The Antiques Roadshow has been stoking the dreams of thifty shoppers since 1979 when it first aired in the UK on BBC. The US would launch its own version in 1997.
The shows premise is simple.
People scour their possessions hoping there's treasure to be found and bring it to an Antiques Roadshow event to be appraised by experts in art and antiquities.
Sometimes they bring in a family heirloom, but other times their potential treasure is something they purchased secondhand.
Reddit user pantherasbogart asked:
"What is the cheapest thing you bought that turned out to be very valuable or expensive?"
Best Purchase Ever
"I paid 50 dollars for my dog's adoption fee."
"He ended up barking for help when I had a seizure caused by medication."
"Priceless puppy!"
~ Scared-Tomatillo-203
Always Check The Frame
"My daughter bought a painting for $0.50 at a thrift shop and found an envelope with $1,000 in back of it."
~ biscobingo
Library Loot
"Bought a first edition of The Shining by Stephen King for $1 at a local library sale and sold it for $500 a few years later."
~ photoguy423
Pricey Paperweight
"I brought a small blown glass orb for ~$25 at a street fair as I thought it was cool. For four years it was sitting on my desk."
"A client came into my office and stated if it was authentic—famous artisan and I had the original holder—it is valuable. I thought the person was BSing me."
"It's a Bramhall and luckily the stand I have is stamped and unique."
"Appraised at over $10K—not on my desk any longer. Totally surprised me. I had it rechecked 2 yrs ago to be sure."
~ stickman07738
Do The Dew
"Mountain Dew limited edition flavors."
"Picked up a bunch of 20oz bottles and cases of 12 oz cans around 2005 after seeing collectors pay a lot for discontinued Surge and such."
"Ended up selling most for $100-200 apiece about a year ago."
~ inu_yasha
Bottoms Up... Or Not
"Maybe not cheap, but in 2012 I bought two bottles of high-quality bourbon (Pappy's) for $250 each as I knew it was popular and reputed to be good. I wanted to try it."
"I drank one bottle over the course of the next year, but saved the other."
"Well that remaining bottle is now worth in the vicinity of $5k and I'm very hesitant to actually drink it."
~ grandwahs
Reduce, Reuse, Rehome
"After my office chair broke, I was going to go to a cheap furniture store to get another crappy chair for €150 ($160), which was the most I could spend at the time."
"But on the way there I stopped by a second hand furniture store in my town, and they had a sturdy looking office chair—steel wheels and frame instead of plastic, fairly comfy, seemed like it'll last some time—for €50 ($53)."
"I bought it and a few months later decided to look up what kind of chair it is. Turns out it's a Herman Miller Mirra 2, which seem to retail for around €1,300 ($1,391) more than I paid."
~ edwinodesseiron
"When COVID lockdown started, someone was giving away a free office chair on one of those buy nothing groups on Facebook. I had just started a remote job as well as my Masters program, so I was in the process of setting up my home office."
"I asked for the chair and the person said if I can pick it up right away, I could have it as she’s about to just leave it outside of her house for anyone to grab. I went to pick it up right away."
"Turns out it was a Herman Miller Aeron chair!"
~ trickymohnkey
Luck Of The Draw
"Bought a lottery ticket for $2."
"I won about 800k from it."
"Bought a house with that money and now I work a regular job while saving for retirement."
~ Sunnyfloralprinces
Blown Away
"I purchased a tiny glass bird at a yard sale for 25 cents."
"Turned out be a signed hand blown Murano piece that I sold on eBay for $800."
~ jasta2
It's What You Do With It
"My boyfriend bought me a cheap graphics tablet for maybe $50 or something."
"He knew that I loved to draw."
"With this tablet, I found a job as an artist and made my dream come true."
~ Natalia_Kozlova
His Etchings
"My friend's grandmother was at a yard sale and bought a framed sketch because she thought it looked neat. Turned out to be a genuine Picasso sketch."
"No idea what it was worth, but she paid like a dollar for it."
"I should also add that his grandmother was already filthy rich, so she just hung it up and was like 'huh, that's neat'."
~ antiyoupunk
🎵 Silver And Gold... 🎶
"Once bought a box load of Christmas decorations at an auction house for $40."
"It was full of gold, silver, crystal and hand blown glass decorations from Harrods and other fancy stores."
"I'm in New Zealand so they came half way round the world."
~ apple5masher
Purchase Bonus
"I bought a sealed set of the Burger King gold Pokémon cards for like 40$."
"The person gave me a HUGE binder also full of mostly 1st gen original cards."
"I've sold some of the cards and made a couple grand and still have plenty."
~ _Rhoadie_
Gifted Discs
"I got a box of vinyl records from a family friend. Went on Discogs to add them to my existing collection."
"One was an original press of some obscure folk musician. Apparently pretty rare. They were going anywhere from $300-$900."
"I had a guy message me asking for photos/videos. I sent him some, he asked the price, I said make me an offer."
"He said $500, I said sold. He was a mega fan and super happy, and I was happy to have $500."
~ HonestFalcon4444
Sellers Mistake
"Saved up $150 for a Roomba."
"They accidentally sent me the model that was $700 at the time."
"6 years later and David still works perfectly fine."
~ countofmontycrinkles
Radio Prize
"I won U2's first single—1,000 of which were released only in Ireland in 1979 and hand-numbered—from the radio show competition that determined which track would be on the A-side."
"Had I paid for it, it would have been £1.49 ($1.86)."
"Today I'm negotiating selling it for between £2,400-£4,000 ($3,000-$5,000)."
"Not too shabby."
~ maxplanar
Have you ever found an unexpected treasure?