BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 08:24 AM

I found a long (to the ground) black, 100% woollen coat from Wallis, up in a St. Marychurch charity shop the other day, for £15, just before the cold weather started. It is sooooooooo warm that I'm having my own personal heatwave here...and the pockets hadn't even been opened, so new was it.

I'm now a very Happy HOT Bunny! ;0)

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 08:21 AM

Well, I have been overtaken by yet another bour of GAS (Geetar Acquistion Syndrome) after foolishly stepping into a geetar shop in Richmond and playin' their floor model Dean "ChromeG" Resonator so what a guy with no eccess $$$ to do but...

...see off some of my scavenged stash, right!!!

In the barn are about a dozen pieces of furniture so last weekend the P-Vine and I had to go up to Front Royal so for grins I loaded up an old (1900-1920 oak 4 drawer filing cabinet and while she was doing her P-Vine stuff I went to the collectables/antiques shop and the lady gave me $50 for it...

I told her about the other stuff and she said that she would buy an old poplar (painted) hoosier (30s), a round end table (20s), possiblly a 20's couch needin' a little TLC, some of my old toaster collection and even an old bakers rake on wheels (circa unknown)...

Lets see??? The geetar is $699... Less the $50 I got last weekend... Hmmmmmmm??? I may have to dig deeper into my collection...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 11:01 PM

SRS
thank you my friend I will check it out

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 06:22 PM

I wonder if someplace like Etsy would let you sell a vintage painting?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 04:18 PM

SRS, yes it is really short but I am sure Salvation Army would be very please even at that and so will the buyer.   The art market is really in the tank right now and everything is really down from what it should be. Terrible time to sell actually

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:33 PM

I think maybe you're selling that painting a little short, and should see if there is a better venue for it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 12:18 PM

My painting didn't sell , anyone want it for 70 bucks, money goes to the Salvation Army where I bought it ... listed artist !! His small one sold for 450, this is a big guy

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 11:38 AM

In places like Thrift stores, I think they have decided they don't have the time or the marketplace to treat the moderately high-end stuff differently. They want the rapid turnover, and if something is there for a long time it gets shopworn, and then it doesn't look like it is worth more. So it probably is a conscious decision. It didn't cost them that much (it was donated) so they take what they can get. But places like the Goodwill do have an auction or eBay presence for the things they find that they know are high dollar items, especially vintage clothes and art.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: jacqui.c
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 11:18 AM

I watch out for printer ink cartridges at yard sales - people will change the printer and then just discard the old cartridges. I've managed to sell a few on EBay in the last few months.

During the summer I found a couple of bags of what looked like just yarn at a yard sale. Paid $12 for the lot. When I emptied the bags there were some weaving shuttles and some amazing yarn in there - I kept a fair bit of the yarn and still realised about $50 on EBay.

The most recent find was at the Salvation Army thrift store. A bag of interesting yarn for $5. Turned out to be about eight skeins of high end yarn - silk, alpaca, mohair and some of it hand painted. Some of the skeins still had prices on them - anything from $18 to $29. I'll be putting some of that on EBay fairly soon but keeping some for me. What gets me is that is was clear from the pricing what they had and yet they stuffed it all in one bag as a job lot and sold it as cheaply as they did the cheap acrylic stuff in the same bin. even if they wanted to make a quick sale I'm sure that they COULD have got more for this stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 01:09 PM

My daughter has the best eye for finding good clothes at our local favorite thrift store. She dives into the racks and comes up with real gems. Our typical shopping routine, if it isn't for some specific thing that must come from a retail store, is to go to the thrift store first, and if they don't have it, then to try the stores like Ross, though if you find a good "Red Apple" sale like they used to hold when there was still a Foley's Department store, then you could sometimes even beat Ross. It takes a lot, and rarely ever happens, that we go to a full-price retail clothing store and buy anything at full price.

For me, as I work on a diet, I am getting to where I can "shop my own closet" and pull out things I haven't worn for a while and enjoy them again, at no cost. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 08:18 PM

I've been suffering Op (charity/thrift) shop deprivation since early Dec - I visit 2 on my way home from Craft Group every Wednesday of the year, but we have a 4 week break over the Christmas holiday priod.

Especially since the friend who drops me near these shops says she has been visiting them & buying good stuff - WAAAAAAAH. All I've been able to do is visit a very uninteresting shop in my area once.

Group starts next week - YAH!

