'A winning lottery ticket': Virginia woman sells vase that cost her $3.99 at Goodwill for over $100,000 at auction



A Virginia woman chanced upon a once-in-a-lifetime find at the Goodwill off Route 1 in Hanover County: a vase designed in the 1940s by the famous Italian architect and former Venini glassworks director Carlo Scarpa.

Although ready to pay over $10 for the 13.5 inch tall bottle, Jessica Vincent ultimately brought home the rare collectible for $3.99. Last week, the bottle sold for $107,100 at auction.

"It's an amazing story, that this very sophisticated piece of glass finds its way to Virginia," Richard Wright, the founder of the auction house where the vase was sold, told Artnet. "It was expensive, not mass-produced, and it falls through the cracks all the way down to the Goodwill. It's not even chipped."

The vase, which looks like a glorified wine bottle, belongs to the Pennellate series designed by Scarpa for the art glass company Venini in the late 1940s.

"The technique itself—Pennellate meaning brushstroke—was achieved by adding colored opaque glass to the vase as it was being blown, and dragging the material around the circumference of the piece until the level of desired transparency was achieved," the Wright Auction House stated in its listing for the item.

Vincent developed an affinity for flea markets and secondhand stores at a young age, venturing out with her mother on bargain-seeking expeditions. Vincent, now 43, made it a habit of stopping by the Goodwill after completing her duties on her farm outside of Lynchburg, Virginia. Her routine pilgrimage to the thrift store proved especially fortuitous in June.

"It was so unusual. It had such quality. I knew it was a good piece of glass with the mark on the bottom," said Vincent.

When she got home from her shop, she went online in search of information about her inexpensive new acquisition. A dead giveaway was the "M" marked on the bottom, which she discovered denoted the Murano glass brand. Murano aficionados on Facebook helped her identify the piece, then were soon volunteering to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get their hands on it.

"People in the group said these are extremely rare, top-shelf pieces. People only dream of owning these. They said, 'I would die if I saw that out in the wild,'" Vincent told the Times-Dispatch. "It gave me chills to see all those comments."

Vincent ultimately took counsel from one of those in the Murano Facebook group and reached out to Wright's Auction House in New York. The auctioneer replied swiftly, noting "[t]hese are so incredibly rare. This color and this form."

Wright told Artnet, "[this] very charming woman who raises polo ponies finds it, and she isn't sure what she's found but she's smart enough to do her research. She finds the Italian glass group on Facebook and is smart enough not to sell it for the first offer she gets, of $10,000."

According to the Wright Auction House, the estimated value of the piece was between $30,000 and $50,000. The market evidently determined it was worth far more.

The Wednesday auction saw the vase go for over ten times what Vincent was initially offered. From the sale price, she received roughly $83,500. $23,600 went to the auction house.

"If it had a chip — even a small chip — it would have probably sold for under $10,000," Wright told the New York Times. "This was like a winning lottery ticket."

"You never know what you're going to find," said Vincent. It's the thrill of the hunt."

Rare Italian vase sells for over $100K at Chicago auction houseyoutu.be

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Kentucky man finds a fortune in Civil War-era gold coins beneath his corn field: 'Unf***ing real'



A Kentucky farmer digging in his corn field struck gold earlier this year.
Had he found a solitary mid-19th century coin, he might be looking at a discovery worth $100,000 at auction. Instead, he found over 700 gold coins from the Civil War era.

The farmer, whose name and location have not yet been disclosed, can be seen in a short video posted to YouTube last month breathlessly surveying the find, saying, "This is the most insane thing ever."

Panning his camera quickly across the muddy discovery, he notes, "Those are all $1 gold coins. $20 gold coins. $10 gold coins. And look: I'm still digging them out."

The prospective multi-millionaire adds, "This is unf***ing real."

The National Post reported that the treasure, which has been dubbed "the Great Kentucky Hoard," contains 18 $20 Gold Liberty coins minted in 1863, one of which previously fetched nearly $100,000 at auction.

According to Professional Coin Grading Services, the 1863 $20 Gold Liberty coin weighs 33.4 grams, was designed by James Barton Longacre, and comprises 90% gold and 10% copper.

The Kentucky treasure also included over 600 gold dollar coins dating from 1850 to 1862, along with several silver coins.

Since the horde consists of Union currency, it is suspected that the former owners in the originally neutral state may have had dealings with the North or, at the very least, cause to hide their bullion from Confederate raiders.

The Numismatic Guaranty Company, the world's largest third-party coin grading service, indicated that this "cache of rare Civil War-era coins unearthed in the Bluegrass State includes finest-known 1863 Double Eagles as well as several interesting varieties and errors."

Jeff Garrett, a rare coin dealer and lead expert in American coinage, told the NGC, "While I’m always excited when someone calls asking for advice about a rare coin discovery, the opportunity to handle the Great Kentucky Hoard is one of the highlights of my career."

"The importance of this discovery cannot be overstated, as the stunning number of over 700 gold dollars represents a virtual time capsule of Civil War-era coinage, including coins from the elusive Dahlonega Mint," added Garrett. "Finding one Mint condition 1863 Double Eagle would be an important numismatic event. Finding nearly a roll of superb examples is hard to comprehend."

GovMint, a rare coin retailer, has been selected to auction the hoard to collectors.

Bill Gale, the president of GovMint, said, "This extraordinary opportunity allows us to share these historic coins with collectors and enthusiasts, ensuring their preservation and appreciation for generations to come."

The Great Kentucky Hoard Unearthing! youtu.be

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

More evidence collectors are willing to spend big on old VHS tapes: 'Rocky' cassettes fetch over $53,000 at auction



To some Americans, the VHS cassettes gathering dust in the attic or in the garage may be nothing more than magnetic tape and plastic, but to collectors and auctioneers, they're as good as gold.

