The Most Amazing Finds From Second-Hand Markets

Finding a valuable work of art or a rare vintage item at a thrift store, flea market or garage sale is something many people dream about. These days, you can even join in someone else’s joy, watching along with YouTubers as they prowl shops looking for unusual finds.

Occasionally, people stumble across real treasures: antique Chinese porcelain, famous historical documents, photos, clothes or watches that turn out to be valuable memorabilia.

Here are 23 real treasures people found have found while hunting in second-hand stores or markets. All amounts are in U.S. currency. 

Bought for: $3

Sold for: $2.2 million

A family bought a shallow cream-colored Chinese bowl at a garage sale in New York for $3. An appraisal found that the bowl dated to the Northern Song Dynasty in the 10th or 11th century, and was quite valuable.

A London art dealer purchased the “Ding” bowl, as its now called, for $2.2 million.

Bought for: $38

Sold for: $160,000

In 2011, a man bought a Breitling watch for $38 at a flea market in England. The timepiece was unusual in that it had been modified to hold a Geiger counter. The watch turned out to be the same one worn by Sean Connery in the James Bond film “Thunderball.”

The owner later sold it at a Christie’s movie memorabilia auction in 2013 for $160,000.

Bought for: $14,000

Sold for: An estimated $33 million

The House of Faberge was a jewelry firm that made unique jeweled eggs with precious stones for the Russian royal family in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Only 43 of the 50 eggs made are known to exist and are either in museums or private collections.

A Midwestern scrap metal dealer, however, bought a gold egg at a flea market presumably somewhere in the midwest – the man remains anonymous in press reports, and he didn’t reveal the location of the sale – for $14,000. He thought he’d melt it down for the gold.

He soon discovered that what he had purchased was the missing Third Imperial Egg made by Faberge in 1887 for Czar Alexander III, which is worth more than $30 million.

In 2014, the man sold the egg to a private collector for an undisclosed amount. Trade publication JCK wrote that the sale was rumored to by $33 million.

Bought for: $.60

Sold for: $43,000

Sean and Rikki McEvoy were shopping in a Goodwill store in North Carolina when they found an old West Point sweater. The sweater had the nametag “Lombardi” sewn inside. The McEvoys bought the sweater for $.60.

Much later, the couple was watching a special on Vince Lombardi, best known for coaching the Green Bay Packers NFL football team, and realized that they might just have one of his old sweaters. After having the item authenticated, the sweater sold at auction for $43,000.