Thrift store popularity increases along with their pricing.... :/

Here is the real answer. This song came out not to long ago and got extremely popular lol.. Kinda funny song too



It's a bit of a fad.... Plus hipsters are in the mix

reply to post by mblahnikluver


The huge thrift shop, about the size of a Walmart, that I have shopped in for 16 years is disgusting now. I used to get clothes there for as low as $0.66 for a tank top to maybe $2.22 for a thick sweater, and this was constant until 2-3 years ago. Because I now live an hour away, I don't even bother trying to shop there anymore.

These are the problems. The last time I went, it had been bought by a new company, a chain. Before it was self owned and I KNOW they made money, because a friend once got a job there...but anyway.

New company wanted everyone to get loyalty cards. With your card you could get a Sunday discount depending on how much you spent during the week.

Prices went up between 300 and 500%.

All announcements and signs were done in Spanish instead of English. Screw the English speakers of America, they decided to just communicate with those of us who spoke Spanish.

I used to go and do a big shop once or twice a year. I mean name brand stuff in excellent condition. No more. Last time I was there I looked around for 3+ hours before conceding defeat and waiting 30+ minutes in line for a woman to refuse to take my credit card, in Spanish. I had found exactly one blouse and shouldn't have even waited so long to purchase it.

I will never go back.

We visited a Goodwill in another city recently. There weren't used goods there. There was dollar store stuff (new items), really junk stuff imported from China, and a bunch of cleaning supplies. Seriously.

Lucky for me, a Goodwill just opened in my city and I checked it out. The prices were somewhat normal. I was able to buy a vintage electronic item for $2 and sell it for $30 online (same day) to a museum/shoppe in another city who will repair and resale the item for $100. Everyone wins.

In addition, we found an old, but still sealed in the box smoke alarm for $3 which I really needed, a set of glasses (both tall and short) for $5 for 10, a copper bottomed pot that is the one I'm missing in my set for $3, and two Halloween costumes for $2 each which I'm planning to sell for about $20.

Before anyone flames me for re-selling, well, I will clean the items, I do understand the new price on these items (about $50), and my buyer I'm sure will be pleased at paying less than 50% new pricing for an excellent condition used costume. This makes us both a winner.

I'll probably hit this store about once a month (until it gets ruined like the others) and try and pick up things my household really needs along with hopefully a few things I can resell. The idea being I make back all the money I spent on my items by selling the sale items, thus 'bartering' sort of. Trading my time shopping, spiffing up the item, and selling it, for products I really need. I have generated extra income this way since I was in high school and will be really disappointed when this avenue disappears for me for good.

Some of the stores that sell second hand stuff in my area are priced as much as the new stuff, maybe a couple of quid difference, for example, a brand new DVD cost a tenner in the local supermarket , but in a second hand shop the same DVD cost £9.
At the same shop one video cost 7 quid in the supermarket cost 8 in the secondhand store?
Do me a favour.
Greed in a time of charity is not wanted.

Dont know what its like in the US but in the small town in the north of England were i live is full of thift shops,or "charity shops" as there called round here.
Them and betting shops,and i only think betting shops are there because you cant put a bet on in tesco....yet,and the "charity" shops dont pay business rates, rent in some cases,or staff wages, and i bet very little goes to the charity's.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Our church here where we live (it's one of the biggest buildings in the state) twice year has a children's consignment sale called "the blessing line" one in April for summer clothes and one in September for fall, winter, School clothes, toys, shoes, coats, you know... typical children's sale. You could alway find amazing deals because its in area where people buy Gymboree, and Gap, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, um, other lines, can't get the names off the top of my head at the moment... I always, always bought my children's clothes from there for the season and I could easily go in with 100 dollars, and for the summer get enough clothes, and shoes (barely used, some even with the tags on them) for both of my girls, and they would be done for the summer as far as needing clothes. For Winter and fall... I would usually spend about 180.. (because the clothes are so cute and it's really hard to hold back when dressing little girls LOL.) That would be coats, boots, clothing, etc. This last year, I went in for summer, 100 dollars, and when I started counting up the clothes, realized I only had enough to get clothing for one child.... I left. I was actually able to buy more from the actual stores, for brand new, rather than the consignment... So, I know what you mean. It's crazy, You go to garage sales now and I'm like "what the crap????"

Welcome to the HG effect!

