The thrill of searching through thrift shops and flea markets is that you never know what you will find. Chances are that you will find something that catches your eye for a couple of bucks and go home happy. Of course part of the allure is that you might grab a bargain. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure after all. Sometimes that trash really is treasure.

Here are ten things found at flea markets that were secretly worth a fortune.

Top 10 Accidental Discoveries

10 Alexander Calder Necklace

Alexander Calder was a 20th century American sculptor from a family of famous artists. His wire and metal mobile sculptures can be found in galleries and museums across the world. As well as paintings, prints, and a range of other art forms Calder also turned his hand to jewellery.

His rings, necklaces, and earrings were usually made of brass and steel. They were not commercial items and he usually made them specifically as gifts for his artistic friends. Joan Miro got a ring, Peggy Guggenheim received earrings, and Georgia O’Keefe was given a Calder broach. When a piece of Calder jewellery turns up at auction you can expect it to make big bucks.

Norma Ifill got a great bargain then when she picked up a necklace for just $15 at a Brooklyn flea market. Once the Alexander Calder estate authenticated it the necklace made $267,750 at auction.^[1]

9 Martin Johnson Heade Paintings

The art usually found at rummage sales is either bad, creepy, or a reproduction. When a man from Wisconsin found a charming little painting of some flowers for a low price he snapped it up. He had a pressing need for the picture too – he used it to cover up an annoying hole in his wall. One day while playing an art based game he recognised a painting similar to the one on his wall. Contacting a museum its value was realised and it subsequently sold for $1.25 million.

Oddly this was not the first time a Meade painting was picked up for a bargain. “Two Magnolias on Blue Plush” was bought for just $29 but later sold for $882,500. One person was lucky enough to get two Heade paintings for just $100 at an estate sale. The larger of the two, “Magnolia Blossoms on Blue Velvet,” was auctioned for $937,500.

If you live in the United States and happen to have a painting of flowers resting on fabric it might just be worth getting it valued.^[2]

8 Chinese Bowl

Lots of the stuff found in thrift shops will have ‘Made in China’ stamped somewhere on them. One Chinese item that did not turned out to be 1000 years old and worth more than you might expect.

Picked up for just $3 the white bowl is not immediately striking. It is only five inches in diameter and plain white in colour. It had a pretty pattern on the inside though that attracted the buyer enough to part with their dollar bills. The owners put the bowl on display in their living room and at any moment they might have knocked it over. Still, they would only have lost $3.

After a while however the owners became interested in the history of their bowl and took it to an auction house. After realising it was from the Song dynasty of Chinese history and one of the most valuable types of ceramic produced at the time – Ding pottery.^[3]

When sold at Sotheby’s it raised $2.225 million.

7 Declaration of Independence

There is no more uniquely American document than the Declaration of Independence. Children learn about it, politicians refer to it, and Nicolas Cage tries to steal it in movies. You might expect then that all the copies of it are located and kept in secure locations. Yet only a few of the copies originally sent out in 1776 are still known to exist.

In 1989 an old painting was bought for $4 at a flea market. The painting however was not what the buyer was after, he liked the look of the wooden frame. When he pried the painting from the frame something slipped out of the back – a Declaration of Independence. In pristine condition the document was taken to an auction house who immediately realised what it might be worth.

The copy that was found was one of just 24 known to exist that were printed for July 4th, 1776 in Philadelphia. When sold at Sotheby’s the surprise find made $2.42 million.^[4]

6 Constable Painting

John Constable is one of Britain’s most famous painters. His ‘The Hay Wain’ is often voted as the nation’s favourite paintings. When one person bought a job lot of trinkets for £30 he never expected that one of them would turn out to be a painting by Constable.

One of the paintings found in his collection was no bigger than a postcard but was in a large and gilded frame. When the original buyer gave the picture to his son Robert Darvell he decided to investigate the little masterpiece. A faint signature on the back of the painting was the only clue that it might be more than it seemed.

