This Retro Pyrex Bowl Is Worth Looking For At Thrift Stores

When you're sifting through shelves and cluttered aisles in a thrift store, you never know what treasures you'll stumble upon. And for Pyrex collectors, there's no better place than a thrift shop to hunt for a rare piece, a limited-run bowl, or one of many valuable vintage patterns that someone unknowingly priced for pocket change. While many retro pieces from the glassware brand end up in consignment shops, few are as elusive or make a collector's heart jump like the Cinderella salad bowl.

This shiny, cheerful beauty made its debut in 1960 as part of a promotion manufactured only for that year. The 4-quart bowl has a teal-green background with a white design of leaves, cherries, pears, peaches, and other fruit. It came in a pea-green box with a pair of glittery, clear serving tongs. Some refer to it as "fetus" because of the baby-shaped design in the foreground, which is supposed to be the other half of a pear. 

In a 1960 ad, Pyrex showcased several new pieces, including the salad bowl, as part of its gift-sets promotion. "Pyrex gifts ... today's look for today's cook," the ad read, highlighting that the bowl could also be used for punch, casseroles, or flowers. When Pyrex rolled out the Cinderella salad bowl, it retailed for $3.50. Today, on second-market sites, the fruit salad bowl lists for anywhere from $42 to $100. However, sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time to snag this Pyrex gem.

Hunting down the rare Pyrex salad bowl may seem daunting, but a few thrifters have made fruitful discoveries. One scored the bowl for $20 several years ago, to the envy of their fellow Pyrex collectors. "I love the color and would be ecstatic to find one in the wild," one Reddit user said. "Great find!"

Another hunted theirs down on Facebook. "Salad Bowl was the first one I ever got, and that started this obsession!" the poster said of their find on Reddit. "It was in a picture of a bunch of otherwise cheap plastic bowls and basic glass bowls on Facebook Marketplace, and I ended up getting it for only $3." Arguably the luckiest thrifter of them all found a fruit salad bowl in the box with the tongs and its companion bowl, featuring a white background with a green design of vegetables. The set comes with a whimsical little note from Pyrex with a butterfly, highlighting its "Spring Shower of Gifts."

If you do end up plucking this sweet vintage piece from a thrift store, you could display it proudly with its own shelf and lighting, use it for one of these tasty fruit salad recipes, or reap the benefits of your prized crop by selling it online. Whatever you do, don't leave this fruitful find behind to sour on a thrift store shelf.