Featured Thrift Store strategies

Was at a thrift store early on Satuday due to a 50% sale they were having and I had seen some nice clothing items that I wanted. There was a line of about 20 people waiting to get in at 8:00 AM and from what I could hear, the majority of them were resellers after specific items. When the doors opened it was like a Black Friday stampede with people running and grabbing stacks of items.

Is there any strategies that you employ when thrifting? Do you try to be there at opening on sale days? Do you try to time when they put out new inventory?

There seems to be a few people/customers that seem to be permanent fixtures in local thrifts. I assume that they hang around for new inventory to be placed on shelves. No wonder that I have problems finding quality items.

 

Try to avoid the peak times myself, as it is hard to be the first in and merchandise gets picked over quickly. I go to all the thrifts multiple times per week at various times of the day. No real schedule. You can find a gem at any time if they continuously re-stock. I do hit new carts as they come out but don't wait around for them.

 

Hate greed and really try to avoid stampedes.

Debora

 

I got so tired of aggressive shoppers that I gave up on waiting on line for estate and church sales years ago. For that reason I do not stand on line at thrift openings either.

Like verybrad, I go at different time a couple of times a week to thrifts and I go to estate and church sales an hour or so after they open. I know I may be missing out on some good items, but I just can't take being pushed and run over anymore. I also can't stand the people who grab everything then sit in the corner and sort through their pile to decide what they want to take.

There is one church sale I do stand on line for. They have all the jewelry in a room with two doors. When the IN door opens they allow about ten shoppers in the room. As we finish and leave by the OUT door they allow more shoppers in. That I can deal with, though you should hear the griping coming from people waiting at the IN door Anyway, I "pay" for the privilege of being one of the first in by standing on line for an hour in the November cold!

 

Im with Brad. No set schedule as I figure if its meant to be it'll be. I do loathe the people who grab stuff off the carts before their even fully out the door,and I also despise the ones that grab a bunch then go sit and pick. One store I go to has a coven of witches I call the "Vultures" and everyone hates them. Yall remember those two german silver bowls I found a few months ago? Well,I was in that store and the vultures were in fine form that day,so I was stunned to see those bowls on a shelf right next to the lead vulture! I snatched them up,and as I was looking them over a fellow I chat with walked up and asked me about them. Without even knowing as I hadnt found the marks I exclaimed "and solid silver no less!" . The look on her face was priceless! Not long ago I realized one of them is a hoarder to the extreme.She has this giant pick up with a cover over the bed and as I was leaving one day I saw her walk up to it and lift the cover and that giant bed was crammed completely full !She always looks a little dirty too,now I know why.

 

I was at my local Vinny's this week and there was a Consolidated Glass Chrysanthemum lamp priced at $12.00, with my senior's discount, $10.80. Despite the fact that next day was their half price day, I snatched it up, still a great bargain and I didn't want to risk someone else willing to pay full price or standing in line on half price day.
Same place, same price, last year, I found a Moorcroft lamp. They don't mess up on the jewelry at that particular store, all the remotely good stuff goes into their monthly auction showcase, but to my delight, lamps get placed on a high shelf over in the books section.

 

Here there are no lines for thrift stores. Mostly because the stuff is G'd awful. It is truly rare to find anything worth buying.

The only line I will wait in for a thrift kind of store is a bi-yearly church sale.
I get there early with hopes that there is something. Of late, nada.

I do wait on line at estate sales as that is where I get my merch from. I loathe the wait, but have no choice if I want to get stuff to sell.
I also hate when folks gather a bunch of things and then sit in a corner and decide if they are planning to take the stuff or not.
I hate it worse when I get to the check out and they are still sorting out how much they want to pay, if they have enough money and deciding to check online to see sold prices. They should be doing that BEFORE they get to the desk to pay for heaven's sake.

 

Maybe some of you need to come pick at my house!
Patd

 

Patd. Directions please...

 

Thrifting here in the Midwest is pretty rough. I have encountered some pretty dissapointing acts at my local thrift shops. Two in my area are family run businesses. I walk in one day to one of the family run business and I look for art a lot. I see two paintings that caught my eye laying on the table right by the checkout. I ask the lady if they were for sale and her response was "I'm looking these up online right now but will get back with you later" I wanted to say something but backed off. I can't believe what thrift shops have become today. It's hard to find stuff nowadays because of that. My local salvation army and savers is my go to now. The rest I don't bother anymore because they look stuff up on ebay and what ever it's listed on ebay for they knock 5 dollars off of it. I understand businesses don't want to be ripped off but it's a "thrift shop" at the end of the day and you folks would laugh at what some items are priced at in some stores. I still go for the "what if" factor but don't expect much anymore. I usually go early cause that's when they put out the new stuff but it's hard for me as well to get there all the time early in the morning

 

It's not posted, but at the thrift I attend, it's understood that one is not to touch the cart items until placed on a shelf. Nothing more frustrating than to watch an eager customer rooting through the cart while the clerk is restocking a shelf.