The monthly Antique & Collectable fair I attend was held last weekend so I do have a small bag of interesting old stuff, sewing collectables & tiny 1950s toys, but a monthly fair is not the same as a weekly visit to my 2 favourite shops.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 11:12 AM

I wish libraries today did a better job of marking their discarded books as discards, like they used to, with a stamp or something. I have several times found books that I thought were misplaced or stolen then left at thrift stores, only to learn that the library no longer has it in the catalog voluntarily. This makes thrift stores a difficult place for that kind of book.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Mark Ross
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 10:56 AM

My best thrift store find was in Butte, Montana where I used to live. One of the local thrift stores was selling books, 3 for a dime. I found a first edition BOUND FOR GLORY by Woody Guthrie. cost me 3 1/3 cents!
I had been looking for a hardbound copy for years, but this was beyond all expectations.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 09:40 PM

Dean was shocked that I would have such an apparently large gift for him, until I explained that I got it for a dollar at a garage sale! It's hard sometimes to enjoy a gift if you think someone spent more money than they could afford for it. So when the "found treasure" aspect comes in, it's a pleasure all around. And the chicken and vegetables I made for lunch in my pot came out perfect, a great introduction for him to how well these pots work.

It's time to get back to listing stuff on eBay, so they can be someone else's treasures. My family were pack rats. I need to reduce the amount of clutter around here. Sometimes all you need is the right part to fix an otherwise great item, so I sell things that don't work for parts, and ask enough to cover the cost of listing and such. Back when I was working on building up my rating I did that more than I do now. I've gotten some very good bargains on eBay, usually items sold by people who didn't know what they were selling.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: LilyFestre
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 07:02 PM

In the early 1990s, I purchased a couch at the Salvation Army for $12.00. It served us very well!!!!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 06:47 PM

Twenty odd years ago I bought a ca. late '70s Sansui analog receiver for $15 at a thrift store. About a year later I had to have it repaired at about $50, and have had great listening pleasure since. I would not trade it for a digital stereo for anything. A few years later at a yard sale with my wife, I bought a Luxman linear turntable for $12 with a Grado cartridge/stylus. They had lost the remote to it, but what the hey...it was a fantastic find.

BTW, one of the reasons I like the Sansui is its abiliy to tune in stations below 87.9. I get channel 6 (Tijuana, Mex/San Diego) audio, and the rebroadcast of Live365 on low-power FM by someone in my neighborhood. I get neither on my digital car stereos which skip directly from 87.9 to 107 point something.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 12:52 AM

by the way if anyone wants to buy it i started the bid at 80 bucks. make the winning check out to the salvation army also I will take 130 for it straight out and cancel it

Dan

tilney

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 12:38 AM

I WALKED in to a salvation army thrift store and found a great landscape painting by FC TILNEY circa 1940 a listed artist yesterday. bought it for 7 dollars, it is worth 800. It is on ebay right now, ALL the money will go back to them after I sell it as a donation. Such fun

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 12:22 AM

I have a Romertopf Clay Baker that was at my father's house when I was sorting through his estate. I didn't know anything about it, but I asked the friend who I was staying with while I was doing the work. She had talked my father into buying it, and to demonstrate, she baked a chicken in hers for dinner that night. It was phenomenal! It's a roast chicken with all of the falling off the bone quality of stewed chicken, but unlike stewed chicken, the flavor is all in the meat, not in the water.

I found one in mint condition, looked barely used, at a garage sale for $1. I picked it up, knowing I would use it for someone for a gift this year. Tomorrow my friend Dean is coming over for lunch, and I'm going to bake a chicken in mine in time for lunch. And if he doesn't have one already and would like one for himself, this is his. I have the instructions from mine that I'll scan and print to go with it.

Dad bought the size that was right for two to four people. Dean has three he feeds regularly over at his house. So what if it cost $1? It's perfect!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 12:03 AM

Wesley, I don't think scavenging and dumpster diving is any more about "hoarding" than any other kind of shopping is.   Really pathological hoarders often save things like newspapers, clothing, used tin cans and other food containers, magazines, etc. - often stuff that was purchased new, at retail.


Scavenging and shopping for used treasures is just about a) the thrill of the treasure hunt -- more adventurous to find a gem at a yard sale than to go to a retailer and buy it -- and b) wanting to get the best value for your money.

I love to explore thrift shops and yard sales and things left by the curb with "free" signs on them, but I don't buy or take anything unless I have a real use for it or can pass it on to someone who does.

