention what my mother has given me!

There are lots; but my best would be buying a American Pharmacopeia from late 1800 for under $1. I love the Salvation Army!

Well, this could be my best find and also my WORST! LOL My first purchase of Fireking jadite was a mug at a garage sale for fifty cents! DH said from then on it was like a drug addiction. I just kept buying and buying and...LOL

Another great find was a black panther 50's tv lamp - for fifty cents!

I found a vase at a small fleamarket for $5 Canadian. It has a small chip on the edge. The mark on the bottom was Clarice Cliffe Bizarre. I emailed the Clarice Cliffe club, sent them pictures and was told Sotherby's in London would offer me from $800 to $1200 US for it.

a very "old" copper boiler for $3.00
a early "Domestic" pedle sweing maching with all the attachments for $3.00
a hoosier cupboard...looked so sad..many coats of paint and the windows broken....it was a 80 year old lady who was moving to a retirement center... it had belonged to her grandmother..no one in her family wanted it...i asked her several times...she was in tears, it was her last tie to her family.....she wanted $200.00 for it...it really needed help, but I gve her $200.00...my ex refinished it (6 coats of paint..and 4 wallpapers inside) it now looks like a million..
an old grain bin...that came from an old hardware store in my town...it screamed my name...it is what everyone ohh's and aww's in my house...soild oak..for $300.00
a solid oak mantle...solid oak wardrobe...solid oak ladies dresser/mirror with bench.......all matching $25.00 for all of it...
I could go on and on also.

I have two favorites. I collect Royal Doulton Beswick Beatrix Potter figurines. 4 yrs. ago I found a BP3b "Amiable Guinea Pig" new, in a box, at a Royal Doulton outlet store for $19.95. The value is now around $500. My other favorite find was free. About 20 yrs. ago my mother-in-law gave my daughter a bag of old jewelry to play with. I recently cleaned out her room and found, still in the bag, a matched set (necklace, earrings & bracelet) of Eisenberg Ice, as well as some other collectible jewelry.

In 1975, I bought a turquoise crackle glaze W.B. Stephen-signed Pisgah Forest 15" H vase for $25.00. Probably can get $1500Â2000.00 for it today.

As I said in the other thread, I like FREE architectural finds. My best yet: in the mid-sixties I was in college (L.S.U., Baton Rouge, LA) and I rode my bike everywhere. An old house was being demolished and every day I rode past it, checking out the trash. I got some shelving and some door jams that I made into picture frames, but the real find was a four foot Newl post of solid cypress. Just beautiful!! I still have it. It was a trick to get it home. I had to ride a block at a time and then stop and rest. I was carrying this heavy thing with one hand and balancing the bike with the other. I wish I had a source to go scavanging again. -- Marie

found a copper boiler in my neighbors trash when they moved. Banged out the dents and shined it up. Use it for a magazine bin.

Interesting reading! Mine would be a pink poodle head Hull planter with only a small chip. Picked it up at a yard sale(it was pretty dirty)thinking how cute it was, turned it over, saw the Hull marking, and turned to ask the little old lady how much it was as it wasn't marked. Almost freaked out when she said, "Oh, 10 cents, I guess". Handed over the dime and walked quickly away.

Jill

I saw a set of 50's painted drinking glasses at a garage sale in a holder. There were eight of them and I asked the lady how much they were. She said, "Oh, a dollar." I thought, "Okay, eight dollars, that's not too bad." (She meant a $l.00 for ALL of them!) Smile!