I think you guys are missing the point entirly in this thread. The cost of used goods has gone up because the demand for used goods has gone up.

When it suddenly became 'cool' about 5 years ago to salvage some dry rotted 100yr old wood and hang it your house so you could finally say you had something your 1.6million$ a year salary neighbor couldn't have, the term up-cycling was born.

Right now it's trendy to take old junk and make it new, to the point that Ms. stay at home mom who watches hg tv all day long now thinks that old towel drying rack that her grandma gave her is worth 500$.

Fact is people are buying at these prices. I had a garage sale sunday, you wanna know how much I made?

1368$ (not even counting change) yeah that's right, I made well over 1000$ at a garage sale, in a rural area.

The majority of the sales were housewares and clothes. People were not even trying to haggle me down on prices or anything, I had a small junk pile that I had separated out and deemed trash or not sellable due to damage etc. I had people making offers on literally trash.

All you need is a good craigslist add and what I call "critical mass" (that's when there is a person at every table at your garage sale and thus a buying frenzy ensues, where people buy whatever is in their hands whether they want it or not because people are all asking "how much" etc)

I often sell at flea markets there are 3 or so in the area. typically I sell mens jeans for 4$ a pair, I buy them from garage sales for about 50 cents each in the area. I had people asking "would you take 20$ for these jeans" it blew my mind, These are 8$ Walmart brand Arizona jeans, people offering me 20$.......there was even a sign that said 4$ its insane.

Take a pair of guess jeans and hot glue on some crappy crystals from some kids jewelry and BOOM sells for 20$

Also Dvds are a crazy buy, I sell dvds for 1$ and box sets or complete seasons for 4$ I buy them in bulk from garage sales for like 40$ for big tubs, since there are no dvd rental shops anymore but a red box, people buy them like mad.

When every other show on 4 different channels is about some morons buying old crap and painting it white then turning around and selling it for 5000$ to some rich idiot, you can bet there will be fallout. Its going to be alot harder to find good deals these days. If you want to buy thrift you need to be a re seller to really make ti worth your while now, just remember these words, "How much for all of them?"

Hopefuly, people find something else to make themselves feel good about rather than painting old broken crap white and over paying for it, but until then, garage sale all day every day and resell for jacked up prices.

Buy low sell medium, go to the richest parts of your local area when they have neighborhood or estate sales, then go sell it on the poorer middle class side of town = profit.

I agree with the above poster. Also with things like retro games there are YouTube channels showing people going to stores and flea markets and scoring some nice hard to find stuff on the cheap from ignorant sellers. Now everyone is out trying to pick up the deals and flip them. I would say perhaps 2 years ago you could find an NES for anywhere from $4-25 but now since these shows have come along embracing the "flip" mentality you see Joe Blow cleans out his attic finds a dusty old NES and wants 200 bucks for it on Craigslist because of the show "Storage Wars".

When I go in a second hand shop or thrift store now I see people going from item to item with their phone trying to find out how much the latest auctions have sold for on Ebay. I overheard a lady last week talking on the phone in one shop telling her friend how she had already been to one shop and bought all of their games and was now doing so in the shop I was in before heading to another so that she could resell them on Ebay. It gets kind of annoying and ridiculous at some point. It is really no wonder that the chain stores have raised their prices and started online auctions when they see customers come in bragging about how much they are going to make on their products online.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


So not only are the prices inflated now but one has to contend with the complications of wearing dead people's clothing.

I once found myself doing things I would never normally do, going to unfamiliar locals and basically becoming someone else when I bought some funky shoes at a Goodwill...

Okay, I didn't actually have that severe a reaction, but I did have the urge to buy a cigar after putting on some used shoes... and I am not a "cigar guy." Hardly as exciting as the above scenario, but true. The problem is I don't know if the previous owner: a) was dead or b) liked cigars.

Also, people used to find leaving the labels on cigars laughably low class...

Blame hipsters. Isn't that what they call "vintage" clothing/style?

i blame hipsters

Not too far off probably....

There is also a trend in upscale consignment shops, for brand name merchandise. A friend of ours owns one, and my wife has a lot of designer stuff, but at real cheap prices.

