Woman Who Bought a Ring For $13 Finds Out That It’s Worth Nearly 1 Million Dollars

Jun 25, 2019 by apost team

It’s no secret that garage sales and antique shops can often hold some hidden gems. There’s a reason for the expression “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” You may have to work hard to find them, but when you do, you’d be shocked at what some of these discarded items could be worth. For Debbie Goddard, a woman from west London, it took her over 30 years before she discovered what a little costume ring she bought at a car boot sale was actually worth.

Debbie, 55, bought the ring for a measly £10 (USD 12.76), but she never could have guessed what it was truly worth. In an interview with The Sun, Debbie said how she kept the ring in a box for 33 years; she had first purchased it from a car boot sale (the equivalent of a garage sale) for the low price in the 1980s. To Goddard’s eye, the ring looked like a glass jewel- pretty, but not worth much. But she decided to have the ring appraised after her mother was swindled by a relative and lost all of her money.

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Goddard was looking through her collection for items to pawn and sell in order to take care of her mother. After having the ring for over three decades hidden away a jewelry box, Goddard decided to take the ring to a jeweler. We wish we could have seen the look on her face when the jeweler told her that the ring was actually a 26.27-carat diamond!  Goddard told The Sun, “When I went to the jeweler he nearly fainted and said, ‘Do you know what this is? It’s a diamond.’ I sat up all night looking at it, wondering what to do.”

Shocked and in awe, Goddard decided to take the diamond to Sotheby’s Auction House, where the actual price of the ring was finally revealed at £740,000 (the equivalent of USD 965.589). After selling the ring, the proceeds were used to take care of her mother, "She’s had holidays in Barbados, seen Tom Jones, seen Celine Dion in Vegas and bought a fur coat. The money isn’t important to me,” Goddard added, 

“It’s karma for the bad things that happened in our lives and my mum being robbed of everything.”

She has also set up a business that hunts for bargains at car boot sales like the one the ring was purchased. Additionally, Goddard has written a book about her life and experience with the diamond ring. “I volunteer with a runaway kids’ charity. If this book makes money, I want it to go to them and youth leaders,” she said. 

Have you ever found something of high value at a garage sale or flea market? Tell us below. Make sure to show this article to any bargain hunters to help inspire them the next time they go shopping!