In fact, the availability of thrift stores, yard sales, and "dumpster" finds frees me a lot from feeling the need to keep things.   If there's something I haven't used in a while but probably will need/want again sometime, it's easy for me to "recycle" it in some way or another when I know I can find it again, cheap, when I do need it.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 10:30 PM

I stopped by the local transfer station for recycling and bulky trash for Fort Worth on Wednesday afternoon. There is a Goodwill truck trailer there, and they received electronic devices for recycling. Usually the trailer has items sitting inside and a few larger ones that are difficult to lift might be on the ground outside. This time there was a sea, maybe 10 times the volume, of what I usually see. And most of it was televisions, CRT variety, some of them huge. Except for the fact that you can't move them alone and I don't really have space for one, it is tempting to take one of these big things home and hook up my converter box and end up with a nice new huge television. I know the new flat ones look good and all of that, but clearly there was a tidal wave of stuff dumped after the holidays and everyone received new home theater stuff. I suppose once it is there you shouldn't pick any of it up, but I bet they wouldn't care. They're probably swamped. It's just the idea of reusing, at least for a while, that appeals. I wonder where all of this stuff will go, now that America is finished with it? Or one part of America, anyway.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:22 PM

Actually, the fact that as a west-coaster I even know what a carriage house is, let alone have been in one, is remarkable. But I grew up in an older well-to-do (was the real Nob Hill in our town) area where my parents simply got incredibly lucky getting our little house that was mixed in with all of the big ones. And the big mansion at the top of the hill had a two-story carriage house. You could drive in from the street side (they parked their Lincolns in there) or drive around the side and down to the lower level where the horses were stabled. And there was actually an upstairs for the employees, so, three stories, and a lot of space.

I'll do a search for that article later. Must do a little creative writing for another thread first.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 07:06 PM

Woah, Jack Campin, that's absolutely fascinating.
I found something similar in a skip about 20 years ago , piles of diaries and journals written by a bloke living alone, working as some sort of door-to-door salesman in 1960's ,terribly lonely and introspective, reading signs and omens into formations of swans on the River Trent and flocks of birds flying over. He used to frequent a coffee -bar , now gone, in Nottingham and just watch other people's lives. Having read all he'd written , I felt as though I'd intruded , and burnt every book on our fire to save anyone from laughing at him.
Feel rather the same about your man, although simultaneously acknowledging how marvellous it is to have such an insight into a life so very different from my own.You can almost see it as a black and white film can't you ?

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 06:29 PM

Yo, Magz,

Richard's carriage house is definately an experience... It scared the heck outta the P-Vine... Might of fact, it scares the heck outta a lot of people...

The carriage house is two stories and pretty large so you can imagine just how much stuff is in there...

Plus Richard is an artist and has that artist touch in displaying all his stuff... He also has an old printing press that he scavenged and has an entire printing room with old lead type... The press probably weighs in at a ton...

I do know that the Richmond Times Dispatch did an article on him and his domain in 2000... I don't know if you can still find it archived but you can look... The article came out in either October or Novemeber of 2000...

If you can't find the article and pics, PM me... I have some pics around somewhere and will mail you a couple just so that you can appreciate (or not) what a carriage house with at least a half a million collected pieces of Richmond looks like... Okay, it might only be 300,000, I donno... Richard doesn't either but he collects stuff just about every day and has been doing so for over 40 years now so it's one heck of alot of stuff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 04:45 PM

Other odd finds:
Guages from a WW2 military plane, from a box of miscellaneous. The guys at the little air museum here were happy as all get out when I donated them. They were needed for a restoration project. I've forgotten what type of 'plane.
Some smaller stained glass windows.
Old stoneware whiskey jugs.
A 10X Stetson, the type worn by Harry Truman, given to me by someone clearing out closets. My daughter used it in a play, and she traded it for an old mink coat.

(Old furs are give-aways here, modernizing the styling is expensive. A coat originally costing a couple thousand or so sells for a couple hundred, unless an old buffalo or the like).

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 10:21 AM

I go in spurts with that kind of collecting. I'd love to see that carriage house. Haven't done any for a while, I don't have the space. It's nice to put things back into circulation for collectors or folks who need this stuff.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:58 AM

The strangest find I made was a disassembled gas spectrometer. With some of the unusual parts I made a collage.

A box of reel tape tha contained the most historic incidents since 1948 to 1970

A locked case with stock ceritificattes inside.


