I LOVE vintage stuff, and the best thing I found was at a church garage sale - it was a vintage wooden purse with decopage on it much like this one:
http://www.purse-gasm.com/images/antonbieck_wreu.jpg Only, the decopage was butterflies, and the handle was brass. I only bought it for 20 cents, and up to this day it's still in good shape. I love it!
My mom was luckier though, she went into a Salvation Army-esque store and found a vintage Gucci purse!