Take A Look At The List Of Most Precious Thrift Store Or Yard Sale Findings

Following the popularity of television shows like “American Pickers” and “Storage Wars” many people have found a new interest in the habit of ‘picking’. While there are thousands who only try to find good items at thrift shops and garage sales, some people find their treasures in places you would never ever expect. You can even say that some people are just born lucky. This is a list of the most valuable items ever to be discovered in thrift stores and garage sales. With the simple step of buying an unusual item, these people have managed to rake up loads of money for themselves. This list includes everything from $200 million photographers to a surprising discovery of the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. When you go thrift shopping, there is no telling what you might find, for there i always something special hidden somewhere or the other wherever we go.

Ceramic Bowl: $2.2 Million

When one New York family bought this white bowl, they did not expect it to be worth all that much at all. They bought it for $3 at a garage sale back in 2007. They kept custody of the bowl for the next six years after eventually deciding to appraise it. This bowl was later found out to be a truly significant piece of history. The bowl was one of the possessions of China’s Northern Song Dynasty, that went up to be worth $200,000 to $300,000. In March of 2013, the family decided to auction the bowl at Sotheby’s and was bought for an unbelievable price of $2.2 million. Imagine selling a single bowl which would mount to this life-changing amount. We are so sure the family did not complain. It is not easy for people to have an eye on this type of antiques so we can all keep hoping we find one valuable item one day.

Bond Watch: $160,175

This next find involves an Englishman who was just making rounds at a flea market and happened to pick up this watch for just a meager $38. He would soon realize an amazing discovery about the watch he had just bought. the very watch that he had bought from the flea market was indeed a watch worn by James Bond in one of his most iconic films “Thunderball.” To say he was pleasantly surprised would definitely be an understatement. Then the owner decided to bring his watch to Christie’s auction. There he was able to sell off the watch for a staggering $160,175. Although movie memorabilia do not actually sell too high, this was was the first “Q Branch” to include a Geiger counter that enabled James Bond to detect nuclear radiation. It is indeed a watch worth fawning over.

A Signed Picasso Poster: $7,000

Zachary Bodish was busy looking through the stuff that was sold at a local thrift store. He was rummaging through the store to hopefully find some kitschy art to resell. Then he came upon a poster that took the attention of his eyes. This poster that he found was one which was an advertisement for an art show by Pablo Picasso. Since he loved it so much, he decided to get the poster which was sold to him for just $14.14. As he was inspecting his newfound poster, he noticed that there were some red spots at the bottom of the frame that looked pretty suspicious. He thought it might be Pablo Picasso’s signature, so when he showed it to an art expert, he found that it was, in fact, a linocut. He then managed to sell of the poster for an amount that was way more than he originally spent, $7,000.

Vince Lombardi Sweater: $43,020

This story is about a worn out sweater that was found at a Goodwill by two guys. Sean and Rikki McEvoy were extremely happy to have purchased this sweater as it was cheap and affordable. They reside in Asheville, N.C and this happened back in the year 2014. But then, they had a realization that made them take a closer look at the sweater that they had bought together. Something on the television made the boys very excited and it was because the sweater once belonged to none other than the famed coach Vince Lombardi. The boys were watching a special about Vince Lombardi on their television and soon found out that it really was the celebrated coach’s personal belonging. They went to auction it off where it sold for about $43,020. They bought it just for $0.58 so this is one heck off a deal.

Photo Of Billy The Kid: $5 Million

Randy Guijarro made his way into a thrift store where he came upon a few “junk” boxes. Inside the boxes, he found that there were three tintypes kept safely. If anyone does not know, a tintype is described as, “an old picture printed on thin metal sheets”. With just $3 he bought all three of these photos. When he took a closer look at the photos he discovered that one of them had Billy the Kid, the famous outlaw in the frame. Collectors were not very convinced when Guijarro informed them about what he had found. The artwork had to be carefully inspected by experts for one year before making a conclusion. In the end, the people in the frame were found to be Billy, his gang, and their friends and family. After verifying this, the photo was appraised to an impressive $5 million.

An Andy Warhol Original: $2 Million

When this art collector name Andy Fields looked all over the place while in Las Vegas for something valuable, he did not expect o find this incredible piece of artwork. Andy went to a garage sale where he decided on purchasing five paintings that amounted to just $5. After taking them home, he did some digging and found out about the paintings he had just purchased. He soon realized that it was a drawing of the 1930s singer Rudy Valle. And who was the one who did the sketch? It was none other than the pop art icon Andy Warhol. Since this sketch was one of the most sought-after pieces, it was later found to be worthy of $2 million. This should be a lesson to all of us, who have the habit of collecting useless artworks or paintings. They could turn out to be very valuable!