Man Buys ‘Lady And The Tramp’ Poster At Goodwill For $5, Finds It’s Worth $40,000

A man found a vintage Lady and the Tramp movie poster at a local Goodwill and thought it was a good deal for $5. He was right.

When Minnesota resident Tom Glenn got home and looked up the poster on the internet, he found a website selling a similar one for $53,900. For the amateur treasure hunter, it was hard to believe what he’d actually found.

That site Glenn found advertises its Lady and the Tramp poster as being in mint condition (Tom’s was not), but also denotes the poster’s importance in Disney history.

“Other than Mickey himself this is probably the most recognized and loved movie Produced by The Walt Disney Company,” the site notes. “Truly a very important piece of DISNEY HISTORY.”

Glenn said he had a hard time believing what he’d found.

“There was this little voice in my head that kept saying, ‘This isn’t real. This isn’t real. You’re going to find out it’s a phony or a reprint,’ ” Glenn said.

So to check out the $5 poster he found at Goodwill, Glenn brought it to a nearby antique shop. The verdict — it was authentic.

Rick Leistico, the manager of the Goodwill where the Lady and the Tramp poster was purchased, said the store tries to research items, but every once in a while a gem slips in.

“We pride ourselves on telling people they can find a treasure here, and that’s the beauty of Goodwill,” he said. “With thousands and thousands of items hitting the floor every day, we’re bound to miss some things — and that’s the benefit for our shoppers.”

But Leistico added that there’s never been anything of that value before. He added that he’s glad that it was snagged by Glenn, who spends hours searching for treasures.

Other Goodwill treasure hunters have made big finds. Recently a woman bought a Nintendo game for $7.99 at a Goodwill store, only to find later that it was worth $15,000.

Glenn admitted that when he first saw the $5 poster, he thought it might be worth a couple of hundred dollars, not several thousand.

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye,” he said. “It’s an original 1955 Walt Disney Lady and the Tramp movie poster.”

The poster isn’t in perfect condition, Glenn said. But he estimates the $5 Lady and the Tramp could get him somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000.