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<\/p>\nMy husband mocked me for buying a little enameled egg at the flea market, but he was in for a big surprise.<\/p>\n
First off, I have to tell you I\u2019m a flea market junkie. I can\u2019t help it, I just love the idea of browsing through the flotsam and jetsom of a hundred lives, and among the discarded trash find a lost treasure.<\/p>\n
It all started when I was just eleven and would spend the summers with my grandmother in New England. On the weekends she and I would haunt every flea market or street fair for a hundred miles around, looking for \u2018preloved jewels,\u2019 which is what she called her finds.<\/p>\n
Let me tell you that even today as a mother and grandmother nothing gets my heart pumping like scrounging through a tray of bits and pieces and finding a glint of something that tells me I\u2019ve struck gold.<\/p>\n
Sam sneered: \u201cOh I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a diamond,\u201d he mocked me, and he took the egg from my hand. With a deft twist of his powerful fingers, he pried the egg open. Nestled inside was a tiny bundle of red silk.<\/p>\n
I took out the little bundle and carefully unwrapped it. Glittering in the folds of the red silk was a pair of earrings. They were exquisite! Of course, they were faux, I thought, but beautiful copies.<\/p>\n
Sam took one of the earrings and looked at it closely. The clear center stone was surrounded by a halo of green gems, and Sam breathed on it. He looked at the earing and he gasped.<\/p>\n
\u201cJen,\u201d he said, \u201cI think these are real!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I asked, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw this documentary about diamonds a while back, and they said a real diamond won\u2019t fog up with your breath. Look!\u201d and he breathed on the big clear stone again.<\/p>\n
I peered at it. No fog. I looked at Sam, then shook my head. \u201cHun look at the size of those stones. They\u2019d be worth millions! They\u2019re just good fakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sam was excited. \u201cLet\u2019s go to that jeweler at the mall, ask him to appraise them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSam,\u201d I told him, \u201cHe\u2019ll charge us for that!\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sam didn\u2019t care, so we drove down to the mall and waited with bated breath while the man muttered over the earings and tested them. \u201cThese are diamonds, all right,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd 18-carat white gold.<\/p>\n
These look to me to be emeralds. Old cut, all of it. These earrings are probably Art Deco, from the style and the workmanship. You\u2019re probably looking at about three hundred, depending on the quality of the stones it could be more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree hundred dollars?\u201d Sam asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree hundred thousand, minimum,\u201d the jeweler replied. I felt the ground sway under my feet and had to clutch at Sam for support. I\u2019d found a REAL treasure!<\/p>\n
As it turned out, the jeweler was wrong. The earrings sold for three million dollars at auction. The result is that we now have a lovely little next egg in the bank, and the porcelain egg has pride of place on the mantel of our new house.<\/p>\n
As for Sam, he is now an avid antique hound, and he accompanies me to every single flea market and antique fair. We haven\u2019t found that Van Gogh yet, but we have hope!<\/p>\n
What can we learn from this story?<\/p>\n
One man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure. Jen believed she\u2019d find a \u2018preloved jewel\u2019 and she finally did, literally.
\nRespect other people\u2019s interests. Sam mocked Jen\u2019s passion for flea markets, but she ended up finding a $3 million pair of earrings.<\/p>\n
Share this story with your friends. It might inspire people to share their own stories or to help someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"