20+ Second-Hand Items That Turned Out to Be a Real Treasure for Their New Owners

Some people know how to find a real pearl among second-hand stuff at thrift stores. But sometimes it works in the opposite way — people buy things like clothes or furniture, return home, and suddenly find something really unexpected inside these things. And we love reading stories like this that have been shared by internet users.

• I once bought a great wool coat from a thrift store. When I got home, I hung the coat in my closet, and forgot about it. One day, when it was really cold, I decided to put it on. I got into my car and felt there was something in the pocket. It was a money clip that looked empty.
  I put it back and went about my business. When I returned home, I decided to look closer at my find, and suddenly found 400 dollars folded inside the money clip’s pocket. © Stan Wisnewski / Quora
• I’d long dreamed of going abroad, but I never had enough money to do it. I often buy clothes in second-hand shops. So, I bought pants right before the New Year. I decided to put them on almost before the midnight, put my hand into the pocket, and found 10 100-dollar bills. I’m taking a trip abroad this summer.
• My old bag got torn, but I didn’t have money for a new one. I had exams coming up, so there was no chance I could work. I went to a thrift store to buy a replacement for my bag and I found a decent one, checked the pockets, and found a bent ring.
  I thought it was a cheap piece of jewelry, but decided to check it with a jeweler anyway. It turned out it was made from white gold. I sold it, and bought Christmas presents for my family with this money. I excelled at my exams, and still carry this bag because it’s turned out to be so lucky.
• I found a bowling ball at a thrift store, bought it for $0.50, and took it home happy. I planned to put it on a stick to scare crows away. When I tried to put a broom handle into the ring finger hole, I found something jammed in there.
  It turned out to be a ring with blue diamonds. I returned to the store. The sales assistants were really excited as they said that the woman who had brought the ball told them that she lost a ring. And the ring I found was the one. © Glen Mick / Quora

“I found a $30 Leather Kindle Sleeve for $6.19, opened it up and the Kindle was still inside!”

• When my daughter Sarah was about 10 years old, she told me she wanted a diary. I kept this in mind as her birthday approached. I was at a thrift store in my neighborhood and happened upon a pink, girly diary. I opened it and the message written on the first page was, “Happy Birthday Sarah, October 18th, Love Mom.”
  The diary had been donated, unused, in perfect condition with my daughter’s birthday message inside already! Did I buy it? Of course! This has made such a perfect family story, which we love to tell when the topic of coincidences comes up. © Patricia DuMont / Quora
• I worked as a handyman. Once, I was called to fix a sofa that was creaking. According to the owner, they had bought it at a fancy furniture salon just recently.
  I removed the upholstery carefully and found a whole collection of stockings, underwear, and socks, apparently from a second-hand store. This stuff was used as a filling. We were really surprised! By the way, I fixed the creaking, which had nothing to do with this filling.
• I once bought a package of diapers at a thrift store. When I returned home, I found that it had a tear. While I was opening the package, something dropped on the floor. It was a 20-dollar bill.
  At first, I thought it fell out of the pocket of my pants. But then another $20 fell on the floor, I looked into the package more attentively, and there was $500 in 20-dollar bills. And we really needed this money at that time. © Anonymous / Quora

“I bought my friend a wool coat for $15 and later found this in the pocket.”

