Man buys worn leather chair for £40 sells it for over £79,500

If you've ever watched Antiques Roadshow, you'll no doubt have dreamt of finding that priceless heirloom or charity shop gem.

And I use the word 'dreamt' because, for most of us, that's all it'll ever be, a big fat pipe dream that comes to nothing.

Well, one person who actually lived it was Justin Miller, from Los Angeles, who recently came across an old, worn-out leather chair on Facebook Marketplace for $50 (£40).

Speaking to Business Insider, the 33-year-old said: "I've watched probably every single episode of Antiques Roadshow.

"I live, breathe antiques. I'm not an expert, but like I have a good eye so I saw it and I was like, 'That looks like a really interesting chair'."

Justin Miller

And sure enough, a quick search on Google proved he was right.

"Immediately, it popped up with chairs that sold for a crazy amount," he said.

When he arrived at the person's home to pick the chair up, Miller said that even the woman selling it, who was a friend of the family, told him that it was 'worth a lot'.

Curious as to exactly how valuable it might be, the content creator got in touch with the experts at Sotheby's, who told him that it was probably one of only around 50 1935 wing-backs designed by Frits Henningsen.

And after making a few repairs to it, which set Miller back around $3,000, they agreed to list it for him.

According to the listing, Sotheby's expected the chair to go for between $30,000 and $50,000... but it surpassed even their expectations, and then some.

In a video shared on his TikTok account, Miller recorded the auction live.

TikTok/@miztermiller

The bidding starts at a fairly conservative $28,000, but quickly things start to escalate, with bidders fighting it out for the chair.

In a matter of seconds, the price shoots up to $38k (£30,212), then $40k (£31,803), and before you know it, it's at $55k.

Speaking to his followers, he says: "I don't get excited about stuff and I'm excited about this."

I mean, that's hardly a surprise.

But it rises once again: "It's a $70,000 (£55,656)... for a dumb chair?! Oh my gosh!"

And it keeps on rising and rising, until it reaches a pretty astonishing $85,000 (£67,577), at which point it's finally sold.

When the fees are added to the final sum, the buyer ended up paying over $100,000 (£79,503) for the chair.

Not a bad day's work after picking it up for just £40, eh?