The ones that got away

I had a major disappointment at the local auction house the other day: 3 lots were up for auction; 2 boxes of slides and one of photos (all numbered, with negatives). They were taken by a local schoolteacher who had worked in the Mt. Hagen district in Papua New Guinea in the early 60s. Among them were some amazing images of tribesmen with spears, bows, etc.

I was outbidded by a woman from Patea who wants to make tee-shirts out of them...

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

CN

Of my biggest regrets was the 50's home bar shaped like a giant bongo (tribal style drum) with 4 matching bongo stools at an antique shop..... i didn't buy it, and i wish i did. i have never seen another like it in the past 23 years.......

Also, 3 giant tribal chalkware statues of natives (not universal statuary) that were lamps. They held spears and sheilds in their hands. The salvation army wanted $100 for all 3 and i floundered...... again, never saw anything like them and now i'm sorry i let them go......

My biggest disapointment was when we were at a local flea market and I picked up this beautiful oil painting of the cover of Tamboo and the guy only wanted $50 bucks for and I put in down. Turned around and it was gone that quickly.. It looked exactly like the cover with so much damn detail it really was beautiful and signed. Lucky person whom ever it was who was smart enough to know what a great piece it was! :( :(

Too many to mention here!!

I'm most frustrated when I walk up and the guy in front of me just bought something I would've bought on the spot, seconds before I walk up, and boasting how fortunate they are! That has happened to me more than once...

(its funny - I just had a dream last night of being in a thrift store and seeing somebody with a shopping cart full of records - boxed sets, LPs and 45s!! I kinda followed them around the store to hopefully catch a glimpse of what was in the cart. My subconscious rewarded me though as a store employee then brings out a fresh cart full of 45s and I'm first on that one - maybe I should do some shopping today, huh?)

But I will say I've also been very very lucky...sometimes buying gems for a steal, sometimes finding items late in the day and being totally shocked nobody bought before me, sometimes finding something in a second-hand store that obviously been in the store a long time.

It's all part of the "thrill of the hunt" as they say.

Easy...Leleliz and Psycho Tiki D missed out on the whole storage unit of free Witco.

She still moans about it to this day and she doesn't even LIKE Witco.

I found Trader Vic's cocktail glass with the ember stem at goodwill for 69 cents, when I figured out what it was ( I thought it was aztec ) a couple of days later it was gone. But the worst was a 12 foot tall carved cedar tiki that I believe came from the grounds of the Polynesian Village Apts in Tacoma.
I found it in the back parking lot of the B&I circus dept store, the store manager said that if I wanted it I could have it, that people were always dumping junk back there. It took me a while to figure out how to move this huge chunk of wood but when I did I went back to arrange the move it had moved across a field to become a parking bumper at a meth house. It was gone by the time I saw that the cops had boarded up the house, hopefully the methheads sold it at a flea market and didn't chop it up for firewood. O.K. after recounting that I need drink, sigh.

Flea market, 5 Witco carved barstools with original upholstered seats..$125 for all 5. Yeah, it still hurts. The original post is still here somewhere on TC.
Bottom line was, the purchase would have redlined me with my bank account...We were in a Honda civic, and don't think I could have made enough room for 5 stools, and lastly, we had no place to store them or hold them over until we could make room for them.
Found out the very next month from the vendor (who didnt know what they were), that a "good flea market samaritan", or wannabe appraiser told her what their value was. She told me she was glad I did not buy them, because she sold them later that afternoon for what I remember, $450/set of 5. hah!