Antiques Road Trip's expert earns record £20k from £60 household item

In an extraordinary episode of Antiques Road Trip in 2021, expert Paul Laidlaw found an item in an antique store that ended up making a whopping £20,000 profit at auction.

The auctioneer found a rare vintage camera in an antique store in Margate, buying it for only £60.

He was amazed when it sold for such a high price at a Bury St Edmunds auction in Suffolk, alongside fellow expert Kate Bliss, reports OK!.

As Paul searched for unique items in the store, the shop owner shared: "Three floors, the upstairs is mainly furniture but there's stuff everywhere. And on this floor, there are four rooms through and in the middle, there's a staircase which goes down to a room full of chairs and another room full below!"

Confronted with the daunting task, Paul responded with humor: "Don't send the cavalry - alright?"

After exploring the store's treasures, Paul later returned to the owner and said: "In your cabinet over there, optical instrument... £75 on that. I bid you £50."

To which the owner replied: "Give me £60 and I'll shake your hand but I'm not doing any better than that, I'm afraid."

"I think this is a very early camera. If I'm right, that could be quite exciting. The photographic market is very much in the ascent, it's a hot market, I think that's a good thing."

When Paul arrived in the market town of Bury St. Edmunds with his new purchase, auctioneer Edward Crichton was intrigued.

He remarked: "The sub-miniature camera - I have never seen one, in fact, we have carried out some research and cannot find any other example which has sold at auction. We were very excited to see this and it has certain potential to make a significant profit."

As the bidding began, Edward stated: "We must open - we've got five phones on this - we must open the bidding at £1,000. 11, 12, 13, 14."

Someone on the phone with a bidder said: "Two," and Edward confirmed: "£2,000."

"They're not messing around," Kate whispered, while Edward continued: "£3,000, £4,000."

Paul observed the change in bidding and commented, "He's now taking £1,000 increments," while Kate noted, "Which is a very rare thing."

"£10,000 online!" the auctioneer shouted. "£11,000 is next, £12,000, £13,000."

"He's not slowing down," Kate observed, and Edward added: "It's not a record price. The record for a general sale is £15,000, and for a home and interior sale, it's £16,000. £17,000, £18,000, £19,000, £20,000."

"May I ask two?"

But there were no further bids. "At £20,000 online, at £20,000 if we're all done, £20,000."

"I'm over the moon. I am genuinely flabbergasted," Paul said, completely amazed by what had happened.

"Most items in this sale make between £50 and £500, so £20,000 is staggering, wonderful," Edward commented, astonished by the high price.

"What an incredible result, I am so chuffed for Paul," Kate expressed, while Paul added: "I really was shocked, when he bought it, he knew he bought a good thing, but I don't think he realised. And he said 'it looks like a camera' but we didn't know it was a camera."

The person who got the camera at auction was a private collector in Switzerland.

All the money made from the show went to help Children in Need.

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Paul’s profit of £19,940 surpassed the previous record: a Tibetan bronze deity bought for £50 by Anita Manning, which sold for £3,800 in 2016.

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