Anyone discover Thrift Shopping recently?

[omega minimo]

With the economy in the toilet and the holidays on the horizon, how many more folks started thinking about buying used? This could include thrift stores (often for charity), garage sales, wants ads, Craigslist, Free stuff, dumpster diving, antique/junk shops, etc.

Around Halloween, the secondhand shops seemed more full of folks looking for costumes than usual, lots of young adults making their own costumes. Thrift stores are usually busy around Christmas.

Have you discovered the joys of thrifting?

These can include: finding a treasure, finding a bargain, finding something you really need, finding something you can't buy any more, finding new interests, finding a way to stretch your dollars and finding a way around supporting the corporate regime that is seeking to destroy you, your livelihood, your nation and your American way of life.

[sasquatch]

1. I just bought a used pawn shop acoustic guitar for $70

[omega minimo]

3. Nice. Merry Christmas!

[sasquatch]

10. Thank you

[gateley]

2. I've been frequenting thrift shops for years -- even when I was making a really

good salary. I discover things I wouldn't even be aware of had I not exposed myself to others' 'junk'.

[omega minimo]

4. Fun finding things

you never knew existed. :thumbsup:

[Ikonoklast]

5. I buy my work clothes from thrift shops.

Jeans and t-shirts, mostly. I wear them out, and get them dirty in short order, so I hate buying new for something I'll just wear and ruin at work.

I find that about a month after Christmas is a good time to find a nice selection of jeans. I guess people get some new clothes for Christmas, and go through the closet for stuff they no longer wear, or no longer fits, and donate it.

Pickings have been slim around here the last year or so as more and more people turn to thrift shops in order to save money.

My son does the same; he refuses to wear anything new to work, as he'll ruin it in a day.

[sasquatch]

14. What do you do for a living?

I bought carhart work jeans and and coveralls when I worked in an automotive factory for 8 years off and on.

[Ikonoklast]

25. I drive.

Driving isn't the dirty part, unloading freight is the problem.

I'm always confounded how an exposed pallet nail can snag and rip a pair of pants, no matter how careful one is.

And I wear out the left knee in my pants from the inside out, just from pushing in the clutch a few hundred times a day. I must have five pair of jeans with the left knee blown out of them.

[sasquatch]

32. Buy some carhart jeans, they're the best IMO

[katkat]

58. ikono - Manly Men Can Sew

You can patch the knees. Use one pair of jeans as a source of extra fabric for that. Zero money except for thread.

Also, you can sew up tears.

[Ikonoklast]

62. I have a sewing machine, and know how to use it.

Trust me on this one, my patches have patches.

When I finally 'retire' a pair of jeans, you could read agate type through them.

[omega minimo]

64. LOL wow. That's some clutch!!

:hi:

[Ikonoklast]

69. Bet your ass it is. I'm just glad it's a ten-speed.

I swear the next tractor I get will have an automatic.

They've come a long way in the last few years, and my poor left knee won't be so damn sore after getting stuck in another traffic jam.

[goldcanyonaz]

6. Other: No thrift store within 50 miles of us.

[Capn Sunshine]

100. EBay

biggest thrift store in the world, and they come to YOU.

[goldcanyonaz]

7. I scored a Hermes Birkin about 10 years ago in Detroit. Owner had no idea

what its worth was.

I thought I would pass out while waiting in line. My face was all flushed and my heart was beating a mile a minute.

[omega minimo]

16. Splendid

...... hoping their not looking at your face .......... :spray:

[gateley]

52. That is beyond my wildest dreams -- congrats on a GREAT find! nt

[katkat]

60. Is this the place

to discuss the complete insanity of paying more than $25 for a pocketbook?

[omega minimo]

65. scoring a well made bag = work of art

edit: point well taken :spray:

[MineralMan]

8. I've been shopping second hand and in thrift stores since the

70s. Today, in fact, I visited the local Goodwill store, where I found a big fat copy of The Art of Audubon, with every bird and mammal painting he ever did in it. $2.99, and it's in excellent condition, with dustcovers. I'm not sure what it cost new, since the corner of the dustjacket with the price was clipped.

A nice reference, and a joy to look at. Not a really big deal, but I would never have bought it except for Goodwill.

