Much like thrift stores, estate sales can be full of hidden gems — and sometimes, you can even hit the jackpot. After visiting an estate sale, a lucky Reddit user brought home a $15 safe filled with money, gold, and silver.
The Redditor found the safe sitting in the back of a local estate sale. Intrigued by its heavy weight and lack of a code, they were determined to uncover the safe's mystery.
"I rocked it back and forth a bit and heard something," the Redditor wrote. "That'll do for me. $15 is a cheap gamble to take."
Unlocking the safe took hours due to its broken lock. They were finally able to open it after drilling a hole for a small camera, allowing a view of the lock mechanism. From there, they manually unlocked the safe, discovering shoeboxes.
"Like something out of a movie, I pulled back the door to see.... Oh. Shoes. Cool... Some old lady just kept her favorite shoes in here," the Redditor wrote. "But wait! People put stuff in shoeboxes all the time... Stuff like old coin collections! Some crappy (but gold) jewelry and LITERALLY 55oz OF SILVER BARS."
"This happened a few months ago and I'm still blown away," they said.
Eventually, the Redditor managed to sell the safe's entire collection and enjoy a $2,500 return on his initial $15 investment.
"I'll probably never have as good of a flip as that ever again, but I am almost positive that's the best story I'll ever get out of an estate sale find!" they wrote.
Discovering hidden treasures at estate sales is thrilling, but the benefits of estate sales go beyond luxury bargains. Like thrift stores and other secondhand shops, estate sales are eco-friendly and promote sustainability by reducing waste. When you buy something at an estate sale, you bring new life to pre-owned items that otherwise would've been discarded.
Redditors applauded the original poster for winning the estate sale lottery. The consensus seemed to be that especially because nothing in the safe seemed to have sentimental family heirloom value and the sellers knowingly sold a locked safe, the buyer was entitled to keep the contents.
"Congratulations on your find! I can't imagine the adrenaline rush from that," one Redditor commented. "It sounds like you were in the right place at the right time with the tools and knowledge to get it home and get it open, I say you earned it."
"Awww I love these kind of stories! I hope you treat yourself with something nice. What a gold mine literally," another said.
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