Have you ever found cash inside a 2nd hand purchase?

**Early Bird** · 10-03-2005, 10:41 AM

First, I'm going to start with a story about my aunt, the Flea Market Bargain Queen:

Auntie Mame (names have been changed to protect the innocent) lives in a major East Coast city. She loves 2nd hand shopping, expecially the Flea Market and Estate Sales.

She had bought a small table at the flea market. When she was driving it home, it turns out that scatty Auntie Mame hadn't fastened down securely. She turned a corner, and the table slid off the truck and crashed.

Auntie Mame stopped. And looked. And gaped in disbelief: A drawer had broken loose. Maybe it was a secret drawer; maybe just stuck before the fall.

There were rolls and rolls of coins spilling out from that drawer! Old coins like Buffalo Nickels and Liberty Dimes.

Auntie Mame kept them.

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Once I found a $1 bill that had been stuck in an old paperback for a bookmark. I found it after I got home from a thrift store shopping spree. I didn't directly take it back, but the next time I shopped there, I 'donated' a bit above my total to the thrift store's cause. ("Oh! Instead of giving me back $6, just give me $5, and we'll call it even.")

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Once I had been garage sale-ing. I bought a kids' skisuit/snowsuit for $4. A week or two later, I was catching up on laundry ... and I found $5 in the pocket. I didnt' take it back -- couldn't even remember where I had bought it.

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Once my sister bought a lot of craft supplies at an estate sale. Among the supplies were hundreds of tiny homemade oragami boxes. Opening up the boxes, sis found coins in most of them ... and folding money in others. She collected all the money and took it back. Then she found out what those little boxes were for: a lottery-type game, where you pay a quarter and pick a box. You might just get a dime in your box ... or you might get a $5! It was for a church fundraiser.

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So, have you ever found cash in your 2nd hand purchases?

**daddys3chicks** · 10-03-2005, 10:56 AM

When we bought our van there was still change in the ashtray. LOL!

**Kimberlina** · 10-03-2005, 11:08 AM

Nope!

**sunshine** · 10-03-2005, 11:54 AM

I found $20 in the pocket of a winter coat I bought at Goodwill. I paid it forward and put it in the church offering plate.

**jlxian** · 10-03-2005, 12:29 PM

While not exactly a PURCHASE --- I "inherited" my grandmother's dressing table. When we were loading it into the truck, I removed the drawers and in the back behind one of the drawers was a 1920s dime.

Wow some of you have made some wonderful finds! Lucky folks!

**baronmom** · 10-03-2005, 01:07 PM

I found $4 in a pocket of a pair of pants. I didn't give it back because I had taken a few pairs of kids jeans to another consignment shop owned by the same person, and they disappeared without my getting any money for them. I figured that this was at least some payment for the jeans that I never got paid for.

**heidip427** · 10-03-2005, 01:09 PM

i bought an old purse at goodwill (and i don't mean "funky vintage" old .. i mean big old lady saddlebag style bingo purse LOL) and there was a crumpled $50 bill under the lining. it was almost like goodwill paid ME 49.50 for it.

we used the money to do a saturday lunch for the habitat for humanity crew building down the street.

**Early Bird** · 10-03-2005, 01:17 PM

Wow! You guys are so generous with your 'pay it forward' philosophies!

Just today DD#2 was going through a baggies of sequins (Halloween costume time!) and found
.
.
.
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a penny!

**PrairieRose** · 10-03-2005, 03:48 PM

My dmom found a $20 bill in the pocket of a pair of jeans bought in a garage sale fury, for a granddaughter. They didn't have a clue which garage sale it came from.