A set of factory-sealed "Rocky" tapes — originally purchased for $60 in 1982 — sold at auction for $53,750 in February.

WKBW-TV reported that James Kroeger had stashed some magazines and films into a time capsule on Christmas Day in 1982, the day his son Bubba was born. Among the memorabilia jammed into the crate: the "Rocky" trilogy.

According to the auction house that sold the tapes, James loved the trilogy and wanted to save it for his son because "it was typical Americana, the success story of the underdog."

He learned in 2022, however, precisely what some people might be willing to pay for just a few of the items in his steamer trunk — particularly for the only known factory-sealed copies of the first "Rocky" releases.

Kroeger indicated ahead of the auction that he would give the money raised at auction to his young granddaughters, Bubba's kids, and then hide the time capsule until his son's 50th birthday.

Despite the knock-out $53,750 bid, "Rocky" didn't ultimately win in the bout for the most expensive VHS set sold at auction.

In June 2022, a near-mint condition 1986 VHS tape of "Back to the Future" sold at auction for $75,000. The item was apparently more valuable because it was owned by actor Tom Wilson, who played Biff Tannen in the film. This was allegedly "the highest price ever paid at auction for a sealed, graded VHS tape," reported CNN.

Antique Trader reported that in 2021, a sealed, never-opened VHS copy of "Star Wars: A New Hope" sold at auction for $57,600.

Tape collector and enthusiast Jay Carlson told the New York Times that a man who paid a quarter for a first release VHS copy of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" at Goodwill will likely fetch $20,000 for the film at auction.

There may be similar treasures buried in bargain bins and junk stores across the United States.

Nostalgia for cultural artifacts, particularly from the 1980s, has proved lucrative for collectors like Carlson, now a consignment director of home entertainment for Heritage Auctions, a multi-national auction house based in Dallas.

Carlson, who used to work a corporate job dealing with credit card fraud, told the Times he began hoarding VHS cassettes when they had come to be regarded as "plastic trash." This perception drove down the cost of mint copies of "Back to the Future," "The Goonies," "Blade Runner," and other such classics, which he was able to pick up for about $20 each on eBay. They are now worth many orders of magnitude more at auction.

The Times noted that auction houses have seen a sudden demand for VHS tapes. Heritage Auctions is no exception.

At the turn of the century, Heritage was primarily dealing in coins, comics, movie posters, and sports memorabilia. It now deals in over 50 categories of collectibles, which together generated revenue of $1.4 billion in 2022.

While Carlson recounted fond memories of riding his bike to the movie rental store, perusing its selection of films, and marveling at the box art and descriptions, he told Antique Trader that for collectors like himself, "it’s less about the actual movie because I’m not watching the movies on VHS. It’s about what the movie represents. It’s about an object."

"I know there is a devoted group of people who love watching movies on VHS," said Carlson. "I’m not one of them. I love watching movies in 4K. The bigger the better for me. VHS is more about having that tangible piece of history for me."

Josh Benesh, Heritage’s chief strategy officer, suggested that it is not the role of auctioneers to project value, but rather to let the market decide.

“We don’t question the value or legitimacy of a particular subject matter relative to outmoded norms," Mr. Benesh told the Times. "We’re not here to tell you what’s worthwhile. The marketplace will tell you. The bidders ... will tell you."

The Times indicated that Heritage has roughly 1.6 million bidders who will ultimately determine a given item's value.

For instance, a bidder determined a mint condition 1980 Beta WCI Home Video release of "Superman: The Movie" was worth $40,000, buying it at auction on Feb. 17.

Robb Report, a luxury-lifestyle magazine, reported that adventure films from the 1980s are not the only hot items. Video game kitsch and devices from the era are similarly highly prized at auction.

A sealed, never-played-before copy of the video game "Super Mario 64" sold for $1.56 million in July 2021. The Nintendo game "The Legend of Zelda" sold for $870,000 just two days earlier at the same auction.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

New Zealand family discovers human remains in storage unit bought at auction

New Zealand family discovers human remains in storage unit bought at auction



Buying any kind of property, sight unseen, always carries a high risk, and one New Zealand family has learned that lesson the hard way.

The unnamed family bought a trailer-sized storage unit at an auction last week and began sorting through the new belongings they acquired with the purchase when they made a gruesome discovery: dismembered human remains.

Police are currently in the process of determining the identity of the remains, and indeed, even the number of remains. Police are investing the situation as a possible homicide.

On Friday, Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua said he expected the post-mortems to be completed "over the coming days."

"The priority for police is to confirm the identification of the deceased so that we can establish the full circumstances behind the discovery," Vaaelua continued.

"This will also lead to the advising of next of kin," he added. "Given the nature of the discovery, this might take some time."

The remains themselves were discovered in suitcases located within the storage unit. However, even neighbors were alerted to the presence of decomposed remains by the "wicked" smell emanating from the storage unit, which had been brought to the South Auckland home owned by the buyers.

One neighbor, a former crematorium employee, recognized the smell immediately.

"I knew straight away, and I thought, 'Where is that coming from?'" the unidentified man said.

"I could smell it here," another neighbor remarked. "I thought it was a dead cat or something."

Bidders throughout the world often buy storage units and foreclosed homes at auction without the chance to survey the contents. The hope is that one such purchase will yield a treasure trove of hidden valuables.

However, in this instance, the hidden contents brought undue national and international attention on the South Auckland family, who are not believed to have been involved in the possible crime. In order to avoid the spotlight, the family has relocated temporarily and left their home in the care of a relative.

The male relative told reporters that the family is "doing all right" but would like some privacy at this time.

For video footage of the scene outside the residence, see this news report from the New Zealand Herald: