“I’ve never been to ‘Bares for Rares’, I’ve never been married and I’ve never been to Las Vegas,” says Heiko Windisch at the end of his successful performance. “I’ve done the first one, now it’s time for the other two things.”

The 53-year-old comes from Nordhausen and surprises with an interesting job combination: he is a baker and Santa Claus. With that he aroused the interest of Horst Lichter. The moderator wants to know more about it and is amazed to hear that Windisch is visiting ten families on Christmas Eve. His own must be happy with the appointment, which is free.

But Windisch is actually on the ZDF program for a completely different reason: he wants to sell an old enamel advertisement for the famous Korn from Nordhausen that he received from a friend. Expert Detlev Kümmel appreciates the city in northern Thuringia as one of the strongholds of schnapps production. The Uhley company was one of the best known and largest. The advertisement was made in the 1920s to 1930s.

Windisch would like 80 euros for the sign. That doubles Kümmel, he estimates the value at 150 to 200 euros. Lichter gives the seller good chances: “You can’t contradict Santa Claus, otherwise there won’t be anything next year.”

But that would never occur to the traders in their dreams. Wolfgang Pauritsch begins the auction with the lower estimate. From there it goes up quickly: The bids quickly leave the 200 euros behind. In the end, the billboard goes back to the Harz Mountains for the price of 340 euros: Friedrich Häusser bought the object for this proud sum. “It has to stay in the region,” says the 69-year-old.

Seller Heiko Windisch is very satisfied. With the money, he can now tackle his other two unresolved goals in life.

Source: “Bares for Rares” in the ZDF media library

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