One man's trash...

...is another man's treasure.

I've been watching Antiques Roadshow lately.  That's a dangerous combination paired with my thrift shop addiction.  There's the most incredible thrift store about two miles from my house.  They do a huge volume, and the pricing is crazy.  They might have a box of tampons for $12.98, and a priceless Picasso for $1.50.  Ok, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but you get the idea.

So far, I haven't found any Picassos.  But yesterday, I decided to get a jump on the Presidents' Day half-price sale, so I went by.  And I found seven original oil paintings.  They didn't really appeal to me and I figured somebody's grandma had taken art classes at the senior center.  They were kinda primitive.  Landscapes, including four of brick houses.  They were relatively large - 16" x 20".  One was unsigned and the other six had large, very legible, bright red signatures bearing the name "H. Hubbard."  So I pulled out my handy-dandy smart phone, and googled away.  Turns out this guy has an extensive Wikipedea page.  And he was from Covington, Kentucky - my mother's home town.  Weird, huh?  He was something of a recluse.  He was called Kentucky's Thoreau.  Cool.

I did some research, and I saw some pretty impressive prices.  Up to $6,000 on one site.  And it was much smaller than mine.  Unfortunately, you have to subscribe to look up closed auction results on art gallery sites.  I found one, though, which specializes in a handful of artists, including Hubbard.  They buy his work, so all I need to do is email some photos and shazam, I'll collect my winnings!  How thrilling is that?

So I decided to buy all seven.  Unfortunately, one of them wasn't priced.  All the others were marked either $2.98 or $3.98.  The lady manning the register refused to sell me the unpriced painting.  A manager had to do the pricing, and there wasn't a manager on duty.  I talked her into holding it for me until today.  When I returned today, I asked five people if they'd seen it before it was unearthed.  It was marked $3.98.  Which means, after the 50% discount, I paid $1.99 for my treasure.  Wow.

I'm pretty excited.  Or, I should say, cautiously optomistic.  I'll keep you posted...