[omega minimo]

18. Please show it to all the 12 years olds in your vicinity

:evilgrin:

[MineralMan]

22. I don't understand. I guess you'll have to explain what you mean.

[Walk away]

9. I dressed out of thrift stores in my twenties. I lived in NYC and it was all...

velvet dresses and real panama hats! Great stuff.

But here is my caveat....Theses days there are little critters called BED BUGS! They have always been around but about 10 yrs ago they started coming from Eastern Europe and infecting hotel rooms all over the US. New York really got hit first but they just have to jump in and out of suitcases like prolific little traveling salesmen.

They often turn up in thrift stores because people get rid of their furniture and clothes when they become infected. They are very difficult to get rid of. They make fleas, ticks and head lice seem like welcome house guests.

I have never had them but my best friend and her husband were inundated last year. They wouldn't let anyone in there house for months except pest control and cleaners. These are two level headed people driven to the edge.

So consider the risks before you buy.

[goldcanyonaz]

15. I can't buy used books because of the molds found in them I'm very allergic to it.

[omega minimo]

19. Thanks for the TIP!

ewwww

[EFerrari]

11. I love thrift shops. My favorite finds are a 1922 typewriter

and a first ed collection of NYer cartoons. But I've found a lot of practical things, too, like a coffee grinder for $2 that I can use for spices, clothes, furniture, a bike. It's much more fun than going to the mall which I haven't done willingly in nearly 20 years!

[izquierdista]

12. Thrifting is for amateurs

The real pros at slightly used items go straight to the source -- the dumpster! Diving for treasure without a SCUBA tank!

[pipi_k]

13. I'm a classic cheapo buyer...

Once lived with someone who enjoyed telling everyone how MUCH he spent on things...I like telling people how LITTLE I spend on stuff.

Right now I'm wearing a beautiful light sky-blue pullover sweater I got for peanuts at the Goodwill store a few weeks ago. Oversized, just the way I like 'em. Warm.

I also love picking up used books there, and I've gotten some pretty copper pieces for my collection, not to mention a whole slew of other stuff I can't even remember.


Thrift shopping...it's a way of life

:)

[Echo In Light]

17. Well-to-do yuppies have taken over the thrift stores, driving up prices

... hurting those who those stores were initially geared toward ... before the "Deal Getters" decided it was 'cool' and trendy to 'dress down.'

[omega minimo]

21. Not all of them ... sorry if that's so where you live ....

Different types of hipsters are looking for different things too. 20somethings can have all that godawful polyester shite we passed over in the 70's! :spray:

[Echo In Light]

30. I'm not referring to 'retro' items - just average jeans/pants/shirts stuff. Prices are outrageous!

And that only happened b/c the 'class' of the clientele went up.

[omega minimo]

31. True.

Different stores price differently -- some price low to move stuff quick. St. Vincent de Paul and SPCA. are good.

[gateley]

55. That's why, when I donate clothing and goods, I donate directly to a shelter

or organization that distributes. The prices HAVE gone up in thrift stores, and I think many people can't afford them anymore.

[omega minimo]

66. another good point.

:thumbsup:

[shanti]

89. i used to thrift shop in the 70's

but was only searching for vintage stuff from the 40's and 50's, like beaded sweaters, silk stuff, interesting shoes, jackets, things like that. can't find anything like that now in thrift stores, ya have to go to an expen$ive vintage clothing store!

so, no, i don't thrift shop anymore...

[omega minimo]

91. hey sista soul sista

yup. That's why I joked in the thread so much of the 70's polyester is left over for today's hipsters. We didn't want to TOUCH it! :spray:

Still can find some vintage finds if they slip through or the store has it's own vintage section ......

[leftstreet]

42. LOL Polls results. Irony.

:rofl:

:thumbsup:

[TommyO]

20. My most used thrift store purchase is a thermal carafe that I paid sixty cents for

years ago. The sucker keeps my coffee hot for hours and has more than paid for itself many hundreds of times over.

[omega minimo]

28. Sounds like a find

:thumbsup:

[ChickMagic]

23. I loved it

I found a great shop. The clothes are modern, clean
to the point of looking brand new and I got out with
a great purchase. Nothing was over $5.00 and I got
a Neiman Marcus sweater and a pair of Gap jeans with
the tags still on them.

I also got a suede coat and a couple of other blouses
and sweaters.

The damage? About $40.

