Thrift Store Says Mystery Item Is Free—Only if You Can Identify What It Is
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A mystery item in the corner of a thrift store sparked a flurry of interest online, when one Redditor shared a picture of a wooden object and the accompanying note.
"Found this in a thrift store, it's got a note saying it's free if you can say what it does," Redditor Buttery_-_Balls wrote alongside a picture of the wooden item on popular r/whatisit subreddit.
With more than 930,000 members, the subreddit has been helping people uncover the origin of mystery items since 2009. "Don't know what it is? No, we don't either. Maybe someone does?" the description on the subreddit reads.
Busy uncovering items from insects to broomsticks, people on the subreddit are always ready for a challenge, and when the wooden thrift store item was shared, things were no different.
In a polished light wood, the mystery item had a central rolling knob and higher edge on one side, and it wasn't long before theories flooded in.
The picture of the mystery item that was shared on Reddit.
The picture of the mystery item that was shared on Reddit.
Buttery_-_Balls/Reddit
"Found this in a thrift store, it's got a note saying it's free if you can say what it does...," the post, shared last week was captioned.
Amassing hundreds of likes, people were quick to share their thoughts. User Imaginary_Library501 suggested: "Looks like an old massage kit (?) If those parts aren't connected that is... my grandparents had all kinds of stuff like this, from Finland."
While Jisnowhere said: "I was thinking a candle holder or goblet, or maybe a big pipe you put together but I can't tell without seeing the rest of the parts from another angle to see if the parts come apart."
"Lord that looks familiar," said 40ozSmasher. "Something to do with yarn? I feel sure I've seen it used."
Others suggested maybe it was a napkin holder, or a kitchen item like a rolling pin or pastry cutter.
But it was user LovitzG who resolved the growing thread of guesses with a comparative example from their own home. "I have similar and it is to hold envelopes for bills and other stuff," they wrote alongside photographic evidence of a similar design, revealing the true identity of the item: a mid-century wooden letter holder.
Common throughout the 20th century, these desk accessories were designed to hold letters, bills, or notecards vertically between two wooden ends. The spherical knob in the center helped push papers backward, ensuring they stayed upright and organized.
This isn't the first time a mystery item from a thrift store has baffled people online. Last year a man asked TikTok to help work out what a donated item at a thrift store was, with guesses ranging from an avalanche stick to measure snow depth to a ham radio antenna.
While another thrift worker in England shared confusion over a glass piece from LSA International. Before long, what started as a quirky obsession for the store worker became a collective quest for answers, even prompting trawls through historical records.
Newsweek reached out to Buttery_-_Balls via Reddit for comment.
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