Sometimes life is wonderful, and a purchase of barely two dollars in a secondhand store becomes a story worth telling at Thanksgiving dinners. And it is that a whim like any other, one of those where you say “for the price it has I will take it” but you do not know what might be inside.
Well, that is what happened with a metal card holder shaped like a wolf that a lady saw in a shop window and felt she needed to buy, but what she did not know is that there were two words engraved on the back that would make its value shoot almost through the roof. A real Gucci piece from the seventies, Gucci, the brand Gucci, for 2 dollars!!!
A whim a year…
Secondhand stores are our favorites, there are tons of real junk among which to rummage and rummage, where sometimes something interesting appears. This Canadian couple who stars in this story knows it because they are the kind who spend hours and hours every week looking for small hidden gems among these piles.
In one of those rounds, John saw a metal card holder with a wolf head. He liked it, it seemed curious… and for 2 dollars, who thinks twice? When he got home, he showed it to his partner, Francis.
She, who has a sharper eye than a hawk for these things, looked at it, but nothing… until John dropped the magic phrase “I think this could be a brand.” Oh, that set off the alarms, and when they turned it over they saw two engraved words “Gucci Italy”.
Could it be real? The investigation
Although the engraving looked authentic, Francis does not trust appearances, so she started investigating, and in a matter of minutes she found several identical models online. Sold for more than 1,500 dollars!! Same design, same era… 2 dollars?
But in case any doubt remained, she decided to ask where there is more expertise on the internet: Reddit, and they confirmed what they already suspected. A vintage piece from the 70s, authentic, a real treasure that they had bought for only 2 dollars.
The vintage fever
The secondhand market and the circular economy are booming, only in the United States it is a market that managed to move more than 53 billion dollars in 2023. What used to be a hobby is now a fairly profitable business…
From hobby to income
For Francis and John this is almost their livelihood, they dedicate between 20 and 35 hours a week to researching, photographing, buying and uploading pieces to the web.
So, so many hours of searching have their reward, and this is theirs!
What will they do with the treasure?
Although it could have sentimental value for the story behind the discovery, both are clear that they will sell it. Life is not for letting 1,500 dollars slip away just because it is a nice story, it is a lot of money and, as the saying goes, better money in hand than a card holder in a drawer losing value…
This card holder is the perfect proof that value is not always seen at first glance, and that many times the most incredible things are among piles of secondhand objects that are looking for an owner!
The universe of secondhand has these little wonderful stories, what is trash for one is a treasure for another! Who knows… maybe the next bargain is waiting for you