A Rare Vintage Tin You Can Find At A Thrift Store Could Be Worth $100

Although multiple types of vintage tins exist that can have significant value today, from cracker tins to ones storing medicine to motor oil, the vintage tobacco tin can be especially valuable. Starting in the 1760s, businesses in London would store their snuff product in tin containers. By 1810, the English also stored tobacco in these boxes. Seventy-some years later, manufacturers of these tins added air holes so that tobacco could be sold to retailers in bulk while remaining fresh. Soon, tobacco companies in the U.S. realized they could advertise on these tins, thereby creating recognizable branding. Nowadays, people collect choice brands of tobacco tins such as Rock Castle (Morford's Antique Advertising Auctions sold one for $310 in March 2024) or Twin Oaks (LiveAuctioneers sold one for $90 in June 2024). 

When browsing through thrift stores to find valuable items, the two main tobacco tin types are round ones used for bulk tobacco and flatter ones that someone could use to store their personal supply. Ones of value tend to be scarce — especially in good condition with an attractive design. This is largely because even experts can struggle to accurately date vintage tins that don't have a date printed on them. For that reason, age is not be as big of a factor in value for tobacco tins as it can be with other collectible types. It also doesn't typically matter whether the box still contains tobacco or not.

In June 2024, a set of three tobacco/cigar tins sold through LiveAuctioneers for $750. More specifically, one contained five-cent packages from Tiger Chewing Tobacco, and two came from Orcico where one could buy two items for a nickel. In April 2025, Dan Morphy Auctions gleaned $375 from five tobacco tins with their original handles: one each from Dan Patch, Dixie Kid, Dixie Queen, George Washington, and Round Trip. In June 2025, a set of nine tobacco/cigar tins from a blend of brands with some denting and lost paint sold for $150. That same month, four George Washington Cut Plug tins sold for $100.

Sometimes, a vintage tobacco tin can bring in an even more eyewatering sum of money. In March 2025, a Torpedo Special Short Cut Smoking Tobacco tin from the 1920s sold for $5,000. The brand's tin is one of the rarest pocket tobacco types in Canada, which helps to explain the high price at auction. 

Other tin items worth money are vintage lunch boxes or biscuit tins. They don't have to be especially old, either. For example, a pair of late 20th century West German tea biscuit tins painted in a vintage Victorian style sold for $35 in November 2024 by Salem Auction House. The concept of a tin lunch box, meanwhile, comes with an intriguing history. Practical families would reuse tobacco tins, or tins formerly used for cookies and other items, as lunch boxes. In 1902, the first tin lunch box specifically designed to appeal to kids for their noontime meal came out: a picnic-basket shaped one that featured images of happy children playing. This started the momentum of pop culture lunchboxes, with a 1965 one featuring the Beatles currently listed by Ithica Vintage for $549. 

Even old beer cans can come with an unexpected amount of value. In April 2025, Morean Auctions announced the sale of a 1950s can of Chief Oshkosh Supreme Pilsener Beer for a whopping $111,150. The reason that beer cans command such high prices is that most people simply drank the beer and threw the can away — making a preserved can much rarer, and much more valuable.