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Building a well-stocked kitchen is a labor of love. To make the budget stretch further, you can totally purchase some kitchen items secondhand, such as pastry cutters and cake pans. (On the flip side, there are kitchen tools that should always be bought new, including wooden utensils and knives.) On your next thrift shop trip, keep an eye out for one particular vintage dinnerware brand.
Fiestaware is the cult-favorite dishware brand with a timeless retro aesthetic that’s been catching the eyes of home cooks for close to 90 years. Fiestaware is famed for its bright colors and impressive durability — sturdiness which has enabled the brand to reside in the kitchens of ’40s home cooks and 2025 foodies alike. Fiestaware also has a mix-and-match art deco aesthetic, so picking up a stray bowl or plate here and there at the thrift shop is a solid way to slowly build your dinnerware collection piece by piece. It won’t look “mismatched” because the rainbow of fun, vibrant colors is the entire point.
Like vintage Pyrex, which is also super in-demand, real vintage Fiestaware items are fetching a pretty penny online. Plates and bowls are currently selling for $10 to $50 each on eBay. A butter dish costs $49.95, and specialty serveware like a casserole dish can run for $250 or more. Helpfully, those technicolor hues will pop out at you from the dishware section of your local thrift store, to make certain you don’t accidentally overlook a lucky lurking Fiestaware score.
Fiestaware is durable, collectible, and in-demand
Fiestaware dominated the kitchens of the 1940s and 1950s. The West Virginia-based brand first debuted in 1936, and had disappeared from the market by 1973 when the company ceased production. Since its return in 1986, Fiesta has been selling a dishware line that’s still available in many homeware retailers today. But, something about that O.G. first-release Fiestaware has aesthetically-minded foodies raving nearly a century later.
As always, it pays to brush up on the history of vintage cookware before buying. Pre-1973 Fiestaware was only available in seven colors (Red, Cobalt, Yellow, Light Green, Medium Green, Old Ivory, and Turquoise) and came imprinted with the words “GENUINE fiesta” (lowercase “fiesta”) on the bottom of each item. Look for these characteristics to determine whether your thrift store score is the real deal.
Collectors-appeal aside, even finding a new-production Fiesta dishware item at your local thrift shop is a total score. These famously-durable dishes still fetch a steep price tag when purchased new. As of this writing, a multicolored 12-piece dinnerware set (service for four) costs $139.99 at Macy’s. Prefer a monochrome look? Kohls sells service-for-four Fiesta sets for $156 (modern colors include a dark jade green and a pale sky blue). On the official Fiesta website, dinner plates cost $15.99 each and bowls cost $19.99. Long story short, if you spot a stray Fiestaware plate at Goodwill, don’t think twice about popping it in the cart.
