Creative Juices and Hidden Treasures

You know when you have a TON of things to post and don't quite know how to get them down on paper? Yeah..me neither. I feel like I am tapped out. Nothing exciting to post. Nothing exciting to say...so just bear with me as I write the following:

I still  used to love shows like Cash in the Attic and Antique Roadshow.  Seeing people find 'true' treasures in their own homes was pretty interesting.  MY favorite part?  Seeing how much that piece of pottery or painting was worth. 

This past summer a few families got together and had a Garage Sale.  Besides having a lot of fun, we each made some money. 

Laura had a sewing machine that she was selling that was worth a lot more than the $20 she was asking.  She didn't know how much it was worth, until someone came along and mentioned that she might want to raise the price! (to between $100-300)  :)

The next day, we had a few more people come through that wanted something NOT for sale in my garage.  A lantern. Similar to this one:

The first man to ask was nice when I turned him down.  I could see that he wanted to push the issue, but when I firmly said no, he left.

The next one to ask was an older woman.  She wasn't so kind.  When she asked if she could buy it and I replied no, she got a little heated about it and started to argue.  I calmly insisted it was still a no and then my brain started moving.  Two people in 2 days asked about the same lantern that was partially hidden in my garage.

I decided that my neighbor would know a bit more about it and she did.  She said that it was an old railroad lantern.  She gave a little background and said that it was probably worth some money.  No, I am not going to be a millionaire, but I did investigate a bit more and found that there was a bit of interest from consumers.
Who would have thought that in my immaculate garage, someone would find something that I had no use for, other than the eye appeal. (Like I mentioned above, I am a bit of a sucker for antiques and other fun things). 

How often do we go through life, pushing things to the back, without realizing the worth of them?  My advice?  Clean out your garage!