NC woman sells 1920s Cartier purse for $7,500 after picking it up for a DOLLAR from online auction

A North Carolina woman had an old gold mine in a pile of vintage clothing for over a year before selling it for a whopping $7,500.

Vintage clothing seller Chandler West, 29, of Charlotte, purchased a vintage 1920s Cartier Art Deco evening bag for $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 the clasp, with the brand’s iconic name hidden below.

“I thought it looked old,” West said in a TikTok video. “I was like, I don’t know when that is from, but it looks old, like older than just vintage, like an old level.” So I know it’s worth more than a dollar. And it’s pretty and I liked it, so I bought it.

When he bought it from an online estate auction, no one else had bid and the poor image quality of the product didn’t help, but West took a chance and offered just $1.

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He tossed the bag (pictured) in a pile of other vintage items for a year before getting a chance to investigate it.

With no visible tags, she had no hope that the bag was worth much, even if she believed the blue stones were real. After consulting a vintage clothing Facebook group, he learned that the French jewelry brand made similar bags in the 1920s and was advised to check out the clasp. To his surprise, the name of the brand was engraved under the blue stones.

“I remember there was only one photo of it,” he said. “And there were no bids, so I was able to get it for $1,” Chandler said.

‘He sat down on a bunch of stuff that he just needed to research that he hadn’t done yet until this year. [2022]. alright, i’ll investigate [the purse] and I’m going to find out where you’re from and what’s your deal,” he said in a December video.

She first began to investigate whether the blue stones and diamonds set in the bag’s clasp were real and how much they might be worth.

Although she had her doubts about the diamonds, she believed that the blue stones, the lapis lazuli, were authentic, so she set out to consult with a group of antique collectors on Facebook to see if they could help her identify the bag.

One member told her that the “silk jacquard weave of the bag is inspired by 17th-century Safavid textiles” and that the bag was “very popular for evening bags in France in the 1920s.”

The user also told him that the French luxury brand Cartier, which today is represented by the likes of Timothée Chalamet and Lily Collins, made similar bags in the 1920s and to revise the brand-name clasp.

Despite all that, West still doubted that her $1 purchase, which was missing any sort of tag inside, could be from the luxury jewelry brand, but decided to check anyway.

She took the bag to a jeweler to find out if the stones were real (all 12 were) and hoped to get an estimate of the bag’s price. He was advised to have an auctioneer estimate the value, which turned out to be between $3,000 and $4,000.

In February, West sold the bag for $7,500 and, after paying a commission, took home $6,600. “Of course, she was over the moon,” West said. ‘I got that thing for $1!’

To his surprise, at the bottom of the clasp, just below the blue stones, the name: Cartier was engraved.

“I don’t know why I hadn’t checked the clasp before, but I don’t really like jewelry, I like clothes, so it hadn’t crossed my mind to look for a metal signature,” she said. follow-up video.

“After a lot of squinting and turning on the flashlight, I knew I had a real 1920s Cartier evening bag on my hands.”

Now that the Etsy seller knew she had a gold mine on her hands, she began to investigate what other vintage Cartier evening bags were selling for, ranging from $2,000 to $55,000.

To fully estimate how much her bag was worth, she took it to a jeweler who determined that all 12 stones, including the diamonds, were real.

But they couldn’t give you an estimate of the bag’s value, as the well-known brand name and age of the items were important factors.

While researching other vintage Cartier bags (pictured), she learned they sold for between $2,000 and $55,000.

‘[The jeweler] He recommended that I contact the auction houses,” he said in the video. An auctioneer estimated the item to be worth between $3,000 and $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 in her Etsy shop, but decided against it after realizing she could make a lot more money at auction.

“Sometimes I keep old pieces that I originally searched for as inventory if I really fall in love with them. In this case, however, I wasn’t really tempted to do that because as beautiful as the bag is, I knew that the large amount of money I would get from selling it would bring me much more joy than keeping it,” 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 almost $9,500.

After West paid his 12 percent commission, he took home a whopping $6,600 and a good story.