I tore open the last of a pile of small paper envelopes holding spare buttons from dresses long ago discarded and discovered gold.
“Look what I found,” I laughed as I showed it to my husband. “someone’s gold cap for their molar.” Obviously,
I laughed again when I told my daughter about striking gold, “What do you do with something like that?”
“Sell it on Ebay. People buy all sorts of things,” she said speaking from experience.
I dismissed the notion until I looked up dental gold and found several completed listings with prices that caught my attention. The impression of a tooth was worth its weight in gold. Those few grams would pay for a couple meals at a restaurant.
Copying other postings, I snapped a picture of the gold cap on our metric scale with its weight showing. I began the auction at a third less than its real value. Then, just because Ebay offers sellers the option, I keyed in a “buy it now” price of a third more than its market value.
“Hey if someone wants to pay that much for it, I’ll take their money,” I told my daughter.
Within an hour someone had a bid and two had offered to pay the retail value. I declined. I wanted to see what would happen.
The price rose a few dollars every day. Meanwhile other sold items needed to be packaged and shipped. Five days before the gold auction ended, someone bought a small brooch. I went to the ebay shelf to prepare it for shipping and could not find it. The rest of the day, I spent hours fulfilling my New Year’s resolution to be more organized an found the pin in an unlikely spot.
Three days before the auction of the salvaged dental gold ended, I went to get the finger-tip sized cap and my heart sank, I could not find it.
“I know it is here.” I muttered as I sifted through organized shelves of items.
My husband joined the search. Nothing.
I asked a friend to pray it be found. I did not want to have to end the auction as “item no longer available for sale.”
As I prepared supper, I vaguely remembered putting the tiny piece of gold in an envelope so I would not lose it. I went back to the basket of small items, pulled out the white envelope I had ignored earlier and found it. I could enjoy the rest of the auction.
The bids topped its retail value and ended at a dollar beyond my “buy it now” price.
My husband carefully packaged and insured the gold for its selling price and we dropped it off at the post office.
Three days later, the buyer sent a message, “There is no tracking showing for my gold.”
Say what! After all that fuss, it surely could not be lost in the mail!
I checked the tracking number. We talked with the postal clerk.
I wrote the buyer. “If it does not show up in a week, we will refund your money.” … and there goes my trip to the restaurant, I thought.
I rationalized, “it was just a novelty that someone else long ago lost in their collection of extra buttons. It didn’t cost me anything.” Then I prayed and left it alone.
A couple days later, I looked at the post office tracking website. “Delivered at or in mailbox.” the post office reported.
I could keep the money, eat out and tell the story of the day I found gold in “them thar” hills of buttons.