Illinois man buys porcelain plate at thrift store for $4.99, later discovers that it's worth $5,000

A man named John Carcerano from Illinois is trending in the headlines after he purchased Chinese porcelain from a thrift store and later discovered that its value was worth thousands of dollars. Notably, he had purchased the product at only $4.99 from the store, as per the New York Post.

According to Times Now, the man visited the store back in October 2024 and while speaking to Newsweek on February 2, 2025, he addressed his experience alongside providing some details about the product:

"I bought a rare 18th century Chinese armorial export plate at a Goodwill for $4.99; it's worth $5,000."

The New York Post stated that John has been working as a carpet cleaner. Furthermore, Sotheby's New York got in touch with Newsweek through email after receiving the screenshots of John with the outlet, featuring the porcelain. A specialist of the popular auction house stated that it belonged to the Qing dynasty's Qianlong period in 1755.

Newsweek also reported that the item is supposed to be sold in June this year during the Sotheby's Judaica auction. While Carcerano is looking for other ways to sell the porcelain, he told Newsweek that he would get more profit from its sale at Sotheby's than through an online advertisement.

The specialist, whose identity remains unknown, addressed the auction sale in the mail by saying:

"As far as I am aware, I don't think a Chinese export plate with Jewish arms has been offered in a Judaic sale before, therefore I am very excited to be able to work with you to bring this to market."

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John Carcerano found the porcelain while he was visiting thrift stores

Notably, John was known to everyone who had been employed at the Evanston-based Goodwill thrift store. This was because he had been purchasing and selling antiques for several years and had gone to the store for more than a year, expecting to find valuable items. The store was close to a wealthy neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

In 2023, John suffered from some unknown illness, following which he started visiting more local thrift stores. He told Newsweek:

"I spent more time than I usually do at the Goodwill thrift store in Evanston when I was recuperating from being sick and didn't work for eight months. I had several surgeries and chemotherapies."

John said that he kept waiting for new inventory for hours and addressed the reason for the same by saying that he wanted to get his hands on the best stuff before they were sent to the shelves.

The porcelain (Image via X/Lookingtohelp8)

He revealed that the porcelain was located below a modern plate and three more people were searching for something on the cart after it arrived. After finding the porcelain, he used Google Lens to find its real value.

"Sometimes it takes some digging, but I did a Google Lens search and found one that I had sold exactly like it for $4,400 and I knew within five minutes that I had something valuable. Only two of these have ever sold in the last 50 years of auction history."

Apart from Sotheby's, Carcerano sent the photos of the product to other auction houses like Bonhams and Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The authenticity of the product was additionally confirmed by the antique Chinese porcelain groups on Facebook after they had a look at the photos.

Although he has been running a carpet-cleaning business, John Carcerano is also an expert in Asian antiques and studied them many years ago. This even helped him to understand the real value of the porcelain when he found it.