Scanning Facebook Marketplace is a part of Justin Miller's daily routine — and it just paid off in a big way.
The Los Angeles-based 33-year-old came upon a chair being sold for $50 in February and was shocked when it sold at a Sotheby's auction on June 7 for $85,000.
"This is truly just a once in a lifetime fluke," he writes to TODAY.com via email. "The stars definitely had to align a bit for this one."
Miller says he typically spends about 30 minutes a day on Facebook Marketplace for his job as a home design content creator. In February, he saw a listing for a leather chair being sold as part of a yard sale for a family in Beverly Hills.
"When I first saw the chair, I loved the color of leather and I thought it had a really interesting shape," Miller said. "As I was messaging the seller to arrange a time to pick up the chair, she said something along the lines of 'If you repair the chair, it’s worth a lot.'"
And it certainly was.
Miller began researching the chair and found out it is from Danish designer Frits Henningsen and is one of 50 ever made. Other similar chairs had sold for over $100K so there was money to be made and a TikTok journey to be documented. His TikTok from the day he purchased the chair detailing what he found has over 2.4M views.
Comments flooded into his initial TikTok suggesting Miller reach out to an auction house. Within a day, he was in touch with Sotheby's to handle restoration and facilitate a sale. (Sotheby's tells TODAY.com that the tears were repaired, leather was conditioned and fabric under the seat was tightened.)
On June 7, in an auction that lasted just under 3 minutes, Miller's $50 find sold for $85,000 ($107,950 after buyer's fees). He shared his reaction to the live auction in a TikTok that's been viewed nearly 4M times as of Thursday afternoon.
“The owners knew it was worth a lot of money, but I doubt they realized just how much,” he said.
"We are absolutely delighted that Justin’s chair achieved this outstanding result," Carina Villinger, Head of 20th Century Design at Sotheby's, tells TODAY.com. "From the moment he contacted Sotheby’s to restore and sell his armchair, we’ve enjoyed learning about his discovery, which achieved a record price for this model by Frits Henningsen."
Miller plans to use some of the profit on "something small for myself to remember this whole adventure." The rest will go into savings for a down payment on a home. And his thrifting days are far from over.
"People always tell me they don’t find anything good on Facebook Marketplace," he says. "But they just aren’t looking hard enough."