Turning the painting over to a British television show that investigates whether art works are real or forgeries it took a year of study to confirm the painting was by John Constable. With that attribution the painting suddenly leapt up in value – experts suggested a valuation of £250,000.^[5]

Top 10 Times Hurricanes Left Strange Things Behind

5 Renoir Painting

Mixed boxes at junk sales generally contain stuff that could not be sold on their own. One buyer took a chance though and came out with a valuable Impressionist painting. Usually the clues to whether a painting is worth a lot can be quite subtle but in this case they were written right on the frame.

It was only after the painting was bought for $7 that the new owner spotted the name on the frame – Renoir. Of course you can’t just trust everything written on a frame so the owner looked at a note on the back referring a gallery. By checking the number on the note against a catalogue the owner found a picture that looked exactly like the one she bought.

‘Paysage Bords de Seine,’ as Renoir called the painting, dates from 1879 but had not been known to the art world since 1926. With its authenticity confirmed it is thought to be worth at least $75,000.^[6]

4 Andy Warhol Sketch

If you learn one thing from this article it is that you should always take a peek behind the frame of any paintings you pick up in a thrift shop. When Andy Fields bought 5 paintings for $5 in Las Vegas he already thought he had got a bargain. It was only when he reframed them that he discovered a sketch hidden behind one of them.

A colourful face was staring back at Fields and there was a subtle clue as to who the artist might have been – the name Andy Warhol. It is now known that the sketch is of 1930s singer Rudy Vallee and was done when Warhol was just ten years old. The bright colours already show some of the themes Warhol would adopt in his later artworks.

Though Fields does not want to sell the work yet some experts think it could be worth up to $2 million. Andy Warhol’s brother on the other hand considers the work a fake. The picture went up for sale on eBay for £1.25 million.^[7]

3 Chinese Libation Cup

For $4 you would not expect a cup to be made from anything other than the cheapest plastics. One intricately decorated cup picked up in an Australian charity shop looked like particularly stained plastic at that. But when the cup was examined by experts it was realised that it was carved from rhino hand and was a rare Chinese libation cup.

Libation cups in China were often carved from rhino horn and were given to scholars who had done especially well in examinations. The cup would have been used at communal and special events. The one picked up for a few bucks in a charity shop was decorated with magnolia flowers and dated from the 17th century.

Because of a small chip in the rim of the cup its value was reduced. It made a mere $75,640 at auction.^[8]

2 26-Carat Diamond

All that glitters at a car boot sale is not gold. Boxes piled high with jewellery are a common sight at yard sales but it is usually a safe bet that none have any gold or diamonds in them. When one person saw a ring with a large stone in the middle they assumed it was just a chunk of glass. They paid around £10 ($13) for it and enjoyed the ring as a piece of costume jewellery.

Now known as the Tenner Ring for its price the owner wore it as she went about her daily tasks. It was only after thirty years of enjoying her ring that she suspected it might be real. An auction house confirmed that the stone in the ring was actually a large and important diamond cut in the 19th century. In total the diamond weighed in at 26.27 carats.

The diamond ring fetched £656,750 (850,000 USD) when put up for sale.^[9]

1 Fabergé Egg

If you go to a flea market it is not likely that you will end up spending $14,000. One dealer in scrap gold however was there looking for objects he could melt down and sell off for their weight in gold. When he spotted a highly decorated egg with a hefty amount of gold in it he was prepared to pay a hefty price for it. He almost lost the real value of his investment however when he nearly melted down a Fabergé Egg.

Karl Fabergé was one of the most famous jewellers in 19th century Russia. Each Easter he was tasked with producing gifts for the Russian Imperial family. Often these took the form of elaborately jewelled and decorated golden eggs. After the Russian Revolution this collection of eggs was scattered across the world.

The one found at the flea market was probably made for Czar Alexander III to give to the Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1887. The last time it had been sold was in 1964 for just over $2000. When the egg was reappraised after its discovery it was valued at as much as $33 million.^[10]

10 Accidental Inventions That Changed The World

In my opinion, the ’90s were arguably better than the current generation, especially when it comes to rare toys, music, TV shows, and fashion. If you were lucky enough to own some of the most coveted gems from that period, you might want to sift through your stuff since you could be sitting on a fortune.

Something as small as a rare transformer action figure could make you hundreds of dollars richer. Stick around to find out which trinkets from the ’90s could make you a fortune on the market today.

