So my wife works at a music repair shop. The other day a guy walks in and asks if they buy musical instruments. She says sometimes, what do you have? The guy says he has a violin he wants to sell. She tells him to bring it in they will look at it, determine what condition it is in, and give him a value and an offer if they are interested. So the guy goes back to his vehicle, brings back the violin and hands it to my wife. As my wife looks it over he tells her he does storage auctions as a hobby/business and got this violin from a storage locker. Well we have to give the guy credit for trying to do his do diligence in getting the violin appraised and perhaps sold. Unfortunately for our unnamed competitor, the violin he gave my wife was a "VINO" violin in name only. It was a childs toy, and beat to crap at that. After looking at it for a couple of moments she broke the bad news, "Sorry, this isn't even a musical instrument, it's a toy."
Of course I don't know the particulars about this storage auction buyer, or what he spent on that unit, but the way prices have been lately I can only imagine he spent in the neighborhood of $500, went through the unit finding nothing but common household junk, and thought this violin was his "Dave Hester like" saving item from the unit.
Would'nt you love to see something like this happen to Alan and Ton? I know I would!
