Woman 'hits the jackpot' after taking gamble on £120 mystery John Lewis returns pallet
A woman who risked £120 to buy a pallet full of items returned to John Lewis said she 'hit the jackpot' when she realised what was inside.
It's well known that one person's trash is another person's treasure, and TikToker Katherine Chalmers perfectly proved this point when she decided to buy the pallet full of returns from the online auction house William George.
The auction house runs at least two auctions per week with retail returns from John Lewis, but since customers don't know what the pallets contain before they buy them, it's a gamble to spend the money.
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People return things to shops for all sorts of reasons - maybe the new home decor just didn't fit in with the rest of the room, or the outfit just wasn't for them - but there's always a chance that the item is downright useless, or, let's face it, ugly.
Still, Katherine decided to risk receiving someone else's unwanted item in the hope that she'd strike gold - and that's exactly what she did.
In a video shared on TikTok, the entrepreneur and mum filmed herself unpacking the huge box.
"Oh my God, I'm so excited I can't talk. Hate to spoil this but - spoiler alert: we hit the jackpot with this," she told her followers.
Katherine continued: "So my boyfriend found an online auction site that sells off ex-John Lewis goods, so goods that have been returned.
"You pay... well whatever you win at the auction price. We've paid £120 and that includes delivery but we're not really sure what's inside the box."
Katherine soon discovered a whole range of useful, and pricey, items.
One of the most exciting finds in the pallet was a PlayStation 5 - a device which retails at around £450.
That alone was enough for Katherine to profit off her purchase, but the contents didn't stop there.
As well as the PS5, Katherine unboxed five bean bags, a mug, curtain poles, a dog bed, a mirror, soap dispenser and bath caddy.
Katherine said the pallet made her whole day 'very exciting', though the contents of the pallet was just too good to be true for some people.
One viewer responded to claim the video was staged, writing: "Would actually be believable if it wasn't so staged... I don't get why people need to lie... what does it achieve?"
Katherine responded to the video to insist it was 'not staged' and 'all true', though she admitted she got the retail value of the PS5 'massively wrong', having initially suggested it could be worth £700.
The mum later followed up on her video to explain that the PS5 had been broken - which is probably why it was returned - but she claimed she still managed to make a profit by selling the parts for £200.
Emily Brown