Back in 2003 there was a club on Plymouth's Barbican called "The Cove" and inside it screwed over the top of a doorway was this lovely enamel sign...
I badgered the owner for weeks and weeks to sell it to me and then very drunk one night and after taking some advice from the indomitable Steve Burton I rang him and offered him £800 cash for it. He agreed and I went around to his club first thing the next day with £800 in fifty pound notes! To my shock there were three fresh enamel chips on the sign that weren't there before, two on the central left and right screw holes and one on the bottom central screw hole. I can only imagine that because I'd been badgering him for so long to sell it to me that he'd tightened the screws thinking I might try and nick it one night. I still went ahead with the deal and handed over the wod of cash.
When I got it home I gave it a quick wash over with "spirits of salts" which was quite nerve racking as I wrecked a mint Robin Cigarettes double sider with it back in the eighties. To my joy it didn't damage the sign and cleaned it up beautifully revealing an amazing natural shine from the enamel. I mounted it on my bedroom wall but got very frustrated knowing that the enamel chipping on it was fresh, all I would do is focus on the damage instead of the overall impact of this gorgeous sign. After a few weeks of trying to justify paying so much money for a sign that was originally in near mint condition when I first laid eyes on it I ended up selling it to a local bottle collector who gave me exactly what I'd paid for it...