$ Thrifting - treasure hunting in the modern world

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Necroing the thread to make a Public Service Announcement:

Before you donate old jewellery, whether yours or a deceased relative or acquaintance, check the fucking hallmarks. Hallmarks are tiny numbers stamped onto a jewellery item indicating what metal it is made of, and sometimes it also indicates the maker and other information about the piece. A torch and a magnifying glass is all you need, and most hallmarks are easily deciphered with a quick search online.

White gold and diamonds bear an uncanny resemblance to silver and tacky rhinestones to the uneducated eye, and that's how this volunteering kiwi ended up pulling a $2500 necklace out of a tangle of silver and potch chains and pendants that she was given to sort.

Check the hallmarks before you give it away, for the love of whatever gods you believe in!
 
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glass_houses said:
A torch and a magnifying glass is all you need, and most hallmarks are easily deciphered with a quick search online.
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For the autistic Americans in the audience (that’s all of you faghots) this British nigger means “flashlight” when she says torch. Don’t fucking take an oxyacetylene welding unit to your damn jewelry!

And yes, “costume jewelry” at “do it yourself estate sales” is always worth taking a look at. Estate auction people know what to look for but mr widowman garage selling his dead wife’s shit often doesn’t. If he’s nice and you feel nice just let him know - I’ve been given multiple hundred dollar items for the marked $3 after telling him what he had because “he liked me and his wife would have liked someone to have it who knew what it was.”
 
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reptile baht spaniard rid said:
For the autistic Americans in the audience (that’s all of you faghots) this British nigger means “flashlight” when she says torch. Don’t fucking take an oxyacetylene welding unit to your damn jewelry!
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If I wanted to say "blowtorch" I would have said exactly that, you seppo mug.
 
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US AFBs have "Airmen's Attics" and thrift stores. Airmens attics are for uniform items so I think it'd be scummy to look through it as a veteran but when I was in I found a bag of old golf clubs (like 9 of them) for $20 and there were some bulky 60 inch TVs for $20 each as well.

Bought the golf clubs then never did anything with them and had to give em away when I left lmao
 
I check out my local thrift shops every other week and I've consistently found some good stuff. Brand name shirts that sell for 4x even Goodwill's prices like Carhartt, Adidas and Nike and it's where I get all my jeans from now. Fuck paying $25 a pair when you could get it for half that. The most interesting thing I found that I actually bought was a US 3 color desert BDU shirt in my size. Finding surplus is a nice surprise.

You just gotta inspect any clothes for mysterious stains though.
 
I've checked goodwill's bookstores in the early store hours and consistently found gold. Got me a '60s Hardcover Dune and a lot of other goodies. Most of the time, normal thrift stores are a crapshoot but anyone who enjoys reading will likely find something. On my last visit, I waltzed into a thrift store and walked out with a big Jack London omnibus and a Hitchhiker's Guide omnibus for cheap.

What I've noticed is that resellers are often crappy people who just rummage and mess everything up like crazy. I've had a few try to dive at me when I find something they think is resalable, like an Ian Fleming book or something similar. Most of the time, they seem to be rummaging for pop culture stuff or "deluxe" hardcover editions of classics because they think those sell well.

I do know there's a market for used genre fiction, but I haven't been able to really stock up. I did cheaply find some random old 70s-80s era mass market paperbacks for Earthsea and a few other "classic" SF/F series, but they're incomplete. I may just try to keep an eye out to complete these little sets and maybe sell them for a nice lump sometime.
 
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I found possibly one of the greatest VHS tapes. Sadly the only foot/meat scene is in the very beginning. I didn't watch the whole tape, but some bitch actually sucks a dudes dick from behind. Way ahead of their time IMG20250323094756.jpg
 
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None of my local thrift shops have ground beef porn. I assume.

It's exactly what I would expect someone with a Carl profile pic to snatch up and enjoy, though.
 
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TwoToes said:
I found possibly one of the greatest VHS tapes. Sadly the only foot/meat scene is in the very beginning. I didn't watch the whole tape, but some bitch actually sucks a dudes dick from behind. Way ahead of their timeView attachment 7126764
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Gawd damn I regret clicking on this thread. I thought it was going to be a bunch of people discussing ways to shave corners off the monthly budget. No one has ever been more wrong in the course of human history.
 
TwoToes said:
I found possibly one of the greatest VHS tapes. Sadly the only foot/meat scene is in the very beginning. I didn't watch the whole tape, but some bitch actually sucks a dudes dick from behind. Way ahead of their timeView attachment 7126764
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Looks like something that would belong in a horror movie aficionado's collection. Great find!
 
About a year ago I found a 64-core (4 CPU x 16 core Intel Xeons) server in great condition originally marked $300 at a pawn shop but marked down to $30. I even asked the guy "hey, there's two prices on this thing, do you really mean to be selling this for $30?" and he said "sure, it's been here three months and we could never get it to work anyway."

Bought the fucker instantly and brought it home. Plugged it into an old display with VGA and DVI ports on it, powered it on, and waited. Five minutes later, it sprang to life and subsequently passed every hardware and software test I could throw at it.

Fun fact about rack-mount servers: sometimes they take for fuckin' ever to POST, especially after they've been unpowered for a prolonged period, because they decide "okay, it's been awhile since I tested literally EVERYTHING attached to me, so here goes." And they rarely, if ever, bother to turn on the display and tell you any of that while they do it.

So in this case the guy had powered the thing on and waited about thirty seconds (like you would a regular PC), saw nothing, and decided it was just a heavy paperweight with loud fans and marked it down. But hey, I got me a dirt-cheap server! Still purring like a kitten today in my rack!
 
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Agares said:
I check out my local thrift shops every other week and I've consistently found some good stuff. Brand name shirts that sell for 4x even Goodwill's prices like Carhartt, Adidas and Nike and it's where I get all my jeans from now. Fuck paying $25 a pair when you could get it for half that. The most interesting thing I found that I actually bought was a US 3 color desert BDU shirt in my size. Finding surplus is a nice surprise.

You just gotta inspect any clothes for mysterious stains though.
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I’ve found some great clothes for low prices, some of it vintage that would fetch higher prices at a consignment shop or vintage boutique. I look for sports gear too, there are sometimes gems hidden among the old soccer shoes and dented yoga mats.

My latest find: $200 snowboard boots for $15. Look almost brand new, worn maybe once, and they fit me perfectly.
 
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