10 Hot Wheels Funny Cars

As we speak, over a billion hot wheels have been released in the market. While most of them cost a few dollars, the rare pieces and prototypes are worth hundreds of dollars, and they keep getting more valuable as time goes by. For example, one of the first ever hot wheels to be released that mimics a white Camaro is now worth $2,500, but people are willing to pay more if it comes in good condition.

Another costly hot wheels is the Cheetah Python. It was one of the few collections designed by Bill Cushenberry and was forged after a dream he had. At first, the collection wasn’t meant to be released to the public, but somehow a few made it out of the factory and are now worth almost $10,000.

It’s easy to see why the Cash Money Hot Wheels is the most expensive out of all the cars designed by the franchise. Its body is encrusted with real diamonds and topped with an 18-karat gold frame. As if that’s not enough, it has red-cut rubies on the brake lights and a lot more expensive additions. The franchise made only one of its kind, now valued at $140,000.

9 Furby Toy

Furby toys debuted in 1998, and surprisingly the franchise sold $1.8 million pieces that year. While it certainly wasn’t the most innovative toy out there, it was one of the few that could mimic words, making it hit with kids everywhere. While Furbys used to be a few dollars maximum, some people are now willing to pay a few hundred for that scary-looking owl toy.

For this reason, if you were lucky enough to buy a Furby from the exclusive collections and it’s still in excellent condition, consider listing it for sale. Take the Bejeweled Furby, for example; only five of the same were released to the public, and considering its original price tag was $100,000, you can now sell it for way more money.

The most expensive Furby to be sold in the secondary market was listed on eBay and ended up selling for over $4550, which was still a shocker despite its pristine condition.

Aside from the Furbys mentioned above, you can easily sell yours for more than $500 regardless of whether it was from a rare collection, which is not a fortune but still exceeds the original price tenfold.

8 Pokémon Cards

If you were a Pokémon fanatic back in the ‘90s who didn’t mind spending money on rare cards, you might have made one of the best investments of that time. While the price of Pokémon cards has been steadily decreasing, they are still worth a fortune.

There are over 20 collections that can make you a millionaire, but the Pikachu illustrator is the most expensive one. YouTuber Logan Paul bought it for $5.275 million in July 2021, which caused a social media frenzy. Considering there are 40 similar cards in circulation, you should check your collection.

Another classic has to be the first edition of Shadowless Holographic Charizard, which was released in 1999. Due to how rare it is, this card remains arguably the most sought-after, with one of them selling for $420,000 at an auction in 2022.

Though the Pokémon Blastoise isn’t the most expensive collectors’ card in the market, it is the rarest. Only two of the same cards were ever created, and only one can be traced. In 2021, this card sold for $360,000 at a private auction.

If you have any Pokémon original cards, you might want to get them valued. While they might not be worth millions, chances are a fan/collector will be willing to pay good money for them.

7 Disney VHS Tapes

Only a few things can help you relive your childhood like re-watching classic Disney movies. While you can easily tune into the Disney streaming service to access any classics now, people from the ’90s relied on VHS tapes which were relatively rare as Disney moved titles into and out of their vault. Sometimes, certain movies weren’t available for years after their initial VHS release.

If you were lucky enough to own Disney VHS tapes with the black diamond mark/label at the corners, you should consider listing them for sale as they are worth a lot. Bonus points if you have a collection considering there is a seller listing his collection of VHS tapes for a whopping $150,000.

In 2019, someone sold their black diamond Beauty and the Beast VHS tape for $10,000, which piqued the attention of other collectors. However, you need to be strategic about your listing considering many people argue that the tapes shouldn’t be worth more than $30. But there’s a high chance you’ll struggle to find someone who appreciates its value.

6 Michael Jordan Jersey

Sports fanatics go above and beyond to see their favorite player in action. To take it an extra mile, fans usually buy original jerseys of their favorite player for outrageous prices. One classic example is when Michael Jordan’s jersey from the first game of the 1998 NBA finals almost broke the world record. It sold for $10 million in an auction hosted by Invictus.

Shockingly enough, the jersey, which was priced outrageously before the bid began, received 20 bids and would have gotten more had the buyer not shocked the crowd with his undisputed offer.

