Chanel Sellers wore a bandana over her nose and mouth to block out the dust and mold. Gloves protected her hands from rusty nails and at least one brown recluse spider as she dug through dusty boxes in a shed at a Lafayette estate sale last March.

She was about to give up when she spotted the day's prize: a wadded-up but otherwise intact M.C. Escher-style Grateful Dead T-shirt from the 1990s.

The experience wasn't as dramatic as, say, Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail. But in Sellers' line of work, it was still a triumph.

After years of experience, she knew she’d be able to buy the rare shirt for a few dollars and resell it for hundreds in her Lafayette store — Frenchy's House of Vintage — or on an e-commerce platform like eBay.

It's all in a day's work for Sellers and other vintage

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