Auction Hunters: Season 2, Episode 11: “The Smoking Ton.”
Allen and Ton went down to Worcester, MA, a city with a rich historical background and a history of some great storage finds.
Fact: Worcester is 40 miles west of Boston and is the second largest city in New England.
Auctions only occur every few months, so the Haff-Ton team knew they had to make this one count, and they certainly did. Of the four units up for auction, the guys won three of them.
Fact: In 2010 antique pottery found at a Worcester storage auction sold for over $30,000.
Funky Smelling Unit
None of the other bidders were too interested in biddin
g on a unit that had a definite odor, but Allen and Ton decided to step up to the plate and won it for only $275.
There was a file cabinet inside, an old air conditioner and boxes. They found some vintage restaurant chairs worth $240 and a professional kitchen knife set with a value of $275. Chop, chop!
Packed in a box they found an industrial meat slicer worth $850. Since startu
p restaurants are always looking for secondhand equipment, this unit ended up being a winner.
The source of the smell was discovered in a box full of very, rotten cheese.
Safe Unit
They guys paid $1000 for this unit after spotting an old antique safe inside. The rest of the unit wasn’t worth much, just an old couch, a broken player piano and a toy penguin.
The safe itself was from the early 1900’s
and they sold it for $2000.
But inside the safe they also found a humidor from 1890. It still had its original key which made it even more valuable.
Fact: A humidor contains a wet sponge to maintain the humidity inside.
They also found a lighter and a Red Snaper Cigar Box inside worth $125 to $150.
They took all the cigar collectibles to David, a cigar expert, who bought everything from them for $1900 and threw in a cigar for Ton.
Fact: Tobacciana refers to vintage collectibles like ashtrays, lighters and humidors.
Air Hockey Unit
Allen and Ton paid $600 for a unit after spotting an original a
ir hockey table inside from 1975 that was worth $300.
There was a lot of worthless furniture they had to dig through but they did find $50 worth of antique tools and as well as 10 World War II officer jackets worth $500 and some 1960’s Gas Masks with a value of $40.
Ton was quite excited to uncover some mini tank treads and oddly enough, that wasn
’t the only piece of a tank they found. They also discovered a solid steel tank barrel. It was a first, even for the Haff-Ton.
Fact: Tank treads are made of a manganese alloy and cannot be punctured.
They took the tank equipment to Andy, a military expert. He said the tracks were from a M24 tank and that their five blocks were worth about two to three hundred.
Fact: The M24 was a fast, light-armored tank that delivered large caliber fire.
The barrel was a 27 millimeter World War II barrel from a M3 Stuart.
Fact: The M3 Stuarts were the first American-manned U.S. tanks used in WWII combat.
He explained that if someone had used a torch to prevent it from firing it would be worth $1200. If it was still operational it’d be worth between five to seven thousand.
After checking it out Andy confirmed it was a live barrel.
Andy paid Allen and Ton $5000 for the barrel and the treads as well as letting them fire one his tanks.
Fact: The largest shells ever fired in WWII were 31.5″ in diameter.
Ton took charge of the guns and had a tank-filled field day!
A nice healthy profit and a ride in a tank, Ton and Allen definitely came out on top!
Auction Total:
Paid $1875
Sold: $10450
Profit: $8575
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