The other day I spotted a card on eBay with the printed caption "Valentine leaving Ends Place Harnham August 4 1911". At least it looked like "Harnham", and the vendor certainly thought so, attributing the locality to Salisbury. It had an unexciting image of a blurred monoplane in the top right-hand corner and a line of trees in the bottom half with no humans present. The starting price was £2.89.
I was puzzled as the pilot Valentine, taking part in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race, had flown from Lark Hill, near Stonehenge, to Shoreham on August 3.
Googling led to the realisation that it was actually "Warnham", near Horsham, where Valentine had a forced landing with a broken strut. After repairing it, he continued his flight to Brooklands.
The vendor duly amended his description and received a maximum bid of £88.85. I didn't bid, as my interest is "military Wiltshire 1897-1920", but that really was a remarkable price. Several years ago, I paid around £20 for another 1911 card showing a plane that was taking off from Salisbury.
The winning price included mandatory "Buyers Protection" of £4.12, which I think was one of the changes introduced by eBay a month or two ago?
£2.89 starting price, wrong location, £88.85 winning bid
Moderator: MichaelDay