I guess my best find was a set of 6 or 8 individual silver salt and peppers, still in the original box. The box looked like from the 30's. They were all black and tarnished. $5 at the Friends of the Library book sale booth. I cleaned them up, not a dent, they had never been used. Took them to an antique store and he offered me $50 right then and there. I brought them home, packed them away, and I guess my grandkids will find them someday. BUT, for now, they are mine, mine, mine! LOL

Des Arc Ya Ya, I have that same black panther tv light here on top of my computer shelf. From my MIL's house. What do you think it's worth? LOL

Well I just bought MY 4th cherry boy as I said in the wrecking forum My husband broke 1- I broke 2-the man at the antique store broke 3 now we have no 4 he is in a place no one can get to if they do???????4th is the nicest one yet.My aunt had one when I was a child I loved it. Had to have one.Anybody touches my boy look out

About ten years ago I went to an antique show and came face-to-face with the stepback cupboard of my dreams: 1880 or so, poplar, old glass and crown molding on top, recessed panels on the bottom. I had a rule about not buying at shows, but that went out the window along with my rule about not showing naked desire all over your face. It was a visceral reaction...I think I even grunted!

Somehow I managed to get the price lowered by 15% (it's a wonder he didn't raise it). At $1,000, it probably doesn't fall into the category of "find," but it's still absolutely beautiful: my favorite piece of furniture.

More recently, and on a smaller scale, I found something at a shop that will be perfect for my son's girlfriend's birthday: A lovely old oak box crammed with recipes collected years ago (before we became health conscious) by a former home ec teacher.

I've enjoyed this thread.
Susan

Daisy, I've seen them everywhere from $50.00 to $125.00, depending upon where you find them, etc. Not a great treasure monetarily, but it was to ME! LOL

Susan?....What do you want for that cupboard??
I'm still smarting from one I didn't buy 20 years ago!!
Linda C

lol...

The dealer actually offered to buy it back from me a few years later. I didn't ask him how much he would give me, because I wasn't even tempted.

Susan

Okay Paul, what is your best find?

A Matchbox car perhaps, or a piece of Royal Family memorabilia?

Anne

My husband had two swords; one was his father's from WW1. The other someone had given him for doing some odd jobs.We went to a free appraisal show; guess what-- his father's wasn't worth anything, the other was $600.! You never know.

Several years ago I saw the bottom of a cookie jar (no top). It was a WWII female soldier (WAC or WAV or whatever). I found the picture in a Cookie Jar book and have never found another. I did see one on EBay that had many chips and cracks. I am obsessed to find one. thanks/

I don't usually post here, but I find it fun to read about others "finds".

My most recent surprise was a signed Limbert sewing rocker I found in an antique store for $50. All original, including the leather seat. I hadn't heard of Limbert until I bought this chair, and discovered the stamp on the bottom while I was hauling it in the house. I honestly don't know what it's worth. Doesn't matter, it's mine forever.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Limbert Chair

Last year I found a Quezal art glass shade at a thrift store for 25 cents. No chips, cracks or flaws.

My mother put 6 of them out in the trash in about 1947....I still resent it....but they were gone long before the trash man came!
As a 10 year old child, I knew they were beautiful and worth something!
Linda C

Isn't that funny, Linda? I can remember even as a kid loving old things. I have a Kromex coffee canister that I bought an a particular antique shop that I loved as a child...I just purchased the rest of a Kromex set (another coffee, tea, sugar, flour and grease) and will keep and use the original coffee tin, simply because of the sentimental connection to that shop. I recently found out the owner was ill and forced to close the shop, which made me very sad....

As far as money goes, the best was a Handel lamp my wife got from an estate for around $60 and sold at auction for $7,700. As far as enjoying finding, it is a toss up between my Killian's beer sign "No Shoes, No Kilt, No service" that I finally found at a decent price, or my mint prohibition era Old Polk Whisky bottle (family name) that I got for a couple dollars on eBay.

I think I may have found my best deal ever this weekend...I found a beautiful silver plate tea set big, hefty pieces with a lovely large, footed, embossed tray. The pieces polished up wonderfully!!! I paid $35 for it, and saw a similar one, but not as pretty, on the Replacements site, for $1099. It was manufactured by FB Rogers, and that is the only mfg's mark on it. Anyone ever heard of them???

