“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” or so the saying goes. More often than not, the only difference is a gap in information. After all, that random painting adorning your wall could be a lot more valuable than you think.
Someone asked “What is the best “treasure” you’ve ever found at a thrift store, garage sale, flea market, etc?” and people detailed their lucky finds. From acts of kindness to folks getting rid of incredibly rare and valuable items, get comfortable and prepare for some FOMO as you scroll through. Upvote your favorites and comment your thoughts below.
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While it seems like a cliche right out of a soap opera, the idea that someone might stumble upon long-lost art has some basis in reality. A classic example of this was when N.C. Wyeth's Ramona, purchased for a staggering $4 at a thrift store, ended up selling for $191,000. So next time you are poking around and see something that looks better than its price tag would suggest, perhaps do a little research.
Obviously, most stories like this don’t feature people making six figures for buying something that costs as much as a cheeseburger. That being said, valuable, vintage, and one-of-one items end up sold all the time.
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Art is probably the most common “culprit,” because, often enough, the real value comes less from a person’s aesthetic considerations, but the pedigree of the painter. To compound the issue, a well-known painter's most famous works are almost never “lost,” so the ones sitting around in a garage sale or thrift store would already be more obscure.
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This is just part of the appeal of thrifting, besides the often excellent deals one can score. Unlike a supermarket, where you always have a decent idea of what you might find, thrift stores might stock the most unhinged, creepy, and weird items. They also tend to sell things you simply will not find in other stores because, to put it frankly, no one wants them.
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I was a broke single mom trying to furnish my first apartment. I went to a garage sale and saw an almost brand new recliner. I was admiring it knowing I couldn't afford it, just doing a little daydreaming. The woman holding the sale came over and asked if I liked it. I told her of course I loved it, but as I was a broke single mom, that wasn't happening. I thanked her for the daydream and turned to go. She asked me to wait and went inside to get her adult son. She told me that she would sell it to me for $1. I knew she could make some money so I declined, as I knew that wasn't fair to her. She then told me that she was in the middle of a divorce and he got half of everything she made at the sale. I left there with a recliner, a kitchen table, and a bookshelf, and I spent $3. Was the divorce story true? Or was she just helping me out? Don't know, but I've made sure to always help others once I was in a better spot.At a small thrift store, I found A floor-length, black velvet - **real** velvet, not velveteen - vintage Oscar de la Renta gown in perfect condition and miraculously in my size for $10. And as if that wasn't enough, a few minutes later found a brand-new pair of Yves Saint Laurent black satin pumps with original tags ($400) for a measly $2! I wasn't a designer glam gal and had no reason to own these as I had no need for them. I socialized in a much lower tax bracket. Two weeks later I was hired at a job that required me to host a celebrity packed fundraising gala where these thrift store finds served me very well. I used to work at a goodwill donation center and someone donated a live hand grenade and that was kind of cool beacuse not only did the entire shopping center had to evacuate and I got to see one of these bomb robots but I got to go home early and still got a full day's payI bought an unused 6 quart KitchenAid mixer with all the attachments at a garage sale for $20 (retails for $400). I then gave it to my sister as an early birthday present. She bakes cakes and cookies for parties has a side-gig and was hand mixing everything beforehand. She was ecstatic!My family went to the county fair , and my youngest son took along his favorite little toy… a stuffed duck with “feet” where he put his fingers and “walked along” on things, making happy quacking noises.
As is tradition, toys brought on outings get lost. He was sad, but at least it wasn’t his favorite lovey (a stuffed sea otter).
A YEAR later we stopped at a thrift store to look for school clothes. And he found the same toy hanging up. So of course it came home with us. Open opening the baggie he found his initials on the tag on the toy. Where I had put them a couple of years ago:
It was the same toy.20 years ago, a yuppie couple bought a house in my neighborhood with everything in it after the elderly owner died. They had an estate sale to clear it out.
The elderly owner was one of the most important importers from China post WW2.
They sold everything for fractions of a penny of what they were worth.
I bought a large rosewood budded, a large porcelain Foo dog. 2 rosewood planet stands and a 4 panel screen with golden lacquer on one side and a beautiful and detailed mother of pearl 3D scene on the other for $600.
