Thrift shops are magical for so many reasons, but the ever-present opportunity to walk away with actual treasures at the cost of pocket change has to be chief among them.

Reddit's r/ThriftStoreHauls is teeming with stories of enviable scores, several of which involve valuable precious metals and gems lurking in piles of "costume jewelry."

"I found this in the costume jewelry bucket at the local thrift store," a user's post began. "[I] took it to a local jeweler and confirmed it's 10k gold with diamonds. Paid $0.25."

Two images were attached, one depicting a bracelet or chain, and the other a carabiner-like clasp — and you'd be forgiven for not recognizing their value at first glance. Luckily for the original poster, they had a trained eye.

"I looked at it. I've been dealing with precious metals for 15 years now, gold just kind of has a specific look to it. Also the markings in the second pic," they explained, in response to a question about how they decided to take the items to a jeweler for appraisal.

The original poster also had advice for users asking how they could better identify valuables in the wild while thrifting.

"Look for the markings such as 375, 9k, 416, 10k, 12k, 518, 14k, 16k, 18k, 800, 20k, 22k, 24k, 900, coin, 950, 925, and sterling," they instructed. 

"On gold jewelry watch out for a gf marking as this means it just has a gold plating," the user added, referring to a marker identifying jewelry as "gold-filled."

Even shoppers without extensive experience in gold-spotting have walked away from thrift stores with unexpected riches. 

Lucky secondhand shoppers have found pricey baubles in dresser drawers, valuables in "grab bag" sales, and huge sums of cash in jacket pockets. 

Would you buy your wedding dress from a thrift store? Absolutely 💯 I did 👰 Only if I found one I loved 😍 Nope 🙅 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

As for the value of the pieces in the pictures, the poster indicated in a comment that they were appraised at between $550 and $600 — but rather than turning them into cash, the user decided to give them to their mother.

"It was your lucky day!" another user commented, linking to a post about their own once-in-a-lifetime score.

"I was thrilled when I found a sterling silver pin marked Tiffany & Co for $1. Isn't it the greatest feeling?"

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