Letter from Neil Armstrong, NASA, Man on the Moon

I love digging through dusty, musty boxes of old paper items that have been in basements or attics for years.  Boxes full of things like old letters, books, postcards, articles, magazines, and other paper things.

First I wonder why a family would want to give up things so precious...things that belonged to their parents or grandparents, but then I realize not everyone is sentimental like me...and if they were, I'd never have the pleasure of doing what I do.

So what does this have to do with a Neil Armstrong letter?  It was while at an Estate sale auction, AFTER the auction, when you could look through the things no one bid on, that I came upon a box full of paper...it looked like garbage, but on closer inspection, there was a file folder thick with papers.  I decided to take the folder home with me for a closer look.

This is when I discovered a letter from Neil Armstrong with his signature.  It was laminated, written to a man who had written a little song he hoped would be played at the Moon Mission events. Neil Armstrong typed, or had typed, a very nice, personal reply, with his signature.  The man was so excited about receiving this letter, it became news in the local paper, so a news clipping was attached to the letter.

The letter was written within weeks of the moon mission that Neil Armstrong is famous for, and as a new eBayer, I decided to list the letter.  The bidding started right away, and so did the phone calls.  One in particular came from a gentleman who had just taken his young son to meet Neil Armstrong.  I had a hard time believing his story, as so many were interested in purchasing the letter, but my heart melted when he emailed me pictures of his son with Armstrong, saying he wanted to frame the letter with pictures on each side, and give it to his son.

So, I did one of the worst things a new eBayer can do, I closed the listing, even though it had bidders, and sold it to this gentleman for a good price, then spent the rest of the week dealing with angry bidders who were not at all happy with me closing the listing early.  I did learn a lesson that day about selling on eBay, and have never closed a listing with bidders since, but in this case, it was worth it, and I hope that somewhere out there is a very happy young man.