$ Thrifting - treasure hunting in the modern world

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Came across this and got some other stuff, but this was the most interesting find, thanks to the Democrats for killing Three Mile Island. They are very concerned about renewable energy truly.

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Quijibo69 said:
Going to Thrift stores the last 7 or so years sucks. To find anything that's not clothing anymore it's like a blue moon.
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what are they doing with all the books they get? in germany some charity thrift stores sell boxes full of random books on ebay, you often pay as much for th books as you pay for the shipping.
 
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Quijibo69 said:
Going to Thrift stores the last 7 or so years sucks. To find anything that's not clothing anymore it's like a blue moon.
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You can thank the mountain of social media thrifters pushing it as a side hustle for that. I wouldnt say uts the last 7 years more like 3 and your location is also a big factor.
 
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Stoneheart said:
what are they doing with all the books they get? in germany some charity thrift stores sell boxes full of random books on ebay, you often pay as much for th books as you pay for the shipping.
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I think they're getting tossed, sold to ebayers or going to half-price. I keep a few old dictionaries on hand since we seem to be redefining words due to the left in the USA.

It's infuriating because I need some exceptionally rare books (technical skillset now mostly lost or kept trade secret) for one of my hobbies (Usually reprints of 15-19th century originals) and I can never find them.
 
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♂CANAM productions♂ said:
It's infuriating because I need some exceptionally rare books (technical skillset now mostly lost or kept trade secret) for one of my hobbies (Usually reprints of 15-19th century originals) and I can never find them.
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are not old books about most stuff free online anyway?
 
♂CANAM productions♂ said:
Not everything is public domain. I like reading them too and some of them are rare enough I can only get reprints or ask from large university libraries.
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i dont know what you are trying to learn, but hobby clubs often have exentensive amount of digital books they are more than willing to share.

I asked a local club for an ancient sport for a rule book years ago and they are still sending me christmas cards to this day.
people are so happy and helpful if they can share something they love with likeminded people.
 
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Stoneheart said:
i dont know what you are trying to learn, but hobby clubs often have exentensive amount of digital books they are more than willing to share.

I asked a local club for an ancient sport for a rule book years ago and they are still sending me christmas cards to this day.
people are so happy and helpful if they can share something they love with likeminded people.
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I'm trying to recreate some precision mechanicals by hand. Unfortunately, I don't have any local clubs nearby. It's a dying art.
 
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I dislike the two local thrift stores for different reasons:

St. Vincent's is run by a bunch of straight-laced nuns who over-value the goods given to them. As a result, no bargains are to be found, and the shelves are literally packed to overflowing with an apparent fortune in assessed value, second-hand goods, with prices near MSRP when including original packaging.

Their real customers seem to be the clients of Catholic Community Services, who recieve vouchers at their thrift shop, dispensed to "needy" clients of their services. As a result, any donation to them, or money spent there must be viewed as subsidizing housing and food for "those who would otherwise not afford it" under the Popes blessing.


While the Salvation Army suffers the opposite problems. Staffed almost entirely by a skeleton crew, paying employees possibly minimum wage... apparently nothing of any actual value is ever donated, or if it is, it never makes it to the sales floor. As a result, the goods appear like a "dollar store" of unwashed t-shirts, loose silverware, and 30 year old, broken, countertop appliances, missing every attachment. AND an almost unlimited number of "low income" plebs, jostling for position to be the 300th person that day to fingerfuck their way through every shirt on the rack.

I have to plant a bunch of forced bulbs, for indoor flowering over the winter - so Sally Anns at least was good for picking a selection of used floral vases for a dollar or two each lately. Big enough for paperwhites, or a small amaryllis.
 
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I'm not a flipper but I've found some great stuff at thrift stores. My favorite shop is huge and keeps prices low, so I may be luckier than most.

