Photographer Gloria Baker Feinstein recently moved due to some health issues her husband was dealing with. As part of the transition, the couple was forced to sell off some of their possessions in an estate sale. To cope with the emotional difficulty of parting with precious memories, Feinstein decided to shoot iPhone portraits of buyers as they left with her things — creating new memories as old ones left the door.
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Last Thursday, 13-year-old Addison Logan of Wichita, Kansas found something really cool at a garage sale: an old Polaroid camera for only $1 (score!). But when Addison got it home and started looking up how to use it on the internet, what he found in the cartridge was even cooler, or maybe creepier. Inside the Polaroid camera, bought from a family they don’t even know, was a picture of his uncle Scott who died some 23 years ago in a car accident: Read more…

A fascinating story from the art world: back in 2010, British businessman Andy Fields purchased a collection of 5 paintings from a Las Vegas garage sale for $5. When he decided to have one of the paintings reframed, he discovered an early Andy Warhol sketch hidden behind it. The signed drawing is believed to be of 1930s singer Rudy Vallee and created when Warhol was just 10 years old. Warhol paintings fetch absurd prices on the auction block — the artist is considered to be the bellwether of the art market — and the sketch is estimated to be worth a whopping $2 million.

The story is reminiscent of the $45 garage sale photos that were reportedly lost Ansel Adams works. Although initially estimated to be worth $200 million, the story fizzled after evidence emerged that the images were likely created by an “Uncle Earl”.

(via Boing Boing)

Rick Norsigian, a painter based in Fresno, California, was browsing through a garage sale in 2000 when he came across two small boxes with 65 glass plate negatives. He was able to purchase the photographs for $45 after bargaining them down from $70. Now it turns out he made one of the biggest finds in photographic history.

Experts are now saying that the negatives were created by Ansel Adams between 1919 and the 1930′s — before Adams became famous — and that the photographs could be worth at least $200 million.

The previous owner purchased the plates at a warehouse salvage in Los Angeles prior to selling them to Norsigian.

TIME reports that although experts have concluded that the photos are indeed by Adams, some remain skeptical. Matthew Adams, the grandson of Ansel Adams, is reported as saying,

Mr. Norsigian has been claiming these negatives were made by Ansel Adams for many years. I am unaware of anyone knowledgeable agreeing with him.

Next time you’re at a garage sale or warehouse salvage, give those old looking negatives an extra hard look. You never know what you might find.

(via CNN)

Image credit: Garage Sale by Ben Saren