Junk hunting is good fun especially if you have the pack rat gene, but when collectors do it right with the proper facilities it becomes historic.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:37 AM

BTW, Genie... The "Scavenger's Code " was "Anything of Value"... Okay, "value" is kinda nebulous but we scavengers all had this sense of value... I recall many occasions where scavnegers would share their finds with one another as it was getting too dark to scavenge... And funny things happened during these show-and-tell sessions, like trading... I found an old pair od horn rimmed glasses one eevening and this other guy wanted them in the biggest way... He offered a few things but I really didn't want any of the stuff he offered until...

...one day the wrecking ball went to visit a 5 story brick bukduing from the late 1800's and therr was a cast concrete "roundell" with "Imperial Tobacco Company cast into it and some cool other stuff in the middle... The entire roundell was made up of 8 pieces, each weighing around a hundred pounds... The problem is that when the wrecking ball hit theat portion of the building the pieces of the roundell went everywhere and were buried under tons of brick... As the front end loader made progress toward clearin' out the site svavengers would assemble every evening to see what new had made it to the surface... As luck would have it, I found the piece that had a good portion of "Imperial" on it and the guy who wanted those horned rim glasses found the rest of the "l" in Imperial and the entire "Tobacco"... I didn't know he had it until I was visiting with him one night and saw it in his basement apartment... One thing let to another and next thing ya' know the deal was on... So, out in my garden are those 2 pieces put back together and looking mighty fine as garen hardscape art...

BTW, the guy had lenses made for those glasses and still wears them to this very day...

BTW, Part 2... That guy's name is Richard Bland and he still is a collector and has around a half a million things in his carriage house that he has collected over the years and has articles written about him the newspaper... His carriage house is, needless to say, unbelievable...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:10 AM

Actually, oldster, I do havea wonderful ol couch out in the barn covered up... It's from the 20's and in great shape except on leg needs to be reattached (I have the leg)... Maybe it's your couch but it don't matter... It's covered up and you can come get it...

Well, Genie, I am not at all below scavenging buiding materials... I am in the last year of a four year restoration project of a 1888 hotel that I bought and am down to having to scavenge trim... I won't use anything unless it looks "period" so I have stopped by a couple sites and amde some deals... Mostly, the guys just say, "Anything in that pile is going to the dump so have at it" and I do... I also have had to make trips to Caravati's Junk Yard in Richmond for stuff... They are a little pricey but, hey, I still can get 5 1/4 inch door moldings and rosette block for less than buying new....

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bert
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 02:20 AM

I picked up two bird mouth seltzer bottles at an auction for $10. I have seen similar ones for sale on the web at about $90 each and I have a pair. I haven't sold them yet but I might put them on Ebay to make this month's rent.

Sometimes though, the things that you keep and use turn out to be the best bargains. I bought a Farber rotisserie for a few bucks at a thrift store. Tree wasn't too happy with it until the first time she used it. Now we use it all the time and have picked up a few others since. They are great when having a party and you need to cook beef, ham and turkey all at once. Some of you might even remember seeing it on Mudcat Radio's Turkeycam.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: olddude
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 07:16 PM

Bobert, HEY !!! dang now I know where me couch disappeared to,
give it back, I am sitting on an orange crate !!!

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 06:30 PM

Guest seth in Olympia, if you are reading....Erich Korngold was a composer who wrote scores for many Hollywood fillums, Sea Hawk and Robin Hood among them.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Wesley S
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 04:13 PM

I just think we all need to be careful that we don't turn into one of these:

Hoarders

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 04:07 PM

Unusual find in yard of house being torn down- a clump of martagon album lily.
In the years since I dug up the bulbs, some went to my kids and friends. They continue to multiply, and make a beautiful show in the spring. Must have been at least 25 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 06:08 AM

The local Goodwill has always been a great fishing hole for music and record collectors, not quite so much as ten years ago, when people were dumping entire lifetime collections to replace with CD's. Over the years, I have all the records I can store or possibly want, but still, every once in a while, I just have a peek in that section of the store-when what to my wondering eyes should appear-someone had donated their classical music vinyl collection, maybe 300+ albums
all pristine, all pricey labels, a lot of European stuff that I was not familiar with. Going out @$1.00 each.
What to do? What to do? The thing I would have done in the past would be to overdraw my bank account, hope my kids could fend for themselves
ths holiday season... but this time I only bought one, a recording by Itzak Perlman, EMI, digital,Concertos by Korngold and Conus ( I don't know who these composers are)still sealed in shrink wrap.
Regular retail box stores never give me this kind of pleasure before I even get the product home
seth

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 05:34 AM

How about finding somebody's entire life in a skip?

ALMOST SAW HER BOTTOM

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 03:18 AM

Bobert, I feel fer ya!

