My brother told me to never buy a box of random stuff at an auction

He said it's always junk, but I got one for $15 at a farm sale in Iowa last month. Inside was a weird metal tube with a glass lens, which turned out to be a surveyor's transit from the 1920s. A local history group offered me $300 for it. Anyone else have a 'bad' purchase that turned out surprisingly good?

2 comments

2 Comments

blakefox17h ago

Are you kidding me with this story? You got lucky once, but that's like winning the lottery and telling people to buy tickets. For every one box like yours, there are a thousand filled with actual broken tools and mouse nests. Your brother's advice is solid because it's based on the normal outcome, not a crazy exception. Most people will waste their money and end up with a pile of trash they have to haul to the dump. Telling folks to ignore that is just setting them up to lose cash.

karen40515h ago

Blake makes a fair point about the usual junk, but the lottery comparison is a bit much. It's more like a thrift store hunt where you mostly find old clothes, but sometimes you get a great jacket. The fun is in the search itself, not just the win. My brother's advice is safe, sure, but always playing it safe means missing out on those cool finds. You just have to go in knowing most boxes will be duds and only spend what you can afford to lose.

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