By Ezra Marcus
Ellis Whiteaker, 11, didn’t know what he might find when he went hunting in his basement in Fayetteville, N.C. But he had seen a call for fishing antiques on a social-networking app he uses (he’s been an avid fishermen since age 4) and knew that his grandfather, a former Air Force pilot who passed away before Ellis was born, had left some very old stuff in boxes.
What he found were six antique rods — one with a handle carved in the shape of a baseball bat. He looked it up, and a similar model on eBay was selling for around $700.