• I bought sweatpants in a thrift store. I wore them for a year. I felt there was a coin inside the lining, but there were no holes in the pockets. Eventually, I got really sick and tired of it because it was rubbing my leg when I walked. So, I opened the lining and found a 5-euro coin.
• Back when I was a student in the 1980s, I bought a tuxedo from a thrift shop. It was in good condition, since these things generally don’t get worn much, albeit a rather old-fashioned style. The first time I wore it, I found an invitation in the pocket to the “High Wycombe and district grocer’s association dinner.”
  The note described the menu to be served, which seemed rather austere given it was a food industry event, but then listed 2 proposed toasts — one to “the association,” and the other was to “the King” — bearing in mind the Queen had already been on the throne for nearly 30 years even back then. © Hywel Davies / Quora
• Halloween a few years back, my husband and I were going out as Inspector Gadget and Penny. I went to a thrift store to find an oversized tan trench coat for him and desperately searched for “Inspector Gadget Gloves.” I found a coat right away and went to 3 other thrift stores for gloves, but was unsuccessful.
  Feeling really bummed, I went home to throw the old coat in the wash. When what should I find in the pockets? A pair of gloves virtually identical to the ones Gadget wears! Not exactly a diamond ring, but it felt like a gift from the Halloween Gods! © Dagger Willingham / Quora
• I bought a used RV a few years back. The seat cushion covers in the back bedroom area were most definitely a fairly wild faded orange color from the ’70s. There was even shag carpet, orange of course, on the floor.
  Anyway, a buddy of mine did reupholstery work, so I hit him up for a bid. He didn’t have time to take all of the covers off of the cushions, so I did it. On the second cover that I took off, I found 6 $100 bills! © Jim Turner / Quora

“I bought a taped-shut antique chocolate tin at a thrift store. Got it open and found these beautiful 19th century marbles inside!”

• One time I tried on a jacket at a thrift store and found pages of crazy writing stuffed into the pockets. I took them out and recognized immediately that it was my best friend from high school’s handwriting. I found out the jacket wasn’t his, he had just gone into the same thrift store and stuffed his weirdo poetry into it randomly in the hopes that somebody would find it and get freaked out. He even left a link to his blogspot if they wanted to read more. I was very impressed by the hustle, honestly. © creeptrick / Reddit
• While on vacation at the beach, I discovered I had not packed swim trunks. So my wife and I found a thrift store and I bought a used set of swim trunks. I used them for the week and returned home. After my wife did the laundry from our trip, she discovered a 100-dollar bill folded up tight in the small inner pocket of the bathing suit. That was unexpected. © David Rowe / Quora
• I was buying a simple, second-hand TV set for our country house. We arrived to pick it up, but the seller suddenly asked for an extra $30. It wasn’t nice, but we still bought it because we’d driven that far to get it. We returned home to find out that the remote wasn’t working. I opened the cover to insert batteries, and a rolled up 100-dollar bill fell out of it.

“I found a couple of receipts in the pocket of a pair of shorts my wife bought at a thrift store this week. They are from Berlin circa 2016. We live in North Carolina.”

• My son worked at a thrift store. A skirt came in from an estate. Sewn in the seams was stash of a little over $1,000. The staff contacted the donors to find that the deceased woman who owned the skirt had been saving up for a vacation with her husband. They returned the money to the family. The husband planned on using it to take the vacation she wanted for them. © MJ Lamb / Quora
• My mother opened a small furniture store. She bought large, odd job lots of furniture, usually from auctions, and cleaned them for resale. One such lot had a rather nice oak lowboy with 2 drawers. Both drawers had very old fur coats in rough condition in them. She was going to donate them to a local amateur theater group. I was helping and threw the coats over a desk and they “thunked” loudly.
  Curious, we spread out the coats and found, in the collars and bottom edge, 2 inch tubes that had been carefully sewn in. We picked apart the stitching and there was a cascade of jewelry. Rosaries, crosses, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings, several slim watches, and chains. Many pieces had gemstones.
  The coats had Paris labels, but no other names. We speculated they had belonged to smugglers or refugees. The gold marks were from all over Europe. My mother sold it all, discretely, over a 3-year period, which paid her rent and expenses and formed the basis for her business for the next 12 years. One item remains, a small pinky ring, which I have worn ever since. 52 years. © George Porter / Quora
• I bought a box of random tableware once for $5. When I got home and emptied everything out, there was a chunk of turquoise in the bottom of the box. It was just a little smaller than the size of my fist. It sits on the mantelpiece in my living room. © leed25d / Reddit

Have you ever found anything interesting hidden in your second-hand purchases?