Ooops!

I've really been meaning to update my blog at least once a week. Well, it's been nearly a month - oops! I don't like to just blog mundane things, that's what Twitter's for (isn't it?), so my blog suffers. Maybe with the kids back in school starting tomorrow, I'll have more time. Yeah, right!

Thrift Store Finds

When I sold full time on eBay, I became very familiar with shopping the thrifts. It was my alternative source for collectibles when yard sales were sparse or rained out. If you've never been on a treasure hunt at your nearest thrift store, here's a few tips.

Know Your Store Part 1 - Snoopy Lil Me

At store #1, the manager was bragging about his own eBay store one day. Innocently, I asked about it and got his user name. After looking up his page, I realized why he had his Franciscan dinnerware priced so high, older dinnerware was his specialty. Newer plates, such as Sango, he had very low. Certain patterns of Sango plates can go for $10-15 each, so that was what I liked to pick up there.

Know Your Store Part 2 - Sales & Merchandising Cycles

Store #2, which is quite upscale & a little more expensive, prices and restocks every Tues. Although the best things are in the store that day, it's just too crowded, so I usually shop that one on Thursdays. They also have a different merchandising theme each month. Featured items are placed on the end caps and are usually priced high. If they don't sell by the time the theme changes, the items are moved to other shelves and marked down.

Store #1 runs different sales each day. Tuesday's are buy one, get one free on plates & cups; clothing is 20% off on Thursday's, so you depending on what you're looking for, you can pick the best day to shop this one.

Patience is a Virtue

At store #3, the staff is entirely run by volunteers. Plates are all $1, coffee cups .25 cents but other items are not priced, which means they pretty much make up prices when you get to the register. In this store it really pays to be nice. One woman was trying to haggle on the already low prices so everything she brought up to the counter to ask about seemed to be going up in price. After she finally left the store without buying anything, I politely commiserated with the cashier. I got a few freebies that day.

Think Outside the Box

The craft section at thrift stores are usually pretty messy. But, the finds are great if you're willing to dig. The photo on top are some of my recent finds. The large wooden buttons were actually in with the photo frames. The funky faces were at the bottom of a pile of buttons. I've got plans to put these together into fun pieces of mixed media art. I've also bought old shirts just because I wanted the decorative buttons and sweaters are great for felting projects.

Next time you have $5 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, stop by a thrift and see what treasures you can dig up!