$ Thrifting - treasure hunting in the modern world

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
I haunt four local thrift stores like a menace, so I have a pretty good idea of who has what for a good price. Some of my young family members were moving into their first house, and wanted loads of different things, including multiple table sets. I told them, this one thrift store has a TON of very nice quality chairs and tables, a lot of very nice furniture in general. It's not an el cheapo thrift store and they actually BUY most of the stock, not just get it donated.

They bought all the furniture off Amazon.com fake chinese brands instead. I was a little disappointed. "We got a good deal" yeah I'm sure, but for the same or less, you could have had real, good quality chairs and tables. It's so soulless. It's not even like it was an intentional choice that they wanted flatpak furniture- I wouldn't be too mad at someone who was an IKEA-fag. They just have fallen for the whole simulacra larp and don't see the value in quality things when they have Amazon Prime. These are the people that killed all the department stores, because they don't give a shit, it just needs to look trendy and be cheap, they don't care if it's made from cardboard and painted with lead and the sweat of child laborers if it's five dollars cheaper than the one from IKEA. When it breaks they'll buy another without even thinking about what they're doing.

Horror story: Once I found a big thick brush and was brushing it against my hand out of curiosity, had never seen a brush like it. Read the tag: ANTIQUE SPITOON BRUSH.
 
  • Horrifying
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: Sexy Peach Emoji, Backpack Knight, nym and 3 others
All my clothing is hammydowns or thrifting clothes. I refuse to spend 90 fucking dollars on jeans. I REFUSE to spend 65$ on a plain T shirt. In fact I literally would ratter but a bullet in my mouth. I have always looked out of touch and thats fines. I love my old shit thats been passed down from our ancestors.

I only buy nice and expensive clothing for professional reasons. Even all my picture frames and side tables. Most of my items are thrifted of I asked to take someone’s “junk”

My most treasured one is a wooden table from Cypress from a guy that my grandma dated for like a month way, way back.
 
  • Like
  • Feels
  • Agree
Reactions: Dimensional Sperge, Sexy Peach Emoji, Backpack Knight and 5 others
BeetleBug242 said:
My most treasured one is a wooden table from Cypress from a guy that my grandma dated for like a month way, way back.
Click to expand...
I have a lot of vintage furniture. A couple of close family members think I'm mad. They like modern furniture, and they spend a lot of time hunting down quality pieces for cheap, which is a great way to do things, but they don't understand the appeal of a shabby old piece that makes its way to you. I have an old desk that's eighty years old. It's one of my most prized possessions. It really needs restoration, but I don't have the skills to do it myself, or the money to pay for someone else to do it. It's still beautiful though, most people who see it, sigh over it.

And the exact quote of my relative when he saw it?

"Piece of junk."

*sigh*
 
  • Feels
  • Agree
  • Lunacy
Reactions: Sexy Peach Emoji, Kalsarikännit, Kuchisabishii and 3 others
Literally all the thrift stores near me are shit and barely have anything in them. Clothes and books.
A few years ago Goodwill used to be full of goodies, but now its so sanitized and empty.
I'd say local garage sales are better but I'd be lying.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: whatever I feel like
BeetleBug242 said:
Canada.
I don’t know man I walk into any name brand clothing store that isn’t a fucking Walmart and thats the prices.
Click to expand...
Then buy your clothes at Wal-Mart. A pair of wranglers and a few plain cotton shirts will run you like $50 CAD. It's all the same shit.
 
Tsukasa Kadoya said:
Literally all the thrift stores near me are shit and barely have anything in them. Clothes and books.
A few years ago Goodwill used to be full of goodies, but now its so sanitized and empty.
I'd say local garage sales are better but I'd be lying.
Click to expand...
It's really a very local/regional thing. The goodwills around here are all the same souless shit (think: dollar store where the products are donated). I've found shit there where it's clearance from target or walmart and has a $5.99 sticker stuck over the clearance price of fifty cents. Who buys this shit?

