Pick of a lifetime

We have been yard sale-ing now for quite a while. We also LOVE American Pickers. We love packing up the kids every Sunday morning and going through other people junk. We are kind of addicted. So back in February, Kevin made the pick of his life. We were at an Estate Sale in Redlands, and while in line, Kevin spotted a barn. A rusty, haven't been touched in decades kind of barn. His heart was thumpin' and when they let us in, he made a B-line straight for it. And while I spent over a half hour looking through a queen size mattress piled 3 feet high full of vintage fabric (my own kind of heaven), Kevin was going through the barn. Inch by inch...looking for that rusty gold he loves so much. And boy did he find it. As he walked through the piles of "junk" he stepped on something that sounded like porcelain. He picked it up and Im sure he heard the Angels singing. He had found a 1916 Motorcycle license plate... in amazing condition for being buried in a barn! So he put it in a vintage igloo cooler he also found and loaded the cooler up with other rusty stuff. We went up to the front to pay and they let him walk away with the cooler and everything in it for a whooping $15!! I could tell he had found something good. He does this skip kind of walk with a big ol' grin. (sorry if that embarrasses you babe...but I love it) We got to the car and he showed me. He knew it was awesome, and he knew it was rare, but we had no idea just how valuable it was.

He went home and got to googleing. He could not find one single plate like it. And the other ones he did find, we not as old and in much worse condition. So he googled collectors and started sending out emails trying to find out what it was worth. One of the guys he e-mailed wanted it...and wanted it bad. Offering him $1,200 for it immediately. Now Kevin was not in this for the money, he just loves cool stuff like that and I truly believe he would have held onto it forever if I didn't "help" him realize how much other cool stuff he could get if he sold it.

Well, long story short, and tons of emails back and forth between a few different collectors. He ended up getting $2,000 for it. The plate he found finished this one collectors motorcycle collection he had been working on his whole life. The guy had been looking for that plate for a long time, and at least Kevin was glad it went to a good home. He was super bummed to let it go, but now he has a great story to tell.