All You Need Is Love...er, Money (That's What I Want)

July 14, 2004 10:30 AM

Man buys tatty suitcase for $36...that's actually filled with Beatles memorabila. Believed to be the lost "Mal Evans archive," the suitcase bought at an Australian flea market contained precious photos, concert programs and unreleased recordings. Everything is yet to be authenticated, but if the items are bonafide, this could be THE Antiques Roadshow showpiece to end all showpieces.
posted by mosspink (45 comments total)

Great. More fucking Beatles shit to follow you wherever you go.
posted by interrobang at 10:41 AM on July 14, 2004

Why would anyone sell a suitcase without looking it it first?
posted by bondcliff at 10:44 AM on July 14, 2004

I don't understand how this works. Do people normally sell old suitcases that they don't know the contents of? Had this suitcase not been opened for 30 years?
posted by mdn at 10:45 AM on July 14, 2004

Initially I was just stunned that the suitcase's seller didn't bother to check the contents of the suitcase before selling it. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the seller might not give a fig about The Beatles, or, even more unbelievable, might not have known *who* The Beatles were.
posted by mosspink at 10:56 AM on July 14, 2004

I found a $5 bill on the sidewalk once.
posted by troutfishing at 11:22 AM on July 14, 2004

Well, you get what you pay for
posted by Outlawyr at 11:28 AM on July 14, 2004

I found a 20 pound note on the ground once in Green Lanes. Just out on the pavement, ready to be blown away into the bushes by the wind, never to be seen again. That's the most cash I've ever found, I believe. I felt like I had won the mini-lotto.
posted by PigAlien at 11:32 AM on July 14, 2004

The other day, I was at a Wendy's drive-thru for my lunch break. I paid my $3 for a junior bacon cheeseburger, five piece nuggets, and medium coke. As I was driving away, I looked in my paper bag and saw that they'd accidentally given me TWO junior bacon cheeseburger sandwiches. I was ECSTATIC.

On my way back to work, I turned up my radio with a huge smile on my face. I sipped on my cold coke and giggled over how I'd "totally 0wn3d" Wendy's. That was right about when I lost my grip on my cup and spilled coke everywhere in my car.

I would've much rather had dry pants and a drink to go with my meal, over the extra junior bacon cheeseburger that I didn't even eat.
posted by lotsofno at 11:38 AM on July 14, 2004

I found a wallet in my front yard once with 100 bucks in it. I thought I was being set up, so I burned the whole thing in effigy and danced wildly in the blue stream of smoke... with lots of crouching, twisting and climbing-like movements.
posted by Witty at 11:40 AM on July 14, 2004

In memory of John and George, I wish to give away a GMAIL invitation to the first peson correctly identifying the opening line of the best Beatles song ever, Something. Email me at [e-mail]
posted by lometogo at 11:49 AM on July 14, 2004

yes, but was it a good suitcase?
posted by tsarfan at 12:03 PM on July 14, 2004

I had a jr. bacon cheeseburger yesterday at Wendy's, and they have the absolutely worst tomatoes. Like eating cold wet red cardboard.

On the other hand, some lady was on antiques roadshow with some drumsticks and a signed program, and it was going for $60k. So the suitcase owner will probably be able to buy Australia.
posted by mecran01 at 12:08 PM on July 14, 2004

Ok, since it's show and tell, I was walking home from the train after a rainy day. I was stepping over a murky puddle and just out of the corner of my eye saw a familiar pattern/symbol kinda thing in the puddle. I stared a second longer. What IS that I thought. I bent closer and saw what appeared to be part of a 20 dollar bill. I reached a hand in, grabbed blindly at what felt like a wad of paper, and pulled out a roll of 4 20 dollar bills. $80 for a wet hand. YES!
posted by Outlawyr at 12:09 PM on July 14, 2004

I don't get how any of these posts address the original question, which was, I believe, to share an experience where the Beatles were generous to you.

What the hell are you people rebelling against?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:16 PM on July 14, 2004

I had to use both hands, but I found my asshole...

*

Oh wait, that's my navel. Never mind.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 12:19 PM on July 14, 2004

Do people normally sell old suitcases that they don't know the contents of?

