Thanks KC, I'm having a wee bit of trouble convincing my hubby that the battered, split antique wooden countertops are going to undergo a Cinderella-like transformation and become an awe-inspiring focal point in the kitchen. He was also raising his brow at me over the Chinese laundry sinks when we tried to get them out of my friend's basement last weekend, giving me the "Are you sure you know what the heck you're doing?" look. But after the Hoosier, he's gotten very good about trusting my instincts when it comes to old stuff and despite his misgivings, he's been wonderfully supportive of my addictions... Oops I mean endeavors!
I've lost out on some things that I still ache over sometimes. Worst one was a bowl painted by a sailor with a scene from the stranded Franklin expedition (remember the 19th century sailors frozen in ice?) I also lost out on a battle participation medal awarded to one of Nelson's crewmen that I wanted for hubby (who is a big fan of English naval history) I lost that because I had changed my Ebay password and neglected to change my auction sniper password to match it.
I've also passed on some neat things that were just too overpriced to be reasonable. One was a gaudy yellow fringed chair that had been owned by a brothel madame and included a whole binder of paperwork on her to verify the provenance of the chair, including a shipping manifest. I just couldn't shell out the $400 or $600 (don't recall which) she was asking. The other one that really hurt to pass up was a guy who has a whole cache of letters, many of which were written by my Adams ancestors, who are not historically significant people. However this guy is convinced that these letters when in conjuction with the rest of the collection which were written to a Massachusettes doctor are worth $2000 and will not sell copies or individual letters. I kinda felt like my familys history was being held hostage on that one.