You can blame this on online auction sites and smart phone apps that give you an estimated value, usually optimistic, at the click of a button. "But this is what it's going for on eBay," the sellers will tell you.
There are still bargains to be found, just fewer than there used to be. For example, the $4 op shop cup that sold for more than $75,000 at a Sotheby's Australia auction in April 2013. The astute vendor spotted this on the shelf in a Sydney opportunity shop and…How to find treasures in op shops and garage sales
Can you still find anything in op shops that is worth more than what you paid for them? Or at garage sales, or trash and treasure markets?
It often seems that even people who dump the contents of their back shed on a tarp know the exact value of everything.
James Cockington with a vintage magazine he has collected.CREDIT:SYLVIA LIBER
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