A LUCKY shopper has discovered that his £3 charity shop ornament could be worth over £900.
Kyle Taylor may have snapped up the bargain of the year in the form of a stone mask.
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The 26-year-old legal assistant spotted the ornament in a local hospice shop and originally thought it was a piece for the garden.
After buying it for just £3, Kyle took the item home and did a Google image search to figure out exactly what it was.
And it turned out he had just purchased what appeared to be an Italian terracotta mask tea light sconce from the 1960s.
The handmade vintage item is currently being flogged for as much as £957.97 online.
Online marketplace 1st Dibs even describes the piece as a “gorgeous piece of art”.
The lucky shopper made the purchase at St Gemma’s Hospice in York on 29 July.
“I was shocked – I thought it was probably just something from B&Q or a garden centre,” Kyle, from York, says.
“I was curious to find out which shop it might have come from, and what the metal backing was for.
“I used Google image search to find similar ones and looked at a number of others in the results.
“Some of them varied in price, style and age, but the one on the auction site is nearly identical to the one I have.
“I already loved it before I knew what it was, but I was reassured by my purchase.
“I always keep an eye out for antiques and furniture when in charity shops.
“Anything quirky or unusual.
“I don’t usually go looking for anything in particular.
“I just like to browse, as you never know what you will find in a charity shop.”
Top charity shop tips for bagging a bargain
Ross Dutton has been a manager for Crisis’s charity shops for four years and currently runs the charity’s Finsbury Park shop in London.
Choose your area – As a rule of thumb, the posher the area, the better quality the clothes that are donated.
Don’t hang around – If you see something you like, buy it, as it’ll likely be gone when you come back
Look out for cut-off labels – Some of your favourite high street stores will have deals with local charity shops to donate stock that isn’t sold during their own sales. Often part of the deal is that they need to cut the labels off the clothes.
Stay at home – While some charities have their own site, like Oxfam and Crisis. many also sell from dedicated eBay stores, such as British Heart Foundation and Scope. You won’t get the range of bargains that you would get in a physical store, but if you’re looking for something specific it may be worth checking online too.
