Featured Anyone made some decent scores from thrift stores?

After a few dozen pages of the FINDS thread ....you'll see just how much nice stuff is still out there.....but remember we are the cream of the picking crop and know what we're looking at and what to look out for......so ya gotta do your homework first !!

 

I think it just depends on where you live & how much time you have to spend.

I never go to GS / YS because I am not going to drag my butt out of bed at the crack of dawn. Also this is so hit & miss that I do not want to spend time driving around just to come up empty handed. On the other hand, where you live might be a wonderful place to attend these types of sales & you might have had some great success.

I do go to a local thrift shop a couple times a month, but do not go to all that are in my area. Again it is a matter of time versus what I can find. The one I go to has been very fruitful, but in general that has not been the case.

There is a local consignment shop that I visit quite often. I also sell a lot of stuff there that has not sold on ebay or that I either do not want to bother with or will not sell on ebay but is still a desirable item.

We also have a wonderful auction house that holds weekly sales & where likely 80% of my stuff for sale comes from. This past Friday was a perfect example. The estate that came in this week was from the estate of a woman who never met a piece of Lenox Holiday, Fitz & Floyd, art glass, designer purse or anything with a leopard on it that she did not like/buy. (I will post some photos later today in the finds thread.) I did not end up with any of the Lenox Holiday because there were so many collectors of that pattern there the competition was crazy. However most people do not have anything like this & have never been to an auction.

 

I never go to yard sales at the crack of dawn. I like to go a little later when they are more willing to bargain. In my area, I think a lot of dealers feel like you do and don't bother and that's why I find things. Last month I picked up 5 pieces of original art work, three by listed artists and two I still have not been able to identify, all for $10. The problem with art, I tend to hang on to it.

 

flea markets, yard sales, estate sales & antique shows ....I make my best deals just before they start to pack up !!

 

Wise words by our regular posters. Go slow and be thorough. Things are often not what they appear to be at first glance. Flip items over (yes, be your mother). When you have some knowledge, take a chance on the unusual items you've never heard of... we often find we are pleasantly surprised.

 

It is different here.... if you don't get there at the crack of dawn, the jewelry will be non-existent.

I do best at flea markets and antique malls, of all places.

I never find any jewelry at estate sales or yard sales anymore. I just stopped in at an estate sale Friday, the first day, and I got there two hours after the sale started and almost all the jewelry was sold. They tested costume with acid and therefor ruined it and were still trying to get $5 for the discolored pieces.

 

I am an avid thrift store and garage sale early bird. At thrift stores I bought a Herman Miller Eames chair and ottaman (early one rosewood and leather) for $10, a Paola Pillin vase for $2.99, and used to buy about $800 of gold jewelry (scrap price) a week. I buy lots of mid century furniture at garage sales worth $800 to $900 a piece for pennies on the dollar. The best single piece profit wise was a Roseville Azurine vase for $6 at a garage sale. Just went to a garage sale Friday it was raining so I took a chance on a local barn sale which started at 9:30 and said in the add no early birds. Pulled in around 9:00 because there were no other sales expecting to wait. There were like 6 cars parked by the barn and the door was open so I walked up. All the cars were the sisters and they really were not open but let me look. Lighting was horrible so I had to use my phone for a flashlight but I had 30 minutes scouring the barn. Nothing on it own was spectacular but bought and old wooden tripod, old prune box turned in foot stool, some old tin cars, and a Roseville hanging vase dirty but in good condition, but there was a box of misc. jewelry I got to go through first. Jewelry was marked .50 each so since the lighting was bad I grabbed everything that looked decent. Spent $29 dollars got over $300 scrap value of gold including a men's 1959 class ring weighing over 8dwt by itself. Lots of gold filled antique jewelry and some sterling jewelry. That was my only really good day garage saling this month

 

I very seldom find anything of great value thrifting. I try to catch as many estate sales as I can. But, all of these venues are also known by others like us so it's just a game of chance. I recently went to one and actually got there "on time" and the furniture was already marked sold. Every piece of it! Good luck, guess this is what makes it fun.

 

Hi!
Thrift stores can be a great resource, when hunting for antiques and collecibles.
I think it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Chat with staff members who bring out new merchandise and stock the shelves. What time do they bring out new items? Good days? Etc...
Good Luck .

