The 12 Most Valuable Vintage Pyrex Sets To Search For At Thrift Stores

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For plenty of Pyrex collectors, the thrill is in the hunt — picking up a 473 1-quart casserole dish here, a 471 1-pint casserole dish (in the same pattern) there. But others want instant satisfaction, and that comes at a price. When bundled together into a complete set, many Pyrex patterns that wouldn't ordinarily cost all that much become considerably more valuable, such as Spring Blossom or Friendship, the vintage Pyrex pattern with country charm.

Then there are the rarer Pyrex patterns, like pink or orange Butterprint or the unmarked ultra-rare Atomic Eyes. When bundled into a complete set, particularly complete with the original box, those patterns can command top dollar, sometimes pushing or even topping $1,000.

If you don't have that much to spend on vintage Pyrex, you can take a do-it-yourself approach and assemble sets piece by piece. It will most likely take you longer to find individual bowls or casserole dishes, but in the long run, you'll save money and end up with a set you'll be proud to put on display or use in your kitchen. You just need to know which patterns are worth pursuing.

Let's start at the beginning, with the first set of colorful Pyrex released — the rare Primary Colors mixing bowls, which debuted in 1945. While the original four-piece bowl set featured, in size order from smallest to largest, a blue bowl, red bowl, green bowl, and yellow bowl, in 1968, the team at Pyrex switched things up and released what's known as "Reverse Primary Colors," with the largest bowl in green, the next size down in yellow, and the red bowl replaced with an orange one. Full sets of either original or reverse Primary Colors could sell in the $100 to $200 range.

Colonial Mist, with its scattered daisies, has the honor of being the last opalware Pyrex pattern ever created. Released in 1983, it was in production until 1986, when the company stopped making opalware altogether. The pattern featured two colorways, blue on white and white on blue, with mixing bowl sets typically alternating the colors. However, Pyrex also sold white on blue bowls in each size (1.5-pint through 4- quart) as open stock. Today, a full set of all four all-blue Colonial Mist mixing bowls is hard to find and valuable, selling for around $400 when available.

Originally available to those who collected and traded in loyalty program stamps, today, a full set of all four of the Pumpkin (or orange) vintage Butterprint Cinderella mixing bowls sells for a pretty penny. Even partial sets sell for more than a monthly car payment, with three bowls recently selling for over $1,000 on eBay. Pumpkin Butterprint is valuable because it didn't have an official production run and was originally available only in limited quantities. It was released in 1965 and originally available for the price of 1.5 stamp books.

Like many Pyrex patterns, Horizon Blue, released in 1969, was available on mixing bowls and casserole dishes. While the mixing bowl set is a dream to find secondhand, so is a full round casserole set, complete with lids, and in excellent condition. An individual Horizon Blue casserole dish may set you back around $20, while three dishes together may cost around $200. Horizon Blue is one of those patterns that can be tricky to piece together individually, thanks to the solid blue color of one of the bowls, so having someone else do the work for you may make it worth the expense.

With its trail of leaves and flowers, Gooseberry, released in 1956, has long been one of Pyrex's most popular patterns, particularly the pink colorway. Refrigerator sets, aka "fridgies" are one of Pyrex's most beloved dishes. So it's no surprise that a full set of pink Gooseberry refrigerator dishes, consisting of two small 1.5 cup dishes, one medium 1.5 pint dish, and one large 1.5 quart dish, complete with lids, is a high-value item among collectors. A four-piece set recently sold on eBay for $375.

Released in 1958 as a promotional item, the Balloons chip and dip set ticks all the boxes of what makes a Pyrex set valuable — it's older, it was a limited release, and it's a coveted shape. Several additional factors impact how valuable the set is, such as whether it includes the original bracket that connected the dip bowl to the chip bowl and whether it comes with the original box. A complete set, new and unused, in its original box recently sold on eBay for $575. A set with just the two bowls, no bracket, sold for nearly $250.

The vintage Amish-print Butterprint Pyrex was ultimately released in three colorways, including the pumpkin/orange pattern described above, the relatively easy to find and less valuable turquoise pattern, and the rarest and most valuable of them all, the pink Butterprint. Released in 1960 as part of a trading stamp loyalty program, the pink Butterprint pattern appeared on a set of three Cinderella casserole dishes, ranging in size from 1 pint to 1 quart. Originally on offer for a few stamp books, today, a full set of three dishes, with lids, sells in the neighborhood of $800 to $1250.

Another big-name Pyrex pattern, Friendship debuted at the beginning of the 1970s on an array of items, including Cinderella mixing bowl sets, round mixing bowls, casserole dishes, and a refrigerator set. Friendship features a cheerful, bright red bird design on a white backyard, along with dishes and bowls in solid color red, orange, or yellow. A full set of mixing bowls, whether round or Cinderella, tends to have the highest value, with sets recently selling for around $300.

The sweet vintage Spring Blossom pattern may be what springs to mind when many people think of old-school Pyrex. Released in 1972, it was in production until 1979, when a new variation was introduced and produced until 1982. Of the pieces produced in the original Spring Blossom variation, the refrigerator set is among the most valuable. A four piece set, consisting of two 1.5-cup, green on white dishes, one 1.5 pint white on green, and a 1.5-quart white on green dish, complete with lids, has could sell in the neighborhood of $200 to $300.

Technically, the official name of the pattern many people call "Barcode" is Blue Stripe. And technically, blue isn't the only color available — there are several prototype colorways that you'd be thrilled to find in a thrift store. Those prototypes typically have a value of several thousand dollars, since they are so hard to track down. The blue colorway is much more easy to find, but still valuable, particularly when sold as a set of three Cinderella casserole dishes (with lids, of course). A full set recently sold for $275.

The Atomic Eyes pattern, sometimes just called "Eyes," is a bit of a head scratcher. While it's believed to have been produced in the 1950s, no one is sure of the exact year. It was most likely a promotional piece, but some versions are unmarked, meaning they lack the typical identifying Pyrex backstamp. What we do know about Atomic Eyes is that it's a chip and dip, meaning it consists of one small 1.5-pint bowl and one 2.5-quart bowl, connected by a metal bracket. A complete set recently sold for nearly $600.

New Dots, or just "Dots" were first spotted back in 1969 in three colors: orange, yellow, and blue and sizes ranging from 1.5 pints to 2.5 quarts. A fourth bowl, measuring 4 quarts in green, appeared a few years later. While at first, New Dots bowls were sold separately, today, collectors seek out sets of three or four round mixing bowls. A full set of four can sell for more than $400 while a three-piece set, without the green, can sell for around $250.