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What keeps me going to dusty, dirty, crowded, moth-ball-smelling Thrift Stores

sikkinixx

sikkinixx

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 10, 2005
2,062
0
Rocketing through the sky!
Some lady's $8 purchase of one of the rarest video games (worth from $7-15k)

My fiancé and I embraced our inner hipster I guess the last few years and started poking into the local thrift stores every week or so. I've got some cool stuff, a 50's rotary phone I adore, some vintage stereo equipments, cheap books and board games, I've even made some money fixing up stuff and selling it. My step-mom has basically decorated her entire house with very nice vintage thrift store stuff.

But when I sift through the wads of Super Mario Bros. or NHL 2004's I can't help but hope I get lucky.
 
Our local place actually does the research and keeps the nice stuff in a glass case and charges $20-100+ for them. :eek: For the most part, there's actually not very good bargains either. Just a bunch of plastic.

Although I have a nice set of two piggy banks (they're not of pigs though) that I got from there for like 10 cents each which I like very much. I think some of our cups are from there too.

I think it's better that they do it this way though. I see too many people piling stuff in shopping carts whenever I go to probably beef up the pricing later on.
 
The few times I've been to thrift stores, I saw nothing but things deserving to be in the trash. Shrug.




I wear your granddad's clothes
I look incredible
I'm in this big ass coat
From that thrift shop down the road
I wear your granddad's clothes (damn right)
I look incredible (now come on man)
I'm in this big ass coat (big ass coat)
From that thrift shop down the road (let's go)
 
rdowns said:
The few times I've been to thrift stores, I saw nothing but things deserving to be in the trash. Shrug.




I wear your granddad's clothes
I look incredible
I'm in this big ass coat
From that thrift shop down the road
I wear your granddad's clothes (damn right)
I look incredible (now come on man)
I'm in this big ass coat (big ass coat)
From that thrift shop down the road (let's go)
Click to expand...

This is **********g awesome. (<- EDIT: This filter is fun. I try to censor myself and it double censors me)

For my wife and father-in-law it's more of the thrill of the hunt for a great deal, though they usually frequent yard sales. My father-in-law likes to clean things up and flip them. He will haggle on anything he thinks he can make a buck off of. My wife, on the other hand, likes looking for older pieces of furniture that she has grand ideas of fixing up and reselling. Meanwhile my garage is (was) full of half-finished projects. But she has found a few gems we've ended up keeping instead. Cant tell you how many dressers and tables we've bought. :rolleyes:
 
I have a collection of authentic Hawaiian shirts (as in - actually made in Hawaii) from our local thrift store. Now I'm working on sourcing good quality sport's jackets. Scored a Ralph Lauren wool one last week.

My wife is a regular, and has finally got me to hooked. She buys a lot clothes there. If you have the patience you can get designer labels that are barely unused, or even sometimes still with the store tags attached. But you gotta be patient.....
 
I used to go to thrift stores in college for cheap tshirts. I worked for one major thrift store chain and got a 50% discount on everything I bought. Some of those $.25 shirts are still in my dresser nearly 6 years later.

rdowns said:
The few times I've been to thrift stores, I saw nothing but things deserving to be in the trash. Shrug.
Click to expand...

Beyond the tshirts, I feel the same way.
 
adk said:
I've scored a Roomba, Calphalon Cookware, and a Cashmere dress coat at my local thrift store.
Click to expand...

I think it all depends on where your thrift stores are located. In my home town you'll find a bunch of junk, but I went to a few shops in NYC selling really clean $$$$ suits under $50.
 
I'm a huge fan of junk. :D Probably more than half my stuff is from Goodwill and other thrift stores. I've found a wonderful Zenith clock radio for $5 from the 80's (probably, maybe older) with a speaker that emits sound volume and quality like you wouldn't believe possible from such a tiny, old device. Bought a table fan or two for less than $5 combined that have kept me quite comfortable over the years. Pretty much my entire wardrobe and cookware/silverware/dishes have come from these places, no more than $50 spent on it all. Found some classic movies on VHS for literally pennies. Heck, I bought a 25" CRT television for $6 just the other week, you can't beat that viewing area for the price. :p

One of the greatest joys I get out of life is taking something that has outlived it's purpose for someone, and giving it a new one with me. :) I adore thrift stores, and stories like these make "the hunt" that much more exciting. ;)
 
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