Antiques Road Show - Fred Oster - Loar.

[JEStanek]

I love these... If only it could happen to one of us.

From 2012...

Click link!

Jamie

[Gregory Tidwell]

I love seeing these too, but one of us would know what it is before going to AR.

[DataNick]

Nice...Her reaction was neat!

Very cool that fortune smiled on her because of Grandpappy's shrewd acquisition!

[JeffD]

Well grandpa wasn't over the top shrewed. He was smart, but more lucky. He had no way of knowing Bill Monroe would play a Loar F5 or that that style of mandolin would become so iconic. To him, likely, he was shrewed enough to spend $20 for a $600 item. Could just as easily been a bowlback, for his purposes, and he would have been just as happy, or a real good tractor.

[JeffD]

So how many of you have been asking your friends who live in old farm houses to check the closets in their barns.... fess up.

[MikeEdgerton]

I think this was the same one discussed in 2012 in this thread. I can't verify that as I have YouTube blocked at work. If it is there is a great side story that goes along with it.

[JeffD]

Yep, same one.

[Tom C]

Quick recap. Somebody forged a Loar and had it insured. It got stolen. Years later, this one pops up on the show with the same serial number as the one reported stolen. Not same mando ..This barn find is this real deal.

[MikeEdgerton]

Actually I don't know if they even bothered to forge the Loar and I doubt it was really stolen. I think somebody insured a Loar with a serial number that had never surfaced, assuming it never would surface. They reported it stolen and made a claim to the insurance company. Sometime after that this surfaces on the Roadshow from a closet where it had been for most of a century. You have to question how they got the insurance policy.

[DataNick]

...To him, likely, he was shrewed enough to spend $20 for a $600 item...

I think that's what I was referencing...one shrewd act of making a wise investment of getting a really good instrument at a bargain basement price, ended up benefiting his family in ways he could never have dreamed of. On the surface, just a little act...amazing how sometimes it's the little things in life that end up reaping huge benefits!

And you have to admit, if accurate he paid less than 5% value for the mandolin. That would be like paying $7.5k today for a Loar valued at $150k. Everyone one of us here would beg, borrow, steal to make that "shrewd" deal. I say good on Grandpappy!

[Austin Bob]

I love these... If only it could happen to one of us.

From 2012...

Click link!

Jamie

One can only wish. But my grandpa was a rolling stone. When he died, all he left us was alone.

[MikeEdgerton]

I only wish my step-dad had played the mandolin. I might have one of these in my house instead of the 20's Martin Soprano uke I have.

[Bslot0622]

Very cool! It reminds me of this article from Fretboard Journal:

No Mando Content