A woman had an antique goldmine sitting in a pile of vintage clothing for more than a year before selling it for a whopping $7,500. 
Vintage clothing seller Chandler West, 29, of Charlotte, bought an antique 1920s Cartier Art Deco evening bag for a $1 in November 2021. 
When she bought the bag, she had no idea what it was worth or that it had 12 precious stones including diamonds and lapis lazuli set into its clasp - with the brand's iconic name hidden beneath. 
'I just thought it looked old,' West said in a video.

'I was like I don't know when that's from, but it looks old, like older than just vintage, like antique level old. So I know it's worth more than one dollar. And it's pretty and I liked it so I bought it.' 
When she bought it in an online estate auction, no one else had bid on it and the bad image quality of the product didn't help, but West took a chance, bidding a single $1. 
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Chandler West, 29, of Charlotte, bought an antique 1920s Cartier Art Deco evening bag for a $1 in November 2021
She threw the bag (pictured) in a pile of other vintage items for a year before having a chance to research it the old looking item 
Without any visible labels, she wasn't hopeful the bag was worth much of anything, even if she did think the blue stones were real.

After consulting a vintage clothing Face She took the bag to a jeweler to figure out if the stones were real - all 12 were - and was hoping to get an estimate on the bag's price.

She was advised to have an auctioneer estimate the value, which came out to between $3,000 to $4,000 
In February, West sold the bag for $7,50 To her surprise, engraved on the underside of the clasp just under the blue stones was the name: Cartier. 
'I don't know why I hadn't checked the clasp before but I'm not really a jewelry person, I'm a clothes person so looking for a signature on metal hadn't crossed my mind,' she said in a follow-up video. 
'After a lot of squinting and flashlight shining, I knew that I had a real Cartier 1920s evening bag on my hands.' 
Now that the Etsy seller knew she had her hands on a goldmine, she began researching what other antique Cartier evening bags were selling for, which ranged from $2,000 to $55,000. 
In order to fully estimate how much her bag was worth, she took it to a jeweler who determined all 12 of the stones - including the diamonds - were real. 
But they were unable to give her an estimate on the bag's worth as the well-known brand and age of the items were major factors. 
While researching other Cartier vintage bags (pictured), she learned they were selling for $2,000 to $55,000 
'[The jeweler] recommended I reach out to auction houses,' she said in the video. An auctioneer estimated the item was worth $3,000 to $4,000 at auction. 
'Of course, I was over the moon,' West said.

'I got that thing for $1!' 
She was originally going to sell it on her Etsy shop, but decided against it after she realized she could make a lot more money at an auction. 
'I do sometimes keep vintage pieces that I originally source as inventory if I really fall in love with them.

In this case, though, I was not really tempted to do that because as beautiful as the bag is, I knew the large amount of money I would get for selling it would bring me a lot more joy than keeping it would,' she said. 
In February, West sold the bag at Rago Auctions for $7,500.

With the buyer's 26 percent buyer's premium, the new owner paid nearly $9,500. 
After West paid her 12 percent commission fee, she took home a whopping $6,600 - and a good story.  




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