 

I also don't find much with great monetary value at thrift stores... but I also don't sell much, and only buy things that I personally want or that I want to give as a gift.

Actually, the only stores that I would call thrift stores in this area are either Goodwill or Salvation Army or St. Vincent DePaul (and there is also a chain called, I believe, Stuff, Etc.). As everybody knows, all of the things sold at these places are carefully screened for anything of value, and those are either priced higher or sold online.-- Although it's said that they do miss things occasionally.

There is a fun "vintage" store that opened a couple of years ago just a half mile from where I live. I like looking there and have occasionally found something to buy. Their prices are not bad for most things. But I don't know if you would call it a thrift store. They don't sell at rock bottom prices, but also not usually inflated prices.

 

Small local auctions houses and often the ones where they do not have much insight and expertise. Their ignorance can often overlook value! The misinterpretation of artist signatures is ripe for the picking.

 

I go to my neighborhood Goodwill 3-4x a week. And while I sometimes walk out empty handed, I have found some amazing things over the years. Here are some of my finds in the last few weeks: a like new Jack Spade leather messenger/laptop bag, a 1950s Prado (Mexico City) baby alligator purse, 2 vintage crystal Traube sherry glasses, and a 1985 Samobor (Yugoslavia) lead crystal whisky decanter. All priced reasonably enough so I can make a profit. Though I do keep a few things for myself from time to time.

I rarely visit the Vincent de Paul store six miles away because the few good vintage things I have ever spotted here were priced at eBay prices. Likewise with some of the boutique thrift stores around.

All the best. Would love to hear how it turns out for you.

 

I passed up a vintage eel skin soft brief case for $ 6......minor wear...
Was that dumb ?

 

I will buy leather goods if they just have a small bit of edge corner wear, but usually avoid things with more wear than that. Though I did once buy a thoroughly beat up, '30s-'40s hornback alligator purse at a yard sale for $4 because it was so cool. We'll see if it sells!

 

I've found some cool stuff at thrift stores and yard/estate sales. Latest was a nice piece of art glass by a pretty well-known artist (not Chihuly, though - but one of his friends).
Here's a story about one that got away:
the wife and I were going into a Goodwill, and we saw a musician we knew, coming out with a guitar in hand. He was bringing it out into the sunlight to check it out, because it was in kind of rough shape, though still playable. We hovered, in case he decided not to get it, but no luck, he walked away with it.
It was a Martin guitar, priced at $150. List price brand-new would be $3,000; depending on the year, this vintage Martin was probably worth at least $1,500, maybe much more.
(I don't feel as bad as I might; I've got one just like it, in much better shape; bought mine in a pawn shop, in 1965 for $100, when list price was $300.)

 

Hi,
My best thrift store buy was a mans cuff bracelet links looking like a dog chain for 2 bucks turned out to be platinum and sold for 2400 dollars. I wore it for 3 years thinking it was stainless steel. It was not marked that is why i thought it was steel.
greg

 

I hit all of the above. Yard sales, estate sales, rummage sales, thrift stores, etc. The biggest scores have been at ... all of the above. You just never know. I found a really rare, as in good luck ever seeing a piece again, sterling Maida Heater jewelry at a yard sale selling mostly modern tat. It was sitting with the Lia Sophia and Chico's junk. Gold fetches up all over the place, sometimes known and sometimes not. The biggest one piece "hit" of my life came from an estate sale - a sterling silver tray sold as overpriced silverplate. Synagogue and church rummage sales can offer the best bang for your buck. I always go on the preview night and pay the $5 (local standard) to get in. There are thrifts in local over-55 communities here too, but while they used to let outsiders in that's not true any more. Darnitt. Both of them have people who earned way too much money and I used to find all sorts of paydirt.

Short form: it's like playing the lottery but with a better chance of a payout.

 

I got a big sterling platter marked by Welsch (from Peru) at a family run estate sale for only $12.50 once. So tarnished (and the marks so small) that they obviously did not realize what they had. Plus - so heavy even I was a little concerned that it might be plated over base metal. Whoa, Doggies! What a happy dance I did when I had cleaned it up and knew what I had!

 

I didn't hoard mine; I hope you sat on yours until silver prices went up nice and high and then...payday!

 

I still have it!