14 DAY TRIAL // A man in the US made a truckload of money selling a watch he got at a Goodwill store. The man, named Zach Norris, says he paid a measly $6 (roughly €5) for the timepiece. The person he sold it too, however, offered him a jaw-dropping $35,000 (€31,000).
One can only assume that, now that the news about these transactions is picking up speed on the Internet, the guy or the gal who used to own the watch but who for some reason decided to donate it to Goodwill is probably kicking themselves.
So, what's so special about this watch?
The timepiece that Zach Norris got for $6 at the Goodwill store in Phoenix, US, and then sold for $35,000 is a 1959 Jaeger-LeCoultre diving watch like the one pictured next to this article. At first glance, the watch does not look like much.
However, collectors know that such watches are actually very rare. In fact, it is said that just 900 such timepieces were made decades ago, when the line was launched. Hence the fact that they are quite valuable and some are willing to pay a whole lot of money for one.
AZ Family tells us that Zach Norris sold his $6 1959 Jaeger-LeCoultre diving watch to a collector in San Francisco. Apart from the money they agreed on, this collector also offered the timepiece's lucky finder a Mega Speed Master watch estimated to be worth about $4,000 (€3,500).
It wasn't just luck that helped Zach make a small fortune
Mind you, Zach Norris was well aware of the fact that the watch was worth a small fortune when he got it from Goodwill in exchange for just $6. In fact, he admits that, after he found it, he grabbed hold of it and just wouldn't let go.
“I didn't even want to give it to her [the cashier] to scan. I was like, you can scan it in my hand if you want to. I just didn't want to let it go,” the man said in an interview. “It's not a very fancy-looking piece. You have to know what it is,” he added.
By the looks of it, Zach Norris is quite used to browsing Goodwill stores and finding valuable pieces abandoned by their previous owners for no good reason. Still, he says that the 1959 Jaeger-LeCoultre diving watch is by far the most expensive piece he has so far happened to stumble upon.