Garage sale habit pays off in surprise cash find

Linda Stafford has been going to garage sales for 30 years, and taking good-natured ribbing from her family all the while.

Now, the tables have turned. Stafford has found more than $3,000 in bills dating from 1928 to 1953 in the bottom of a high-backed chair she bought at a garage sale -- for two bucks.

"When we found the money, they could probably hear us screaming all over the neighborhood," said Stafford, 57.

She made the discovery while trying to make room in her garage for more furniture. When one of her daughters, Mandy Rath, heard something rattle in the chair, they removed the bottom. Placed inside a compartment were two paper packets, one with $10 in coins, the other with $3,060 in bills.


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/bizarre/053005_APsn_chair.html

Is she going to give the money to the person who sold her the chair. If that is not her intention she should never have told her story to the newspaper..

I hope she realizes that the cash may be worth considerably more since they are old bills and coins!

I don't think the person who sold her the chair is entitled to it.


At a garage sale things are typically sold "as is, no refund, no return"

In this case it works towards the advantage of the buyer

Rachael said:

Is she going to give the money to the person who sold her the chair. If that is not her intention she should never have told her story to the newspaper..

Click to expand...

Half the stuff I buy at a yard sale, I couldn't recall which one it came from - probably true with her too.

I didn't read the whole article until after I posted. She said she bought the chair a year or two ago. I thought she had just purchased it recently.

I bought an old jacket with a $25,000 CD in the pocket. I found the owner of the account, long distance, who was amused at the find, and stated that he thought it was from his BIL's pilfering the Co. that he owns. His BIL no longer worked for him, he said, and he (the owner) was following up on the account. Talk about wild finds.

I need to tell this story to my husband so he will see that there might be some redeeming virtue to my addiction to yard sales and auctions.

I haven't hit on anything that valuable, but I did come so close once at a local fund raising auction. I was bidding on an old beat up oak sideboard/buffet, but stopped when the bid got up to about $40 (this was over 35 years ago - when that was a lot of $$$.)

When the guy who won it for $50 was moving it to his truck, the doors swung open, and it was full of sterling silver serving pieces and flatware. Without saying a word, he just quickly closed the doors, packed up and beat it out of there.

Rules were "as is," "final sale," etc. - so he was the lucky one.

And when I think back to it, I still go :doh: