The Best .10 Cents I Ever Spent

It was shortly after the birth of our fourth son, the last of three born 15 months apart. Our home at the time was an old schoolhouse built in the thirties, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Spokane. We were adjusting to life with a home full of young boys and struggling to make ends meet.

I'd recently begun making a modest amount of money selling yard sale finds on ebay and although it wasn't anything to write home about, I enjoyed it immensely.

One afternoon, my friend Teri called to tell me she'd just been to an amazing yard sale in Deer Park, which was about a half an hour from my home. Dishes, fun vintage purses, neat old scarves and so on. I was so excited about her finds that I dropped my yard work, hopped in the car, and headed on over to her house to check it all out. When I arrived, I was surprised to see how much stuff that she, her sister, and two girls had scored. I asked if there was much left at the sale when they'd left. "Quite a bit!", they replied.

And so we headed back to see what I could find.

We pulled up and all I could really see were several tables piled high with clothing. Not what I was hoping. But when I neared, I could see that the clothing was at least all vintage and I was intrigued. Digging in, I came upon an interesting old Hawaiian shirt.

    At some point leading up to that day I'd read an article in Country Living Magazine about vintage Hawaiian shirts and remembered learning that certain ones could actually be quite valuable.

I added the shirt to my pile and went to pay. "All clothes are .10 cents each", the lady said with a smile. Well, I thought, I can't go wrong.

Later that week, I listed my shirt on ebay and crossed my fingers that it'd be worth something. Maybe $50? And then something began to happen. The bids started coming in and the price began to rise. $50 - - - - - $85 - - - - $125... WHAT?!

I called Colin, heart pounding, "MY SHIRT IS AT $125!" Then I'd call Teri. MY SHIRT IS AT $125!!!  No, Wait! It's at $135!

And so it went for seven days. Eventually, Colin's co-workers were watching the auction too. Who could believe this shirt was going this high?

When the final minutes on the auction ticked away, and we continued to click refresh! refresh! refresh! with the mouse, the price ticked on up to a final bid of $860!

$860 dollars!

Yep! That's the shirt, and the $860 check.

But the fun didn't stop there. Ebay loved the story so much that years later I shot a commercial for the company, re-telling my story. I don't think the commercial ever aired, but it was a fun experience none the less.

Comments

[Yvonne]

A great story. Did you ever find out if there was a particular reason why that shirt was so sought after? Was it a limited edition or special designer? Whichever it was, I'm pleased for you - well done that girl! : )

[Dee W.]

A friend of mine was widowed. She was selling her husband's family farm in Hayden, Idaho, and years and years of accumulation needed to be gone through. I visited her one day, and she said, "You could sell some stuff on Ebay, couldn't you?" So, I went through the contents of a box with her at my side and we reminisced about her husband while we sifted through a box of what she called garbage. I found a tortoise shell guitar pick in it's original leather case and decided to put that on Ebay, along with a few other miscellaneous small items. I actually took home just a few things in a trash bag. I listed, if memory serves, 10 small items. The guitar pick ended up going for $125. I was able to give my dear friend $500 to help with funeral expenses. That guitar pick amazed me, $125.

[Katelyn]

I absolutely love your stories. They remind me that working hard and doing what you love is key!

Thanks for always inspiring!

[Shelle Priest]

Best Ebay purchase I ever made was 3 lbs of purple 'crystal' beads for 13 dollars. When I got them and cleaned them up they turned out to be AUSTRIA crystal beads from the 30s and I sold them in individual packets at bead stores and craft fairs for 20 beads for $10. I ended up making $650 or so from that $13 purchase!

[Jennifer Wood]

Now THAT is Awsome! Great find, and great story!

[tanya smith]

That is an insane story. Nothing like that has ever happened to me... I love to watch shows like Antiques Roadshow and Storage Wars to see what other people find and sell. It's so fun. I think "My Favorite Find" is such a cool idea. Thanks for making it happen!

[jane]

Life Stories are always such fun! Can't wait to read more..Jane @ Mustard Moon...

[Kim @ Homesteader's Heart]

Wow! I mean seriously, WOW! That is crazy. We look for things at garage sales but our problem is half the time we don't know "what" we should be looking for.
Can't wait till Monday.
HUGS
Kim

[Maria (Magia Mia)]

I call those my "big fish" stories. They get better each time I tell them. These stories are not only entertaining, but educational as well, and will make us all more vintage savvy!

[Jennifer. Rizzo]

Serena, I don't know what is more awesome.the fact that you made that much money or that awesome picture of you in the shirt.

[Serena]

Jenn, the only thing more awesome is the mom jeans you can't see. Sa-weeet! xoxo

[Tracy]

Wow! I am going to check more closely into the value of a vintage Florida table cloth I picked up years ago - hey - you never know!

[Claudia]

Such a great story, Serena! Every treasure hunter's dream. I just posted my interview with you and sent you the link via email.

Looking forward to the launch tomorrow!

xo
Claudia

[Pam]

This is such a lovely story Serena! Now I see what lite the internal fires of vintage finds and attending estate sales. It is so much fun and gives us something bigger than ourselves, hope and excitement, especially when we are young moms struggling to make ends meet. I adore this story!

[Holly]

Wow!

[Mary]

Eewww...could you correct the spelling of "recently"? ;)

[Mary]

Much better!!! :)

[turtle]

how cool! ANd having lived years in the islands it is insane the cost of some!!
I grew up a teen of the 80's and cassettes. I would buy super cheap blank tapes and record copies of friends tapes, usually from live shows of greatful dead shows that fell over a good 30 year period.These were 3rd, 4th, ++ generation copies i made so not super high quality but well loved! When we were in hawaii hubby threw them in the trash, all 200 of them (not a deadhead) I fished them out and listed them on ebay starting at 1$. They finished at 450$... something hubby was throwing away. I just couldnt at heart let them go to the trash... i mean it was Jerry after all! :)

[Pat in New York]

What a wonderful story. We never know what could be junk to one is treasure to another. It's nice when old things find a new home with someone who appreciates it for a sentimental value. It's much better than that item ending up in a land fill somewhere. I look forward to browsing and joining your new web site venture! Best of luck with it!

[molly]

My favorite find can sometimes be in the plainest piece of fabric. It might be the texture and sometimes I can even hear stories about the people that had it and had hopes and dreams to make something beautiful. I love that!
But this find was much different. I had found it on the street, people in my neighborhood used to put garbage out on the curb and then it would be picked up. This was one of those days, it was a long rug and because it didn't have any fringe on it I thought it was a fake. I used it for years always noticing how the colors look like they were from plants and that made me suspicious. Eventually I had been trading hair cuts with a family where the husband had a rug company and I brought it in to him to look at. He called every one over to look at it. Some one threw out a $8000.rug from Iran.