15 Unbelievable Thrift Store Finds That Turned Out to Be Worth a Fortune

6. Bond’s Watch: $163,000

After the James Bond thriller “Thunderball” was released, the specialized watch used in the movie mysteriously disappeared. In 2013, at a Christie’s auction, the watch resurfaced again. An Englishman who was roaming around a flea market came across the rare piece and bought it for a cheap price. Eventually, the watch was sold for $163,000. The Q Branch specially modified and included a Geiger counter, which would help Bond detect nuclear radiation. This could very much be the reason why the watch was valued at such a huge price.

7. An Old Vince Lombardi Sweater: $43,020

Sean and Rikki McEvoy found an old sweater in a Knoxville, Tennessee from a Goodwill store. Sean paid less than a dollar for it and he left it in his closet where he totally forgot about it. The sweater was in fact a West Point sweater that belonged to legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi. One of Lombardi’s coaches at West Point donated the sweater to Goodwill that had his initials written in the name tag. Sean hit jackpot while watching a Vince Lombardi documentary.

“I was watching a Vince Lombardi documentary and I said to my wife, we have a sweater just like that. Wouldn’t it be great if it was actually Vince Lombardi’s?”

The sweater was estimated to be worth $20,000 but was sold for $43,020 at an auction. A portion of the sale was donated to Goodwill.

8. Another Declaration of Independence: $2.4 million

A man from Pennsylvania hit the jackpot while he was bargain hunting in a thrift shop. In 1991, the man initially bought a painting along with a frame for $4. When the collector took the frame apart, he discovered an unspeakably fresh copy of the declaration. The copy turned out to be one of the 24 copies known to survive. The declaration was expected to bring $800,000 to $1 million at an auction but ended up selling for $2.4 million.

9. Flemish Painting: $190,000

In 2006, an antiques dealer named Leroy found an abandoned painting in a thrift store in Anderson, South Carolina. Leroy was interested in the frame than the picture and thought of reselling it for a higher price. He purchased the picture for a mere $3 and took it home with him. Leroy’s daughter was curious about the painting’s value and so she took it to an Antiques Roadshow. There, she received an appraisal of between $20,000 and $30,000. Surprisingly, in 2012, the painting was sold at an auction in Massachusetts for $190,000. The cheap painting that Leroy had purchased for the frame alone was in fact a Flemish work of art from around 1650.

10. Fabergé Egg: $33 million

Flea markets are sometimes gold mines for collectors and scrap dealers. According to a British art and antiques dealer, he wasn’t aware of the history behind the golden egg. He was more interested in the gold than the creator or its origin. After being obsessed with the egg, the dealer purchased it for $14,000. He even thought of melting it down and selling it for a higher price but it turned out that the egg was made in the late 19th century for Russian royalty. The egg was an Easter gift to Czar Alexander III to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, in 1887. It was eventually sold for $33 million.