Try shopping for bargains at Goodwill stores. Fifty-eight cents could turn into more than $20,000. A couple who sell vintage clothing stopped at a North Carolina store and bought a sweater they liked at a price they liked—58 cents. They wanted it to sell at their vintage clothing store. Months later, they saw a TV documentary on Vince Lombardi and realized they had his West Point sweater. They found a nametag in the sweater, did some research, and contacted Heritage Auctions, who authenticated the sweater using the latest equipment. It was auctioned on February 21, 2015, and brought $43,020, well over its expected $20,000 price.
Photo Credit: ABC News
There is nothing wrong with the method of showing the price, it is simply correct punctuation!
I checked Heritage Auction’s website (ha.com) and the seemingly oddball $20 is part of the 19.5% buyer’s premium on this lot.
Dear Mr. Manwolf, You must be reading the print letter by letter. Try standing back a little. the comma in ‘$43,020’ is a mechanical comma used to delineate numbers of thousands, which obviously you are aware of. It’s not essential to place a period after the last naught unless there are cents to be shown. The next comma is a grammatical comma to separate the nonessential appositive ‘well over its expected $20,000 price.’.
With respect to the unlikely event of bidding in $20 increments – who knows? Perhaps it was sold in kroner, or pounds, or euros, or seashells and converted to the nearest dollar, or maybe again, they spent the day bidding it up at $20 a go. Who cares ? The point is that it reached more than double its estimate of $20,000.
I’m sure there are plenty of minor grammatical errors in the piece, but the overall sound and meaning seems unproblematic to me.
I just made a comment on this article about Vince Lombardi, and now I am not able to find it posted, why?
I have two little problems with this Story, one is you have final price written as forty three million dollars because of the second comma. It should be point or period after the twenty. The second is $43,020.00, in an auction of this magnitude, we both know they never would go in a twenty dollar increment, where did the 20 come from? I do not mean disrespect just saying.
A Goodwill Re-Design store opened locally last year. I was browsing through the merchandise and passed a piece twice before I decided to examine it closer. I thought at first it was just one of those resin charger plates that decorators use to set under a fancy piece of china on a table setting. The closer I looked at it and then picked it up and looked at the back, I recognized it as an unsigned piece of Steuben glass (gold Aurene with a Calcite back). It was unsigned, but it was an immense 15″ diameter. It was half price day so I paid $2.50 for it. Sold it later for $75. Although I knew it was worth more, I had it for awhile and decided to sell it.
It can happen anywhere, that is why we love Antique Roadshow, now a new must watch is Strange Inheritance on FOX business channel. Also of course Kovels website!