Friday 22 August 2008

Money for old Rope

There's a daytime TV programme in Britain called "Cash in the Attic". The TV people go round to someone's house, and go through their stuff, trying to find things that they can sell at an auction or a car boot sale. I'm not sure why, but I quite like the presenter, Lorne Spicer:
What always amazes me is that these people have so many antiques in their houses. Not usually Ming vases, or Picassos, but 50-100 year old ordinary stuff, like toys, or ornaments, or whatever. Perhaps I'm just not old enough to have accumulated such things, but - an art deco fruit machine??? The expert reckoned they'd get a few hundred for that, and in the end a middle-aged woman bought it for £500.

The other thing that amazes me is that other people will pay money for all this. They had an old Steiff teddy bear on the show this morning. It's old and threadbare (pun alert), but if it's a rare model it could go for thousands. (it was valued at £500-£800).

Unfortunately, I don't think Lorne would be very interested in searching through my things. The most ornamental objects I have are on my mantlepiece, pictured at the top of my blog. The busts of Bach and Beethoven were bought at TK Max, circa 2000, and the clock is a modern radio-controlled one in an old style.

The clock is a good example. You could get an antique one, but it wouldn't be in such good condition, and it wouldn't be so accurate. So, I'd rather have the newer one.

Anyway, they estimated around £1800 for this guy's tat, and he actually made £4100 (the threadbare bear went for £2200). Not bad for a day's tidying up round the house. Maybe I should have a closer look at my rubbish after all...

17 comments:

Dan said...

FIRST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan said...

We have that same show here, I'm always telling people not to throw away their old toys but nobody listens to me. I once picked out some toys out of the garbage that my step daughter threw out. I kept them for several months and when she found out I had them she begged for them back.
I told her no, you threw them out!

"But they don't make these anymore"
She said.

I gave them back after she cleaned the inside of my car.

for a different kind of girl said...

I need someone to clean out my car boot (which is what I will now and forever be calling my garage!), but when they do, I guarantee that there will be nothing of value found in there. Also, nothing of any value will be found in my basement if it were ever cleaned out. My husband likes to collect toys and other junk that he swears will only increase in value. But it never will, but, to me, getting rid of them all would feel like a million bucks!

Unknown said...

Two grand for a teddy bear? Who the hell pays that?

Bee said...

I had something hilarious to write and then I got a phone call so I forgot. Can you please laugh anyway?? ;o)

I’m in hell today Brian! In HELL. >:o[

Jean Knee said...

what the hell's a tat and why'd a guy sell his?

Anonymous said...

I have nothing worth anything. Which is fine. I like cheap crap.

Brian o vretanos said...

Dan:

A car valetting is probably a fair price for some old toys.

FADKOG:

Your husband might surprise you, judging by some of the rubbish they manage to shift on these programmes.

Chris:

They had it valued by a specialist, and this guy said that if it was in good condition it would fetch £4000. He had one in his shop that was worth £7000.

Bee:

I'll go off and die laughing in a minute.

You've only got a few more hours of hell...

Jean Knee:

Tat = rubbish, junk.

Catscratch:

Cheap rubbish is often far better value...

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

We once inherited a painting from Chris' grandmother. It's an oil painting signed by an artist by the name of Ruffo. For a couple of years we kept saying "Well, when we get the money from "The Ruffo" we'll do this or that".
Chris finally decided that he was going to find out how many millions it was worth so that we could be wealthy.
He sent a photo of the painting, information on the author, dimensions and all of that to Cristies (I don't know how they spell it) in New York.
Sadly, they wrote us back saying that the painting wasn't even worth the postage to mail it to them never mind to auction it.
Now we are million-less and we still have the ugly Ruffo on the wall.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Oh hey Brian? Can you do me a solid? Thanks.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Please tell Dan that I'm not speaking to him since he has the time to visit your blog.
Oh and also, tell him that I'm 11th!

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

And is that what you call your garage? The car boot?
I'm totally using that on Chris' monstrosity out there!
It's now "The car Boot!"

Brian o vretanos said...

Dan:

What Tracy said...

Tracy:

A car boot is what Americans call a trunk, I believe, though why you'd name part of a car after an elephant's nose, I don't know. A car boot sale is where people drive to a field (usually on a Sunday) with their boots stuffed with rubbish, which they then sell.

There's also a programme where they give teams some money, and they go round a boot sale and buy stuff, then they go to another one and sell it. The team that makes the biggest profit wins.

Dan said...

I was going to check them all at work but was only able to check Brian's.

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

Oh! So it's the trunk of my car that's my carboot? I was mistaken. It wouldn't be the first time afterall since I'm still trying to call people on my teli. :)

I don't really have much of a boot in my car. I drive a super mini van so it's not really much of a boot. And when you pile all of your groceries into it and drive home, when you open the boot door, all of your groceries come spilling out at you. It's very aggrivating!

And Dan-excuses, excuses.

Unknown said...

An art deco fruit machine. I'm wondering what that actually looks like ...

Brian o vretanos said...

Tracy:

Maybe you should get a small trailer for the shopping...

Chris:

I did try to find a similar picture on the web, but failed, I'm afraid. It was predominately silver coloured, but I'm not sure what made it art deco. It just looked like a piece of junk to me.

However, I bet there are still some working examples in Blackpool, or Morecambe...