Last weekend we went to an action at a store near us.I visited quite a bit.I always admired thier huge wall to wall cabinets like they used in old old stores.Oak,shelves.One has 80 drawers beautiful.We went to the auction thinking wed have to pay a fotune to get 1.Well we came home with 2 cheaper than what we thought 1 would be.Im wondering what theyre worth.the one I put in my dining room is floor to ceiling over 9'.It has shelves.Halfway up 4 drawers.The bottom half is open.I have crocks lined up there.The other is in 4 sections 80 drawers,top half shelves.Beautiful.This was is about 10' high with ornamental piece on top.

WOW....you did GOOD!!!! I've always loved those things, and the round cabinets with small drawers that nuts and bolts used to be sold from!! I have no idea what they are worth, but I'm so glad you got them, 'cause I know you'll enjoy and take good care of them!!

The one we put in dining room looks great.I put a couple of our collections on them.I collect oilers over 400 now,hubby collects tobacco tins,little big books.crocks are a few.Our house is 1700s ,walk in fireplace,brick floor just love how it all looks together

Probably the 1795 sampler that I bought at an antique show, of all places. A customer was holding it, but then put it down, and I grabbed it fast! $15.00! Have enjoyed it many, many years.

look what i found. maybe this brings back memories to some of you. other than my mate. my best find was a made in the 30's bike.still in fair shape.

Three come to mind. I picked up a set of mixing bowls at a garage sale, I thought originally they were repo Fiesta because they looked so new. They weren't, I paid 8.00 for the set, sold it for 460.00. Bought a box of head vases that had been old store stock, 5.00 for a box of 12, sold them for 47.00 to 70.00 each. I purchased a box of what I thought was old silverplate at an auction for 17.00 only to find out that all of the silver was sterling, plus there was a bag of jewelry in the bottom of the box, real pearls and several signed pieces of old costume.

Betty

My "best" find was a old green ferkin I picked-up at auction. Craftsmanship was wonderful...just looked & felt way above the norm. Paid less than $20 for it...turned out to be Canterbury Shaker. I haven't sold it but sure am delighted with my purchase! :)

July...tent auction...BIG T-storm...mud...everybody's cranky & the bidding showed it! Got a Crolius colbalt incised jar for under a grand. Yipppeee!!! Bring on the rain!

My best find was at a yard sale. I picked up a pretty vase, very heavy glass and the woman says to me "That's a Lalique". I nearly fell over. Calmly I asked what she wanted for it and she told me $15. I clutched it to me, no way I wanted to put it down and have someone else pick it up. I sold it on Ebay for $456.

Deb in PA

I purchased a beautiful wrought iron semi circle table with very ornate leaves and flowers for $5. It is quite a heavy piece so I keep it in a hallway and very rarely move it. Hubby and I were at the doctor's office and saw one similar to it a architecutual design mag for $1,800.00. I'm very happy with my $5 find. Another is my $1 can of Chock full of nuts coffee from early 50's with the key ... never opened, full of coffee ... got $120 on Ebay.

This is a most interesting post--I wish that I could have been at the places where some of you managed to find such treasures! But I've managed to find my share: at an auction, a large Blue Ridge turkey platter (with hand-painted turkey along with the acorn border) for $8 (supposedly worth several hundred); an 8-inch Gorham sterling plate at Goodwill for 29 cents;2 Georg Jensen knives at Goodwill for 19 cents each; 6 sterling salad forks from the 40s (also at Goodwill) for 19 cents each; several prints signed by the artists for less than $5 each--at least one proved to be noteworthy. I absolutely love thrift stores and the thrill of the hunt!

I found a beer mug at a yard sale for 25 cents. Without any information other than the name on the mug, I placed it for sale on Ebay for $6.99. It was very nice. It sold for almost $350. I still don't know why. The man asked if I had any more. I wish I had a dozen!

Last spring, during our cities unlimited trash pickup, I found a box full of lovely antique glass pieces someone had thrown out.

In that box were two pictures that I took for the old frames. When I got them home, I thought the signature on them sounded familier, so I researched it. They turned out to be highly collectible Wallace Nutting prints.

