8 Incredible Thrift Store Finds

8Incredible Thrift Store

Finds Ever find yourself attracted to an item at a thrift store, but you're not sure why? Maybe you have a good eye for value and are on your way to making the next unbelievable flea-market find! Treasures worth thousands or even millions of dollars turn up at secondhand shops every so often. Who knew that spending at Goodwill could be such a smart investment?

The teapot is only the seventh example of Bartlam porcelain to have been rediscovered. The other six pieces are all in the US, held in both private collections and museums.

1. Ansel Adams rarities (or not.)

At a garage sale in 2000, a Fresno, California, house painter noticed images of Yosemite National Park on glass plates of old photo negatives. After some negotiation, Rick Norsigian bought the lot for $45. He had a hunch the images were by the iconic nature photographer Ansel Adams, so Norsigian asked some experts. They told him he was right — and that his find could be worth more than $200 million.

2. The greatest good luck charm.

In 2016, the fisherman walked into a tourism office in the city of Puerto Princesa, carrying what he had always thought was just a large rock. He explained that he'd been holding it under his bed for good luck. That was indeed his lucky day, because the man would learn that his "rock" was the largest pearl in the world: 2 feet long, weighing 75 pounds and worth $100 million.

3. The seriously golden egg.

A scrap metal dealer got an amazing bargain when he paid $14,000 for an ornate golden egg at a flea market. He planned to have it melted down, and hoped to net a small profit. But he did some Googling first, and found a 2011 article describing the hunt for a long-lost Faberge egg made for Russian royalty in the late 1800s.

The scrap dealer took his egg to a Faberge expert and antiques dealer in London, who confirmed it was the real deal. The egg was later sold, for an undisclosed amount. Estimates put its value at $33 million.

4. The gag gift worth money.

Teri Horton bought what she thought was a huge, ugly painting for $5 as a gag gift to cheer up a friend in 1992. The friend found the thrift-shop find hilarious but had no room for it, so Horton took it back home. When she tried to unload it at a garage sale, an art teacher told her that she should check it out to make sure it wasn't a Jackson Pollock.

Horton hired a forensic specialist, who found a fingerprint from the famed splatter-painter on the piece and traced the paint to his studio. Horton has been offered $9 million for the painting, but she wants $50 million.

5. Not your ordinary teapot.

A bargain hunter who picked up a $20 teapot in an online auction was shocked to find out that it was no run-ofthe-mill piece of porcelain. What the buyer had was one of the first pieces of porcelain created in America. It was the work of British potter John Bartlam, who was a highly regarded artisan nearly 250 years ago. Though broken, the teapot sold at at a 2018 auction for about $806,000.

6. The handbag.

In 2012, John Richard from Oxfam went to a charity store in the U.K. and spotted the face of Elvis Presley staring back at him from the side of a handbag. He was intrigued, and bought it for around $30. Months later Richard took it to a Philip Treacy shop in London to learn more. It turned out the celebrity design was by pop artist Andy Warhol. Richard was told the bag was one of only 10 ever made, and that it was worth 350,000 pounds — more than $450,000.

7. Billy the Kid's photobomb.

Randy Guijarro was looking through boxes at a Fresno, California, curio shop in 2010 when he discovered old tintype photographs that he bought for $1 apiece. The more he looked at one of them, the more he recognized one of the figures. Upon doing some research, Guijarro discovered his hunch was correct and that the figure playing croquet was indeed the famous outlaw Billy the Kid. The other men in the photo were members of Billy's gang. One of the only two authenticated pictures of Billy the Kid in existence, it's been appraised for $5 million.

8. Precious parchment.

When Michael Sparks was browsing at a thrift shop in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2006, he found what he assumed was a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence. The copy seemed incredibly well done, so he purchased it for $2.48. After doing a bit of research, Sparks discovered that he had no ordinary copy of the historic document. It was, in fact, one of 200 official copies commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820, and only the 36th every discovered.

Sparks sold the parchment for a price that should help in his personal pursuit of happiness: $477,650.