High buck for small safe

[bitbuster]

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Here is a pic of my small Meilink Home Deposit Vault. I attended a live auction last night in St.Paul and there was a small Ward's Home Deposit Vault on the block which was the same as my vault except no mural on front and it was key operated. Same color, size, etc. It is approx. 18" high x 12" wide and deep.Both are not salesman samples. These little safes were sold through mail order catalogs such as Sears, Wards, etc. and were intended for home use. My safe was purchased for $5 at a farm auction about 20 years ago. I did not attend this auction but a good friend did and noticed the safe in the bottom of a box with metal hardware and junk covering it.He had little interest in the safe but knew I would want it so he got it. For his time and transport of the safe (15 miles) he only asked a token amount of $20. That came to $1 per mile. Now back to the Ward's Vault at the live auction. Once again.....these are not salesman samples. With price paid at auction, plus buyer's fee and MN tax, the grand total the winning bidder paid for the key operated Ward's Vault was a hair under $587. So I figure mine to be worth between $5 and $500 at the right auction. I also have a Victor safe that is smaller than my Home Deposit Vault. I got the Victor at a live auction about 20 years ago for $15.The door was off and the mini L2 lock was in the bottom of the safe and the safe had been painted a crappy green and was heavily scratched. I fixed it all and painted it black.

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[00247]

Interesting story. There seems to be a lot of assumptions that those category small safes are salesman's samples. The market for all old safes is quite amusing at this point and time. I blame it on Craigslist and Ebay where all it takes is one fool to ask a crazy high price and everyone else thinks theirs is worth just as much or more. The scary thing about that auction is, there has to be two fools to run the bid up that high!

I am always watching for old safes but am picky as to which ones I will pursue. Even if the price is outrageous I still make contact as once they figure out that there is nobody that will pay their price and it is to hard to move on their own, the price usually comes down dramatically.

I am working on a thread of my latest purchase and will post it soon. A classic example. Taking pictures is the problem. I need bigger equipment to move this one.

[Riyame]

Well, the small ones usually hit around that price on ebay it seems. They are quite collectible due to their smaller size.

[bitbuster]

Interesting story. There seems to be a lot of assumptions that those category small safes are salesman's samples. The market for all old safes is quite amusing at this point and time. I blame it on Craigslist and Ebay where all it takes is one fool to ask a crazy high price and everyone else thinks theirs is worth just as much or more. The scary thing about that auction is, there has to be two fools to run the bid up that high!

I am always watching for old safes but am picky as to which ones I will pursue. Even if the price is outrageous I still make contact as once they figure out that there is nobody that will pay their price and it is to hard to move on their own, the price usually comes down dramatically.

I am working on a thread of my latest purchase and will post it soon. A classic example. Taking pictures is the problem. I need bigger equipment to move this one.

Also, the reality show 'Storage Wars' and those like it that are putting imaginary dollar signs in people's heads by the high, inflated value they think they will get on items they purchase from the 'staged' storage lockers. An example for this would be the time that Darrel told Jared that his (Jared's) medium size,empty, unlocked York safe was worth $2000-$3000. Many more examples exist.