The screen alone is now worth 35K.Several years ago I was walking around the neighborhood, late Saturday afternoon. It was "garage sale" weekend, but I didn't look too closely at the sales because I was broke. I was just walking to get some exercise, clear my head, maybe cheer myself up.
When I was just a few blocks from returning home, I found a $20 bill on the sidewalk! I looked around but there was nobody. It wasn't even in front of a home with a sale going on.
Now I *was* cheered up, and I stopped in at the last garage sale with my $20. It was an older couple and they were already moving things inside, closing up shop.
I browsed around and just asked "you wouldn't have any vinyl records for sale, would you?"
They looked at one another, shrugged, and led me into the house. Upstairs, in what was clearly their son's old bedroom, they pulled a box of records out of the closet. I got the distinct feeling he had died; I didn't ask, but his room looked like a shrine to the late 1980s.
I paid $20 for the whole box, and carried it home.
That thing was an absolute goldmine of punk albums, including an original pressing of the Germs "GI" signed by Pat Smear, an original of Operation Ivy's "Energy", Green Day's "39/Smooth" and "Kerplunk" (plus a few other Lookout! records releases,) and more.
I sold the GI album alone for $600, and I regret it.Not a store, but i used to work for a junk removal company. Most clients were just rich people who didnt wanna deal with throwing out their stuff, so it wasnt uncommon to find things of value and keep them to resell or just have. I was on an estate clean out and pulling stuff out of the attic and found a box that i decided to open it just to see what was inside. I popped the lid and inside there was 17 small orange, very old, boxes with big blue letters said "Lionel". Model trains.
Box full of money.
I quietly put the box in the truck cab to investigate later. Once I got home I pulled the trains out and started researching them. 2 full sets from the 1930s, all new in box. The boxes showed their age but the trains looked like they had never been removed from the box. Most even still had their (deteriorated) packing materials around them. I turned to the model trains subreddit to learn more and was immediately swamped with people trying to buy them, and one person who was wildly honest with me and told me what they thought they were worth, and not to let someone try and swindle me out of my gold mine, mentioning he wished he could afford to buy them from me. I went to a local hobby shop to learn even more and confirmed their real monetary and historical value.....about $10,000 and considered to be museum quality, near mint condition. Exceedingly rare.
In the end I didn't get $10k. I contacted the redditor who had told me what they were really worth, while everyone else was offering a few hundred bucks, and offered to sell them to him. We agreed on $2000.
He and his aging father (likely passed by now) had bonded over their love of model trains since he was a kid and had a massive layout in their basement. Last I heard from him a couple years ago the trains are still running and well taken care of. I'm glad i gave them to someone who would truly appreciate them and enjoy them as they were intended instead of putting behind a glass case or looking at them as only an investment to make money off ofA brand new, high quality suede coat for twenty bucks.
What made it a real treasure is that it's somehow my dream jacket, the one I've designed a hundred times in my head and thought I'd never have because leather goods are so expensive. It's the exact shade, weight, and shape that I pictured a thousand times, but it's also a design that isn't common for leather jackets. I always figured to get one cut like that, that fit me so well, I'd probably have to order it custom. I'd dreamed of that jacket long enough that I even knew it would cost me about $600 to have one made.
But then one day I was picking up some work pants at the thrift store and it was right there. I wasn't even looking at the coats, but someone had pulled it out and draped it over the rack. Not two months prior my car had been stolen with both my jackets inside so I didn't have a coat at all and wasn't sure how I'd be able to afford to buy one when it got cold again.
I have worn that coat every day, from September to May, ever since. It's one of my most prized possessions.Not as impressive as some others, but the thing that comes to mind is a copy of "This is Knitting" for ten cents back in the late 90s. I learned how to make socks from that book and it still has a place in my heart because that was the tipping point towards a life- long hobby.I paid $1 for a necklace at a sidewalk sale on my way to work. I thought it was an amazing steal as it looked like cherry amber Bakelite. Then I got to work (vintage store) and the picker who sold us things said, "nice necklace, I'll give you three for it" which I thought meant three dollars, then he said, "OK $350" and I was of course surprised! Turns out it is actual cherry amber, not Bakelite, and worth more like $600.a 110 year old copy of Little Women for $4.00.I have a knack for picking up used books at thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, wherever, but not just any old books. The books my fingers find are autographed. I have autographed books by:
Neil Gaiman
Tom Clancy
Elie Wiesel
Salman Rushdie
Connie Francis
Shaq (his basketball card, not a book)
Dave Barry
Isaac Asimov
Tom Wolfe
Some of these books I paid as little as a quarter for, and the most, I think, was $10.This is going to seem silly but, I still love it.
