Robert Milhoan is a true collector, and his true passion is collecting post cards.
It's the real reason he goes to local area auctions. His current collection includes more than 100,000 post cards. Some of his favorites are a Ben Hur movie post card and one with a picture of John Wayne.
He also likes to find and fix old clocks.
But it was a painting that he found at the bottom of a box of picture frames that he only paid $1 for that would become one of his biggest treasures.
"I got it cleaned up enough to look at the signature, pulled it up on the Internet and went, 'Wow'," Milhoan said.
What he had was an oil painting by West-Coast artist Eustace Paul Ziegler.
"Paintings that size of his are going for $10,000 to $12,000," explained Milhoan.
Milhoan took the painting to Apple Tree Auction Center in Newark.
"It was definitely an original. It was not a copy or anything, so we said we would certainly be interested in selling it," said Sam Schnaidt, co–owner of Apple Tree Auctions.
Schnaidt said they get rare finds like this once or twice a month. They will do estate auctions and find things like this Mario Andretti's racing suit or an autographed Woody Hayes football.
Sam said that if you want to make money at collecting, you have to do your homework.
"You need to study and learn something well and then look for what you know," explained Schnaidt.
So for now, Milhoan said he will keep collecting post cards and that he would sell most of them if the price was right. But it was this painting that will always be one of his most memorable finds.
If you are interested in bidding on the painting, Internet bids start next week and the painting will officially go on sale August 14 at Apple Tree Auction Center.
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