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Uben

(7,719 posts)
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 09:33 AM Mar 2013

Finding treasure in your home!

Yeah, right.....I figure the closest thing to treasure in my home is the gold in my mouth! But, even I get a surprise occasionally.

So, I was watching an episode of "Wild Alaska" on Discovery Channel and it was about poachers (I think). Anyway, they saw a walrus carcass on the beach and went to investigate. He said the poacher had cut the oosik out to sell. Then they showed a pic of one... its the penis bone of a giant walrus!. Then I realized that I had one out in my garage! I had gotten it from my dad's things when he died in 1990. He used to keep it in his car for protection when he was commuting. I never knew what it was, and neither did he...just that it made a helluva billy club! So I looked em up and lo and behold....a 21" walrus baculum! This is gonna make a great conversation piece at parties! Although its worth about $200, how can any guy sell a 21" penis bone? You can Google "oosik" and there are tons of pics of these things. They have been used as tools by Alaskan natives for centuries and the ivory is a highly sought resource for carvings and knife handles. The sale of oosiks is regulated in Alaska and the only ones allowed to leave the state have to be carved by natives.

Although the term "oosik" is the name given these things by native inuits, I figure some gal took a look at one of these large specimens and said, "Ooh.....sick!" ha!

The only other "treasured artifact" I have is a Nero/Salus denarius I got from my mother-in-law. It's a silver roman coin struck in 39 A.D. (worth about $60)

What treasures do you own or have possession of?

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Finding treasure in your home! (Original Post) Uben Mar 2013 OP
Best true story I've ever come across dipsydoodle Mar 2013 #1
A related story told by Dr. Tony Hyman pipoman Mar 2013 #2
I've been a junker/picker for about 30 years pipoman Mar 2013 #3
I found too many Viva_La_Revolution Mar 2013 #4
I watch a lot of Pawn Stars and American Pickers TlalocW Mar 2013 #5
Best treasure which I still have dixiegrrrrl Mar 2013 #6
Well, I do have possession of another item..... Uben Mar 2013 #7
I have a brass compass from WW1 that I found at a garage sale Javaman Mar 2013 #8

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
1. Best true story I've ever come across
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 09:41 AM
Mar 2013

was of a lady who bought a family house at an estate sale. She later found athick wad of bound papers in the loft and started to read them. The words seemed familiar and she realised she was reading Huckleberry Finn. She took the papers to Sotherbys whose initial reaction was "oh yes - another one" They did however have it checked / verified and the ink and paper dating and handwriting confirmed it to be a draft of Mark Twain's. Needless to say it went for a fortune at auction.

 

pipoman

(16,038 posts)
2. A related story told by Dr. Tony Hyman
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:04 AM
Mar 2013

who wrote several books about antiquities..including 'Trash or Treasure', and 'I'll Buy That', was the story of a Beverly Hills moving sale. He told of someone buying a Beverly Hills mansion later to run out of money and be forced to sell out. They had a moving sale, selling the furnishings and other personal property which came with the property. Among the items was a box of mailed letters. A stamp collector happened buy and purchased the box for like $20 for the stamps. The collector then offered the remainder at a swap meet where another stamp collector bought the box for like $100. That collector began looking at the content of the letters and found they were love letters from Samuel Clemens to a sweetheart...they ended up bringing a small fortune..

 

pipoman

(16,038 posts)
3. I've been a junker/picker for about 30 years
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:18 AM
Mar 2013

what I have found is almost every house has at least one item which is very collectible/rare to someone. I have spent my life seeking these items. Some I have resold others I have kept. My mother liked glassware, art glass, and various other things. When she passed away I thought I knew what was valuable and what wasn't. I discovered a "Hot Doggie" amber glass candy container which I remembered playing with as a child. Seems the Hot Doggie is a key piece to candy container collectors. Mine is like this one only in amber glass..



What I have found is that family legend often attaches great value to the wrong items..everyone believes grandma's china is worth a fortune...it usually is hard to sell for minimal prices..while nobody pays any attention to grandpa's junky old wood shop where wood working planes can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars..or the dresser drawer where grandma and grandpa put all of the trashy little advertising items people are reluctant to throw away, or grandma's sewing basket, or the sheet music in the piano bench...these areas often contain the really valuable items in an estate..I can't tell you how many dumpsters I have picked while people were getting ready for an estate sale and found items worth more than the rest of the personal property in the sale..it's an adventure every time I go on the hunt..

Viva_La_Revolution

(28,791 posts)
4. I found too many
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:21 AM
Mar 2013

the trouble is, most of them belonged to my step-grampa and his first wife (who died 1976). They're both gone, Gram died last month and it's to late to ask questions.
The best so far.. KC wrote a history of his naval career during and after WWII, complete with pictures and keepsakes, and there's a large box of letters between him and Ruth (1934-1955)
Worth the most $$ so far is an Venetian Millefiori Milano vase worth about $400. lots of $20-40 pieces mostly.
All of it technically belongs to VivaDaddy, but I'm the one researching and getting things ready to sell. It feels a bit like one of those tv shows. without the cameras but also no groupies

TlalocW

(15,358 posts)
5. I watch a lot of Pawn Stars and American Pickers
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:32 AM
Mar 2013

And can't really think of anything valuable that I'd be able to sell them. Mom was a bit of a hoarder when it came to magazines, and our garage was full of boxes of them until Dad decided enough was enough, and we burned them all in a trash barrel. What hurt about that was I was a teenager, and I found a lot of Playboys but couldn't save them.

The three things I remember of any significance from my childhood were two jukeboxes - one of them an old fashioned looking curvy one with the lights and a more modern one from the 70s that Dad was always going to fix. And then a piggy bank with a face that looked like Hitler, with the inscription, "Save for Victory; Make Him Squeal." But it was pretty banged up. I think we sold the jukeboxes after Dad passed, and one of my sisters has the piggy bank.

However, mom and dad ran several stores and bars throughout their lives, and mom amassed quite a silver coin collection that we finally had taken out of a safe deposit box a few years ago, and the kids went through them for her. She's got somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 worth of coins that she wants to split among the kids, but we're telling her to hold on to them while she's alive in case she needs the money and to put them, if she still has them, in her will.

TlalocW

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
6. Best treasure which I still have
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:55 AM
Mar 2013

Mid-1970's, Seattle, used to spend weekends roaming thru "junk" shops..small neighborhood stores which were not quite up to the label of "antiques" and not quite Goodwill type stores. I called them "treasure" stores.
Early one morning prowling around and found a 1939 Miriam and Webster Dictionary, the huge one, just like the one I remembered from school and from my Grandmother's home. Pristine condition.

It was on a gorgeous oak swivel stand, the kind that sits on a table and has the big wheel on the base.
Shop owner said he had gotten it the day before. someone had sold it to him.

35.00....for both.

It sits today on my library table. Never had the heart to sell it.

Uben

(7,719 posts)
7. Well, I do have possession of another item.....
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:08 AM
Mar 2013

...though it belongs to my mom. It is a hand written journal from 1849 by a woman who came to Texas from Missouri and settled here on the Red River north of Dallas. It tells of her journey and her encounters with bears, indians, and panthers. A transcript of it was carried on the wagon train that was used in the Texas susquicentennial celebration in 1986(?). I have no idea of its value, but I intend to donate it to a local museum if and when I ever do own it.

Javaman

(62,439 posts)
8. I have a brass compass from WW1 that I found at a garage sale
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:34 AM
Mar 2013

and a field thermometer from WWII also found at a garage sale.

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