Woman buys old trunk for Rs 7,400, finds out it's actually worth Rs 16.5 lakh

Virginia Chamlee described the Goyard trunk as a 'bucket-list' find. (Image credit: (vchamlee/Instagram)

Virginia Chamlee loves thrifting and was out checking out old wicker furniture one day when she came across a designer trunk that she thought was "a really good fake". The 38-year-old writer bought it for $90 (about Rs 7,400) and then got it checked by experts to find out that the trunk is actually worth $20,000 (about Rs 16.5 lakh).

Recollecting the moment she found the trunk, Chamlee told Business Insider, "I gasped audibly. My grandmother was with me and she was like, 'Be quiet, why are you screaming?' I thought it must not be real; it was too good of a find. But I figured I would just buy it anyway because if it was fake, it was a really good fake."

The shop owner told her a woman from the area had dropped it off after finding the piece in her mother's attic. Chamlee, an expert on designer pieces herself, then reached out to a luggage expert who specialises in Louis Vuitton and Goyard pieces and he confirmed that she had found an authentic Goyard trunk, likely worth tens of thousands of dollars.

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"It has drawers inside and there are little compartments for jewelry," Chamlee said describing the trunk. "It's actually useful in addition to being beautiful. My hunch is that someone would pay at least $20,000 for it," she added, noting that she's seen comparable Goyard trunks sell for around that price. "But I don't ever intend to sell it. I joke that I'll be the old woman who lived in her trunk."

Chamlee told Business Insider that keeps the trunk in the corner of her bedroom with a few select items on top of it, like photos of her late grandmother.

"She's the one who got me into thrifting, and she raised me from the time I was two months old as a single mom," she said. "It's almost like a little shrine to her. She was with me when I found it, and it has an M on it — I refer to her as Meemaw."

Read more: The rise and rise of pre-owned luxury watches