Many years ago, when ashtrays were near their height, we bought this ashtray from Lou Lucci, with some others. He gave us a friend price of $500 for the group of them, and we were very happy with that.

A month or two later, the same kind of tray was listed on eBay and I was watching it to see what it went for.

Barry, the buyer you're remembering is named Col. Batguano and he has many thousands of ashtrays. For several months there had been a new ashtray buyer on eBay....I don't remember his name, but he was from Florida (Ormond Beach, I think?). There were several big ashtray buyers at the time, and this newish buyer was really pushing prices (at the time, Col. Batguano was the biggest spender...if he really wanted something, he got it).

As near as I can guess, Batguano was tired of this guy pushing prices and he decided to push back. I clicked on the Monte Carlo ashtray an hour or two before the auction ended...it was already at several hundred dollars. I clicked on it again a few minutes before the auction ended, and I watched the bids jump, and saw the ashtray sell for $3500!!!!!!!!! (It should have gone $750-$1000). The "new" guy won the auction, at one heck of a price! I think the auction soured him on ashtray collecting, because he stopped buying ashtrays and started buying Rolex watches!

Oh...I forgot to mention that I was aware that Col. Batguano already had this ashtray...