Vintage enthusiast buys antique Cartier handbag for $1, sells it for serious bucks: 'Extremely valuable'

An antique clothing enthusiast said she sold a vintage handbag for more than $9,000 — after buying it for just $1.

"I was shocked," Chandler West, 29, of Charlotte, North Carolina, told FOX Business about how it felt seeing the interest in her handbag during a live auction. 

"As it continued to climb, I became more and more happy and excited."

TEXAS WOMAN SAYS SHE BOUGHT $1.25 JACKET AT GOODWILL WORTH HUNDREDS, REVEALS HER BEST THRIFT HAULS

As the bids went up, West said, she envisioned a "little wishlist" in the back of her mind.

"I was ticking things off in my head, like, ‘OK, now I can completely pay off my credit card and have these indulgences from my mental wishlist and put a chunk into savings.' And then as it [grew], the options [became] overwhelming, but in the best way possible."

West, a marketing copywriter who also owns an Etsy shop called Chloris Vintage, has been in business for two years.

She said vintage clothing combines two of her favorite things: history and personal style. 

"I love imagining the lives of the women who wore the clothes before me, then breathing new life into their old things by reinterpreting them for modern wear," she said. 

VINTAGE COOKBOOKS MAY BE WORTH THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS: HERE'S 6 REASONS WHY

"I love wearing '40s nightgowns as dresses or combining different eras into a single outfit. It's fun to build looks that feel connected to the past without looking like costumes in a historic drama, wearing old things in a new and modern way."

West said she initially purchased the small silk bag for $1 from an online estate auction — based on one blurry photo, she said. 

"I remember mainly just thinking that it looked pretty and like it might be fairly old," West said.

She said when the purse arrived in the mail, she thought the photos "didn't do it justice."

"I thought it was beautiful," she continued. "The pattern on the silk is stunning, as is the color." 

$2 BILLS FROM 1890 COULD BE WORTH OVER $4,500: REPORT

When she got her hands on the bag, West said she guessed that it might have been made sometime in the Edwardian era, 1920s or 1930s. 

"Even so, it didn't cross my mind that it could be extremely valuable," West said. 

"I've handled plenty of antique bags before, but none worth more than a couple of hundred dollars. The gemstones should have tipped me off, but I just assumed they weren't real since I'd been the only one to bid on it," she said. 

The bag arrived with a large haul of vintage clothing — so West said she put it away and did not think about it again for a while.

"I made a mental note to research the bag in the future and then moved onto the other items I'd purchased from that auction," she said.  

VINTAGE APPLE-1 COMPUTER FOR SALE AT AUCTION

"There was a blue velvet dress from the Victorian era that honestly got a lot more of my attention than the bag at that point." 

A year went by until West thought again about the handbag.

She researched it online and then reached out to a vintage clothing Facebook Group — and that’s when West began to realize its potential value.

"I was giggly and giddy," West said. "I was trying not to get my hopes too high. I was screenshotting all these pictures of other Cartier bags from the '20s that I found online that had sold for thousands of dollars and sending them, saying, ‘There's no way mine's worth this much, but what if?’"

She added, "It's the kind of thing that seems too good to be true, so it takes a while to wrap your head around it and really believe what's happening."

VINTAGE PYREX BOWLS MAY BE WORTH BIG BUCKS AS COLLECTORS HUNT HIGH AND LOW FOR NOSTALGIC DISHES

The bag turned out to be a signed and numbered 1920s Art Deco silk evening bag by Cartier, featuring a lapis lazuli, red enamel and single-cut diamond clasp — with Cartier imprinted on the clasp. 

She made the decision in February 2023 to sell it online via the Rago Arts and Auction Center, which estimated the item could fetch between $3,000 and $4,000.

"This was a really nicely preserved, very rare example of a very fancy ladies bag that was produced by Cartier in the '20s with beautiful lapis and diamond," Richard Wright, CEO of Rago Wright, told FOX Business. 

"So just a really exquisite little item."

GOODWILL STARTS ONLINE THRIFT SHORE GOODWILLFINDS: 'TRANSFORMING LIVES'

West said she had hoped to watch the auction live with her family and friends.

But it took place on a weekday morning while she was working from her laptop.

She had the auction playing in a minimized window in the background — and she recorded her own reaction, which she later posted on TikTok, garnering over 13 million views.

"When my bag was a few lots away, I set up my camera because I wanted to record my reaction for my family and friends," West said. 

"If you look closely in the video that went viral, you'll see me looking over at my phone as it recorded me because I was getting all these texts saying things like, ‘This is crazy,’ and ‘How is it still going up?!’"

THRIFT SHOP BUSINESS BOOMS AS INFLATION THROTTLES AMERICAN BANK ACCOUNTS

The final sale price was $9,450 — but after fees, West’s total take-home was $7,500. 

"This was a really nicely preserved, very rare example of a very fancy ladies bag that was produced by Cartier in the '20s with beautiful lapis and diamond."

- Richard Wright, CEO of Rago Wright

Wright said the fact that the bag was signed made a "huge difference" in its value at auction.

"It was so adorable to watch because she was just so genuinely excited," Wright said. 

"It was fantastic. To capture this genuine moment and her just absolute joy with it was so much fun," he said. 

WIFE TO AUCTION OFF HUSBAND’S COLLECTION OF 400 VINTAGE IRONS: ‘BROUGHT HIM JOY’

"As an auctioneer, it feels so good to do that for someone like her."

Keeping the bag did cross her mind, West said, but she was always pretty confident that she wanted to sell it. 

"I initially purchased it as inventory for my shop, so I never viewed it as something I was keeping forever," West said. 

"Once I knew its worth, I'd be too worried about losing it or damaging it to actually use it." 

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Wright explained that for a reseller to make such a find is not all that unusual.

"A hundred percent the treasures are out there," Wright said. 

"This sort of thing happens in the vintage business. I don't want to say needle in a haystack or four leaf clover, but there are some amazing stories with many more zeroes attached to them," she said. 

"The treasures are out there."

West’s advice for others interested in vintage clothing and accessories: Stay curious and inquisitive.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

"The more you learn, the better your eye gets," West said. 

"And once you develop those instincts, follow them."