Those items aren’t junk, they’re antiques!
If you’ve ever watched the long-running PBS series Antiques Roadshow, you know that some people have precious treasures hidden in plain sight. It is amazing to see the priceless items that people have hidden in their attics, basements and even in their walls; everything is a treasure waiting for the right person to arrive. These are some of the most valuable and rare finds of all.
comic relief
In 2013, David González bought a dilapidated house in Elbow Lake, Minnesota. González, a contractor by trade, immediately set about dismantling the interior walls of the building for repairs. When his mallet went through the drywall, he noticed that it was packed with insulation paper, a common practice in the 1930s. A cartoon caught González’s eye among the shredded newspaper. As it turns out, it was Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman, the holy grail of comics. A copy of the comic in near mint condition sold at auction for over $2 million. The copy that González found was nowhere near mint, the last few pages were missing, and it was badly worn. It still sold for $175,000 at auction. Considering he paid $10,000 for the house, it’s safe to say he was okay with it.
Seven Figure Action Figure
George Davis was a long-time employee of Hammer Galleries in Manhattan, and over the years bought a handful of antiques. When he passed away in late 2013, his relatives found a small, unadorned box in the attic of his upstate home. The box contained a small statuette that turned out to be worth a fortune. The doll was a Faberge figure of an Imperial Russian commander from before World War I. The uniform trim was made of real gold, and the medals and insignia were set with precious stones. It was originally commissioned by Czar Nicholas II for his wife in 1912, purchased by an American industrialist and then finally by Mr. Davis in 1934 for $2,250. It was appraised at nearly $800,000, but sold for over $5 million at auction.
they’re watching you child
In 2015, Randy and Linda Guajiro were looking for antiques in a store in Fresno, California, when they found a box of old photographs. They looked through them, and though nothing caught their eye, a voice in Randy’s head told him to hold on to the dark tin photo of the young man holding a croquet mallet. The guajiros paid $2 for three photos in total, including the tin one. Randy eventually took it to an American antiquities expert in the San Francisco Bay Area, who helped piece together the identities of the men in the photo. It’s the only known photograph of Billy the Kid with his gang, the Regulators, making it an invaluable piece of American history. The only other photo of the legendary outlaw sold at auction for $2.6 million. The value of this photo is set at $5 million because it shows the Kid with his gang, notorious Wild West legends in their own right.
Next time you’re rummaging through your attic junk, take a second look. You never know what you will find.