People find all sorts of treasures at thrift stores, including some of their own stuff from times passed. Some even find money hidden in clothes. Wouldn't that be a treat?
mycatbaby asked: What's the coolest thing you've found in an antique/thrift/secondhand store?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
10. That's always nice.
A hardly worn out version of my favorite shirt in the same size as the one I already have. Now I have a backup.
Jealous. I always wish I could find the same pair of sneakers after about 6 months and I've decided I really like them.
I had the same thing happen! Played at Disneyland with the high school band in 2006. Found the same commemorative t-shirt in the same size a couple years ago. Crazy.
9. Pants pockets profits.
My grandma bought a coat for £2 from a charity shop. The first time she wore it she found £5 in the pocket.
I bought a pair of jeans from a thrift shop and it came with a Ricola that had been through the wash.
I bet those pants sounded amazing.
8. Score!
I bought a subwoofer and a box with it to restore it and when I started taking it apart a bunch of drugs fell out that were taped to the top of it.
Delicious nose clams, fresh from the sea?
7. That's just super.
By an incredible coincidence, a couple years ago I found a Super Nintendo with a Star Trek sticker and a chipped corner from when it fell from the table.
MY Super Nintendo, which we had sold 25 years ago. It's back on my shelf now, all I need is a small Toshiba CRT TV and the nostalgia will be complete.
A friend in school had his place burgled. they stole a PC, video game consoles and other generic stuff. He went to a local flea market and found them all for sale. He just bought them back because the guy was selling them all cheap.
6. Did Not See that coming.
Back in 1978 I visited a secondhand store in Chehalis with my parents, while we waited to meet someone next door. The topic of stamp collecting came up with the owner and he pulled out a full-sized paper grocery bag full of stamps, and said we could have the whole bag for $10. My dad bought it. I had just started stamp collecting and this were enough stamps to keep us busy for years.
As it turns out the whole bag was from the 40s-60s, all eastern European, Russian, and Nazi stamps, and clearly from another collector with lots of special issue plates, special commemorative issues, stamps from countries that no longer exist too. I still have the albums we arranged and Scott catalogued them in.
5. Can't put a price on nostalgia.
My grandfather always had this glass mug that I loved. It was a thick orb shaped clear mug with a frosted image of the map of the world on it. He would always drink his scotch out of it despite it having a little chip in the rim, he loved that mug. He passed about 5 years ago and I made sure I wound up with that mug. Last year I was in an antique store and found a complete set of them! They were apparently a promotional set from Nestle for Nescafe. I got the whole set for something crazy like $7. Now I have a complete set for my bar and I still drink my scotch out of the one with the chip in the rim. Not crazy in terms of value but it was pretty great specifically for me.
https://i.imgur.com/xxsh0gL.jpg
Saved future people some clicks.
4. Was it Danny's book?
I found a New York City almanac for five bucks. It was published in the '30's. It was amazing, it had information about all the neighborhoods, all the hotels, restaurants, clubs, and the prices of everything.
I also found an autograph book from the '50's. It was full of signatures and poems from high school kids. It was really neat, the book was owned by a boy, and a couple of the rhymes and autographs alluded to a crush he had on a girl named Sandy. Towards the back of the book, there was an autograph from Sandy. I always wondered if it was the same girl and if they ended up together.
I bought a travel guide for London kind of like this recently. I think it's from the 60s, but it's a couple-inch-thick mini hardcover book with tons of fold-out maps and stuff. Almost totally useless for a current trip, but amusing.
I love stuff like that. I love seeing how people in the past lived. The prices interest me most. You could get a room at swanky hotel in Manhattan for like ten bucks a night!
3. Civil War swag.
I found a box full of musket parts for $30 last year at a local antique store. Got home pieced it together and it's an original 1860's 3 ban 1853 Enfield musket. Despite the stock being in a horrible condition the fact that it's original and not a reproduction makes it worth far more than $30.
Maybe the stock is probably in bad shape because the previous owner used it in a war or something.
Dumb@ss probably didn't even consider resale value in 100 years
::smashes Confederate skull with stock::
"Welp, just ruined the collector value on that one."
Yeah, no collector will buy it now, that' just a mess. Your gun got dinged up too.
2. Letters in a bottle.
I go to estate sales a few times a year, as I run an antique booth in a local store, and I've found a few interesting things. One of my favorites is when we came across an old briefcase in a barn, and inside was a ton of old papers. We ended up getting it for about a dollar. Later we opened up a bottle of wine and went through all the papers. There were tons of old letters, mostly from the 50s-70s.
The woman was a middle aged widow who kept in touch with a few family members, a friend in Cuba, and also had a few pen pals. A few letters in we came across a romantic letter from a foreign military man. He said that he wished to write the letter in English, despite it not being his native tongue, so that she would hopefully better understand him. He professed his love and told her how much he missed her, how he longed to hold her again. His name was Fredrico. Our hearts swelled and we hoped to find other such letters.
We found letters from her grandchild, which were always enclosed in colorful decorated envelopes. Her drawings progressed as she aged, and in the 70s they became peace signs and slogans against war. The woman from Cuba wrote of mundane daily activities. There was one relative who spilled juicy family drama. Then we came across another love letter...not from Fredrico!
As we went through the letters something started to take shape. This widow frequently sought male military 'pen pals', and seemed to be seeking a new husband. There was one man who wrote about how he did indeed fancy her, but in no way saw himself getting into any sort of serious relationship with her. Another man wrote about how no he had not left his wife yet, but he could not stop thinking about their passionate lovemaking, and he included a lock of his hair. Sometimes the letters from men would include her original letter, so we were able to read her side as well. Sometimes it made me feel very sad for her. She seemed quite desperate to fall in love, though it never seemed to work out.
We never found another letter from Fredrico, and I imagine him carrying the memory of her in his heart and always wondering 'what could have been'. Or perhaps his letters stopped because he realized he was one of many, or because he tried to sweep her away and she declined. We will never know.
1. What shot of luck.
It was labeled "cap gun" so my folks said no problem, it was only a dollar. Came with a small bag of "caps".
Got home, took it over to a local park with my friends to check it out, pulled out the caps and they were 22 blanks. It wasn't a cap gun it was a starter's pistol for races.
Best cap gun a 12 year old ever had, I'd fire it till the gun was hot. Even found replacement blanks. I've had it for about 40 years now and it still works.
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