An incredibly lucky antiques fanatic struck gold after buying a hoarder house that had become an absolute tip due to ‘years of neglect and overcollecting’.
Alex Archbold bought the Edmonton property after the previous owner - a piano teacher called Bette-Joan Rac, known to her students as Madame Rac - passed away in November 2020 aged 76.
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When Alex bought the place and all of its contents for £5,900 (CA $10,000), it was in an absolute state, and he had quite the task ahead of him to sort it all out and return the home to a liveable state, while hopefully finding some antiques to flog in the process.
Alex initially thought he’d be lucky to break even after buying the home, but it turns out he’d vastly underestimated the hidden treasures Madame Rac had stashed away.
He documented his work on the house via his YouTube channel, Curiosity Incorporated, and at the start of the video, Alex explains: "The person who lived here was really into fashion so there is a really good chance that some of these items may be designer."
Well, he was right about that, and then some.
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While clearing out the property, Archbold found an 100-ounce bar of silver, jewellery hidden inside slippers, diamond rings, and of course a load of designer clothes.
He told CBC News: “We amassed this horde of amazing treasure that we’d found throughout the house.”
He quickly realised he’d be able to make a lot more from antiques than the £5,900 he spent on the property, describing the house on his YouTube channel as ‘the best investment I had made to date’.
He made £150,000 from the first auction of antiques from the house alone, and estimated he could rake in around £230,000 once everything was sold.
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Archbold said: “It's an urban legend kind of story, and I got to be there and got to be part of it. It's just insane.”
Angela Larson, who runs a vintage clothes shop, snapped up a few thousand items from Archbold’s auctions.
She said: “It's so fascinating because she clearly loved fashion, and she loved really good-quality fashion.
“The majority of it would be from the '50s, '60s, '70s, just really lovely pieces.
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“She had a real eye for French seams or hand-tailoring or beautiful fabrications.”
Archbold said of Madame Rac: “If she was 40 years younger, she would have been the biggest Instagram influencer in the world.
"But she'd much preferred to be remembered for her students and her music than her fashion, of course, or the possessions she had.”
If there’s a lesson here, it’s maybe not to judge a book by its cover. Who could have guessed there would be such valuable items amid all the mess?
Topics: World News, YouTube
Simon Fearn