A bloke who likes to save a few bucks on work trips recently hired a standard sedan from a car rental joint. Before hitting the road, he decided to suss out the glovebox to chuck his road maps and GPS in there. Inside, along with the owner’s manual and a few forgotten serviettes, he found an old leather-bound book with no clues as to who it belonged to. He nearly tossed it, thinking it was someone’s cheap rubbish, but an unusual embossed pattern on the spine made him hang onto it.
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Back at his motel, he had a proper squiz at the book. Turns out it was a first edition of a collection of short stories by a famous 19th-century writer, with a rare binding variation that doesn’t appear in standard bibliographic references. The bloke admits he’s no antique expert, but gut instinct told him to get a professional valuer to have a look. Specialists confirmed the book had significant cultural and commercial value, and its condition, despite its age, could be described as ‘good’. The most bonkers part was that records showed the previous renter was an overseas tourist who’d already left the country and couldn’t be tracked down, and the rental company’s contract didn’t say anything about the contents of the car.
The bloke decided not to flog the rare find at public auction, but instead offered it to a local museum. “Yeah, I was tempted to sell it to a private collector,” he said, “but I knew a copy like this should be on display for the public to enjoy.” After a short bit of back-and-forth, the museum agreed to buy the book. While the exact figure hasn’t been made public, sources in the know reckon it was a decent chunk of change — well over the cost of hiring the car for a week.
Museum reps confirmed the book was the real deal and said it would take pride of place in their 19th-century literature display. “It’s a ripper example of how valuable historical artefacts can spend years travelling through the most unexpected places, just waiting for their moment,” a curator said. The bloke himself admits that from now on, he’ll be giving every nook and cranny of any rental car a good going-over before he drives off. “Most people hope to find some loose change or a pair of forgotten sunnies under the seat,” he added with a grin. “I ended up with a real literary treasure.”
This story is a good reminder that sometimes the most valuable finds turn up where you least expect them. Unlike those container auctions where people deliberately buy a ‘pig in a poke’, this stroke of luck didn’t cost the bloke a single cent upfront. The main lesson he learned? Always check the glovebox — even when you’re dead certain it’s empty.
