Thrift Store Shopper Sells $3.99 Vase for Over $100K

In a small Goodwill store in Hanover County, Virginia, thrift store shopper Jessica Vincent spotted an unusual green and burgundy striped vase with a price tag of only $3.99. This thrift store find would eventually net her over $100,000.

Vincent, a 43-year-old thrift store enthusiast with a fondness for unique items, was immediately drawn to the vase but couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. The tiny “M” mark at the bottom of the piece suggested it could be from Murano, a small Italian island known for its exceptional glasswork.

To her surprise, she had found a rare piece by renowned Venetian designer Carlo Scarpa. A few months after her discovery, the vase from Scarpa’s 1940s “Pennellate” series was sold for an astounding $107,100 to a private art collector in Europe.

Richard Wright, president of Wright Auction House, hailed Vincent’s find as a divine thrifting gift. The appearance of such a masterpiece, untarnished in a bustling thrift store, was significant. Vincent, who makes her living raising and training polo horses, gained a considerable $82,875 from her discovery. The windfall was a boon toward her aspiration to refurbish a recently purchased old farmhouse.

Finding valuable pieces at thrift stores is not an everyday occurrence, but it’s not unprecedented either. In one instance, a New Hampshire woman bought a $4 painting from a thrift store six years ago, which turned out to be an N.C. Wyeth illustration, missing since the late 1930s. The piece eventually sold for $191,000 at an auction.

The vase had been anonymously donated to the Goodwill store during the summer. According to Laura Faison, a spokesperson for Goodwill, the thrift store was equally stunned at the true value of the vase. She explained that the store receives thousands of items daily, making it unrealistic to assess every item’s value.

Vincent’s unique taste drove her to buy the vase, which might have seemed like a large, colorful bottle to many. She even shared a photo of the vase in a Facebook group for Murano glass enthusiasts, leading to speculation that it could be a Scarpa design.

Scarpa’s works are coveted for their fusion of traditional and contemporary materials. The vase was a part of Scarpa’s rare “Pennellate” series for Venini, a glass workshop producing Murano glass in 1942. The process involved incorporating colored opaque glass into the vase during its creation, and then manipulating it until the desired transparency was reached. Scarpa is widely recognized as a leading designer of Italian glass during the mid-century, according to Wright.

When Vincent contacted Wright, a veteran in dealing with Italian glass, he confirmed her suspicions that the vase was indeed a Scarpa. After rejecting a $10,000 offer for the vase from a Facebook user, the vase’s authenticity was validated by two glass specialists. The vase, initially estimated to fetch $30,000 to $50,000 at auction, sold for more than twice the upper valuation.