So, my mom and I had been at the mall and I found this gorgeous rainbow scarf at The Gap. However, it was $50 and I wasn’t willing to spend that so, I didn’t buy it.
Cue about 2 months later and my mom and i were at the Goodwill. Lo and behold there is the scarf! It’s in PERFECT condition and was only $15.99. I, of course bought it.
I’ve had it 8 years now and it’s still in perfect condition and I wear it every time it’s cold. Granted, where I live that means about 3 months a year so, maybe that’s why it’s still in perfect condition.
Still my favorite find.I found a painting at a garage sale I thought was beautiful but no idea of what it was but it just struck me. Paid $15 and it came in a gorgeous frame. Got it home and did some research through art people in our area. Found out it's worth almost $4K. Great score.I paid $1 for a box of books, one was: “A child’s history of the Confederacy”, by D. H. Hill. I graduated from NC State, and our library was the D.H. Hill Library. I took the book to the library the next time I was in Raleigh, and asked if they were interested in acquiring it. The Director of Acquisitions asked what I wanted for it. I said I was happy to donate it, just send me a contribution receipt. A few weeks later I got a nice letter thanking me for my contribution of $1,000!I remember not wanting to go to a church flea market when I was like five. Came back with a massive Star Wars haul. Dozens of return of the jedi figures. The brown hover car from new hope. Icing on the cake was a broken millennium falcon that I played with daily. Six year old me was super happy.Years ago, a woman posted a telescope ad on a bulletin board. Her dad was a snowbird and one year just called her up and said, "I'm not coming back this year, sell my house and everything in it." I went to check out the telescope during her garage sale, and she said she had researched everything about it, talked to him about it, and she wanted $300 for it. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I remember saying something that indicated I would go a little higher, but she said no, she would be happy with $300. It's an older model, but the telescope new would be about $2500, and it had a $700 eyepiece in the box.None of these are really valuable things but they’re all things I truly cherish nonetheless:
* a bowling ball for $5. I used to be on the bowling team but couldn’t afford my own ball so always had to use the house balls which suck. This ball is hot pink, came with the name “Ruth” but the weight and finger hole sizes are a perfect fit! I’ve bowled all my best games with Ruth.
* An immersion blender for $1. It has provided many years of delicious soups.
* A J Crew down jacket for $3. Fits perfectly, looks nice, super warm. I have worn it through like 8 or 9 cold Boston winters now.$1000 cheetah print long winter coat a lady was going to donate as I was donating. It was my birthday, and she was so happy that it was going to me and that her mom, the original owner who just died would love to see it repurposed for a man !!! It’s my celebration pimp coat now.
And then a old school green Stanley thermosHad a work colleague who had a garage sale. Her new husband added a bunch of his basement junk to the sale. A browser who was a prof at Harvard University told the husband that a framed sketch he had was done by Napoleon. He took it to the university and they authenticated it as a genuine Napoleon sketch. It was a nautical drawing done from the deck of a ship.I got a brand new London Fog coat for $12 at Salvation Army. It’s the lightest, warmest coat I’ve ever worn.How bout the one that got away? Several years go, apparently 2012, I saw an odd painting of an owl like creature. I looked at it for a moment, considered it, then walked on. A few weeks later it was on the news … It was a Picasso. It eventually sold for $7k. There’s a thrift store near me that doesn’t know what it has. They will sell you Armani, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors for $4.99. It’s all authentic. It’s located in a very wealthy neighborhood and people donate crazy expensive clothes after just wearing it once. It’s crazy. My closet is jam packed with designer clothes from there. And shoes!A complete set of Advanced Dungeon and Dragons 1E rule books for $20.I was just looking at it and thinking about it last night.
