Thump, you might get this lucky, too.....

[Big Muddy]

.
I gots a feeling you gonna hit the jackpot, too, if you keep hitting those estate sales. ;)


Man buys Goodwill watch for $6, Sells it for $35K


"""When Zach Norris went into a Goodwill store in Phoenix, he bought a watch for 6 bucks. What he sold it for was enough to help him pay for his wedding.

It was this rare Jager-LeCoultre diving watch. Norris, who collects watches, says only 900 were ever made and he knew the $5.99 price tag made it a steal.


He said, "I've found some stuff in the past that I have been really excited about and stoked, but this is one of those things you're like, one day, one day it will happen, and it happened for me.
After a few weeks he put the watch up for sale online and a collector in San Francisco bought it for $35,000 and threw in another watch for $4,000. Not a bad ROI to say the least.

Some of the profit will pay for his wedding and he even donated a little back to Goodwill.

The popular thrift store has yielded some pricey pieces before.

In 2013, an employee in Virginia came across a rare 19th century painting worth about $12,000.

And one employee in California found an envelope containing $10,000 in a pile of donated books.""""

[Thumper]

I hate to admit this ... but when Lynn and I travel, we go on-line and enter (in the GPS) all the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in the area where we'll be staying. We don't do touristy stuff or theme parks ... but have fun hitting those stores and doing a bit of treasure hunting. I've made some nice scores ... but NOTHING like the above. Maybe some day. ;)

In fact, I just returned from a Lighthouse Ministries store here in town. I have about $150 of "junk" here that I bought for $3.00.

[Big Skyz]

Okay Thumper story time. Here's my one really good discovery. 20+ years ago I walked into a pawn shop/gun store with a friend of mine in southern Utah. At the time I was hankering for a nice sidexside shotgun. However being a poor college boy all of them were out of reach for me financially. With that said, I asked the store owner if he happened to have any sidexsides. He smile and said he just got one in from a doctor friend and it was on consignment. Story was that the doctor had bought it brand new 30 years ago, stuck it in his safe and never fired it. He hands me this pretty little Ugartechea 20 ga shotgun with a gold trigger, engraved action, with gold inlay. The wood on the shotgun wasn't super fancy but relatively nice. I asked what he wanted and he said the Doc said he would take $550.00 for it as he was anxious to sell and had another gun he wanted. Sounded like a good deal even and the craftsmanship of the shotgun seemed nice. I just happened to have some tax return money burning a hole in my pocket. So I buy the shotgun take it home, and try to find out anything I can about Ugartechea shotguns, so I can verify whether I got a good deal or not. This was before the internet. I can't find anything so I put the gun in my safe and leave it there for the next decade and a half. By this time Al Gore has invented the internet and I decide to do search for my shotgun. Low and behold it turns out the shotgun was worth $2500.00-$3500+ depending on condition. I never could find a listing for brand-new unfired. I imagine that is because no one would expect a shotgun that was nearly 50 years old to be unfired. Anyway, I decided to list it for sale online. I got a few bites, but they kept trying to low ball me. Finally a guy in Montana got a hold of me and offered to trade me a Custom Rifle from the Remington Custom Shop. The cost of that rifle is $3500.00-$4000.00 and it was a rifle I was very familiar with. We met and looked over the firearms we both had to offer. Long story short we were both happy with what we saw and we made the trade. So while I didn't make $35,000.00 off a watch, I thought owning a $$3500.00-$4000.00 rifle was a pretty good return on my $550.00 initial investment. Anyway, if a guy knows what he's looking at/for sometimes little treasures can be found in the second hand market. Which is why I really admire what Thumper is doing and find it interesting as all get out.

[Big Muddy]

This story isn't nearly as interesting or lucrative, as yall's, but back in the mid-70's, there was an old Howard's Discount store in south Jackson, MS that I visited with my hunting/fishing buddy, who lived down there back then, because their stuff was really inexpensive.

WalMart had bought the big building and lot, so they were selling off all their hunting/fishing stuff really cheap....we were browsing around, and I spotted a gun box, sitting on the counter....inside, was a brand new beautiful little Mossberg 500ET, 410 pump....it was marked at $120 bucks....it is not an expensive shotgun, to be begin with, but it caught my eye, and I only had an old single shot .410, at the time.

I asked the guy to show it to me, so he took it outta the box....while he was handing it to me, he turned it upside down, and said, "Hmmm, it's missing the shell clip; maybe it's in another box, in the warehouse."....he leaves, and me and my buddy just stare at each other, without a word.

The little shotgun doesn't even require a shell clip....the rectangular opening underneath is just where you slide the shells into the magazine, like nearly 100% of shotguns do.

He returns, and apologizes for not being able to find the shell clip....okay, we are still just listening to him....then, he says, "We really need to sell this stuff quickly, will you give $60 bucks for it???"....by this time, my buddy has bitten his tongue in two, but we neither had said a word....we only listened to what the guy had been saying.

While I was "ripping" the $60 bucks outta my pocket, I heard my buddy saying something about me, being a lucky b*****d....not a bad deal for a new-in-the-box pump .410....sometimes, it's to your advantage to just keep your mouth shut and listen. ;)

I still, occasionally, shoot the little .410....prolly will give it to my great-grandson, one day.

[Big Skyz]

Big Muddy, that was a great deal. Try buying a new Mossberg 500 .410 now for that price. Not gonna happen. Heck, and I thought I'd done really good when I picked up a little used Mossberg 500 .410 Home Defense for $75.00. I originally bought for home defense but found out it makes a great little truck shotgun. It's killed a pile of cottontails and upland birds, and even a skunk or two, including a spotted skunk. Those little spotted skunks are cool looking little stinkers btw.

[Big Muddy]

As an after-thought, when that WalMart had it's grand opening, I got to meet Sam Walton....back then, he attended all of his store's grand openings, and he drove up in that old pickup, he was so famous for driving. ;)