British Heart Foundation sells gold watch left in donation bag in West London for nearly £10,000

A gold watch found in a charity donation bag has been sold on eBay for nearly £10,000.

Volunteers at the British Heart Foundation couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the eye-catching Cartier 18 carat timepiece at their shop in Hounslow, west London.

The charity said it "struck gold" as the average value of donated items is less than five pounds.

"Finding a Cartier watch is like striking gold and winning the lottery at the same time.

"Whoever the generous donor was, they can rest assured that their donation will go a long way towards fighting heart disease," said Kama Villiers, enterprise customer success manager at Shopiago, BHF’s online shopping partner.

"This sale really demonstrates the power of online sales for charity retailers. This is the most valuable single item we’ve sold to date.

"The team at the BHF did an excellent job identifying, valuing, listing and selling the watch, and it’s been simply brilliant to see so much money being raised for such an important cause," she continued.

The Cartier Tank Francaise 18ct gold watch was sent to the British Heart Foundation's Online Hub in Leeds for verification.

It sold for £9,766.66 in December 2022.

Other generous donations sold online by the charity in recent years have included a 7” vinyl demo of the Beatles’ Love Me Do (complete with a misspelling of Paul McCartney’s name) which sold for £9,400, and a second-hand Mercedes Benz E320 which sold for £7,502.

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