What is the best deal you found at a thrift store?

[Gracie]

Since the other thread is ONLY to be about some dvd, I thought I would start a new thread if anyone is interested.

What are some great deals you have found? When you were a kid, last week, last year...doesn't matter.

Shopgoodwill has its own auction site.

Used MSRP $5K 14KWG 4.03CT Opal .35CTW Dia Ring Sz6.5

www.shopgoodwill.com

I am still gobsmacked that someone DONATED that ^.

Anyway...what do you look for, or do you just like to browse?

 

[Dekster]

Since the other thread is ONLY to be about some dvd, I thought I would start a new thread if anyone is interested.

What are some great deals you have found? When you were a kid, last week, last year...doesn't matter.

Shopgoodwill has its own auction site.

Used MSRP $5K 14KWG 4.03CT Opal .35CTW Dia Ring Sz6.5

www.shopgoodwill.com

I am still gobsmacked that someone DONATED that ^.

Anyway...what do you look for, or do you just like to browse?

There was a story when I was a kid about someone accidentally leaving a really expensive diamond ring in the pocket of a coat they donated to goodwill and the person who bought it spent like a year but was finally able to track the owner down to get it back to them.

I bought a really nice desk from the Disabled American Veterans store for $250 that had a list price of almost $4K but it ended up being way too big so I resold it. It originally was a floor model from a high end furniture store.

While not big in dollar value, I buy a fair amount of art from a mom and pop junk store next to a grocery I go to sometimes. They sell it cheap and their stock rotates enough they usually have something new when I go by. More often than not though I am buying it for the frame and not the actual art. I am a bit OCD when it comes to having high quality picture frames.

 

[Oldestyle]

Since the other thread is ONLY to be about some dvd, I thought I would start a new thread if anyone is interested.

What are some great deals you have found? When you were a kid, last week, last year...doesn't matter.

Shopgoodwill has its own auction site.

Used MSRP $5K 14KWG 4.03CT Opal .35CTW Dia Ring Sz6.5

www.shopgoodwill.com

I am still gobsmacked that someone DONATED that ^.

Anyway...what do you look for, or do you just like to browse?

I dropped off a few boxes of books at Goodwill and as I was walking back out of the store I passed by a barrel full of old golf clubs. Glanced at it...took a few steps and then stopped in my tracks. In the barrel was a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Select putter in mint condition. I bought it for $5 dollars.

 

[Gracie]

I think the best 2 deals I ever got was from yard sales. One item was a little tin ghosty house from the 50's. You push a few keys and ghosts popped up. I had one as a kid..so I bought this one for a buck. Figured I might get maybe 20 on ebay. Imagine my surprise when it went for 625 bucks. Then that guy RElisted it and sold it for 800 bucks. 1950's toys go for alot!

Second item was a map in a box. Map was free, box had other stuff in it, and paid 5 bucks for it all.
Got home, realized the map was HUGE with canvas backing.So I rolled it out on the lawn and it was all chinese, from 1945, and used to hang in a school room. So...I listed it for 50 bucks and it fetched 4k. I bought my van with that money, lol.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Not me, but my secretary found a grimy picture at Goodwill. She posted a photo of it on her Facebook account. She was contacted by an appraiser from Sotheby's. Turns out it was done by a quite famous artist. She sold it for $35,000` dollars.

 

[Muhammed]

About 25 years ago I bought a 70s era vintage Brooks leather motorcycle jacket in good condition in a thrift store for $50. I still wear it today.

I found a pair of loaded dice in the inside pocket.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I spent several months, in the last part of my recovery from my broken leg, working in a thrift store until I was ready to return to real work.

During that time, I got a few great bargains, made even greater by the 30% discount that I got for working there.

Perhaps the best was this pair of boots.

They were in a bin of clothing that I was sorting. A curious design, and I felt compelled to try them on. They fit me perfectly. A bit of research revealed that these are Haix Airpower XR1 boots, that sell new for the far side of $300. Way beyond normal construction worker boots, they are meant for firefighters and paramedics and other first responders who may have to operate in conditions as hazardous or more so that the construction sites on which I work. I showed them to a manager, and told them what they were, and on expressing interest in them for myself, if they were priced where I could afford them, he instructed the pricer to print out a $10 price tag for them for me. With my 30% discount, that came to seven dollars. These are now the boots I wear daily, being back to construction work.


