One Man's Trash is Another Man's $500,000
Stan Caffy was a local pipefitter who liked to look for odd and old things, especially at garage sales. In the mid-nineties he found an old, stained parchment of the Declaration of Independence and paid $2 for it. He purchased it to hang in his Donelson garage where Stan liked to work on bikes.
Nine years later Stan Caffy married Linda. Linda thought Stan was a packrat who collected things and put them in the garage. Linda pushed him to clean the garage while they were combining households. After a year, they decided to donate the parchment and several other items to the local thrift store.
Linda took the Declaration, an antique table, a shower head and faucet to the thrift store in Nashville. When she took it, she told the thrift shop that it might be worth something and they should check it out.
Almost one year later, Michael Sparks was scouring through the Music City Thrift Store and spotted the Declaration of Independence. He paid $2.48 for the copy and brought it home.
He knew there was something special about this document.
Michael, a music equipment technician, did some homework in his spare time.
He soon discovered that the parchment turned out to be an “official copy” of the Declaration of Independence. It was one of two hundred copies that were commissioned by John Quincy Adams when he was Secretary of State in 1820.
He thought they might be able to get $100,000 for the document and put it up for auction a month later with Raynors’ Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, NC. Six bidders contended for the document and the winning bid was $477,650.
(After taxes) Michael had a small fortune and a great story to tell.
Like Michael, we scour the market for value and act quickly to take advantage of every opportunity. If this sounds good, hit reply to discuss a winning strategy customized for you.
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