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Author Topic: Your Thrifting Routines  (Read 5198 times)

Offline MissAliRae

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Your Thrifting Routines
« on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 12:12 am »
Just curious about how we all go about thrifting! Do you set a side a specific day and hit a bunch of stores, or do you go to one a day? Do you go with a price limit or just buy when its good?

Typically I go one or twice a week (when I have time) and I have kind of honed in on the stores that generally have good stuff! It depends where I am, I go to school in a different state than my parents live in/I technically have residence in, so I change my ~tactics~ based on location, haha. Generally I try to balance it between buying the things I want and a reasonable price. Because thrifting is hit or miss for me, I've learned to take advantage when its good, but I still try to keep my spending resonable, haha. (It's tricky ;) )

Also - when do you seem to have the best luck? I've wondered if there's a time where donations are up, so there's more to find! I would think possibly Monday would be good since people clean out over the weekends/donate their stuff, but I don't know for sure obviously. Just wondering if anyone has anecdotal (or statistical...haha) evidence as to when the best time to thrift is!


Offline EdenEye

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 12:57 am »
My thifting schedule is spiratic. I will stop by a thift store if I am driving by it or on that end of the city for one reason or another. I also usually use one of my days off to go thifting to a bunch of stores. I have about 12 stores I go to. Some more then others.

Weird that one Goodwill has no toys (other then big dolls and stuffies) and the 2 other Goodwills I go to have LOADS of smaller bagged toys.

I go without a spending limit, but rarely spend more then $15 per store.

I find that the best time to go is mid-day, 1pm or so since many employees work in the morning and have already put out lots of new stuff. At night/evening is the worst because it seems that the employees left are just organizing/cleaning and no longer stocking.

I am lucky to have 2 thift stores (very small and cluttered) that all items are max $1!


Offline hime

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 01:05 am »
I go when I can., My local store(a salvation army one) I go to when I can(mon,wed and fri) but once in awhile I'm allowed to go to  out of town goodwills  also I frequent yard sales when I see one.

Offline Rider of the storm

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 02:31 am »
I got to the local flea market several times each summer and I go to the yard and church sales around town when they had them. The only place that has toys on occasion is the salvation army here and there is not much there to look through .

Offline ianthe99

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 02:39 am »
I have about 12 that I hit over the course of the week. I live one one side of town and work on the other and my BF works in between, so my route is set up to hit stores on the way. I generally have enough time from when I get off till I have to get him.. to squeeze in a few.

I try not to spend too much.. but if I find something good, I HAVE to buy it!

Offline manateejaq

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 04:07 am »
I peruse my favorite thrift store probably about once a week. If I find a few things worth buying one day then sometimes I'll come back the next day because I get all excited and hope there is more luck where that came from. XD I leave empty handed about half the time. I don't have a lot of luck (I've seen some of the loads a few members here bring home!), but still enough to keep me treasure hunting. ^^  

I discovered another thrift store that I've been checking out lately, still hoping I'll find something there. I'm guessing I'll have to give up on it soon since it is out of the way and doesn't seem to get much older stuff. The only things I've found at it so far were a couple of Jem VHS tapes - but the store charges $2.75 per VHS which I think it a bit crazy (so I left them on the shelf).

Offline EricaVee

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 04:17 am »
My thrift stores are on the way to the grocery store so I just make them part of my weekend errands. The one time I was able to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday and be out by 11:00AM, I found great stuff! I think there must be other toy collectors in my area that go out early because normally my thrift store only has newer toys, but that morning I found a ton of 80's/90's things.

I don't have a set spending limit but I try not to overdo it, especially during the school year--I probably wouldn't spend more than $10 a visit.

During the summer I love yard sales, but I rarely find older toys.
« Last Edit: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 04:22 am by EricaVee »
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Offline MissAliRae

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 12 January 2011, 06:29 am »
I think Goodwill's inconsistency is one of my biggest pet-peeves.   Some of them seem to have little to no toys, some seem to only have larger pieces &some have loose or bagged toys. They almost always have Stuffies though so that's good for me as a plush collector.

I've also found going in the morning works best since the most stuff has been re- stocked then, later in the day stuff seems pretty picked over. the surprise is the best and worst part of thrifting. It's awesome when there's lots of good stuff, but it's not so fun when you come away empty handed.

 I'm planning on going to the Goodwill outlet again on Monday (no school) And gonna the and get there earlier, so I'll let you guys know if the findings are any better, haha.

