Learning from the ones that got away

A couple of years ago, I literally let a great deal slip through my fingers. I picked up a pretty vase that was marked $2, and put it down. As I was checking out, the person in front of me was buying the vase. We left the store together, and I told her that the vase was neat.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked me.

Well, it turned out to be a Nemadji piece, and one that was worth quite a bit of money.

This weekend we picked up a smaller one for $1. To buy it new would cost $30 or $40, and it would probably go on eBay for $15-$20 plus shipping. I got the feeling that the person who was selling it was trying to get rid of some of her mother’s old stuff, and didn’t really know what it was. We probably wouldn’t have, either, unless we had just missed getting the other one.