What are You Undervaluing?

In March of 2006, Michael Sparks was browsing through a thrift shop in Nashville, Tennessee when he found an old yellowed, shellacked, rolled-up document. Since he figured that for $2.48 he really couldn’t go wrong; he bought it.

When he performed some online research, Michael was surprised to learn he had purchased one of only 200 “original copies” of the Declaration Of Independence, commissioned by John Quincy Adams, in 1820. After spending nearly a year authenticating and conserving the document, he sold it at auction in March 2007 for $477,650. When Michael Sparks “lucky find” made the news, a man named Stan Caffey contacted the Tennessean newspaper that made the report, and announced that he was the person who (unwittingly) donated the document to the thrift store. Stan said that he looked for odd and old things at sales and probably paid about what Michael Sparks did for it; two dollars and something. He then hung it in his garage, where he works on bicycles as a hobby, just as a decorative piece. It hung there most of the 10 years he owned it.

Caffy and his wife, Linda, who were newlyweds, decided to clean up the garage as part of the ritual of combining households. Stan was a self-described “packrat”, but was attempting to get rid of things. The best he could recall, he and his wife had a little debate about whether to keep the Declaration or whether to donate it; and Linda won. Although she did tell him that it might be worth something and that they should probably check it out, Linda took the Declaration, along with a pile of other stuff, and donated them to a thrift store.

Stan said that he’s happy for Michael Sparks. That if he had still had it, it would still be hanging in the garage; and he still wouldn’t know what it was worth.

So, a document that Stan Caffy and his wife valued as worthless and gave away, was purchased by Michael Sparks for almost nothing. When Michael recognized the diamond in the rough and polished it up, a savvy buyer purchased it for almost half a million dollars. Still a bargain for a document that most of us would consider to be priceless.

Do you have talents, assets, and opportunities in your own lives that you are overlooking or placing little value on? Things that are part of you and your life and they’re right in plain sight? What diamond is disguised as a mere rock in your portfolio?

Tags: Founding Documents, United States