Awesome deal of the weekend

So I mentioned that I was at the auction this weekend.  I picked up several items and the deals were great.   I bought some pottery, old trains, old matchbox cars and others, but my biggest find was an old Hamilton Printers cabinet.   This cabinet has 18 drawers and is It was nasty, dusty and looked liked shit.   I could see through that though and knew that this is something that I wanted.

I have seen the drawers sale for sixty dollars each.   The drawers were in great shape, even with all the dirt, dust and printer ink that remained.   The story that went with this, is that the Grandparents had bought it in Seattle at a fair in 1936.   It was used at that time, so I am guessing that this piece is over a 100 year old.

It didn't get a lot of bids based on it's appearance but I could see through the dirt and grime and knowing that just a drawer could sell for 30 to 50 dollars, I decided to bid on it.   I got it and I got it for dirt cheap.   I had no idea what we would do with it, but I knew I could clean it up and double, triple. quadruple the value of what I paid for it.

I drug it home and hit it with the air compressor and blew out all the dust and dirt.  I spent a good hour wiping it down with a wet cloth and getting all the dirt off.   Then I took some wood polish and worked on it from top to bottom.

It came out wonderful and looks great.   I check on E-bay and pieces like this sell anywhere from 800 to 1800 dollars.  I didn't pay anywhere near that and after the clean up I think it looks just as good as what they are offering on the net.

After I got it all cleaned up, we put it into the living room, not sure what we will put in it, but it does look good.   It does need some work but it will have to wait to summer, when I can work in the shop.