Gramps was a Red Wing Pottery salesman, for several midwest states. If you have some, he probably sold it.

When the depression hit he didn't lose his job, kind of a seniority thing, they allocated who he was allowed to sell to based on his earlier, pre-depression sales or somesuch. So his family did relatively well especially for depression standards. Eventually by the 40s the government had outlawed Japanese sales of pottery in the US and that helped. When Red Wing finally folded, some sharpy accountant bought the whole company lock, stock, and barrel for pennies on the dollar.

The deal was the accountant was aware, unlike many others by way of his job, that Red Wing had a warehouse somewhere stuffed to the gills with factory "seconds", blemished pieces or otherwise something not quite right. But nothing truly wrong with it. So he knew it was a "can't lose" deal. Selling those seconds netted a tidy profit.

People in those days understood business, how to make a buck, and knew value when they saw it. A friend of my dad bought a golf course, and they were talking one day about the risks involved and the guy said he really couldn't lose on the deal for the price he paid. How's that? Well, he explained, the course has lots of well maintained grass, worse comes to worst, I'll sell the sod and at least break even. I once heard somebody say "You make money on the buy." and I believe that's the case if you think about it.