BBC Antiques Road Trip expert makes history as household item makes eye-watering £19k profit

BBC Antiques Road Trip expert Paul Laidlaw was left "genuinely flabbergasted" as he made a record-breaking profit after purchasing an ancient camera for just £60

In a remarkable moment from Antiques Road Trip in 2021, expert Paul Laidlaw made a stunning discovery when a camera he purchased for £60 sold for an astonishing £20,000 at auction.

Paul had found the vintage camera in a treasure-filled antique shop in Margate, Kent, where the owner had warned him: "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!"

Undaunted by the prospect, Paul joked, "Don't send the calvary okay?" After searching the shop, he returned with the camera and made an initial offer of £50, saying: "In your cabinet over there, optical instrument... £75 on that I bid you £50."

The seller stood firm, replying, "Give me £60 and I'll shake your hand but I'm not doing any better than that, I'm afraid."

The deal was sealed with a handshake, and Paul commented: "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."

At the Bury St Edmonds auction in Suffolk, a unique discovery drew the excited interest of Edward Crichton who confessed he'd "never seen one" quite like it.

He said: "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."

When the auction got underway with a hefty £1,000 opening bid, the price soared by the thousand. Amid the action, Kate commented, "They're not messing around," while Edward announced each new increment: "£3,000, £4,000," reports the Express.

Paul, monitoring the fast pace, remarked: "He's now taking £1,000 increments," to which Kate added: "Which is a very rare thing."

Then, Kate and Edward provided context for the pricing frenzy, saying, "It's not a record price, a record price for a general sale is £15,000, for a home and interior sale £16,000. £17,000, £18,000, £19,000. £20,000."

As bids hit the roof, the gavel eventually fell on: "At £20,000 online, at £20,000 if we're all done, £20,000."

Stunned by the jaw-dropping outcome, Paul couldn't hold back his emotions as he declared: "I'm over the moon. I am genuinely flabbergasted."

Edward reinforced the extraordinary nature of the event, concluding: "Most items in this sale make between £50 and £500, so £20,000 is staggering, wonderful."

Kate was over the moon for Paul as a private collector in Switzerland snapped up the camera for a cool £20,000. Paul's whopping profit of £19,940 smashed the previous record held by a Tibetan bronze deity bought for a mere £50 by Anita Manning and sold for £3,800 in 2016.

All proceeds from the series were generously donated to Children in Need.

Antiques Road Trip is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.