The story is this. Gregg and I live in a Modernist House in Montecito, Ca. We have decorated this home with all collectable modernist furnishings and art from galleries ranging from Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Palm Springs, and Santa Barbara. All of the furniture is collectable mid-century modern furniture. Sooo, I got a bug this year to get a vintage "Silver" christmas tree with rotating color wheel et all. Honestly, because I really don't have the energy or vibe to decorate a 10' tree this year, plus I'm a Mad Men freak which is spilling over into my design cravings. I go to check it out on ebay and sure enough some gal had just bought a vintage aluminum tree with a real authentic color wheel from 1960, it was in perfect condition. She stated in comments on ebay that she had purchased it earlier that day at an estate sale (garage sale) somewhere in Ohio. She was selling it on ebay because her husband was harassing her about it so she was willing to to "give it away" for $250.00, just to shut her husband up. She stated it was too late for her to list it with the BUY IT NOW option. I bit her bate and put in a bid just below $250. There was only 20 minutes left the auction, so I brought my laptop to the dinner table.....big mistake. Evidently the bidding was non-existent until I put a bid in, needless to say, while I ate a beautifully prepared, um, whatever it was, with my nose in the bidding war that ensued, I turned to Gregg, who had the made the beautiful prepared dinner, whatever it was, as asked him if I should go over $425...he said I should do is just go away. It sold for $423 and not to me. This was a total cart before the horse scenario for me, I was into buying this on instinct based on this gals story (which I totally believed) and my instinct that this color wheel was rare. Subsequently I have done a bunch more research and boy, were my instincts correct. I'm sure some hipster in Palm Springs is going to be very happy with his Gleaming Pink, Blue and Green Tree!