Where these stores have always been high is furniture. They want $100's of dollars for used furniture... Seriously? I can go to craigslist instead. When my stepson moved in, I got a solid wooden queen sized bead with carved headboard for $100. I mean, this was nice....4 poster style bed. At a thrift store, it would have been three times that, easy.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


I agree. This also fueled by 20 year olds who use daddy's money to buy trendy "vintage" clothes from the eighties that I have in a box in my attic worth 3 dollars.

There are alternatives to shopping at "big box" consignment shops like Goodwill and Salvation Army; you just have to look around. I have been shopping at thrift stores for many years. The prices have gone up because it's more socially acceptable to buy used items than it used to be, which is a good thing. I would rather wear used clothes than new ones from sweatshops in third world countries. The prices have gone up because of simple supply and demand. If you shop for used stuff, you shouldn't limit yourself to just Goodwill, there's also yard sales and mom and pop shops. Also, in my area, there is a thrift shop that is completely free if you are low income. It's located at a women's shelter, and the women staying there get first pick, but after that low income people can come and shop all they want for free. When I was younger with a baby, I heard about it word of mouth, and it really helped me. When I was older, I volunteered there. There would be good stuff there, because it was located in an affluent area. Also there is Freecycle. Google it. I've gotten lots of free stuff like that. Also the free section of Craigslist. Also auctions! There's more than just storage auctions. I have gone to a few clothing auctions; they were alot of fun and I got stuff for CHEAP. Vintage dresses, 3 for $5. Also designer clothes for super cheap. One auction I went to was half vintage, half the contents of some rich city lady's closets. Some of the designer clothes still had the tags on them. A $200 skirt for $5 is a deal I would never have found at Goodwill. So, there's always options.

Originally posted by Gazrok

i blame hipsters

Not too far off probably....

There is also a trend in upscale consignment shops, for brand name merchandise. A friend of ours owns one, and my wife has a lot of designer stuff, but at real cheap prices.

Where these stores have always been high is furniture. They want $100's of dollars for used furniture... Seriously? I can go to craigslist instead. When my stepson moved in, I got a solid wooden queen sized bead with carved headboard for $100. I mean, this was nice....4 poster style bed. At a thrift store, it would have been three times that, easy.

Yeah the furniture is steep. There is a good reason for this, if you walk into an Ahsley furniture or Star etc that is supposed to be "higher quality furniture" and I see it's all made of particle board, stapled together, and has cheep plastic drawer runners, then look at the price of 3500$ it's no wonder people are only interested in buying older stuff that actually made of wood and dove tailed.

this trend isn't gunna go away, in truth, its a consequence of a vanishing middle class, the money makers in america have enough money to pay someone else to tie thier shoes and the rising costs and lowering pay has forced the more savvy of the middle class to make a buck where ever they can.

The best jokes are the add on craigslist under "Shabby Chic" people on thier trying to sell wooden ladders from ace hardware stores that was mass produced in the 1980s because its gray and looks dry rotted as some old 1800s step ladder, what a joke......still people buy it......


It's incredibly simple to make money like this if you live near a populated area, certain sections of the town will sell very good stuff for next to nothing, chances are someone is already out scoutting the good wills in your area so probably a waste of time but you never know. In fact this is how a majority of middle class americans start a buisness.

Local Honey is a good example, you'll know when local farm growers have sold out when they start offering a "regular" and "premium" grade of their products. The premium grade is typically the original product with the regular one being a re-branded and up priced version of the most local mass produced product they can find. This is essential the same thing going on with "thrift" type items right now.

I used to be able to go to thrift shopping and buy a wardrobes worth of men's clothes for like 50 bucks. Like literally the works, tanks, button up T's jeans, some really random logo T's, and even a decent pair of chucks, or two, belts you know.

Now I don't bother, I can get better deals at urban planet and the clothes are brand new. I'm appalled when I pick up a pair of jeans and see 12.99, or a wicked T-shirt and see 4.99. Like # off, I can get brand new T's 3 for 15, brand new sweatshirts two for 15. like kiss my ass.

I blame the hipsters and the vegans.

Sellers, or resellers to be more precise, do not determine value. It's the buyers and the current demand is for Vintage. I personally believe its a symptom that many people are waxing nostalgic over items from days of yore.
I still find plenty of good deals at all the bad mouthed thrift stores in this thread, and YES, I am a RESELLER and damn proud of it.

