Area Man Finds Treasure at Goodwill:
Robert E. Lee Tintype Sells for $23,001

 on Wednesday, August 31, for $4.  Within 18 hours the bidding jumped to $8k and the final price at the close of the auction on Wednesday, September 7^th was $23,001. 

More than 131 bidders took part in the auction and the page had been viewed 38,000+ times. The winning bidder, Mr. Richard Shaffer, of West Chester WV, owns a Civil War-themed restaurant in Harper’s Ferry - the Secret Six Tavern, where he may display the piece after he has it conserved.

The item was donated at the Murfreesboro, TN store’s Donation Express Center. The small piece was donated along with a number of items and was headed to our outlet store where everything is sold by the pound.  Estimated sale price at the outlet store would have been about $2.00. An eagle-eyed processor pulled the tintype out of the bin and opened it and decided to send it to our e-commerce team.

The piece was authenticated by the owner of a Civil War memorabilia store just outside the entrance to the Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro. The gentleman took the photo out of the case and determined it was a tintype photo of a photo, so it’s not an original, but apparently that’s extremely common for this type of image. The photo is believed to date back to between 1865 and 1870.



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