Another great deal, that I didn't really get to use very much, is a knee scooter. I'm surprised that I don't seem to have taken any pictures of it, and right now, it's buried in my storage room, and I'm not going to dig it out just to photograph it for this post. The previous fix to my broken leg was failing, and I was preparing to go in for a second surgery. On the last day I was working at the thrift store before taking a couple of weeks off for that surgery and recovery, two knee scooters came in—exactly the thing that someone needed who had a lower leg that no longer wanted to support his weight. The better of the two was priced at $24.95, which, with my 30% discount, came to $17.46. I only used it a few times. Once was to go to a medical appointment a few days before my surgery. Both the doctor and my case manager were astonished when I told them what I paid for it; and told me these things are not cheap at all. I later looked it up on the manufacturer's web site, which showed, at the time, that this particular model had an MSRP of somewhere on the order of $400. Looking now at that web site, I think (but am not certain, unless I want to dig it out of my storage room and more directly compare it to the site) that this is the model that I have.

All Terrain KneeRover® Steerable Knee Scooter

Of course, the surgery was to fix the problem that caused me to have a need for this, so I really didn't have use for it for very long.


And then, there's this Sawzall. I really didn't need it. I have a much more modern DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw. But it somehow lingered in the back of the store, for a few weeks, waiting to be priced. Even out of my immediate site, I kept hearing it calling me. Eventually, I could resist no longer, I brought out, got someone to price it, and bought it. Ten dollars, which, with my discount, was seven dollars. I have no idea what it might actually be worth; I suppose that would depend very much on whatever collectors might be aware of its existence, and how much they wanted it. It turns out it's not as old as I thought. I was thinking early 1970s at the latest. Turns out this model was made from the early 1970s up to a year or two into the 2000s; and based on the serial number, this one was made in 1989.

Speaking of vintage tools, at some point, a bunch of very old hand saws came through. Here's a picture of three of them…

These three, and most of the others, were all made by a company called Disston, which, for a very long time, was one of the major brands of hand saws. The two top examples are very old, having been made in the 1840s or 1850s. The one on the bottom is more modern.

At some point, I had been keeping an eye on a batch that had been priced and set out to sell, and it seemed no one was interested in them. Stuff that sits out too long gets reduced in price, and when two of the very old saws were down to 99¢, I bought them. I don't know that they are the two in this picture. They're not actually branded with the Disston name, but as “Warranted Superior”. In researching the history of these saws, I learned that in their time, “Warranted Superior” was a sort of a generic brand, used by different companies, if they wanted to produced lower-quality, lower-priced goods, but reserve their own trademarked brand for higher-quality goods. The saws that I have bear this brand, rather than the Disston brand, so presumably, they are lower-quality than the saws that Disston produced at the time bearing its own brand, though pretty high quality compared to anything modern. They do bear the form of Disston's original logo, that it used in the 1840s and 1850s. In the 1860s, they changed the logo to something similar, but distinctly different than the original logo, and in the 1870s, they changed the logo to something completely different, which they continued to use for the remainder of their existence.

These are from two different thrift stores at which I've worked, each bought near the end of my time at the store where I bought it.

The smaller one is from the same thrift store where I got all the other things I've described so far. It's labeled “Minolta 16”, but it's actually a Minolta 16 II, a slightly-improved version of the original Minolta 16. It's from the early 1960s. It seems to be inspired by the German Minox line of cameras, which are best known as the cameras that spies are often seen using in old spy movies. It takes a proprietary 16mm film format. I haven't really pursued it, but apparently there are a few small groups out there that offer Minolta 16 compatible film, or even empty Minolta 16 cartridges in which you can load your own bulk 16mm film. One of these days, one way or another I'm going to need to obtain some film for this camera and try it out.

The larger camera is a Minolta 110 Zoom SLR, from the 1970s. Like the Minolta 16, this one took a 16mm film format. That's pretty much where the similarities end. 110 was a very common format in that time, mostly used in low-quality cameras. The Minolta 110 Zoom SLR was an unusual example of a high-quality camera that used 110 film.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Then, there's this hat. Very much against my advice, they priced it at $4.99. It's a Stetson, and I know that Stetsons are not cheap.

But since they insisted on pricing it so low, I bought it. With my discount for working there, it came to $3.49.

It's a Stetson Open Road Straw, which has an MSRP of $135.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I was using this today, and I realized that I had failed to boast about it in this thread, so here it is…

This was from several years ago, working in a thrift store. Some time afterward, I looked it up on Amazon and saw that it was selling for about $40.

But this instance, at the thrift store, ended up being priced at a dollar. With the 20% discount that I got for working there, it came to 80¢.

 

[BlueGin]

1st edition Golf book from the 50’s/60’s. Bought for .50 cents. Sold for $ 35.00 on eBay.

32 in Smart TV works great.

White leather office chair looks brand new.

Antique dresser

Star Wars popcorn popper

Star Wars waffle maker

Plus lots of other good stuff

 

[Oddball]

A top-of-the-line Kitchen Aid stand mixer, with all the accessories, for $50.

About 1/2 of my bartending uniform aloha shirt collection was bought for a few dollars a throw.

Picked up a rare model kit for few bucks.

A high end powder ski parka, with the tags still attached, for $25.