People Who Discovered Their Junk Was Actually Worth A Fortune
This article appeared in www.brain-sharper.com and has been published here with permission.Michael Jordan’s Shoes
For a basketball fan, getting the shoes of Michael Jordan is a thing of dreams, and finding them unexpectedly is even more thrilling. This was the case of Larry Awe, who was a staff member at the Capitol Court Mall in Milwaukee.
Awe was cleaning up the storage room before its demolition and found a pair of sneakers that belonged to Michael Jordan. He saw Jordan’s signature on one of the shoes and instantly knew he had struck gold. The shoes are worth about $20,000.
Picasso’s Plate
Purchased in 1970 for less than $100, this Rhode Island woman had a plate designed by Picasso in her possession without realizing it. She had the plate hanging above her stove for many years, until 2014 when she discovered its real origins.
She went to appraise the plate on Antique Roadshow, a TV show when she learned that her plate was really a Madoura plate designed by Picasso in 1955. The plate is worth $10,000.
The Declaration of Independence
This is a case of a financial analyst living up to the expectation of getting value for his money, even though it was unintended. In 1989, this man bought a painting at a flea market for around $4, without knowing the Declaration of Independence was stuffed into the canvas.
He discovered the document after a while, and it turned out to be an original. In 1991, the document was sold for $2.42 million.
Andy Warhol’s Sketch
Garage sales are known for strange and funny junk, so you must be really lucky to find an item worth a fortune. This was the case for Andy Fields, who bought five sketches at a garage sale in Las Vegas. Fields paid $5 for these sketches and did not think much of them when purchasing them, even though the seller told him they were original Andy Warhol sketches.
Fields ended up framing one of the sketches and discovered the signature of Andy Warhol on the back. This sketch is valued at over $2 million, a gift from one Andy to another Andy.
The value of an item is not determined by the place it is found, or so these people found out. These are people who have been in possession of junk without knowing those items were actually worth a fortune. With items ranging from a chess piece to a giant pearl, and even to a meteorite, we will examine 40 people who discovered that their junk was actually worth a fortune.