I went to a yard sale in Augusta Maine about 7 or 8 years ago where the family of a deceased gentleman had a lot of his useless old stuff they didn't want or need spread out over about a dozen 8 foot banquet tables. Kathy and I went from table to table not really seeing anything we thought particularly interesting - just the usual "old guy's stuff" - until we were heading back to the car and passed by the first table we had briefly looked at earlier and I put on the brakes so hard Kathy walked right into me. There on the table was a very early Colt 1911, probably made in the teens, in nice condition with only very minor loss of blueing. The tag said $50 but I had no interest in semi-auto pistols and had no idea of their value so I passed on it. But right there on the same table was a Colt .45 revolver. This one had my interest because it also had a $50 tag on it. Turns out the revolver had a good amount of rust (or maybe dust?) in the barrel so I passed on it too.
It was only a couple of weeks later that discovered the value of that 1911..... I could have slit my wrists...
