I feel a little odd offering this to the members but I felt angry, jealous, sick, and happy all at once and thought to share. Someone was VERY LUCKY. I meet regularly with a state law enforcement officer who has a side hobby/business dealing in vintage items. He regularly sells down on Lincoln Rd in South Beach on those fitting weekends; he enjoys dealing mostly in old porcelain/tin signs. His best deals of late were the older Penn Intl reels where he bought half a dozen for $10/ea! Being a fisherman and a Cuban he was happy! lol I would be too.
Today we had lunch and he tells me I would kill him after he relates last week's momentous loss. After hearing the story I refrained from committing the murder then suicide. Last week he went to a little attended estate sale in Pinecrest (a wealthy suburb south of Coral Gables, FL), little attended because most of the items had already been sold at an earlier date. The seller was in her mid-80's whose husband passed years ago. She finally bought a home in another state and had to be out of the house by week's end. My friend and some strangers (another couple) were the only ones there at the time looking over goods. He asked about a couple shotguns and was told the price from the lady owner. He thought it over but instead purchased a box of old wooden decoys (my friend's brother is a duck hunter). He didn't have the cash for the shotguns and wasn't confident enough to know anything about them.
About the shotguns, he observed two shotguns, and observed that one was marked Perazzi which he recognized as an over under. The second was in fact not one shotgun but was a pair inside a wooden "box." It had no leather exterior but its inside label indicated Purdey & Sons. He observed they were 12 gauge and were side by sides, fitted to the case. The case had a velour or pool table cloth inside, red in color. But he liked the Perazzi because it was an over under and because it had more extensive engraving and had a nice "silver" finish. She was asking $700 for the Perazzi. After my friend was done looking over the shotguns and placing one of the Purdey actions back in its case, the husband of the couple went over and began handling the Purdeys. My friend decided the Purdeys were cool, too, because they had those levers on top as well!
My friend instantly called and texted his brother to ask about these shotguns and if they were a good deal. My friend only knows pumps. Sadly, his brother called him back 10 hours later... My friend at that point didn't have the cash to cover the purchase of the shotguns (you'll get the price of the Purdeys in a second if you keep reading). My friend overheard the husband unsuccessfully barter with the lady owner over the shotguns but then the husband agreed to take all three shotguns and thus gave her $1,000 cash. He told his wife to stay with the shotguns until he got back from the bank with the rest of the money. My friend left leaving the lady owner and the wife of the couple at the house. Boy was he happy with that box of decoys! The decoys were "users" as they were generally soiled and shot up but he got a good deal.
So, here's the pricing the lady owner was asking on the guns: The price of the Purdeys was $2,000 total ($1k/ea) and the Perazzi was $700.
True story and believe it - it can happen. Someone here in South Florida bought the deal of the century last week.
