Top 20 Incredible Antiques Road Trip Finds

#20: Brick

Now, hear us out; sometimes, the most interesting items are the ones you can’t believe anybody would ever spend any money on. That was exactly what happened here, in this celebrity edition of the programme starring comedy duo Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. Cannon and Ball were head-to-head, and Tommy ended up bringing a brick to auction. The notable thing about the brick was that it had a dog print in it, and he saw the potential. At the auction, it was chaos, with Bobby unable to believe that people were actually going to buy a brick at a mark-up. It was certainly one of the funnier auctions we’ve ever seen on the show, though. And he DID make a profit!

#19: Human Organs

Mark Hill managed to find some of the weirdest items we’ve ever seen on “Road Trip”, pulling out some anatomical models once used by medical students. He paid £25 for a large collection, including a stomach and an intestine, and they miraculously started to sell, with bids opening at fifty quid. There were clearly some weirdos attending the online auction who weren’t willing to let these objects go without a fight, much to the surprise of Irita. The lucky bidder went home with a liver, some kidneys, some ears, and even a cheeky spleen thrown in for good measure. God only knows what they intend to do with them.

#18: Crystal Stick Pin

Auctioneer Joe immediately saw the value in the Essex stick pin when it arrived, and he was absolutely right. This buy was one of Ishy’s, and came in its original box. He got extremely lucky with it, with he and Irita both knowing that it was worth far more than the £85 he paid. The bidders knew, too, with bids almost immediately shooting up to £200. And they just kept rising! In the end, the price was lower than the actual value of the pin, but Ishy still made a huge profit, especially on an item with such a high upfront cost by “Road Trip” standards. Whoever bought it got a bargain, too, even for £240.

#17: Bust

Tim Medhurst has a better eye than many, and did very well on this leg. But one item was a cut above the rest: a plaster bust. Despite not actually being made of marble, the bust was still well-made and getting in on years, with plenty of value of its own. It was his first lot of the auction and shot right up to over a hundred pounds – impressive considering he only paid thirty. He ends up making an £80 profit, which isn’t up there with some of the more extraordinary finds on the show, but it’s more than a layperson would expect something made out of plaster to be worth. He later makes a £90 profit on some candlesticks.

#16: Snake Sculpture

Who knew a little model snake would hold so much value? Well, James Braxton, clearly, because he identified it as being made of bronze by weight alone. He latches onto it because it’s bizarre, and begins haggling with the shop’s owner. He gets it for £39, £11 off the asking price, and off they go to the auction. The bidding starts at eighty, more than double what he paid, and just goes up from there. After all that, it goes for £180 – that’s a profit of £141. Not bad given the small profits, or indeed many losses, that items usually go for.

#15: Persian Silver

This 18th-century dish was expected to command a high price, and indeed it did! Made of ornate silver, it was over two hundred years old and in great nick. Charles paid £72 for it, which is a lot given their relatively small budgets, but it was more than worthwhile. The bids opened at £120, already a solid profit, and it was only up from there. The price rapidly increases, with the dish in high demand, and eventually gets all the way to £240. That’s the winning bid, and it nets Charles a profit of £168. Nothing to scoff at!

#14: Cheese Dish

You can’t help but enjoy this novelty cheese dish, made to look like a straw boater. Natasha certainly loved it, because she bought it and took it to auction. She genuinely thought it wasn’t going to do well, haggling down the price from £40 to £25. But she needn’t have worried! The bidders fell in love with the cheese dish as well, and ran up the bids until it went for £120. Tash was absolutely amazed that it went for so much money; although, are we completely sure that she wasn’t bidding on it herself, in secret, because she liked it that much?

#13: Mourning Brooch

This Georgian brooch dated all the way back to 1793 and contained an actual human hair from a woman named Elizabeth Bates, according to the engraving on the back. Margie saw the value in something like that – though it’s sad to think that any family got rid of this piece of their ancestor in the first place – and picked it up. Auctioneer Jemima says that mourning jewellery sells, and she’s absolutely right; immediately, the online price sets the auction at £200 to start, shocking Margie. It finally sells for £320, a whopping profit, and now the UK knows the name of the woman the jewellery was commemorating in the first place.

#12: Virginia Woolf Collection

That these books went for so much perhaps wasn’t a surprise, since it was an old collection of the works of renowned novelist Virginia Woolf. They were clothbound first editions printed by Hogarth Press, the press she and her husband Leonard founded. The dealer lets them go for £25, and honestly, we’re surprised Tash didn’t ask to pay a bit more, knowing the true value. At auction, the bidding starts at £95 for all eight. They eventually go for £150, still a great deal considering the prestige. Some first editions of Woolf can go for thousands of pounds EACH, let alone in a bundle like this.