 

I was standing in line recently at an estate sale and this lady and I started chatting. Turns out she works at the local thrift near me, but in the office not on the floor.
She asked me what I thought of it.
I gave her an ear full. Prices too high. no turnover in merchandise, people who volunteer in store look like they are crazy mad all the time etc.

Turns out she agreed with me on everything. Shame as when I first started going there about 10 years ago, the finds were bountiful and reasonable. Now junk is priced like it is gold. Things are sitting there for months if not years on the shelves.

They also look up everything on eboo and they have been vocal that they don't like resellers as we make too much money and that is why they raised their prices.

 

At my local Ill Will they have no problem with customers checking out the bins after they're pulled out. Half the time it sits around for an hour before the (lack of) staff have any time to deal with it anyway. Anything you grab is one less thing for them to deal with.

The only time I've stood on line for thrifts is at the opening day of a new one. They all seem to put out the best stuff then, in hopes of drawing customers back later. After that, you go back and hope for mistakes. I will stand in line for rummage sales and estate sales, because you can seriously score at those. The former are often dead cheap and often don't realize what they have. I've gotten sterling and gold and antiques at rummage sales for pennies on the dollar. Estate sales ... you go and hope you know more than the seller about whatever it is you can find.

Overpriced junk is alas a fact of life at all of the above. Even tag sale holders will price things into the stratosphere if they find it selling on Ebay. If it's worth that, why aren't they listing it themselves?

One note - always check cuff links if being sold; I've found gold ones sold for costume prices more than once!

 

One thing that irks me every time is finding items priced at full retail, or over it, in a thrift. If the retailer couldn't sell it at 50% off the original marked price, what makes you think a thrift shopper will shell out?

 

Just got back from our local GW. Talk about depressing.

For some reason our GW is now loading many of the shelves with unsold blue-tag Target goods. Past expiration date holiday, that kind of thing. They have two huge full shelves of unsold New Years Eve merch. Might even say "2018" on it. What a waste of shelf space. It's just going to sit and sit and take up space where Steuben Aurene bowls could be. Some law firm donated 60 pink made in China advertising coffee cups, taking up an entire shelf in dishware.

New manager, I almost wonder if he is loading the shelves with items that don't sell for some reason. Sending EVERYTHING else off.

So, no I don't wait in line on 50% off day. But I know people used to do so a few years back, when they had better stock on the floor.

Estate sales, I do wait in line. Of course exceptions, but in general the best stuff goes in the first few minutes. Luckily there have been a few good estate sales recently, otherwise I don't know where I'd get my stock.

 

They do that here with Target leftovers; it's all "white tag" meaning it never gets marked down. Why I'll never know.

 

For Goodwill at least I get the strong impression that their retail operations are an afterthought and that they are only playing thrift shop operator. Their business on shopgoodwill.com, eBay, and wherever else they sell all of the choice goods must be their main source of revenue and everything else is gravy. In my area there are a few Goodwill Boutique locations that have upscale goods with extremely high prices to match. I find a few good items in the boutiques but have to wait until 50% day to justify a purchase.

The good thrift stores are the smaller charities that actually put the donations they receive out on the sales floor. Had one of those in my area for a few years and found some great sleepers but unfortunately their rent was hiked and they closed.

 

I definitely never stand in line on discount days - I've actually had a few of my best scores on the day prior to sale days(at least it seems that way). I agree with Brad - hit them up several times a week, and keep your eyes open, look on all the shelves, sometimes nice things are shelved where they shouldn't be.

 

I don't go to thrifts very often any more. Have too much stuff to get rid of.

However, our local thrift has really good prices. The manager who has been there for years, for the most part prices really fair. He knows many of the antique dealers buy from him and he wants their business. The idea is to move the stuff out.
They get so many donations they even donate a lot of the clothes to other groups who send clothes to other countries.

Anyway, I used to go specifically on the night before half price.
There were a couple of dealers who would hide the things they wanted to get at half price. Usually they were there before I would get there. After they left, I would hunt the stuff out and either buy it at full price or move it to the shelf it belonged on.
For some reason their hiding stuff to get a better deal just irked me to no end. Needless to say we were not on the best of terms. Neither of them are still in business.

 

The big scores for me are on the days they restock after those big sales. Or in the case of the local ReStore, when they stock up before the markdown sales. They put things on the floor at a higher price, and then knock them down on sale day. The logic is that if they can get more money great; if not, they get what they were thinking it was worth in the first place. I helped someone at church pick up some sleeper end tables that way - hand dovetailed wood bedside tables, as used, for $20 each.