A thrifter could barely believe his luck after bagging his "white whale" item for a bargain price. Elgin, who is based in Montreal and chose not to share his full name or social media credentials, believes a big part of thrifting comes down to luck. "It's really about going often because you never know when something might show up," he told Newsweek.
"But the rest is pure luck. You can go 100 times and find nothing, and then go once and find 100 things." Luck certainly played a part in him landing what he described as the "white whale" of his collecting hobby: a collection of 14 Arabia Finland Kalevala plates designed by Raija Uosikkinen that date from 1980 to 1990. "I had originally seen the plates in a home tour on YouTube a little over two years ago and wanted some for myself, but the price of them, plus shipping, made them far too expensive for me," Elgin said.
"They're exceptional pieces." The Kalevala annual plates are among Arabia's most collectible modern decorative ceramics. Uosikkinen's designs draw on Finland's national epic, Kalevala, a 19th-century poem compiled from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The plates have a loyal collector base in Finland and Scandinavia and among Arabia enthusiasts internationally.
Individual plates typically sell for about $22 to $66, depending on the year, condition and whether they come with the original box, as seen on Etsy, while scarcer or more desirable examples can fetch $66 to $110 or more. Complete sets are often worth significantly more than the value of the individual plates, as collectors are willing to pay a premium for matching runs. That's why Elgin was stunned when he spotted a collection of 14 plates on Facebook Marketplace listed for a little over $70.
His experience reflects the growing popularity of Facebook Marketplace among bargain hunters searching for unique secondhand finds. According to statistics compiled by Capital One Shopping, 68 percent of Marketplace users aged 18 to 34 enjoy shopping there for unique, one-of-a-kind items, while 65 percent value its secondhand, sustainable appeal. For Elgin, Marketplace proved the perfect place to stumble across the kind of rare collectible he never expected to find locally.
Having spotted the listing, he quickly contacted the owner. Within a day of seeing the post, he was taking the plates home. At a little over $70, he paid far less than the collection's estimated market value.
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