How Google Image Search Became My Go-To Tool for Thrifting Home Décor
Have you ever been thrifting home decor and wondered if the item you’re holding is secretly worth thousands of dollars or maybe it is just dusty junk?
While this may be one of the great thrills of thrifting home décor. It can also be extremely stressful. (Because nobody wants to feel duped and waste their money on low-quality items).
So here’s a thrifting tip that changed the way I shop: Google Image Search. Why? Because with a few taps on my phone I can pull up comps, check pricing, get styling inspo and figure out if what I’m holding is vintage, valuable, or just reproduction, mass-produced, low-quality rubbish . It’s like having an antique expert in my pocket—letting me easily know when I’ve struck a goldmine or just found a sad pile of fools gold and disappointment.
How to Use Google Image Search on Your Phone
If you’ve never done a Google image search on your phone before, here’s a quick breakdown of everything you need to know:
Download The Google App or Chrome App
To do a Google image search we’ll need to use the “Google Lens” feature, which you can find on both the Google app or the chrome app. Both have the same “Google Lens” image search function, but I do find they give me *slightly* different results. So it doesn’t hurt to have both.
How To Use Google Lens In The Thrift Store
Once you’ve downloaded the Google app or Chrome app, here’s how to perform an image search:
- Open the app & tap on the “camera” Icon (It’s normally the one on the far right of the search bar next to the microphone icon)
- This will open a camera and let you snap a photo of the item you want to learn more about.
- If you already have a photo of the item on your phone, you can tap the image icon on the lower left corner of the screen. That will take you to your camera roll where you can select the image of the item you’d like to do a search on.
- Adjust the crop to include only the item you’d like to search
Tips For Getting Better Results
If you’re not getting great search results back from your image, try these tips and see if they help:
- Photograph your item on a plain, solid color background – Sometimes if there is a lot of stuff in the photo behind the item you’re trying to do a search on, it can be hard for the image software to “read” the image.
- Take photos of your item from a few different angles
- Make sure and snap a photo of any unique characteristics or makers marks on the item
What Google Lens Can Tell You About Your Thrift Finds
Now that you’ve done a Google lens image search on your thrifted item – what can we actually learn from doing this?
See Price Ranges & Evaluation Info
This is my favorite use: sharing a photo of the item in front of me with Google and instantly seeing similar items for sale on sites like Chairish, Etsy, or eBay. Sometimes the $7 item in your thrift cart turns out to be listed for $90 dollars online. Other times, you realize there are hundreds of the same item going for $3 on ebay.
Identify Makers Marks or Styles
Unless your brain is an encyclopedia of makers marks and you moonlight as an expert on The Antiques Roadshow, chances are you will have no idea what any makers mark you find means. Google lens however let’s you have a little pocket evaluation expert though! So all you have to do is upload a photo of the mark and browse the results for an exact match.
Even if the item doesn’t have a maker’s mark, sometimes Google lens can even help you just identify the style or collection name for an item so you can have more information to use in your research.
Help Spotting Dupes and Kockoffs
There’s nothing wrong with a dupe—but there’s something very satisfying about knowing it’s a dupe or the genuine article. Image search can help you figure out if something is truly vintage, a reproduction made in the 1980s, or just a clever knockoff. Either way, you get to make an informed decision.
Get Styling Inspo
There are times when you’re probably not even sure if you like what you’re holding—how to use it, or how it would look in your space. A quick Google lens image search and can help show you how other people have styled similar items in their homes.
Real Life Thrift Finds & What Google Image Search Told Me About Them
Let’s dig into some real life examples from a few of my recent thrifting trips so you can see how I’m using this tool myself “in the wild”. (Pssst… Want to know the top 10 things I always look for when thrifting?)
The Mystery Of The Glass Decanter
This decantur caught my eye in the thrift shop, but it was $8 and I wanted to check and see if it was worth that much. A quick google image search showed me several exact matches (including this one) that let me know.
- The item is likely vintage
- It was produced by a company called Cristal d’Arques France
- It is made out of genuine 24% lead crystal
- I’m seeing they are selling for anywhere from $23 – $129
Knowing all that, I decided that $8 was a price I was happy to pay for this item.
