I Bought This Table For $8 and Sold It For $120 On eBay
As I've mentioned on this blog I frequent Montana Rescue Mission and St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Stores. The nasty, moldy table you see above was purchased at St. Vincent De Paul across the street from Cat Country on Montana Ave for a grand total of $8. Ironically I nearly walked past it because it looked so crappy but I paused for a second and that's when I noticed the Lane Furniture stamp underneath. I cleaned it up and rubbed out the nasty parts with super fine (0000 grade) steel wool. Then I applied Howard's Restore-all to it to come up with the beauty you see below.
So how did I get $120 for a little side table like this? Well it just so happens to be manufactured by Lane Furniture back in 1966 and is an antique from the popular mid century modern era (some people call it the Mad Men era because the TV show has made these sorts of furnishings popular again). While you can find a Lane table or cabinet from time to time at our local thrift stores it's not easy to do (I've found 3 pieces in 6 months) and in its rarity lies it's value.
By the way, you can tell the exact date a piece of Lane furniture was manufactured by reading the serial number printed on it backwards. If the serial number has seven digits then the first six will give you the date and the last number is the Lane plant where it was made.
If you can use a few extra bucks and have expertise in a certain area you can turn this kind of thing into a part-time job of sorts. A buddy of mine told me he found a pay phone from the 1950's and bought it for $10 just because he thought it was cool... it turns out that they are worth hundreds of dollars. You can do the same if you know what to look for.
Happy Hunting!