Offline Rider of the storm

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #8 on: Friday 14 January 2011, 01:52 am »
The good will here is not worth the trip . I took a look at the toy section all generic plush and a bunch of board games and that was it . I was disappointed  some days I wish we did not have that stupid lead law here in NY.

Offline AngelBear

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #9 on: Friday 14 January 2011, 07:27 am »
There are a lot of thrift stores near me but I have to sneak over to them. I work 9-5 and have two kids who go to bed at 8:00 so I don't want to take them thrifting after I pick them up, I just want to spend time with them! My husband doesn't like that I go, so the only times for me are Wednesdays and if I happen to have a random day off. I used to work at home so I'd go whenever I wanted, but I made a lot less money so it balances out. You can't have time and money, I've decided.

I have noticed that some stores seem to have a TON of toys and others have virtually none. The one near my work has so many, it's crazy! That is where I find my best stuff nowadays.

Another thing I have known to be true over the years is if you find one vintage toy, odds are very high that there are others in the store. It's like someone donates a whole bunch at once. So when I come upon one pony, I immediately get excited because 90% of the time there are more.

The stores I go to (a large chain spread across Utah) have a policy that they bring stuff out on carts from 10am-4pm. When the carts come out tons of people swarm them. If you have the guts you can elbow your way through and find some good stuff but it gets dangerous. One time the police were called because two ladies were playing tug-of-war with a doll and neither would let go! Ha ha! I'm not that nuts!

The worst is when you see someone with a huge cart full of 80's toys. They got there a half-hour before you and cleaned the place out. That's happened to me a few times and it still irks me. Once I was on the other end, though. A girl stopped me and asked me where I found all the stuff (I had one of those big strawberry-shaped toy boxes and other SSC things from the 80's) because she was a collector. I felt a bit bad for her.

Once or twice I have taken a day off and hit every thrift store in the county, starting from one end, moving South. Those days are so much fun, but I spend close to $250 every time and money is money. I am always mindful that just because it's cheap, it isn't free. I have to turn down a lot of stuff that I'm only sort-of interested in.

Offline palaisdejouets

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 15 January 2011, 08:13 pm »
Once or twice I have taken a day off and hit every thrift store in the county, starting from one end, moving South. Those days are so much fun, but I spend close to $250 every time and money is money. I am always mindful that just because it's cheap, it isn't free. I have to turn down a lot of stuff that I'm only sort-of interested in.

Thanks for the inside story on your AMAZING thrift hauls that you post on your blog! They're astounding.

I don't live near any thrift stores, so I don't get to go thrifting that often. My mom has become an avid thrifter at the store in her town, though, and so I know that they key is to find out when they put out the new stuff every week and go the morning of that day. At my mom's thrift store, it's Tuesday. People who go to that store on the weekends are often very disappointed and think it's a crappy store, but if you go on Tuesdays, it's a different store entirely.

Offline emery

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Re: Your Thrifting Routines
« Reply #11 on: Sunday 16 January 2011, 04:53 pm »
The area I live in is made up of 4 main cities that just blend into each other (plus smaller towns on the edges) and there are probably a good 20 different thrift stores that I have stopped in at one point or another. I work on one side of the Mississippi and live on the other so I have 2 options of different bridges to take home and they each take me by certain thrift stores so I will randomly just hit them in the mornings on my way home from work. Other ones I will stop at if I have errands or shopping that take me to certain parts of town. I usually make stops like 3 times a week but not for very long at least in the winter. I have a route that I go in each one so I'll dig through toys, check for any vintage character bed sheets, look through the kids books and then a couple other sections before I'm out the door. I don't have a budget but I generally don't spend more than $8 or $10 unless I am buying other things for myself like jeans or something.

Now in the summer it's a different story with yard sales to stop at on the way home! I normally get out of work at 9am so perfect time to make a sale route and stop at any that sound good!

There are also a a coupe flea markets that do a sale once in the spring and once in the fall so I try to make those. And there are some antique liquidators that have a building downtown that open on the last weekend of every month. I haven't found a lot there but I try to stop 'cause I usually can find one or 2 things and they are dirt cheap.

City-wide garage sales are fun too and I have a *junking buddy* that I go with some Saturdays in the summer. She doesn't collect toys and I am not usually interested in the things that she picks up so it's perfect with no competition between us!


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