But it doesn't has ta be about accumulating lot o' stuff ya doesn't need. It can be just a way of gettin' yer hands on what ya DO need, fer nuthin' or at least real cheap.


BTW, construction sites are gold mines for very useful (and otherwise expensive) stuff like lumber, metal fixin's, cement blocks and the like! I have enough stuff like that scrounged from construction sites to build a new addition to my house!
.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 12:21 AM

I was just going through a trunk from my great aunt's house that I still haven't unpacked. I've moved it a couple of times and had it for 25 years. There is some beautiful green depression glass in it. A friend helped me pack at the house, so I hadn't even seen some of this stuff. It's on the mantle to sparkle in the lights for christmas, with ornaments tucked into pieces for spots of color.

A couple of years ago I picked up two chandeliers at the curb in the next block. I took them home and left them in the garage, but about 18 months ago I was preparing for a garage sale and hung them up. They were very pretty and had most of the prisms. I did some research, bought a few replacement prisms, and ended up selling them for $250 on eBay.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:56 PM

Hi, my name is Bobert and I am an adictive scrounger...

There, got that outta the way...

I've been on the wagon for a couple decades now but...

...there was a time when I would come home from my job as a socail worker, put on my work clothes, grab my tools-of-the-trade, jump in my truck and go off scrounging... Of course, it helped that there was a major urban renewal project going on in Richmond and houses were being torn down block by block... There were alot of us that would show up the day houses were boarded up and we'd pry away enough plywood to make entry and then the scavenging would begin...

Over a 10 year adiction I scavenged lots of left behind furniture, hundreds of books, photographs, old appliances, kitchen ware, doilies and drawn-work, table clothes, clothes, jewelry, plants, pottery and even money that folks had hidden too well from themselves... I had a big 5 bedroom house and every room was filled with stuff...

I have since moved a couple times and alot of the stuff has been sold or given away but I still have a barn full of stuff... Maybe 50 boxes plus some of the furniture...

I don't do that stuff anymore because I promised Betty Ford I wouldn't but don't think I am not tempted every time I see an old building being torn down...

Bobert (reformed collector)

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:46 PM

Stacks of old Wilf Carter lps.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Gurney
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:19 PM

Guitars that have been standing on their bottoms, fallen over backwards and broken their heads. Five of. Easy enough to fix, even for me, child's play for a luthier.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 07:10 PM

Oh, and Nathan, you are way too young to qualify as an antique! ; D

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 07:05 PM

Bill, suitcases and the like are among my routine bargains at thrift shops. I don't think I've ever paid more than $10 for one, and often they go for about $5. But I've priced comparable ones retail and they sell for $30 to a couple hundred.   
Wooden furniture is also often a great bargain.   The pricers at most thrift store don't seem to be able to tell the difference between solid oak and particleboard with an oak veneer.   When you do find wood furniture at thrift stores or yard sales, it's usually priced at about 10% of its actual value.
Same goes for pottery, cookware, etc. It's not unusual to find a T-Fal pot or skillet or a cast iron skillet at a thrift store for $2 or $ (retail can be $20 to $50).   And what's neat about pottery is that it's pretty much a WYSIWIG -- compared to things that are electric or electronic or have moving parts. If you like the vase or cookie jar, you're not likely to be disappointed when you get it home. (And occasionally you find one that's a valuable antique.)

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 06:52 PM

ollaimh, I LOVE that story about the violins!   It should warm the cockles of your heart just to know you thwarted the attempts of the dealers to take advantage of a poor old woman!
Bravo to you!

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Genie
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 06:48 PM

David: "If you buy something for a fraction of it's real value and resell it for a huge profit should you offer some of the profit to the original seller? Particularly if it is a charity shop?"

If I made a sizeable profit, I'd be inclined to donate a good portion to charity - but not necessarily to the "original seller."
Some Goodwill Industries and Deseret Industries thrift shops, for instance, have a practice of dumping tons of items into the dumpster, with little regard for their value, simply because they haven't sold in a set time period (usually a month to 6 weeks).   They run their thrift shops "like a business," maximizing profit (which goes to their charitable work) as much as or more than like an organization devoted to employing people (e.g., people with handicaps), "reuse and recycling," etc.   Their management knows that some high-quality items will be thrown out with the junk and doesn't seem to find it cost-effective to try to prevent that. So if I came across a treasure at one of those stores, I wouldn't feel obligated to share whatever I sold it for.

