2025's Best Thrift Store Finds, From Rare Vintage Treasures To Stylish Home Items

Forget pirate maps and digging for chests of gold in the sand; Thrifting is the best sort of treasure hunting. For the uninitiated, browsing the aisles of your local resale shop — or even stopping by a thrift shop while traveling — is best when you don't have one particular item in mind. Without any "filter" over your eyes, you may stumble across 'holy grail' thrift store finds. They don't have to be rare or valuable to be perfect for your home, either.

This past year, patient second-hand hunters unearthed some truly wonderful treasures and shared them online. Coveted brands like Mackenzie Childs, vintage Catherine Holm, and came home with lucky shoppers. Tinted glassware, valued at many times its Goodwill price, found new homes. And brass in all forms — especially quirky ones — is still flying off the second-hand store shelves.

Quick checks on Etsy and eBay confirm that many of these purchases were amazing investments. Others, well, the photos and comments on the socials speak for themselves. Let these savvy thrifters inspire your own treasure hunt for valuables or on-trend trinkets. Who knows what you'll discover!

With one glance at a Catherine Holm enamelware piece, you'll recognize its mid-century patterns and bold colors, even if you've never heard of the brand. Smart vintage hunter @midmodmarion scored a mint-condition white and olive-green Catherine Holm pot with curvy chrome handles, and the lid is still intact. The comments on @midmodmarion's Insta post teem with envious compliments, and even more flooded in on their Facebook posting. One swooning commenter shared that they were currently bidding for a similar one online, and another envious one stated that a piece like this is on their thrifting "bucket list."

This beauty will look amazing as part of an MCM display on a curio shelf or on a table steaming with suppertime stew. At what appears to be a price of $4.99, the Instagrammer, who's clearly knowledgeable about mid-century decor, could stand to make up to about 30 times their initial investment should they resell it. However, an item like this may be too attractive and special to part with.

You might experience a bit of "thrifter's guilt" if you buy a scandalously undervalued name-brand houseware at a charity shop. Having a conscience is good and all, but having a $170 Mackenzie-Childs teapot for a few bucks might make even the most altruistic shoppers put their qualms aside. Instagrammer @gabgrabs could've spent that $6 on a large caramel brulee latte, but instead they walked away with a whimsical collectible that everyone will be snatching up at thrift stores in 2026, too.

This black-and-white Courtly Check enamel kettle with a wooden handle and lid didn't have any noticeable flaws, and upon checking its underside, @gabgrabs showed that the pot had no heat marks from stovetop use. This find was so shocking — and even out of place, on a shelf filled with plastic cups — that comments overflowed with accusations that our thrifter had staged the discovery. Still, other contributors to the conversation shared their own experiences with Mackenzie-Childs bargains found at their local thrifts. Plus, any seasoned thrifter knows that the best merchandise at second-hand stores is often found in places you wouldn't expect it.

It's a shame it wasn't a whole set, but happening upon a trio of what appear to be vintage 1960s Gorham Reizart cocoa-colored wine glasses with stems is too good to pass up. Lucky TikToker @elyciathrifts spotted three brown-tinted goblets and learned that each one could be worth over $10. Their local thrift store was brimming with colored glassware in hues like pink, green, turquoise, amber, and smoky gray, as well — definitely something to keep your thrifty eyes out for in the new year. The video didn't exactly rake in the comments, but where they were short on feedback, they were tall on tasty deals.

If you're just getting into thrifting, here's a tip for kitchenware that comes in sets: If you spy something you've gotta have, but it's clearly part of a set that's otherwise absent, check nearby shelves and even different aisles. It's not uncommon for sets to become separated over time or due to a lack of attention from the employees. You might not assemble an entire collection, but both the search and the find are fun in their own right.

As a design trend, it doesn't look like brass is fading anytime soon. Figurines and bowls tend to make up a majority of thrifted purchases that thrifters share online, but if you track down a trendy material in a really unique form, there's no question of passing it up. TikToker @katexxrogers found a real diamond in the rough in the form of a bird-shaped vessel with a basket handle. This quirky vintage decor item was obscured under cascading faux greenery: Let this be a lesson to look closely at those fake potted monstrosities!

Once they got it home and shed its dusty foliage, the brass container showed off a previously hidden patina that was lovely as-is. However, with a bit of elbow grease and Barkeeper's Friend, they polished it to a shine, highlighting the bird detailing better than before. They didn't share what they paid for the brass basket, but what appears to be an identical one on Etsy is marked at $75. Strangely enough, two commenters on this TikTok shared that they actually own the same basket, despite its unique shape.