Woman buys $3.99 vase at Goodwill — you won’t believe what it fetched at auction

globalnews.ca:

In the world of thrifting and reselling, a lot of good fortune comes from pure luck, but it also doesn’t hurt to have a bit of understanding about potential value in your back pocket, either.

Such was the case for Jessica Vincent, a thrifter from Virginia, who just flipped an Italian glass vase for an enormous profit.

Vincent was combing through her local Goodwill in June, skimming over the typical secondhand fare — old electronics, bedding and nothing-fancy dishware.

But it was an iridescent glass vase, swiped with red and green streaks, that caught her eye.

When she took the vase off the high shelf she noticed a small “M” on the bottom and suspected it might be a piece of valuable Murano glass. Murano is an island off the coast of Venice and known to be the manufacturing home for some of Italy’s most valuable glassware.

Vincent said she also spotted what appeared to be an artist signature on the bottom of the piece, which sent her thrifting senses tingling.

“I had a sense that it might be a $1,000 or $2,000 piece,” she told the New York Times, adding, “but I had no clue how good it actually was until I did a little bit more research.”

Vincent said there was no price visible on the vase, so she took it to the till, determined not to pay more than $9. When the cashier set the price at US$3.99, she gladly purchased it and went on her way.

According to CBS News, Vincent tapped into the knowledge of an Italian glass collecting group on Facebook to get a better sense of the vase’s worth. The group’s members overwhelmingly told her that she needed to contact an auction house.

The Wright auction house, which eventually handled the sale, said it’s one of the rarest pieces of Italian glass they’ve seen in more than a decade. It