amy858•11d agoMost Upvoted

Found out my grandpa's old lawn mower is worth $400 on eBay

I was cleaning out my dad's garage last weekend and found this old 1970s Lawn Boy push mower buried under some boxes. Looked it up on eBay just for fun and saw a couple sold listings around $400. I almost threw it in the scrap pile last year, so that was a close call. Has anyone else stumbled onto something old that ended up being way more valuable than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant_palmer11d ago

Oh man that's awesome, that's literally the exact same thing that happened to me last spring. I was helping my uncle clean out his barn and found this old Craftsman snow blower that was probably from the 80s, all rusted and beat up looking. I almost told him to just haul it to the dump but I figured I'd snap a picture and see if anyone wanted it for parts or whatever. Dude, I posted it on Craigslist for like 50 bucks and within an hour I had three different people offering me way more than that. Ended up selling it for 200 cash to some guy who said he collected vintage small engine stuff. Made me think about how many things I've probably tossed over the years that somebody would have paid good money for. You definitely lucked out not scrapping that mower.

karenw9011d ago

The thing I find kinda wild about these old machines (and it's something nobody really talks about) is how much the value depends on the era of the person looking for them. Like, guys in their 30s and 40s seem to go nuts for anything from the 80s and early 90s because that's what they grew up around, you know? Meanwhile someone from my dad's generation would probably look at that same snow blower and just see old junk taking up space. I actually saw a Facebook post last week where a guy was trying to give away a perfectly good riding mower from the 70s and couldn't find anyone under 50 who wanted it for free. It's weird how our memories (and nostalgia I guess) can completely change what something's worth to us. Makes me wonder what stuff I'm hanging onto that my kids are gonna think is worthless.

-1