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$30 Thrift Store Find Actually A $223,000 Jet Engine Valve

A pricey air valve from an A330-300 made its way to a thrift store in
Washington State.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles

Updated Feb 24, 2025 4:37 AM EST
[plane-engi]

ZACH U/AKUDA ON REDDIT

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A Washington State online reseller has become the darling of his
community after he snagged the deal of the year, at least on paper.
Zach, 35 (he wouldn't tell Newsweek his last name or hometown), paid
$30 at a thrift store in central Washington for an engine air supply
valve that aftermarket aircraft parts dealer Aeroval says had a
"reference value" of $223,520 in 2011. According to Honeywell's
website, the part belongs to a GE CF6-80 engine from an A330-300,
perhaps as part of the anti-icing system.

Zach says he has no idea how the Goodwill store got hold of it or
what its actual value might be. The section of the device with the
Honeywell part number (3290628-4) is attached to other things on the
assembly and they may have some theoretically astronomical value,
too, but he's not banking on a quarter-million-dollar profit. For one
thing, it didn't come with any of the paperwork that would make it
possible to use it for its intended purpose.

"Now, I totally recognize I won't be able to get anything remotely
close to that--if I can sell it at all, for that matter," he said in a
Reddit post. "It's just really amazing that someone discarded
hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of commercial aviation parts,
even if they are non-functional." We couldn't get hold of Honeywell
on the weekend but we'll try Monday.

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Russ Niles
Russ NilesEditor
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30
years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in
southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.
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