Thumper
07-16-2016, 07:35 AM
I went to an estate sale yesterday and it was MY kinda sale. Dirty, rusty "junk". The garage was packed with crap ... the kind I LOVE to dig through. Well, I came upon an old ceiling fan with a date tag of 1-22-1926! Now, I love old fans and have bought/sold probably 100 of them. In fact, I probably have 20-25 hanging around here now that I haven't listed yet. Many of these fans sell for hundreds of dollars, but I've sold most of my higher bucks fans and have a bunch of less popular models I sell at my own pace. Anyway, yesterday I dragged out this old ceiling fan and tried to research it to get an idea of what they have sold for on eBay. I found NOTHING. Bummer. That can mean two things ... either they are rare (none to sell), or they are undesirable and there's just not much of a market for them. I didn't have time to get too involved researching and asked a price. The guy said, "How 'bout $5.00?" I figured that was worth the gamble and threw it onto my pile of "junque". ;)
Ok, last night I got a bit deeper into my research and found one in the condition mine is in. It sold 5 years ago for $1350.00!! I could find no other sales (super rare?), but did find a couple listings for small parts. One went for $200, the other $250. Damn! Ok, my gamble paid off and I have a winner! Now why the title to this thread? As I was digging through the garage, I found an old switch that I found interesting. I had no clue what it was for, but liked it. I even carried it around for a bit, but for some stupid reason, laid it back down and left it. I'm sure I could have picked it up for a quarter.
Well, during my research last night, I spotted a pic of that switch. It's for the fan I'd already bought! It would have been thrown in with the fan if I'd known. Why do I want to kick myself in the ass? That dang switch is more rare than the fan itself and I was only able to find ONE example on the net. Guys on the old fan blogs say they are rare as hen's teeth and will bring big bucks for one who wants to do a spot-on restoration. Dammit!! What a dumbass I am!
I'm headed out the door right now to see if that switch is still lying around in that garage someplace. Wish me luck!
Here's a pic of a super high-bucks, fully restored fan (part of a collection, not for sale), That switch hanging from the wire is what I'm after.
7377
Ok, last night I got a bit deeper into my research and found one in the condition mine is in. It sold 5 years ago for $1350.00!! I could find no other sales (super rare?), but did find a couple listings for small parts. One went for $200, the other $250. Damn! Ok, my gamble paid off and I have a winner! Now why the title to this thread? As I was digging through the garage, I found an old switch that I found interesting. I had no clue what it was for, but liked it. I even carried it around for a bit, but for some stupid reason, laid it back down and left it. I'm sure I could have picked it up for a quarter.
Well, during my research last night, I spotted a pic of that switch. It's for the fan I'd already bought! It would have been thrown in with the fan if I'd known. Why do I want to kick myself in the ass? That dang switch is more rare than the fan itself and I was only able to find ONE example on the net. Guys on the old fan blogs say they are rare as hen's teeth and will bring big bucks for one who wants to do a spot-on restoration. Dammit!! What a dumbass I am!
I'm headed out the door right now to see if that switch is still lying around in that garage someplace. Wish me luck!
Here's a pic of a super high-bucks, fully restored fan (part of a collection, not for sale), That switch hanging from the wire is what I'm after.
7377