- I keep hearing stories about
people who find priceless artifacts in thrift shops. All I find are melted breath
mints in clothing pockets. But I'm inspired to keep looking by people who make incredible
finds, like a copy of the Declaration of Independence, worth almost half a million dollars, or a Jackson Pollock
painting worth millions. Prepare to be amazed by this
list of fifteen of the luckiest people who found the best
things in thrift stores. (upbeat videogame music) Number 15, Vince Lombardi sweater. Many people browse thrift stores
for clothes to sell online, but not everyone scores a touchdown like Sean and Rikki McEvoy, who
picked up a West Point sweater for only 58 cents. When they got home, Rikki
realized it had moth holes and decided they couldn't sell it. But then she put it in the
basement, thinking she'd mend it, and her husband could wear it. They both forgot all about
the sweater until they were watching TV one day, and
recognized their sweater on famous football coach Vince Lombardi. The couple looked at their
sweater again and found the word Lombardi written on
a cotton swatch inside it. Sean even drove to Dallas to
have the sweater authenticated, and received confirmation it
did indeed belong to Lombardi. It sold at auction for
a little over 43,000. I bet that sweater won
the McEvoys' most valuable moth-eaten sweater award! Number 14, 26 dollar bag. Retired chef John Richard
was poking around a charity shop in Oxfam, England,
when he found a unique bag. It was brown, with
stylized pictures of Elvis done by Andy Warhol printed on it. Richard thought the 20-pound
price tag was a bit steep, so he tried to haggle with the clerk. She wouldn't budge, and
ultimately he bought it anyway, then took it to the local
Philip Treacy shop to find out if it was theirs. Store manager Gee Brunet
confirmed it was, and noted that only about ten of that
style were ever made. Richard said he received
offers from buyers in China, for 250,000 and 350,000 pounds, the equivalent of half a million dollars. Guess he's glad he didn't
walk away from that sale over a five pound discount. Number 13, a painting
bought for three dollars. A South Carolina man, identified
only as Leroy, bought a painting from Goodwill, mostly
because he liked the frame. Leroy, a former antiques dealer,
said he thought the frame was worth 50 bucks, which
made the price tag of three dollars seem more than fair. He also figured the oil
painting was from the 1800's and might earn him another
hundred bucks or so if sold online. Later, his daughter-in-law took
it to the Antiques Roadshow and received an appraisal
of twenty to thirty thousand dollars on what was actually a Flemish school painting from 1650. But, it ended up earning
$190,000 at an auction that included international bidders. Meanwhile, a man from Indiana
bought a 30 dollar thrift shop painting for a really simple reason. He just needed something
to hide a hole in his wall. One day, the man was playing
a game about famous works of art and noticed something familiar. His wall covering turned
out to be a piece by Martin Johnson Heade, an
American still life painter. Ultimately, the painting
sold for 1.2 million. Guess that leaves the thrifty shopper with a hole in his wall but enough money to buy a whole new wall. Number 12, Barack Obama award. Former U.S. President
Barack Obama received countless awards, including
a Nobel Peace Price in 2009. But Presidents and other
high-ranking officials receive so many awards they can't collect or keep them all. In 2017, a Reddit user
browsing a thrift store found a plaque stating
the former President had received the National
Middle School Association's Distinguished Service
Award in November of 2007. The original poster considered tweeting the former President to
ask if he wanted it back, but he might never have
received the plaque in the first place according
to one press release. On the date printed on the award, the former President was in Iowa hosting a discussion about challenges
working women face. If the thrifter decides
to sell the plaque, I hope they can change it
into a decent amount of money. If not, maybe they can be on the lookout for that Nobel Prize instead. Number 11, a cup and a bowl. In 2013, a shopper from Sydney found a weird looking cup for only four bucks, so he bought it. Later, he sent a picture to Sotheby's, who told him it was a 17th century Chinese libation cup. Carved from a rhino horn, this rare piece ended up selling for about 60,000 dollars. Elsewhere, this family
purchased an ordinary looking bowl, which could be
mistaken for a small ash tray. In 2007, after paying
all of three dollars, they researched the piece, eventually bringing it to Sotheby's where experts estimated its worth
at two to three hundred thousand dollars. But a lucky bidder paid
two million for the piece, a thousand year old Chinese
item known as a ding bowl. I bet the thrifty family was bowled over by that windfall. Number ten, an egg-spensive egg. A scrap dealer purchased a Faberge egg for 14,000 dollars, which
doesn't sound cheap. However, he recognized it was real gold and felt he could profit by melting the egg down and selling
the precious metal. Fortunately, he first
conducted some research and discovered this particular egg was a gift from Russian Czar Alexander the Third to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, in 1887. Once he had it authenticated, the piece ultimately sold
for 33 million dollars. An egg-celent profit on his
14,000 dollar investment. Number nine, Declaration of Independence. One day, Michael Sparks
found an old yellowed, rolled up piece of paper at the thrift. After carefully unfurling it, he discovered it was a copy of the Declaration of Independence,
or so he thought. It was so beautifully done he initially thought it was an engraving. The clerk told him it was 2.48, and so he bought it. Sparks did some research, eventually bringing the