And some of the local thrift stores copy them somewhat, but there are a few that are really wild and run by ancient old ladies that give zero shits anymore. Those can still have some pretty cool things, and good prices.

I love/hate when the old ladies see a big TV and put a $100 tag on it and it's like a projection TV from the 90s or some shit, it's like bitch have you been to the clearance aisle at walmart lately?

With shipping prices these days it's hard to flip for a profit, you have to really luck out or know what it is.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: whatever I feel like
I'm gonna be honest, thrifting in this day and age at least if you are not going for clothes isn't worth it anymore. Prices you get at goodwill or salvation army will either match ebay prices, or sell items at retail prices if not more than their inital ones. its only worth it if you go to an independent but if you don't and you are shopping for electronics I highly suggest calling up all the local recycle centers/ e waste facilities around your area. While not all sell back to you if you call them up before hand and say you want to "buy scrap" off them some will oblige. I have one I've been going to for 3 years now and there is usually around an 80% chance what I find works if not has only one part I can easily replace cheaply using an aliexpress aftermarket product.
 
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: whatever I feel like and Whoopsie Daisy
My favorite stuff to buy and resell is old tech. So much stereo stuff from the 80's and 90's shows up at Goodwills and Salvation Army near me and it goes for so cheap. Just clean it up and stick it online. Sells pretty well. Windows 98 era computers sell super well these days too, could shit myself to think how many I recycled 10~15 years ago...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Whoopsie Daisy
I used to volunteer at a charity shop when I was looking for work, and most places will give you first dibs on anything that comes in, as a perk. You still have to pay for it, but you can put it aside and buy it before it even goes out on display. Or if it's damaged but fixable, they will often give you it free, since it saves them having to dump them or ship them to be recycled or whatever.
 
  • Informative
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Whoopsie Daisy, NoReturn and glass_houses
I think the most gratefully received item I bought from an op shop was one of those men's gift sets with a compressed towel, shaving cream, shot glass etc for $2 even though it was unopened. I was flat dead broke, existing on Newstart and Christmas was coming up. Utterly impersonal, but I was able to give something to my brother for that Christmas. I almost cried.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Varsha Nagini, SugarSkullWishes1989, Yeeted Teet and 5 others
Decided to buy around 150 dollars worth of Vinyls. Including a vinyl from Mexico which is best hits from The Doors released in the 1970s and the live sessions of Teenage Jesus and The Jerks (A notable No Wave Band) from 1977 - 1979. Also bought foreign currency including a historical note from Alberta in the 1930s which they lacked any stamps. (Stamps on currency certificates was a past time thing).
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: White Devil, glass_houses and Local Fed
FrigginWeeb said:
in my area, north 40, cabelas or whatever they have at the local everything store.
For real tho, fuck paying more than $20 for pants.
Click to expand...
My work pants were like $60 and that's on the cheaper side but it's still purpose made. I would never spend over $20 on jeans or regular cargo pants.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FrigginWeeb, Hongourable Madisha and 8mm Cunningham
Once I went to Goodwill because I needed some 3 ring binders and found out that the store had priced them all at $3, which was close to double what Walmart charged for new ones. Another time at a different Goodwill I found a big stack of bossa nova record sleeves... and no records. Made me want to kill.
 
  • Feels
  • Horrifying
Reactions: SandyCat, Hongourable Madisha and NoReturn
Got a pair of Japanese glass 7x binoculars for my Dad's birthday at a thrift store one time for like 10 bucks. He still has them, in absolute perfect condition. The guy probably just got rid of them because they're weaker than the scope I got on a black friday sale for my hunting rifle, which hits 12x lol. But the binoculars are very clear, and you can still see pretty far with just 7x, if anythingit gives some situational awareness. Good for plane spotting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hongourable Madisha
White Devil said:
My work pants were like $60 and that's on the cheaper side but it's still purpose made. I would never spend over $20 on jeans or regular cargo pants.
Click to expand...
I bought some Dickie cargo shorts today at Walmart for $14. Non-deathfat sizes always go on sale at the end of the season. I also buy all my sunscreen and bug spray at this time of the year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back