We bought this picture for $5 in the early 80's, intending to use the frame for something else. When we got it home we noticed it had a gallery stamp and a phone number. No one answered the phone and we found out later it had closed. We decided to hand the picture it on a hallway wall and have had it displayed in several houses over the years, mostly for the story. It fell off of the wall during one of the earthquakes and the glass broke, but the picture wasn't damaged. I replaced the glass and re-installed it.

I had it appraised once and was told it was worth $300 or so but it would be a tough sell as that style of art was no longer popular. I followed the artist on eBay on and off and once thought we could get $1000 for it if we could find someone to either auction or consign it, but never did and it it never sold on eBay. When it came time to furnish the AirBnb in Mesa we decided to hang it in one of the bedrooms as by then the eBay values were very low again.

The Mesa place has been sold and the negotiations got fairly intense toward the end. The buyer had all cash and wanted to grind out every last dime. We were about to put the place back on the market when Sharon looked up the picture on First Dibs and found it listed at $45K! I don't put much stock in First Dibs - everything is fabulously overpriced and I doubt much ever sells - but it looks impressive when you see it on screen.

We toyed with the idea of either going to Mesa to get it or have it shipped here but we might go through all that trouble and have it sit the basement forever. Instead we offered to fold it in to the offer - if the buyer came up to our price we would throw in the picture as part of the furniture bundle, effectively selling it for $10,000.

He took the deal. Win-win!

The lamp in that picture is kind of fun. It looks like a mid-century style ceramic piece, even up close, and in fact that is what we thought we bought it on line. It was certainly cheap enough - I think the pair cost something like $20.

Which is why I shouldn't have been surprised when we received them and found out they're made of cardboard!

Wow, win-win indeed!!

Good deal!
Not a fan of the picture.

I never liked it either.

Yeah, not my style either!

That makes it a win-win-WIN!