Declaration to an auction house, where experts discovered
it was no knockoff. It was the real thing, an official copy printing in 1820. Only 35 copies were known to exist in the modern age until Sparks' thrift store find made 36. He ultimately sold the
Declaration at auction for 477,650 dollars. That's a lot of Ben Franklins. Now the new owner just has to
hide it from Nicholas Cage. Number eight, photo worth millions. Randy Guijarro visited his favorite shop and found a box of
tintypes, old photographs. He found some he liked and
paid three dollars for them. After going home, he got
out a magnifying glass and studied the photos. In one, he recognized outlaw Billy the Kid and called his wife over to look. They discovered other people
in the photo, as well, who were part of Billy's gang. After that, they spent another year authenticating the photo, ultimately identifying all eighteen people in the picture and even finding the ruins of the building they posed in front of. A similar picture sold at auction for 2.3 million in 2011, and Randy insured his for five million. Number seven, charity shop clothing. A bride-to-be wanted a good deal on a wedding dress. Her friend suggested she check out a local charity shop, and she was in luck. They just received a big donation of wedding dresses from a local boutique. One dress had a 1,595 pound tag but was only 25 pounds
at the charity store. It fit the bride like a glove, and she left happy and hopefully spent the more than 1500 pounds she saved on a seriously awesome wedding cake. Number six, an eight dollar video game. Paying attention to news about valuable antiques can really pay off, and it did for Jennifer Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2013, she was browsing
her local Goodwill and noticed a game behind
the counter for 7.99. It was an NES cartridge from the eighties called Stadium Events, and
the name reminded Thompson of a story she'd seen about a rare game that sold for thousands of dollars. Because so few of the game were produced, not many are left and copies
sell for a high price. Thompson rushed across the street to use the Wifi at McDonald's and quickly confirmed her hunch. She hurried back to the Goodwill store and bought the game, later selling it on Gamegavel.com for 25,000 dollars. Number five, valuable books. Now these examples will
remind you to always check what's inside books in thrift stores. One Goodwill shopper found an apparently autographed copy of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time that also included a fingerprint. Pretty amazing, right? Unfortunately not. Some commenters noted that
Hawking's disabilities prevented him from handwriting anything and have since the 1980s. The 1996 suggests the handwriting must belong to someone else, although no one has been able to identify the fingerprint. Another thrifter's uncle nabbed a copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The handwriting is even pretty legible for a guy who liked to say, "write drunk, edit sober." Number four, a valuable splash of paint. Teri Horton was searching a thrift store for a gift to cheer up a friend and decided that what she saw as a large ugly painting would do the trick. She negotiated the price
down to five dollars, and her friend did get a
laugh out of the picture. Unfortunately, it
wouldn't fit in her house, so she gave it back to Horton, who stuck it in a shed and later tried to unload it in her own yard sale. There, an art teacher noted it looked like Jackson Pollack. Horton responded with, "who the frick is Jackson Pollock?" Ultimately, she did some research and realized Pollock was a frickin' famous painter whose pictures were worth a frickin' lot of money. Then she tried to get the
painting authenticated, even hiring a forensic
specialist who matched a fingerprint on the back of the piece to one on another Pollock painting. Although the art world still refused to accept her find, Horton was offered nine million dollars for it, which she turned down because she believed it was worth fifty million. Excuse me, fifty frickin' million? Twenty five years later,
she's still waiting for someone to pay it. Number three, a rare diving watch. Zach Norris was looking for a golf cart at Goodwill when he made a quick detour to the watch selection. Digging through cheap watches, he spotted a diamond in the rough, a 1959 Jaeger-LeCoulter
deep sea alarm watch. Only 900 were made, and Norris recognized it was worth a lot more than
the 5.99 Goodwill wanted for the slightly worn watch. He was right. After having it authenticated
by a brand dealer, he sold it online for 35,000 dollars, plus a 4,000 Megir Speed Masterwatch. Now there's something to watch
out for at the thrift shop. Number two, lookalike paintings. Sometimes going to the
thrift store isn't just about finding valuable items. It's about finding items that really speak to you. This shopper found a painting that looked eerily like him, complete with a red sweater and glasses. Another thrifter found
the perfect t-shirt. It had a picture of a guy
who looked like his twin, with similarly styled brown hair, a beard, and glasses. The caption? Hipster. Never has a more accurate
caption been written. Number one, a loaded purse. Finds that are worth a lot of money are great, but sometimes
it's nice to just find the money itself. This shopper purchased an
old purse at a thrift store and was thrilled to see it came with a bonus item, cash! When she posted her find online, commenters suggested the
currency looked brand new and could be worth even
more than its face value. An extra good find. What's the best thing you've discovered at the thrift? Let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for watching! (upbeat marimba music)