When my construction job ( I am a tradesman) began to cost me MORE to work than not to work, I sold my tools, took a leave of absence, and put ALL my chips on the table. Am I an eBay Millionaire??? HAH, people think it's easy to etch out a living re-selling stuff on Ebay. But I am proud to say that I have never taken a dime in unemployment, food stamps or any other "assistance" and I pay the bills, ALL of them by reselling. Not just thrift stores, but Craigslist, Garage sales, and yes, even scoring deals on Ebay to resell on Ebay...now talk about satisfying!!!

ALL OF MY FURNITURE IS MADE OF WOOD, ALL OF MY CLOTHING SAYS "MADE IN AMERICA", MY STEREO USES TUBES AND SOUNDS BETTER THAN YOURS, AND MY ENTIRE DECOR IS A CONVERSATION PIECE...ALL of it, SECOND HAND, even the $65 computer I am typing on now.

A lot of the former middle class is out there, like me, wandering around, buying trash and furnishing another man his treasures...SHAME ON ANYONE for shaming the age old, "buy low-sell high" way of successful business. Resellers have nothing to do with rising prices, its DEMAND... and the day is coming that tides will change again and this road, this FAD, will dead end... and I, and many others will have to find a new trail.

You can't keep good people down, not even by talking down on them.

PS... I will NOT work for anyone else EVER AGAIN...I'd rather be a homeless dumpster diver.,

I have noticed the same things in my area and have found that the best sales here are the school fairs. There are a lot of schools here that do a few different semi-annual fundraisers and they still have it right... priced low to move stuff. A steady stream of $1 items sure beats a few $20 items spread out over a day.

I volunteered to staff some of them. The last school fund raising One-Day only event netted about $3500 and that was from 9am - 5pm. These type of sales are beneficial to everyone because a lot of the items are donated by parents of the children that attend that school plus any other donations dropped off via local advertising for items.

A lot of children's clothes at .50 and then there is the all half-off after 3PM. What a frenzy of happy buyers.

If you can stand the crowds, look for these school events. The funds go right back into the needs of the students, too.

And about denim jeans, the older ones in good condition will last longer than any of the new lightweight ones in stores today. Sometimes the quality is worth that extra $

Originally posted by tinker9917

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
reply to post by shaneslaughta

 

Remember the peanut butter crisps bars? They were small rectangular in shape and were white with brown stripes? They were slightly hard and chewy and PB flavored? OMG I loved those things and I can't find them anywhere!

I think these are what you're talking about Peanut butter bars 3lb for $9.99

edit on 23-6-2013 by tinker9917 because: (no reason given)

OH my goodness!! Thank you! I never knew what they were called. Should have know they were called peanut butter bars lol I am so ordering some! I haven't had these in YEARS!!!

if you walk into an Ahsley furniture or Star etc that is supposed to be "higher quality furniture" and I see it's all made of particle board, stapled together, and has cheep plastic drawer runners, then look at the price of 3500$ it's no wonder people are only interested in buying older stuff that actually made of wood and dove tailed.

I actually got a lot of my furniture at Ashley (and a couple items at Kane's), and their top line stuff too, and it was expensive as hell, but is made of real wood, leather, etc. None of it is particle board, it is all solid wood (and runners are metal). We plan on having it for MANY years to come, so we made the investment. It even stands up to our animals.

Examples.

Our master bedroom bed


Our dining table (we got two inserts and more chairs, so we can seat 8)


And we got the matching bar, entertainment center, couches, end tables, coffee table, etc. Beautiful and well-made stuff. (weighs a ton too).

But, we did much better pricewise on other furniture like on craigslist, etc. like I mentioned earlier. Would have cost us way more for those items at a thrift store. Most of our electronics were all from craigslist, and we saved $100's that way.

I'm poor,so I buy 90% of my clothing at Goodwill/Value Village,and I have been doing so for the last 20 years or so.

You can still get good deals at Goodwill/Value Village if you just follow the colored tag deals.

TOP is correct though,there for sure has been a huge spike in prices.I saw a fake Joe Montana jersey (the 10% of stuff I get new are sports clothing,sock,and skives) selling in Value Village for $110! I know how to tell a ripoff brand to a new one,esp one that claims to be a Mitchell Ness.I called over a worker,showed him where you can tell its a fake,told him you can get these on Ebay for around $40,and he really needs to adjust his price,he shrugged and said,'its out of my hands'... I then knew the fix was in!