Sometimes people abandon storage units; after a while the storage company can sell off the contents. Also, sometimes people die and leave heaps of junk behind that their heirs don't really want to sort through.
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:20 PM on July 14, 2004

I found El Dorado. Upon close examination, however, it turned out to be just a high school in Albuquerque. Nevertheless, I fixed the pay phone and then got some pizza.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:40 PM on July 14, 2004

You know what the kicker is to me? It was probably only 36 Australian dollars.
posted by coelecanth at 12:43 PM on July 14, 2004

Gee, I never thought a thread about the Beatles could be this fun! Keep up the serendipity, people!
posted by PigAlien at 12:52 PM on July 14, 2004

I pulled up to a McDonald's drive-thru window to pay for my order once, and the kid leaned out the window and waved me on through. "Have a nice day," he said. I asked him if he was sure, and gestured with the $10 bill in my hand. "Have a nice day," he said again.
Now that I'm reading "Fast Food Nation" I shudder to think what was wrong with the meal I got that prompted McDonald's to give it away, but it caused me no more intestinal distress than usual.

After my old band finished its last set in a club one night yeas ago, a guy walked up to me, thanked me and thrust something into my hand. "This is all I have, but it's yours," he said. I thought it was a crumpled up wad of paper, but when I walked out into better light, I saw he'd given me an enormous marijuana bud.
posted by emelenjr at 1:13 PM on July 14, 2004

One time when I was in college, I was getting out of my car to visit my friends at their apartment, and I noticed a $1 laying on the ground next to my car. I bent over to pick it up, and saw a $5 just under the door. I got on my stomach and I saw a $20 and another $5 a few more inches back. I had enough to buy us a bunch of pizza and beer, and we had a fantastic free evening.

Another time I was reading a textbook for class, and I flipped the page and found a $5 stuck in it. I guess they were using it as a bookmark and forgot about it when they sold it back to the bookstore. It's only semi-funny because the textbook was for Financial Management.
posted by gatorae at 1:41 PM on July 14, 2004

What the hell are you people rebelling against?

Whaddya got?
posted by inpHilltr8r at 1:57 PM on July 14, 2004

Another time I was reading a textbook for class, and I flipped the page and found a $5 stuck in it.

It is a commonly held scholastic myth that doctoral candidates will leave $100 bills in the copy of their theses that are kept in the university's library, so that they can check back in 20 years to see if the cash is still there - indicating that noone had read what they spent many years of their lives toiling over.

Every once in awhile I go down to where the doctoral theses are stored and leaf through a few. No money so far. I guess this comment would be better if I did, huh? Any summer school students want to check their libraries?
posted by ChasFile at 2:15 PM on July 14, 2004

I have a good time super-gluing toonies to the floor of my school cafeteria and laughing and the people who try to pick it up for themselves. Anyone with the tenacity to pry it from the floor gets to keep it. I figure they've paid the price in public humiliation.
posted by Evstar at 2:21 PM on July 14, 2004

I found a $50 bill on christmas eve at a gas station once. I was super broke at the time and did not have any money to buy my mom a gift. I actually cried the night before about it. I guess things work out in the end.

on the other hand...

I was 16 and cashed my mcdonalds paycheck and put the money in my wallet. went back to mcdonalds to pick up a coworker and go out. I pulled out my wallet to buy a shake and it was gone. whole weeks worth of cash gone. I could not take that happened to me today.

circle of life...
posted by Dreamghost at 2:25 PM on July 14, 2004

I could not take that happened to me today.

Me Fail English? That's Unpossible!
posted by Dreamghost at 2:27 PM on July 14, 2004

Has anyone seen the money I lost. There was a $50 on christmas eve, a few twenties in a gutter, and other amounts spread all over america. I believe they were green.
posted by drezdn at 2:38 PM on July 14, 2004 [1 favorite]

The suitcase and its contents were paid for, we want...I purchased a painting at a garage sale hoping it was an original Monet print for pennies and it was. This happen to an acquaintance in Dallas.