[omega minimo]

24. Way to go!

:bounce:

[lefthandedlefty]

26. I have always been a tightwad

[omega minimo]

27. LOL

There's that :hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. I've been thriftshopping for decades. Logical hint...try to go to the ones

near upscale neighborhoods.

[omega minimo]

33. AAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh.

Savvy shoppers share their secrets :toast:

[Speck Tater]

34. With a few exceptions like food, underwear, shoes, canning lids, etc...

I can't even remember the last time I bought anything new. I've always lived with thrift store furniture that I refinished and reupholstered. My current car cost me $100 cash, has served me well for the last 6 years, and is still going strong. Even my current computer was purchased used on eBay for less than $200 (3 GHz Pentium 4 w/1.25 Gig of ram). Every pot, pan, dish and piece of silverware in my kitchen came from thrift stores over the course of the last 30-40 years. Even both of my crock pots were found at Goodwill or St. Vinnies. Both of my power saws, my electric drill, my sockets and end wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, ... all from thrift stores. My snow chains, bed frames, food dehydrator, 95% of the books on my bookshelves, all from thrift stores.

What kind of idiot would waste money on new if an item of comparable, or even higher quality were available at 1/10th the cost?

[omega minimo]

38. Great post. Funny and true "What kind of idiot......."

:yourock: "if an item of comparable, or even higher quality were available at 1/10th the cost?" Often HIGHER quality.

[patrick t. cakes]

48. what kind of idiot indeed

went to Kohls last night for the first time in years (girlfriend had a gift card) i couldnt believe the prices of the crap in there. the consumer today really is a sucker. you could spend upwards of a thousand dollars pretty quickly. pizza stone alone was $50.00. shower curtain 40 bucks, gads!

give it ten tears and all that stuff on the shelves will be inside a salvation army somewhere anyway.

[librechik]

85. I get almost all my shoes second hand

In fact those were some of my best finds! $100 Doc Martins for 6 bucks, brand new, and the like.

[Speck Tater]

88. I DID buy shoes for my wedding at second hand, since I knew I'd only ever wear them once.

I only wear sneekers, so I had no "hard" shoes. After the wedding I took them back to the second hand store.

25 years later wife number one traded me in for another second hand model. My second wife, also used, threw me out a little quicker, though. Now, 40 years after my first wedding I know I'll never need formal shoes again, Thank God. So I buy my sneekers new.

[Catshrink]

35. I grew up shopping at Goodwill

and still do. Right now I'm wearing a pair of navy slacks ($3) and a Bears shirt ($1) from the Goodwill sale days. Our Goodwills have 50% off every other Saturday. Can't beat it.

[quiller4]

36. I've shopped second hand for many years. It is one way I've

found to acquire tools and clothing made in the USA. We shop regularly at a thrift shop that supports local charities. When I returned to the professional work force in 1997 after years of working from home, I shopped consignment shops for much of my professional wardrobe. When I retired in 2006, I consigned several suits and a Coach briefcase. It isn't just a cheaper way to shop, it is greener too.

[omega minimo]

39. Excellent points, thank you

I alluded to it in the OP and you made a couple key specific points. It is greener and it is a way to try to find Made In USA or at least avoid buyng Made In China new. :applause:

[David Zephyr]

37. We thrift shop and love it.

Goodwill is still our favorite.

[debbierlus]

40. I buy nearly EVERYTHING second hand

And, I have the best stuff of anyone I know!

[omega minimo]

49. cool

[earth mom]

41. I've been thrifting for over 20 years and love it.

However, I haven't been much this past year and I miss it.

The last things I remember buying was a cool vintage industrial office chair for 5 bucks (sitting on it now), an old round metal table that has great old green paint for 10 bucks and some fabric yardage that was under 10 bucks.

I've found great vintage clothing and jewelry and all kinds of funky stuff over the years, but you have to go often to get the goods these days.

Just talking about it makes me want to head for the door and hit the stores, lol! B-)

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

43. What a fun read this thread has been, Thank You OM.

I am truly a Thrift Bitch. I live for it. I love the hunt, the sheer high of a great find. People always telling me, I LoOOVvEE that outfit, where'd you get it? Vinneys! Cost me 4 bucks! (with a smile ten miles wide.) God, I love it so much, I might well be going to Hell for enjoying it so much.

Best find ~ A Shearling curley fur sheepskin coat in Blonde, 20 bucks, never worn.

