Some of the more obscure/unlikely stuff I’ve found:
A “Women of the Armed Forces” coloring book from WW2
Vintage girdles from the same era. Who on earth is gonna wear those in 2016?
An “On the Buses” board game. Did that show ever air in the U.S.?
An Uruguyan pressing of a Beatles album (which I did buy). I still can’t figure out the odds of that ending up in a Seattle thrift store.
An all German language guidebook to the U.S.–printed in 1945.
This is stupid but…I looked online and in stores for a couple days for a very specific shirt. A men’s black polo shirt, size 2X. I needed to wear it for a part-time dishwashing job. I didn’t have time to get one delivered, or pay too much for it. As a last ditch effort, I went to the local Goodwill and got one - a nice one, with light, “wicking technology” fabric - for $2.
As a fat person it’s rare to be able to waltz in to a Goodwill and just find something that fits, let alone the exact thing you were looking for.
I consider it a coup!
I dropped a crockpot lid, so I went to a goodwill type place to look for one, which I got for a buck. The cashier tried to talk me into taking the whole crockpot, but I just wanted the lid.
While there, I saw a 1000 watt HPS grow light for $5.00. I snatched that baby up. The cashier asked me what it was; I told her it was a light for my parking lot.
My mom taught me that if you check the pockets of Suits and pants that you can find money. I have found a few dollars that way. Still looking for my pot-of-gold!
You aren’t the only one who has had a Goodwill miracle. When my younger son was playing little league, he somehow lost his jersey. Rules stated that you couldn’t play without your jersey and there were no more spares. You can imagine the angst.
The day before the game he was going to have to sit out, I stopped into Goodwill to look for a spare part to something and a bright yellow shirt caught my eye from back in the boys’ section. It was someone’s previous year jersey, same little league name imprinted on it, same color as the ones assigned to his team, only the number was different. 25 cents took it home. I took it down the street to a made-to-order tee shirt place and they were able to steam off the numbers on iron on two new ones matching my son’s assigned numbers. He wore the jersey the next day for the game - no one was ever the wiser.
Ax-man is the best. Someday I’ll figure out what to do with an iron-lung, until then I can rest, assured that I know where to get one.
I found a HP 11c calculator once. They wanted $4.99 for it. Ebay prices are $85 to $180. I collect calculators, and that’s probably the rarest one I’ve found.
Right before Christmas a Goodwill store had one of the toy drones that sell for $80 on Amazon. They had it marked at $9.99, but since it was a toy and toys were half-off, it was less than $5.00.
Last week I saw an remote-controlled airplane, with an six-foot wingspan. It was a pretty powerful setup; the instructions said “previous flying experience highly recommended”. They wanted $24.99 for it (I’m sure it cost hundreds new), but I knew my wife would disapprove of me getting a new hobby. I should have bought it just to display.
I remember starting a thread on a board that has a lot of antique collectors asking, “Have you ever found pictures of someone you knew?” The closest answer I got was somebody who found an ancestor’s diploma. 
I volunteered for a while at the Habitat ReStore in my town. People donate the weirdest stuff - and other people buy the weirdest stuff.
Used to be one of my favorite stores as a kid. I’ve taken mine down there to keep the tradition going. I think there’s two locations, but I only know of the one on University.
I’ve volunteered at a resale for the past two years. We’re the ones that sort, clean and put stuff up so the food bank is funded. I’m that time, we’ve gotten…
*At least three sets of dentures
*Some booze, sealed
*$90 in a wallet
*An apron that, when you lifted up the bottom, a massive dong made out of panty hose sprang to life
*Cat crap
*An entire coffee table book devoted to erotic art
*Sadly, lots of racist crap, like those cotton “Mammy” dolls
*A bustier from Frederick’s of Hollywood
And undoubtedly more that I’m forgetting, but that’s the highlights.
Years ago I was in a production of The Wizard of Oz, playing Glinda. This was maybe my third or fourth production of this show with this company. The director/producer rented the costumes from a store in his hometown, a 5 hour drive away. Well, this time, he got the Glinda costume but forgot the hoop skirt that went underneath! The dress didn’t work without that skirt, and there was no time to go back to the store and get it before opening.
I went to a thrift store near my office hoping to find some kind of petticoat that would work. I found one that might work, and was in line to pay for it, when I looked up - and hanging high on the wall was a hoop skirt! I got an employee to get it down for me and bought it. And the day was saved.
My wife is a “professional thriftier”. She once dragged home a huge box of sealed, rolled posters from the 70’s-80’s. Probably a couple hundred. They gave her a “deal” if she bought them all. :smack:
I thought it was a bunch of crap. “CHipS”, “Starsky & Hutch” and a whole mess of other shit. There were a few KISS posters that I thought might get a few bucks on eBay, but I figured we just bought the most expensive wrapping paper in history.
She lists a Paul Michael Glaser poster on ebay. It gets almost a hundred bucks! The second one exceeds a hundred! KISS, Hardy Boys, Farrah Fawcett and all the rest rake in big bucks. Un-fuckin-believable!
Can’t give away the Conehead posters, however. Want one? PM me.
Black memorabilia are highly collectible.
What kind of people donate to this sale, anyway? 
I wish we got stuff that weird at the sales I’ve worked at (although I could do without the racist crap).
Last weekend, my brother posted a picture on Facebook of a 1980s Casio keyboard that he purchased at Goodwill for $3.88 (price tag plainly visible) and it was pre-programmed to play “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”. Back when those things were new, he wanted one but they were very expensive.
Several months ago, I found a box of 70s pop star memorabilia at an estate sale. I separated out the Elvis stuff, which I sold at my antique mall booth, and listed some of the magazines (mostly one I don’t remember called “Dynamite”) on my Amazon account. I’ve sold two of them so far, for about $10 each.
Dynamite was a mag I used to get through the school book sale thingy (pre-teen years). I have very fond memories of one issue with Jaclyn Smith on the cover.
Very fond. 
The one I sold a few days ago had the Bay City Rollers on the cover. There are probably plenty of girls who have similar fond memories of that issue.
“Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.”??
HCP?
I found a Polynesian warclub, made of ironwood.
Journal of the American Medical Association
Health Care Provider