A buddy bought a box of books which were rare first editions for $1,000.00. The big surprise was a book that contained maps that were dated and drawn during Christopher Columbus’s era. He sold that book for $22,000.00
posted by thomcatspike at 2:41 PM on July 14, 2004

Add, he sold another book out of the same box for $7,000.00 and the rest for $5,000.00
posted by thomcatspike at 2:43 PM on July 14, 2004

now that's serendipitous!
posted by PigAlien at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2004

Is "tatty" a word?
posted by ParisParamus at 3:28 PM on July 14, 2004

It is, meaning 'scruffy'; as is 'tat,' meaning 'junk,' as in the stuff you would expect to find at a flea market.
posted by carter at 3:53 PM on July 14, 2004

this one time, I found a $20 bill on the beach. the thing was, I was about 5 at the time and $20 was an unfathomable sum for one of that age. plus, this was back in the 50s when you could buy a dozen krystal hamburgers, a model rocketship, two cokes, and a red ryder wagon all for a dime.
posted by mcsweetie at 4:32 PM on July 14, 2004

I found a dead cat in the road the other day. I took it in the bank and said I wanted to deposit it and walked out. I checked today and my account still has not been credited with that cat. Easy come, easy go.
posted by bargle at 4:41 PM on July 14, 2004 [1 favorite]

A friend and I found a wallet when we were in 7th grade that had something like $68 cash in it. It had proper ID and everything. We could have easily returned it. Instead we took out the cash, ditched the wallet in a dumpster and went an bought a slot-car track at the hobby store. The women who ran the store were suspicious and asked us a couple of times where we got the money, but we'd rehearsed our answers well and never slipped up, so they sold us our track. We took it to his house because his mom was much less likely to ask where this expensive thing had come from. We played with it a couple of times then kind of forgot about it. A few months later we got it out and had one last race with the cars on fire. It was great.
posted by mccreath at 5:12 PM on July 14, 2004

I found an (old) Bang and Olufsen amplifier/reel-to-reel in a skip (dumpster) once. Replaced an internal fuse, it worked great. It served as my amp for years.
posted by carter at 5:43 PM on July 14, 2004

I know someone who owns a stamp and hobby shop. He purchased the contents of an estate, then let a customer rummage through unexamined boxes in the lot. The customer asked how much he wanted for a certain box, and the owner of the shop, without looking in it, said "$100." Turns out it was full of Mark Twain manuscripts and letters.
posted by quarantine at 7:32 PM on July 14, 2004

I read the news today.

Oh, boy.
posted by yhbc at 7:38 PM on July 14, 2004

You win, yhbc. Kudos.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:58 PM on July 14, 2004

Is "tatty" a word?

Not exactly in prime condition.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 1:54 AM on July 15, 2004

That was MY jr. bacon cheeseburger.
posted by Otis at 6:14 AM on July 15, 2004

Do people normally sell old suitcases that they don't know the contents of?

This happens all the time and not just suitcases; boxes, trunks, basicly any sealed container. Hotels and storage places mostly. The business is mostly just trying to get rid of the stuff left behind with out having to pay someone to take it away. And if you started openning suitcases you would have to sort it to sell it. More cost in labour than your likely to recover.
posted by Mitheral at 8:31 AM on July 15, 2004

A mortgage person at a bank told me a neighbour of hers in New Brunswick bought a throw pillow at the village thrift store for $1. She took it home and was taking the tags off it to wash it when she discovered that there was $7,000 (USD) stuffed inside.

And I thought I was the ultimate thift store shopper for finding a perfect olive green velvet jacket for $17.
posted by orange swan at 8:52 AM on July 15, 2004

You people aren't suspicious enough. In answer to the question "why would anyone sell a suitcase without checking to see what was in it", the answer is no one did. An empty suitcase, or one containing real rubbish, was in fact bought at a flea market but purely to "launder" the goods, which were obtained deviously; like they were stolen by the young male "companion" of a prominent figure who isn't blowing the whistle because he has a wife and children and a studly reputation to uphold.

Or something. Show a little creative doubt already.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:11 AM on July 15, 2004

I cashed my last £20 of travellers cheques in Budapest once, it should have come to about 3200 forints but the cashier gave me 30200 instead.
posted by biffa at 2:32 PM on July 15, 2004