A piano baby with heart-shaped lips was sitting on a Goodwill shelf for $4.99, and an appraiser who knows what those are says it is worth about $65. That is just one of the stories hiding in plain sight at the Goodwill in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, where antiques appraiser Dr. Lori walked the aisles with a camera and told shoppers exactly what to buy and what to walk right past.

Her rule of thumb is simple. Pick up the piece, look for the marks and the telltale construction details, and only then decide if the price tag is a bargain. By the end of the trip she had matched dozens of thrift-store price tags against what the items would actually fetch, and some of the gaps were big.

The star of the day was the piano baby. These ceramic figures were once placed on top of pianos, and Dr. Lori says collectors go looking for the ones with heart-shaped lips because that feature is very desirable and very rare. This one is made in Europe, the price was $4.99, and she puts the retail value at $65.

The Pieces She Would Buy

The painting may be the best lesson of the day. Dr. Lori says you should look for original oil paintings and touch the texture. She points out that the green and the red in this one are what make it more valuable, because those paired colors catch the eye, and a painting that makes you look is a painting that makes you want to buy. She values the frame at $35 and the painting at another $35, so $70 together, and the store wanted only $20 for it. Her verdict was simple: she buys that.

Glassware gave her several wins. A cornflower blue Corning Ware dish from the 1950s still had its original lid and a clear mark, and at $3.99 she would buy it because it is worth about $15. A Pyrex pie plate with uppercase letters and clear glass was $4.99 and worth $15, so she would buy it too. A crystal candy bowl shaped like a basket, with the crystal cut in the middle, was $5.99, which she called still a good price for something she values at $18.

Her ruby glass lesson is worth remembering. Ruby glass is a purer red and is usually found on thinner glass, while thicker glass tends to be cranberry glass, which has a bluer tone in the red. A cranberry piece at $4.99 was worth $15. A smaller ruby glass piece at $3.99 was worth more, about $20, and she would buy that one without hesitation.

Mid-century and 1970s ceramics also made her list. A Franciscan ware piece with the beautiful old mark was $3.99 and worth $18. A 1970s vase with a visible seam, which shows it was made in two pieces and is very typical of that decade, was $3.99 and worth $15. A handbuilt brutalist-style vase with striations running down the side, a look that is having a revival, was $4.99 and worth $12. An Italian candy bowl with sculpted decorations applied on top of the ceramic, hand painted, was $5.99 against a retail value of about $20.

Then there were the character pieces. A Madame Alexander doll with big eyes that open and close, in good condition but missing one shoe, was $4.99, and Dr. Lori says she is worth $40. A 1960s cookie jar shaped like a truck had no lid, which she joked suited her just fine, and she still values it at $25 for $3.99. With the lid it would bring $45. She adds that the haphazard, sprayed-on glaze is typical of the 1960s.

The Pieces She Walked Past

Not everything on the shelves was a deal. A green plate had been glued onto a vase, and she says she would not pay a dollar for it. In her words, any of these marriages, where someone glues two things together, should be left right where they are. A heavy piece that someone had painted blue was $4.99 and worth a dollar, because it was meant to be glazed, not painted.

Cracks matter too. A crackle glass decorative piece with a big crack in the back was priced at $9.99. In that condition she says it is worth $5, while in good condition it would be worth $20. A 1970s pomander pillar with its top missing was $3.99 and worth only a dollar. A Pyrex pie plate with lowercase letters and a green tinge to the glass was $5.99, and she says it is worth $5, so she avoids the green tinge and walks by.

Furniture needed a closer look as well. A Hitchcock-style rocking chair with stencils, a 1960s piece priced at $25, has a retail value of about $100. Dr. Lori explains that a genuine Hitchcock would be marked Hitchcock Furniture, Lichfield, Connecticut, and a real one would be worth about $300. Because this chair lacks that mark, it is a style piece, not an original. An oak filing cabinet was $9.99 with a retail value of $50.

Quick Tricks You Can Use

Dr. Lori packs several shopping habits into the trip. To confirm oak, look at the grain, not the stain. With a filing cabinet or any piece with drawers, make sure the drawers open and close, because if they do not, you do not want it. On decorative glass, pick the milk glass bowls with the molded decoration running all the way to the underside, like the $3.99 white candy bowl she says is worth $5.

She also has a tip for how to treat art once you own it or when you spot it stacked in a store. Paintings should be stacked face to face and back to back so the frames do not scratch each other.

Paper porcelain is another one to watch for. It is so thin you can almost see through it, and the one she showed was hand painted, Japanese, made in the 1950s, and still wearing its original $15 price tag. The Goodwill price was $5.99 and she puts the retail value at $12. She would buy it.

Her trip is a good reminder that a low sticker price does not make something a deal, and a plain-looking shelf can hide a $65 treasure. Check the marks, check the seams, check for cracks and glue, and know the difference between a style and the real thing. As Dr. Lori put it, she found treasures, and she left them for the next shopper.

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