Most lucrative find ~ Rubber girdle 1 dollar, sold on eBay to some guy in Japan for 300 dollars! I do not want to know what he did with that thing.

rec.

[gateley]

56. I'm going to go shopping for rubber girdles -- that's amazing!! nt

[Edweird]

44. I was going to thrift stores before going to thrift stores was 'cool'.

You could always find cool stuff.

[juno jones]

45. Thrift Stores are OK

But the REAL hunters go dumpster diving. :D

More risk, but the payoffs make you feel like the discoverer of a wreck on the Spanish Main.

Personally, I think we throw too much away in this society. In a similar vein, too many people don't appreciate quality, either.

PS, I pretty much gave it up many years ago after I had my kids. I go to thrift stores and sales now. But I am still surrounded by the memories ;).

PPS: Every municipality needs something like Berkeley's Urban Ore to sort and recycle usable objects and keep them (and things like waste electronics) from contributung to landfill problems.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

47. Okay, I will confess, when I was a little girl from 10 to 13, I would go with my Dad

to the local dump and help sift thru for the good stuff. When I reached 14, I went high end and started walking to the local thrift shops. Daddy always loved the Dumps and the finds he brought home for years. He taught me so much by example.

I love my Dad.

[omega minimo]

50. So many great comments. Thanks to all of you.

:yourock:

[juno jones]

95. Thank you for a great subject.

It's probably one of those things that DU has in common (mostly). It's a good thing to bring up from time to time. :hi:

[katkat]

61. dump

We lived next to a dump when I was a kid. I couldn't believe the good stuff people threw out, but my Mom forbid me from browsing in the dump "a rat will tear out your throat." So I had to sneak there and just look at all that good stuff.

[juno jones]

94. I LOVE dumps.

My husband practiacally has to restrain me from picking over other people's stuff when we have to go to the dump.

Great memory, thanks for sharing! :hi:

[patrick t. cakes]

46. doing it for years.

love it. exceept this last week couldnt find a decent shower curtain (not liner) to save my soul.
i think ill make one some how.

[Brickbat]

51. It's how I find some stuff made in the USA.

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. Pendleton silk blazer for $5

[omega minimo]

74. sounds cool, didn't know they did silk

[proud2BlibKansan]

76. Me neither

I was pretty surprised.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

54. one of the few places you

can find products that were made in the USA and $200 jeans for $5.

[blogslut]

57. My mother taught me about re-use

She was a child of the Depression and felt it was sinful to throw out perfectly good items for the sake of owning the newest model. She and I were Goodwill buddies. I have always been a fan of second-hand and always will be no matter what my income.

[katkat]

59. buying used helps avoid buying new made overseas stuff

Buying on ebay both avoids putting more money in BigCorps' pockets and helps the underground economy.

Plus the quality of older stuff is so much better.

[omega minimo]

67. The trifecta!!

:bounce:

[omega minimo]

68. .

:bounce:

[Imagevision]

63. I bought a new hair dryer for $1.65!!! And it even looked new ;-)

[Donnachaidh]

70. my best purchase was a used book bought for $28 that is actually valued around $1500 bucks

Even I was stunned when I saw the SAME book, in not as pristine shape, go for fifteen hundred bucks on Ebay.

[omega minimo]

71. yikes!

[ismnotwasm]

72. Shee-iit

Been thrift shopping for years. I know the 'good' places around where I live. I've gotten everything from great books (first edition of "Dune", a first edition of "Silent Spring") to art (recently a watercolor of the warship "Chicago" from WW11, it's painted like a kind of like a ghost ship, as that particular "Chicago" was sunk in the war) to clothes and shoes to appliances. I even have a Devil mask from Sri Lanka, (yardsale, that one) I made my herb garden area using concrete chunks from reconstruction sites. Lots of cool stuff.

[dysfunctional press]

73. i got married in a tux i that i had bought at mercy resale in champaign for $15

but what's even better than thrift-shopping is alley-ratting...you can't beat FREE.

here's what i did with one of the three upright pianos i've harvested from the alleys of chicago:


i've found all sorts of great treasures...some i keep...some go on garage sales...some go on ebay. some end up in my trash.

