51) Bear with me - Life has been busy.

 

Since the funeral, and even though I've understood all my life, that one day that house would be down to myself and Ant to sort out, the enormity of the task is still sinking in.

The things we have found are crazy mad. It's a constant surprise in a 'what on earth is in this box?' kind of way.

We have found;

• A large box full of garish, vomit inducing swirly carpet and underlay offcuts from the lounge - laid in 1970. The whole box has been in the living room taking up space since then.
• An envelope full of Fairy liquid advertising posters.
• An envelope full of bits of wax which have fallen off or down the side of candles in mixed colours.
• A box of bits of cut off copper pipe - had been painted so had been used at some point.
• a bag of three new stopcock taps.
• An old engineering manual from 1973 - out of date but with a sheet of 12, King George V, mint stamps.
• A box of bits of metal - pipe bits, brackets, screws, unidentifiable bits.
• several unopened and well out of date full tins of roses/heroes/quality street.
• A huge number of single shoes - never worn and with their partners missing.
• An old Austin car Haynes manual - with a whole sheet of  200 stamps. 1/2p value so £1 total.
• Odd pairs of new shoes in boxes and bags, so old they split when bent.
• Half drunk bottles of Rum and Brandy and Sherry which had to be poured down the sink.
• A tin of what once were peaches, black stuff has oozed out somehow and adhered the tin to the shelf. Once free, the tin weighed virtually nothing. I don't know where the peaches went.
• A gorgeous old hardbacked and illustrated Peter Pan book.
• Two green flamenco dresses age 8 and 10, clearly meant for my daughters 14 years ago.
• A small pair of boy's dungarees aged 18m - probably bought or my son, now aged 23.
• A teddy bear - squished flat and covered in years of dust, under 2 heavy boxes.
• A crisp multipack bag full of empty and flattened crisp packets - all laid neatly on top of each other.
• Another carpet, used, beige, about 6ft x 5ft, rolled up behind the sofa. Due to this, the sofa spent its life three feet further forward than it should have done for 15 years, making the room 3ft smaller.
• Seven tins of Heinz tomato soup, all covered in black sticky stuff stuck to the shelf. One was hissing at me so it went in the garden until I deem the explosion risk low enough to transport it to the tip.
• A box full of wires and old shoes. A lovely mix.
• A shoe (sandal) squashed so flat it was impossible to tell it was a shoe from the side.
• 1000 Lira note (about £5)?
• Lots of 1p and 2p pieces - sadly no £50 notes yet.
• An old His Master's Voice Shell type gramophone speaker - we knew that was there.
• A pair of original 1960s house windows, hidden behind a tallboy in the bedroom.
• 2 2.5ft speakers which dad made. The same sound can be had from a device the size of a seedling flowerpot today.
• A huge box, from an old cathode ray (box type) TV. Full of the polystyrene originally used for its packaging. The box took an enormous amount of living space for 25 years or more.
• My late mother's sewing machine - which I had asked him many times if I could have the year after she passed away and he said he would look for it. Well, it has taken over 2 months to find but I have it and it was only about 2 feet from her side of the bed.
• A box of 6 beautiful bottle green wine glasses in their original box. 3 had their bases snapped off - I've saved the other 3. 
• A bakerlite original telephone, a bit tatty but cute.

The thing is when I show these items to friends, the almost unanimous reaction is 'oooohhhhh I bet thats worth a bit!' 

So hear this. Its almost NEVER worth a bit. Not a big bit anyway. 

Once you've factored in finding someone who's genuinely interested and knows the value of said thing. Where do I look? 

One has to remember an item is only worth what someone is prepeared to pay. I then have to find a buyer. I have no platform other than perhaps Ebay or similar, so I need to know how to describe the item when half the time I dont even know what it is. 

A number of times it's been suggested I go to the Antiques Roadshow or the company who go round the UK buying vintage stuff. 

I did go to one of these.

I took a Steiff bear which belonged to my grandfather (1899 - 1986), two bronze and very heavy small bronze cherub statues, 2 silver plated christening bracelets, 4 pairs of vintage earrings belonging to my grandmother, a map printed on cloth dated 1905 of Cardiff, a silver plated vase and ornate teapot, an old antique clock, an old watch and the above telephone. I took a day off work for the event which was 9 miles from home.  I drove there, lugged the heavy box into the buliding, sat down and waited an hour and 5 minutes. I showed everything with a brief history and lined it all up on the table. She assessed the items, it took her about 20 seconds. She offered...

£20 for the lot.

I looked at her. She looked at me.

'Really?' I asked.

'We sell them to TV companies for background props' she said. 'So if you think they're valuable perhaps take them to a dealer or try Ebay. 

Catching my grandad's bear's eye as he lay on the table looking upset and abandoned, I instinctively picked him up and put him in my bag. 'He's not going anywhere.' I said. 'No I can't take that.' I packed the lot.up and lugged it home again.

A day off totally wasted.

But at least I kept the bear.