5 Black Lotus Magic Card

If you thought trading cards were affordable, think again. The Black Lotus, which is part of Magic: The Gathering, is one of the most expensive cards ever sold. In 2021, it was listed on an eBay auction and ended up going for a whopping $511,100, three times what the seller bought it for in 2019. If past trends are anything to go by, its value will keep going up as time progresses.

Part of the reason this card is as valuable as its price depicts is that it was the first ever made from the collection and carries the author’s signature on its casing. Also, the designers made it in a unique shape that was soon discontinued, making it stand out.

Did I mention that anyone who draws this card while gaming gets to cast powerful spells that put them in an advantageous position?

4 Action Figures

Action figures are arguably one of the priciest collectible trinkets from the ’90s. While not many people can justify spending a dime on the latest action figures, the original ones, especially those released for popular films, are worth millions.

One of these action figures is the Rocket-firing Boba Fett, which was to be released with the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back movie. Sadly (or not), it was never mass-produced and is now worth more than $200,000.

Another expensive action figure is the handmade prototype for G.I Joe that was sold in an auction at $600,000. While you could get the mass-produced ones for cheaper in the ’90s, you can now easily sell them for a couple of hundred dollars.

Funny enough, some of the most expensive action figures are the ones that failed the beta testing for the Star Wars franchise and were never mass-produced. One example is Obi-Wan Kenobi, which recently sold for $65,000.

Lastly, if you are one of the 12 people who own a tri-logo General Madine, you are sitting on a gold mine. Due to how rare the said action figure is, it recently sold for $12,500 at an auction despite being initially bought for only a few hundred dollars when it was released in 1983.

3 Jurassic Park Toys

Each time Jurassic Park released a new movie, they would also release toys modeled after the movie characters, and they would always sell out in a few days. While some of the said toys were mass-produced, others were limited editions, and the original buyers would later sell them for a few hundred more than the initial price.

One of the most sought-after Jurassic Park toys is the series two Carnotaurus Demon. If you have one that’s in the original packaging plus the accessories, it’s worth more than $1,000.

When Jurassic 3 was released, it brought along the infrared remote control spinosaurus. At that moment, there was nothing special about it, but the movie didn’t do as well, and only a few of the said toys were produced, raising the demand. As of now, if you have a new toy in pristine condition, you can start eBay bidding at $900 and are bound to make a decent amount.

2 Beanie Babies

As someone who grew up in the ’90s, chances are you owned one of the Beanie Babies’ toys at one point or the other. Most people trashed theirs, but you will be shocked to discover they are now worth a hefty chunk of change for whatever reason. Of course, for your beanie baby to be worth anything today, it must have the original TY sticker and be in pristine condition.

For example, the Princess Di Bear Beanie retails for close to $10,000. Its value is mainly attributed to the fact that it was dedicated to Princess Diana, and only a few pieces were ever created. But that isn’t all—remember Bubbles?

Well, beanies from that release could now make you $120,000 richer. It’s easy to see why considering it was one of the most sought-after collections, and it never seemed to be in stock.

There was even a supposedly rare Valentino beanie bear listed on Etsy valued at $43,000. And many other dolls from the beanie collection are now worth a lot. If you can still get to the attic and figure out which box they’re hiding in, you might want to find them and cash in!

1 Original Harry Potter Books

When the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released in the ’90s, the franchise was not as well known as it is now. Only a few avid readers bothered buying one of the 500 hardcover copies that were released.

To put it into perspective, 300 of the 500 hardcopy books were donated to children’s libraries and schools, leaving only 200 for the masses. According to AbeBooks, one hardcover book from that collection is expected to fetch more than 30,000 euros. If you have an original copy, check to see if the print line reads 10987654321 and the author name reads Joanne Rowling and not JK Rowling.

If you have the first edition hardcover of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone book, you can easily list it for $5000. To confirm whether your book falls in the said category, check to see if it has the print line 1357910864289/9 0/0 01 02 plus the wording first American edition, October 1998.

In short, all the hardcopy first editions of any books from the Harry Potter franchise are now worth four figures and above. However, if you have paperback originals that carry JK Rowling’s signature, you can also list them for an impressive amount.