  • Replaced a good chunk of my wardrobe when they had a $1 clothing sale. The shop had a surplus and filled the store with bins of clothes in addition to the racks. Had to dig for the good stuff but it was worth an hour of my time.
    • Also bought a lot of winter clothes, jackets, and boots last summer (some in the $1 sale) that I'm wearing now. Off-season apparel sometimes gets overlooked.
  • Large tent and sleeping bag for $5 each. Wasn't for me - brought a friend to look for camping gear. Heard the tent was in great shape and no missing pieces, the sleeping bag retails new ~$80.
  • Pet supplies - bought some new-looking Kong brand toys for a few dollars (one retails for $24). Also found some new giant stuffed animals with PetSmart holiday tags and "2020" stiched on the bottom for $0.50.
  • For electronics, games, etc. I have better luck at pawn shops.
    • Bought a 40" TV for $35 and picked up a smaller shitty flat screen that plays older games perfectly for $10. Can't pay someone to take the old 32" CRT off my hands, though.
    • N64 cartridge of Ocarina of Time for $15
    • $40 laptop that worked well enough for a few years, switched to a desktop that I picked up for $60 (tower only - had most stuff already, grabbed a second monitor for $10).
    • Pawn shop regrets: gaming laptop for $300, N64 with 4 controllers and 6 games (Mario 64, Kart, etc) for $64. Both times I was too broke to justify it, but I easily could have sold the N64 for profit. I don't know what I was thinking.
 
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I have never, not once found a good piece of clothing at my local thrift stores. It's a lot harder for men I guess, especially when my style isn't "used stained t-shirt for 10 dollars" or "XXXL dress shirt."

My best finds:
An unused AeroGarden for 40 dollars (same model was about 120 online)
A brand new queen-sized comforter, still in the plastic, for 20 dollars, with a 200 dollar price tag from the store still inside. (It was supposed to be the whole bed set- I'm guessing someone took the pillow shams and sheets etc, and already had a better comforter.)
Twenty tubes of student grade oil paints in a large cookie tin. It was unlabeled. I took it to the counter and asked how much. It was the owner and he shrugged and said, "5 dollars?"
It was probably about 100 worth of paint.
Dishware. Found some nice vintage plates, 5 dollars a pop. They felt better then you'd get at an Olive Garden. I looked them up on the lettering on the bottom, and saw people on vintage forums lamenting that they weren't "that high quality" of professional grade plates and could only get them to sell on ebay for 20-30 dollars per plate. Only 20 dollars per plate, huh?
Sample jars of interior paint for 2 dollars each, for 7oz. Clearly someone got some samples to test different shades. I used them for some small wooden projects and it worked a charm.
An immersion blender for 7 dollars. It was used, but the same model was going for 40 bucks new.

All of these experiences were at tiny local non-chain thrift stores. I also haunt them frequently and usually don't find anything worth buying at all.

Large chain thrift stores really seem horrible nowadays.
 
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This is isn't necessarily something I picked up at a thrift store but my older neighbors were moving out and they 5 older laptops that were going to be unused and they said I could have them if I cleared all the data off pretty good haul actually
a 13in macbook 2013, 17in macbook 2011, latitude 8400, hp probook (not sure what release) and another older dell laptop with core2duo
 
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I love the experience of thrifting and smelling all of the old moldy dusty junk and getting your hands dirty (at the good places of course) but I have pretty meh luck. One of my favorite things to collect are dolls and all of the stores around here have phased out toys entirely. eBay is usually the way to go, but that really depends too. I managed to get both of the original 1961 Ken dolls for under $20 total versus antique shops locally that sell them in worse condition for $50+. I get a lot of great deals by searching what I think unknowledgeable sellers would list something as too. The only part about eBay that sucks is getting GI Joe and GI Joe adjacent dolls from the 90s and 00s for a deal. My theory is that girl doll lines like Barbie have more hardcore collectors that will refuse to pay a certain amount for any given doll while the military dolls are probably more of a dad hobby where the shoppers don't really care that much about dropping $40 on a doll. Might be wrong about that though.
 
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