Even when someone sells a priceless antique at a yard sale, the collector who finds it and has it appraised has probably done the hard work, which the seller didn't want to do, to become educated as to the value of collectibles or to have it appraised.   Usually if people are really concerned about not throwing out really valuable things, they aren't so quick to put them into a dumpster or out by the curb.   And I think thrift store operators often see the "hidden treasures" as a major incentive people have for being willing to sort through the miscellaneous cheap stuff and junk. Kind of like an unplanned "loss leader."

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 05:26 PM

A good antique blanket chest from the dump of a small town in Alberta.
Wood from broken furniture, mahogany, oak, maple; useful in repair and in small projects, same dump.
A nice cut glass cigar humidor from a dumpster outside of an apartment building.
A banjo at a country auction. Gave it to a son-in-law who said it is a really good one. A saddle by a well-known maker, same auction.
Some good Chinese and Japanese porcelain at various auctions.
A few original paintings by good but not famous artists.
Our house is furnished mostly with antique and junktique furniture, all of which we thought were bargains at the time.

---------------Anecdote
When I was working, the professionals and technicians of our group had morning coffee together. A friend and I both antique and junk addicts, were talking over filling in old silver patterns that we had (do people still get silver and china at wedding showers, often their names at the local china or gift shop appended to patterns?).
One of the technicians was listening, and said she had recently thrown silverware she had received as gifts or from her parents into the garbage. We expressed our horror of such an act. The next day she showed us some sterling tableware she had not yet discarded, and we gave her an estimate if replacement value, which was several hundred dollars. She quietly turned away, we were somewhat sorry that we had said anything about the silver.

A year later, she and her husband opened a small second-hand shop.
Over the next few years, it became a good place to find odd needs and treasures in furniture, tableware, and what have you. She told us that our displeasure had changed her life, but laughingly she said she didn't know if it was for the better or the worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 04:46 PM

My mom many years ago went dumpster diving one day...and found me....she thought I may be worth something....and so she had me restored...and tried to auction me off at local houses in Spokane, then Portland...and the much later on ebay....but no one wanted me....the most she got offered was .25 cents....and after all the work she put into me she wouldn't take it...now 35 years later I think she would take anything to get rid of me.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 04:38 PM

A couple years ago I managed to snag a great guitar at a yardsale when I actually HAD 50 bucks with me to buy it. It's a Chinese-made "Mark II" -- very nice action and lovely tone. The kid I bought it from had bought it new and never learned to play it. (I think he thought he might just spontaneously be able to play without doing the hard part about lessons and practicing.)

Now I need Tom to forget I ever knew how to play and teach me the Anglo-Saxon crash thud style.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: GUEST,MeadowMuskrat
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 03:24 PM

In the late 60's I was a fan of the Incredible String Band and had a fascination with unusual musical instruments. Robin Williamson used a morrocan bowed instrument on a few songs ( Chinese White , A Very Cellular Song)and I was on a lookout for one. None of the places I frequented had or could get the item, including several stores in NYC that specialized in exotic instruments. Several months later while walking past a 2nd hand store in Newark NJ , I spotted a Gimbri in the window sitting on the lap of a doll. I got it for $5 and the shopkeeper told me he had got it from a veteran who had served in North africa in WW2. It needed a little repair work which I had done at the House of Musical traditions ( then in the East village of NYC). I turned down several offers for the Gimbri which would have made a nice profit, and then loaned it to a person who was in a musical group with me. I lost track of him and never got it back.While it wasn't a financial success finding the object was quite a thrill at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Thrift store, yard sale & dumpster finds
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 02:17 PM

Oh my....the LIST of freebies & cheapies I have acquired!

I have a large van...which allowed me to instantly acquire a full size metal office desk from a curb near my house. I have $5 leather travel bags from yard sales... and an Argentine leather 'professional' soft briefcase that MUST be worth $200 new....for $12 at at thrift shop.

2 months ago a neighbor moved and set many items on his curb....anyone need a radio collar direction finder for tracking animals? (batteries charged!)They list for over $300 new.
Also a clock radio and new-in-the-box ceiling light fixture.

Just last month got a kitchen cart of maple butchers block with fold-down end shelves for $12.50...needed one hinge fixed...took 5 minutes.

2 rolling suitcases that we use for transporting our table drapes & curtains for our display to craft shows....free by the roadside.

oh...and a mini-trampoline 'bounce on it' exercise gadget..on a curb a block away. I watch the news while bouncing on it...or riding the $10 pumping exerciser from a yard sale.

The list goes on......