Are Thrift Store Items More Valuable?

So, this is what happened. I have an odd-shaped cell phone, and what I mean by that is the phone is regular shaped (rectangular...) but since it's not an iPhone, a Galaxy, or a Droid, there are not a lot of quality phone cases out there. Sure, there are a million of them at the Dollar Store (I ended up buying one...), but when you pay good money for a phone, you want something that costs more than a dollar to protect it.

Unless, of course, you are lucky enough to find the perfect item at a thrift store, which I did a few months ago. I remember thinking when I saw it sitting among other "stuff" on the thrift store shelf that I was indeed fortunate to have scored such a find.

Which brings me to last Sunday night. I was running an errand (actually handing our holiday hams to families in the neighborhood, or as one of my good friends called them "the inactive hams," which is another blog post all by itself...) and when we were done, I noticed my phone case was missing. I made a call earlier and just put the phone in my pocket. The case on my belt dropped off when we were visiting people who weren't home. I drove around to the various homes we visited to see if I could spot the case, but I couldn't see a small black item in poorly lit areas at night.

Losing the case bummed me out a bit, and then I asked myself, why? It only cost me a dollar at the thrift store. But what was its real value? I could always use my original dollar store phone case again until I found another nice case at the thrift store. I might get lucky again, but it's rare to find one as nice again.

To me the rarity of the item established its value. The cost was a secondary consideration. So thrift store items have the possibility of being worth more than you'd think. The good news...the morning after I got in the car and saw the case at one of the homes we visited the night before. I'm glad the phone wasn't in it...someone drove over it with their car.