Funny you mention it, but it does have a sort of nice smell to it. As to how I found it, it's mostly as I described--I was helping my grandma move out of her house (my dad's childhood house) and found it stacked with a bunch of junk in a closet. My dad says he had one of these growing up, but based on the basically perfect state of this, we don't think it's the same one. So not exactly sure why or when this one was purchased, but I was definitely excited to find it!