#11: Georgian Ring

Izzie paid £55 for this beautiful Georgian ring, so was thrilled when the bidding began at over £300. That’s an extraordinary profit margin, and it very quickly rises to over £400 and just keeps going! She ultimately makes £700, a profit of £645, storming to victory. To say she found it just sitting in a jewellery cabinet, it’s certainly a steal. But what do you expect from a jewellery expert? Of course she was going to spot something like this. Better, the original price was £79, and she managed to haggle that down – not that she needed to, obviously. The profits still would have been absolutely massive regardless.

#10: Wooden Box

Tim Medhurst was in a bit of a pickle in this episode of Road Trip as he was dawdling behind Izzie Balmer’s score, but fortunately for him he saved the best for last. Tim instantly fell in love with the item realizing it was a letterbox from the 1900s and would be hung from people’s doors. This antique wooden letterbox was bought for a risky 140 pounds, but that was clearly worth it came to auction. In the end it racked up an impressive £2,200 selling price - that’s a whopping 15 times what he paid for it, making it Tim’s biggest success story on the show.

#9: Tea Set

This gaudy little tea set might not be to everyone’s taste, but all it takes is a couple of hungry buyers to score a profit. Natasha Raskin Sharp spotted this pink tea set and was instantly enamored. She spent only 30 pounds on the set and, as it turns out, it was actually designed by Vilmos Zsolnay as part of the Vienna World Fair way back in 1873. Natasha certainly made the right call picking this one up as the price climbed and climbed all the way to 750 quid. A price even she had trouble getting her head around!

#8: Toy Rattle

What’s the most you’d spend on a baby’s rattle? Probably not 25 quid right? Well, that amount actually paid off for James Braxton after this curious little item caught his eye. The rattle was made of brass and Indian in origin - truly fascinating little piece. Fortunately, when it came to auction, it found its audience as one Belgian buyer bid a surprising £400 on the child’s toy. Not bad for something to be given to teething babies!

#7: The £1 Glass

You can’t go wrong for a pound. But you’d certainly have to be an expert to spot something special about this humble little glass. Most would even question what it was used for with its bizarre shape. However, Paul Laidlaw was just the man for the job, noticing that it was a Georgian era item and identified it as being from around 1740 to 1750. The small price tag on the miniature cake stand turned into a tidy £360!

#6: Love Token

Leave it to the Red Dwarf cast to catch such an intriguing item. When Craig Charles was pitted against Robert Llewellyn, Rob took home the crown, and it's mostly this love letter to thank. This love letter was over 200 years old and was beautifully illustrated. What sets this one apart from the rest of the items on this list is how intimate it is - a truly unique relic. Plus buying it for £35 and then selling for £240 isn’t such a bad score either! A very nice find for Izzie and Kryten.

#5: Old Signs

Sometimes the experts are shocked to find some antiques are still in circulation. That was definitely the case when Mark Hill got his hands on this remarkable piece of history. While appearing quite basic, these rolled up posters were actually old bus signs from London. They would indicate to commuters where the bus would be headed next. After snagging these for just 8 pounds, Mark managed to sell them for a handsome price at £240. Not bad!

#4: Elephant Model

The experts just couldn’t contain their excitement when the bidding on this item went off the rails! While most of us would dismiss this model of an elephant as nothing special, it sparked interest with online buyers in this episode of Antiques Road Trip. This was in fact, a Staffordshire elephant, an earthenware model created in roughly 1815. Their excitement was justified when the model was bought for 2700 pounds. According to the American buyer, they had been looking to add this to their collection for more than 25 years!

#3: Wooden Sculpture

You know things are going to be good when the opening bid on something you bought for 15 quid is already 250 pounds! The savvy duo of Margie Cooper and Ochuko Ojiri spotted this intricate sculpture in an antiques shop in Gloucester. To their surprise, it was actually made by Brian Wilshire and was once exhibited at the Royal Academy earlier in its lifetime. So, clearly, 15 pounds was a huge undervalue. At the end of the auction, they were looking at a very nice 420 pounds - but honestly we think it should’ve been more!

#2: The Buddha

This one is a previous record holder for the show and it’s no surprise antique expert Anita Manning is behind it! 50 pounds may have seemed like a steep price for this modest Buddha statue, but Manning had a gut feeling about it when she spotted it in a vintage shop in Kent. As it turns out, it was made of bronze and was actually highly sought after. When it came to auction, it turned out that the buyers were just as enthusiastic about it as she was. When the hammer came down, this piece landed at £3,800 - a miraculous 7500% profit for Anita!

#1: Camera

We can’t talk about “Antiques Road Trip” successes without discussing the biggest ever record!

Paul Laidlaw couldn’t believe his eyes when he spotted this antique camera priced at £60. It was far more precious that it appeared, as it was in fact a very rare Chambre Automatique De Bertsch sub-miniature camera. The auction selling price landed at a jaw-dropping 20 thousand pounds - smashing all previous records on the show! The find of the century, and Paul ended up donating every penny to Children in Need.

Let us know in the comments who your favourite “Antiques Road Trip” expert is.