One of them is titled "Fair Banks". I knew I had to keep them! My ancestors were Fairbanks!

~Sandy~

What a fun thread on this forum! I'm jealous of that Maxfield Parrish find. I think I'll go out looking in the morning!

My all-time best find is a handmade copper Griffin weathervane. I found it on eBay, but the artist now has a website where he sells pieces, too: http://www.davidsmithart.com. I really believe his work will be worth a lot in the near future. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and the craftsmanship is exquisite.

Looking forward to reading about more best finds!

Here is a link that might be useful: David Smith, Weathervane Sculptor

There have been quite a few....I guess my favorites are this copy of Paradise Lost with engravings by Gustav Dore, published 1886, and signed "To Aunt Jane, Christmas 1886". Also pictured is my fledgling Pickard collection.

White porcelain Italian bowl purchased at an estate sale for $5.00 (and the middle sized cloche at a garage sale for $1.00....not an antique, but cool nonetheless)....
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Downbridge floor lamp with alabaster inserts on stem and base....heavy iron and nickle (?) construction....garage sale, $50.00. I cleaned it up, repainted it dark bronze and added an embellished shade. It's perfect with my Victorin ladies' chair! The screen was a find, too....a family find....it was stuffed up in my parents' garage rafters.
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Two months ago I went to a thrift shop. I noticed a white fur jacket which I thought was rabbit. I dont know my furs. I tried it on and it fit which is surprising because I am a big girl. The lady said it looks nice on you. At the same time she was putting another fur coat on the rack - long brown. I asked how much for the jacket and she said $5 so I said what about the coat. She said $5. I took both of them. I tried the long one on when I got home. It fit even better. I took them to a local furrier. The long coat had originally come from there. They examined them and told me the jacket is tourmaline mink paw worth $1000 today. The long brown one is pastel mink worth $5000 today. The coat was in perfect condition. The jacket had a small tear at the pocket. They repaired that, cleaned them both, insured them for a year and will store them for me when I finish wearing them - all for $346. I am thrilled. I have never had a fur coat before and even if they aren't the rage anymore I wear both of mine all the time. I am in Canada and it was cold enough last night to wear the jacket out to dinner.

At a tag sale there was a box marked reproduction bottles, $2. I began to fish through it and found a beautiful deep olive green flask, pontil and all! Clearly not a repro! It's valued around $100. It still makes my day 7 years later, to look at it and realize that at least I know antique bottles, even if I don't know much about other antiques!

Antique 1880 rocker found at antique emporium in Beaver Falls Pa We were really in Pa to buy a house to relocate from Fl. Drove around two weeks with this rocker in our cuz we just had to have it seemed very Northern and homey.Finally found a house to put it in, in Camp Hill Pa Funny thing is our real estate agent is babysitting the rocker until we move cause she couln't see us taking it back to Fl just to ship it back to Pa. Thus I found a great rocker and a really nice friend and think we are all antiques!!!!LOL She says she sould pay a rental fee and I say I should pay a storage fee.Funny how things work out

It was the last day of a very "back-country" estate sale, and my mom spotted a small planter buried beneath some plastic toys. It was a beautiful cream colored McCoy shell pattern planter, very art deco. The price? 25 cents!

I also have to mention I've aquired several Elvis, Beatles, Beach Boys, Sinatra, and original 50's musical soundtracks records for pennies!

My best "finds" to date have been at my local thrift store.

A 5.5 qt Le Creuset dutch oven for $8. It was totally blackened on the bottom when I found it and I had never known the name Le Creuset before, but I knew it was something worthy of giving a chance when I felt how heavy it was. Turned out once cleaned up, the dutch oven was something around a $250 value.

Also found four copper bottomed pans with "Cop-R-Chef" stamped on the brass handles. Grungy and tarnished, but once I hit them with the copper creme, they came to life and I was quite pleased with my $25 investment. Later found out that while not made by All-Clad, the company that did make them was bought by them and they started using there design. Pretty nice find and better yet I use them almost daily.

Shannon