Bronze Lion Fail

I like walking up the driveway right when the sellers open the garage door. It means you're first in to the sale. (Being first in is not hard, what's hard is finding a sale where's there actually anything interesting!) But this time, there was this awesome giant bronze lion. It measured 16" across base, was signed E. Delabriere, and I could tell it was probably 100 years old. They just don't make stuff like this anymore. I paid my $10 and loaded it into the car with a big smile on my face. I sent pics to an auctioneer who estimated it at $1000-$1500. Not bad. So I boxed it up and mailed it to the auctioneer ... who took a look at it and decided it was not an original, and not something he wanted to sell. Sigh. So, I had to pay UPS Store about $50 to box it up and mail it back to myself. Sigh. Now with shipping it twice, I'm almost $100 into this bronze lion who is worth something less than $1000 (which is still pretty good). I'm going to hold on to Mr. Lion for a while, because he's still awesome and maybe I'll have a shelf upstairs (i.e. not a shelf in the basement) to put him on someday.