re: 1/2 Price Estate Sale Finds 5/19 - one of my greatest finds of all times (top 5)

Just found these stashed in a cabinet. My son doesn’t want them. Trash?

I guess they’ll go in my next Goodwill run. Unless I trash them first. Thanks!

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You ever run across neon signs?

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I do sometimes. I pass on them now because they are so fragile. If I buy one, I’ll just sell it locally, so I won’t have to ship it.
The rarest one I ever found was from the early 30’s, when neon signs just started. It was a Borden’s Ice Cream sign. The glass was broken. I paid $2 for it. It sold for $200 because the transformer was from the 30’s.

The uranium glass lamp is going crazy. In just 12 hours of listing it, 133 people have looked at it. I had several offers of $50-$100 last night. It has 20 watchers

find a closed electrical shop in some smaller town and see if you can locate the owner

ask if you can scrounge around, telling the owner that you'll pay for the transformer

some long-standing electrical contracting company might have one stowed in the back

ETA: Ebay has a bunch of vintage transformers but you'd be better off finding a newer replacement. I have a ton of pre-WWII toy train transformers. Many work, but I would never use them as power.

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I actually gave you a downvote the first time i saw one of these threads from you, since i thought you were just a run of the mill packrat or hoarder… Now i respect what you do .

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It’s an addictive hobby. I get my thrill of the hunt, not the money. Just like yesterday, I bought that Jax sign for $40. I get home and find out one sold five days ago for $1000.
And unlike many think here, I’m not a packrat. A few TD members have been to my house and they realize my house isn’t wall to wall trash.

If you wanna see a flipper with a hoarder home, check out The Cajun Reseller on YouTube. You will be shocked.

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will probably be the uranium glass lamp, even though the shade is broken. If it wasn’t broken, it’s a $500 lamp

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if my aunt had balls

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It’s an addictive hobby. I get my thrill of the hunt, not the money.

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I used to be a serious garage saler many moons ago. It is definitely the thrill of the hunt. Eventually I had a booth in an antique mall, but it took the thrill away when it became a job. I stopped enjoying researching items completely and garage sales became competitive with other dealers, also less fun. It was weird how quickly I stopped enjoying it. I guess I have the collecting gene, but not the selling gene.

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I used to be a serious garage saler many moons ago. It is definitely the thrill of the hunt. Eventually I had a booth in an antique mall, but it took the thrill away when it became a job. I stopped enjoying researching items completely and garage sales became competitive with other dealers, also less fun. It was weird how quickly I stopped enjoying it. I guess I have the collecting gene, but not the selling gene.

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That’s why I never got a booth, too much like a job. I use to be a collector of different things, old toys, vintage LSU, etc, but I realized I was having more fun finding the items instead of just collecting the items. The items had no sentimental meaning to me, and I had some super rare, one of a kind LSU items.
When I sold my LSU collection, I sold it for $20K+, and the collection was built with OPM (other people’s money). If I didn’t find it at a sale, I was buying it off eBay using money I made from garage sales.

Like I said, my hobby is treasure hunting. There were several items I’ve bought over the years that I wish I had kept (not talking about LSU items), but this would eventually lead to hoarding.

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I inherited (read was dumped on) a somewhat vintage vacuum tube testing cabinet and about 500 tubes (tv and radio). Some date back to 40s and govt issued and some large ones seem to be valued (examples on eBay) decently. In your world do you ever see these items or have any idea who is interested in them? Ebay has several listed but they don’t seem to move much. Just curious.

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I’ve seen several of these tube testers over the years and I actually think they are pretty cool. I like stuff from the 40’s-60’s, it just has a look and feel to it. I never bought one because of its size. It would cost an arm and a leg to ship.
If you are looking to sell it, I would just sell the tubes on eBay. I don’t know the values of them, but in bulk, they may do pretty well. Sell the tester on FB marketplace with pick up only.