[TommyO]

78. That is a fantastic piece of art that you've created from the discarded!

[dysfunctional press]

90. thanks- it's still attached to the sound board, so you can get a full sound from the strings...

when i remodeled the bathroom that's on the other side of that wall, i bumped it out 30" to add a big tub- so when i built the new wall, i made it deep/strong enough, with a 5' square 6" deep pocket to accommodate it. i had to rent a lift in order to get it into place- it probably weighs over 500 lbs. we had a few different 'hammers' and sticks to play it with.

i say 'had', because we sold the house 2 years ago. but- i've got to remodel the master bathroom in the new house this winter/spring, and i'm going to be doing the same thing here with an even better harp/strings.

[SoCalDem]

75. A pawn shop near us offered lay-away ..and 30% off

[dgibby]

77. I remodeled my house with thrift shop finds.

Scored 1260 sq.ft of new laminate flooring and new kitchen countertops from a Habitat Resale Store. Almost all of my furniture is from Goodwill or Craig's list, and I found 12 french doors, a preformed pond for the yard, and 2 antique trunks at the local dump. Can't even begin to remember all the great roadside "kills" I've made! I love shopping thrift stores.

[omega minimo]

84. ALL of these posts are so great!!

:bounce: would love to see your labor of love

[dhpgetsit]

79. I was raised in Thrift Store culture.

And I'm proud of my culture.

[katkat]

80. let's not forget freecycle n/t

[annonymous]

81. I try to get as much stuff as possible at thrift stores.

However, there are certain items I simply won't buy used. These include bras and underwear, lingerie, and personal care items such as curlers and curling irons, personal massagers and electric razors. I also won't buy used computers and electronics because they are frequently obsolete. Goodwill in my area is more expensive than Value Village but neither thrift store carries much in the way of teen dress clothing. I will probably end up going to a consignment store to find such stuff for my son.

[katkat]

87. annon/computers

I'm typing away on a who knows how old (I just found a review of this model on the web dated 2003) HP Pavilion Windows XP notebook I got for about $300 on ebay, souped up with extra memory. It works fine for my purposes.

I take some issue with the idea of computers becoming "obsolete," if they do what you need them to do, they're fine with me. Then again, I have two cars, mine dating back about forty years, and my late Mom's which is 17 years old. The key word is maintenance.

[phatkatt]

82. Patagonia jacket for $5, many beer mugs and glassware

There is a lot of junk (like old wall mart stuff) so you have to know the brand names. You can also tell the stuff that was well taken care of (no dryer).

Also - you have to go often. I hit each once a week, many times buying nothing.

As far a beer mugs, I almost never find steins with the pewter lids, but I have about twenty nice tankards and glasses with obscure German brewery logos.

I'm addicted.

[4_TN_TITANS]

83. Don't know how we could've kept the kids in clothes

without Goodwill. And, being a thrifter has rubbed off on my daughters. It's not uncool these days for her and her high school friends to go Goodwilling!

[Cleita]

86. I've been doing it all my life because I had to.

It wasn't that DH and I didn't have good paying jobs and sometimes worked two jobs, but we both had obligations with dependent relatives and others who relied on us that we often had very little left to take care of ourselves.

[quispquake]

92. Vinyl Record junkie...still the best place to find the rarities

Patience on the hunt is mandatory, but I still find some amazing records at thrift stores around here...found a box of 60's soul 45's last month that I'm still blown away with...woohoo!!!

[Contrary1]

93. Levis, brand new with tags for $4.99...

I've also picked up several new name brand leather purses for $3.

[mdmc]

96. $$

[Mz Pip]

97. Perfect condition NYDJ jeans

for $8. They retail for about $90.

I love thrift stores. Some of my coolest clothes I've found in thrift shops. I have a beautiful mid length dark green leather jacket I got for $5.

You just have to get lucky and hit it on a good day.

[nemo137]

98. Recently?

I grew up dress in thrift-store clothes, and still buy pants there (I am a bigger guy, and old-men's dress pants are as close as one can get to wearing pajamas in public).

[LibertyLover]

99. With a 7 year old who grows out of clothing in a blink of an eye

I love shopping at Goodwill for jeans and tops for her to play in after school. She wears a uniform to school and I got all her tops at the thrift shop too. I've found things there for me as well that still had the tags on them. I looked there first when trying to find something to wear to my stepdaughter's wedding, figuring that it was just for a few hours and I didn't want to spend too much.