Antiques expert Charlie Ross shares a surprising auction story that left a woman thinking she received the wrong cheque for her shed items
London: So, there’s this funny story from Charlie Ross, the antiques expert from Bargain Hunt. He was reminiscing about his early auctioneer days and how he once left a woman thinking she got the wrong cheque.
It all started when a lady called him up, wanting to clear out her garden shed. She thought it was just filled with junk, like broken furniture, and figured she might get around fifty pounds for it. She just wanted to make some room for her husband’s lawnmower.
Charlie, being the curious guy he is, decided to check it out. In his book, he mentioned that most of the stuff was pretty much trash, but there was this old walnut bureau hiding in the corner. It was in rough shape, missing parts and all, but he thought maybe someone would want it.
Back in the 70s, people were really into restoring old stuff, so he took it to auction with a reserve of a hundred pounds. He was a bit nervous, hoping he hadn’t messed up.
Fast forward two weeks, and he gets another call from the woman. She was convinced he sent her the wrong cheque because it was for over a thousand pounds! After a bit of back and forth, she realized he was right. The bureau had sold for a whopping £1,160, which is like ten grand today!
Charlie joked with her about maybe getting a new lawnmower and even a new shed to keep it in. It’s wild how something she thought was worthless turned out to be such a treasure!