A globe of the moon that we got in the early 80s in a Cincinnati flea market. It's metal, dented here and there, but I've always cherished it. I think I lost the accompanying booklet that had information about the missions and landings, but the moon still sits on my bookshelf, high up where nothing can get to it.1. Dorothy Thorpe lucite pretzel lamp at a Goodwill for $12.99, worth about $1,200.00
2. Pierre Cardin brass swoosh table lamp at another goodwill for $14.99, worth about $1,400.00
3. Nils Landberg for Orrefors tulip vase at yet another Goodwill for $5.99. Sold for $800.
4. Murano glass white swirl mushroom lamp for $16.95, also worth about $1,200.00.
5. John Lewis art Glass two moon vase for $7.95, worth about $400.00.
Tons of signed art Glass from Orrefors, Murano, and numerous other glass artists.A 1930s archtop acoustic guitar that sounds like the devil. For 85 dollars.My greatest regret in life is not buying the taxidermy frogs playing basket ball with one doing a slam dunk. I regret not buying it nearly every time I go to the thrift shop hoping I'll see it again. Truly heartbreaking.1950s French motorcycle police full length leather coat in fantastic shape 25 EUR.$2 Wustof chef’s knife in a pile of random cutlery and flatware. Crazy find!Bought an old Olympus film camera for about $10. The camera was worth about $30, but the lens on it was a Zuiko 50 mm f1.2. There is one for sale online on a popular photography site for $700.
I still have both.A thick, heavy leather Burberry hunting jacket. The body is brown and the collar is black. I paid 40 for it. It's worth about 4000. Pretty sure someone's Grandpa died in it.Found an original oil painting in a big pile of “junk” that was destined for the thrift store. Homeowner told me to take a look and grab anything I wanted. I later looked up the painting online and discovered it sold at a NYC art gallery for $5000 ?Not me but my sister cleans a thrift store and found an 18k gold rope chain about 30cm long. Approximate value $3,000I found a complete vintage doctor pez dispenser for 25 cents. Sells at auction sometimes for 200$. Not me, but my SIL shops at thrift stores for a living. The 2 picks that blow my mind the most was the original Barbie doll from the '40's or '50's with a bunch of original accessories and outfits all in a carrying case for I believe $.79 and sold for 5k. And more recently 2 100+ troy ounce bars of 99.999% silver for $20 each. I'm not sure how much those sold for but I imagine a damn decent amount.A Corningware pan for $3 in the same pattern my mom had when I was a kid.Like 5000+ bucks of barely used 2 season old ski equipment being sold for under 100.
I got 800 at the ski exchange plus skis for me and my wife. We never actually went but that's another story (we were XC people)
Later I sold all that was left for 200.Waiting for my wife while she spent her usual hour in a Value Village. Looked up at a top shelf and there were several knife blocks with the usual well abused cheap knives, but one had two stainless handles sticking up that I recognized. Paid $7.99 CAD for the whole shebang. Grabbed the Global GS Nakiri and GS Santoku out of the pack and dropped the rest in a donation bin on the way out to the car. Combined total of about $220 CAD in value.One of my coolest finds is an uncut sheet of cards from The Mask cartoon based on the Jim Carey movie. Funny part about that one is that they were cards from a european snack that were included as a prize with the snack. I found them in the Midwest of the USA.
I also have one of three left known to exist of the 1978 Pepsi Challenge slot car sets they used for the contest.A vintage Edward Gorey collectible bat plush while looking for Halloween decor at a thrift shop. Bought for a dollar, resold for almost $100A pair of Manolo Blahnik pumps I resold for 20x what I paid for them.My dad runs a flea market stall and also manages the grounds, he finds all kinds of treasures in sheds where people don't pay their rent and get locked out. I got two Coach bags still in their own bags last year and he found a 1920s Victrola a few years ago. He also made bank selling a bunch of industrial sized versions of that machine that uses electricity to vibrate things clean, can't remember what they're calledMy couch. I bought it from a furniture thrift store in my town. It's red, pink and gold satin striped that reminds me of the old school ribbon hard candy. It's the old Chippendale shape. It's subjectively ugly but I love it. Almost perfect condition. This exact type of couch retails online for almost $3,000 and I paid $120.