The Secret Of The Centerpiece Bowl
Here’s another item that caught my eye very quickly while thrifting due to its size and unusual shape. The thrift store had this priced at $13. This time my google search even pulled up a quick AI generated overview with information about the item. Then scrolling down I saw numerous exact matches (like this one) that told me:
- This bowl is vintage
- It was produced by Mottahedeh Italy
- It isn’t very rare since there are so many exact match listings showing up
- It’s worth a decent amount of money though, with most items listed for $110 – $175
With this information, and observing the bowl had a small crack in it, I decided the item was worth the $13 but that I personally didn’t love it enough or have the space to store it in my home. So I left it for someone else to discover and fall in love with.
The Case Of The Modern Soap Dispenser
As an example of using this technique on a non-vintage item, here is a modern soap dispenser I found at the thrift store for $4. I wanted to see if google image search could tell me where it originally came from so I knew how much it was brand new. A quick Google image search pulled up a bunch of listings that told me this likely came from Amazon and cost roughly $9 – $17 new.
This sort of knowledge can come in handy when you need two of an item but can only find one at the thrift store.
The Mid-Century Mystery
This is an interesting example of finding out an item is worth less than you think it might be. I spied this pair of mid-century candlestick holders in the more expensively priced “vintage” section of a local thrift store I frequent. They were priced at $10 for the pair, so $5 each. A quick glance at them made me think they might be worth more than that, so I did a quick Google image search and found:
- These are Wheatonware mid-century custard glass candlestick holders
- There are hundreds of online listings for them – so they are not rare.
- You can buy them on ebay for around $3 each.
This let me know that unless I really loved them, $5 each was on the higher end of what these were actually worth. This let me walk away from them that day knowing that I could always find them online for the same price or less.
Why I Think This Thrift Tip Is Worth Doing – Even If You’re Pretty Sure You Know The Value Of An Item
While it doesn’t really matter if something is valuable—since everyone is allowed to love what they love, no matter its commercial value—I still think it’s worth doing a quick image search while you thrift, for a few different reasons:
Saves You From Overpaying For Goodwill Finds
If you look up an item you fall in love with at the thrift store and they shop is asking $25 for it, and you see it’s going for $10 on ebay, you have the option of buying the Ebay item instead and saving yourself some money. OR you can even show the Ebay listing to an employee at your local thrift store and see if they will price match the item for you.
Helps You Develop Your Eye For Quality Thrifted Home Decor
The more you do this, the more information your brain intakes on visual cues and value. Which means you’ll more easily and quickly be able to spot high-quality items amongst all the dusty clutter. I talk more about how I do this in My Ultimate Guide To Thrifting Home Decor.
Makes You A More Confident, Informed Thrifter
Whenever I use this hack I always leave the thrift shop with a good feeling in my gut about my purchases. Because I have more information about their value and know I’ll have less chance of developing buyer remorse. But even if I decide I no longer want the item, I know I can resell it and PROBABLY MAKE MONEY.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this little hack saves you some mental energy and spares you from overthinking that $5 vase you just thrifted.
And just to be clear: it’s totally okay to buy something simply because you love it—not because it’s “valuable.” On the flip side, I’ve seen plenty of people scoop up things they don’t like or need just because “they’re worth a lot”. That’s fine if you’ve got a plan for the item—like reselling it on Facebook Marketplace or stocking an antique booth. But if you don’t need it or even want it, and you’re grabbing it just because it’s valuable? Maybe consider leaving it behind for someone else to stumble across and fall in love with.
At the end of the day it all comes down to feeling good about the things you choose to take home.
Now I need to know, what is the best home decor find you’ve ever made!? What hidden treasures have you found? Have you ever been duped and accidently paid too much for a cheap knockoff? Let me know in the comments below!
Want more thrifting tips and ticks!? Check out my Ultimate Guide to Thrifting Home Decor!
If you struggle with thrifting and are looking to get the most return on your time investment when you go, this post is for you! Click the link below to read My Ultimate Guide To Thrifting: Tips & Tricks For Scoring Beautiful Second Hand Home Decor! It has all the tips and tricks you need to jump start your thrifting adventure!
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