Most Valuable Thrift Store Finds of All Time

Scouring thrift stores is a favorite pastime of many people. While we often find small things we love and can’t do without, it’s rare to find truly valuable items. But it does happen. 

Some unsuspecting people have found collectibles that changed their lives forever. These are the most valuable thrift store finds of all time.

Store: Hope Chest Thrift Store

Location: Bolivia, North Carolina

Value: Sentimental

What makes it so special: The couple, William Deworth and Katey Havey in Bordentown, New Jersey, were married in 1872. This unusual thrift store find was tucked behind a painting someone had donated to the thrift store.

With the help of a genealogist, the store’s proprietors were able to track down Irene Cornish, the couple’s great-granddaughter, and give her the certificate. Cornish said that her great-grandmother or grandmother must have put it behind the frame for safekeeping and forgotten about it.

“I still can’t believe it,” Cornish added. “I’m going to have it for my family — I’m so overwhelmed.”

Store: N/A

Location: N/A

Value: Priceless (for Star Trek fans)

What makes it so special: In 2021, one Redditor posted about his unexpected thrift store haul. He had just purchased a copy of Nat King Cole’s “Wild Is Love.”

When he got home and opened the record, he found signed photographs from the actor who played “Star Trek” doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Deforest Kelley.

The images, signed to his cousin, feature Kelley in the early days of his acting career. Clipped newspaper articles were also included, as well as some model shots. 

Store: N/A

Location: Heber-Overgaard, Arizona

Value: Priceless

What makes it so special: In August 2021, someone left a two-week-old fawn at a thrift store in Arizona, which another woman picked and took home. Perhaps the person who dropped it off thought something had happened to its mother.

However, according to wildlife veterinarian Dr. Ole Alcumbrac, that was not necessarily the case. “The mother is not far away. She sees and smells and can hear in the woods. She will vacate and let the deer be camouflaged. She has not abandoned the baby deer. She will leave it, but mom will come back. …The mother is likely searching for her baby.”

With no way of knowing where the fawn came from, it will live the rest of its life in captivity.

Store: Hotline Pink Thrift Shop

Location: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Value: $1,200

What makes it so special:  In 2020, thrift store volunteer Wendy Hawkins came across a piece of art on the floor of the Hotline Pink Shop and knew immediately it was a special piece. She was right. It was a piece from surrealist painter Salvador Dali and part of a series of illustrations depicting “The Divine Comedy” by Dante. 

Initially priced for under $50, the 1950s woodcut print known as “Purgatory Canto 32” was signed by Dali. With the help of nearby art store owners, the thrift shop repriced and sold the piece, but they may never know where it came from as donations are dropped off outside the shop at all hours.