A diamond ring bought for £10 at a car boot sale in west London in the 1980s is expected to fetch £350,000 at Sotheby's auction in July. The ring is among several items that turned small change into small fortunes for their owners.
In another case, a floral vase purchased for £10 at a car boot sale in Hampshire was later identified as a rare enamel 'two quails' vase from Beijing's Imperial Palace, made at least 220 years ago. The owner initially listed it on eBay, but withdrew it when bids reached £10,000. Auctioneers Woolley & Wallis sold it for £61,000 in November 2016.
A £4 multi-armed figurine bought by a pensioner in West Sussex turned out to be an 18th Century Sino-Tibetan Buddhist sculpture. It sold for £9,500 at auction in December 2015, leaving the seller stunned.
A £2 cartoon purchased at a London car boot sale spent two years under a bed before its value was discovered. The work by satirist HM Bateman sold for £1,100 in May 2016.
In 2008, a £1 vase from a car boot sale in Dumfries, Scotland, was identified as a 1929 Rene Lalique piece called Feuilles Fougeres. It sold at Christie's for £32,450.
