The official thrift/discount store bragging thread

[Temujin]

Later today my wife and I had a little spat.

In an attempt to work out some anger, I loaded my truck with somethings that needed to be taken to the land fill. I get there and it closes at 3:30 and it is 3:50 ! Now I am doubly angry

! I realize am only about 2 miles from a small GW, so I go there for some thrift store therapy. Found a sweet pair of AE 10.5 Brown Sanfords. And it is half off for Mother's Day weekend, so they are only 1.49! I think to myself "Hmm! There is another GW about 5 miles away, maybe there are some good deals down there." So off I go. Score! Two more pairs of AE, 1 Ferragamo, 1 Belvedere Handmade, 3 Cole Haans. and a vintage pair of Masons. And a nice BB blue herringbone jacket. I'm flyin' high now. I can now go 12 miles to home or 11 miles to the next GW and be 23 miles from home. Do I gamble and go 3 for 3 or go home? On a half off weekend? You know what I did!!!! There I got a pair of suede Cole Haan Country, another pair of AE, a pair of John Weitz kidskin, Grensom in my size, and several other pairs that I can't remember. A pair of vintage Wright golf shoes, and a chili colored cashmere blazer with leather buttons the brand of which I have not researched yet. The 23 miles home was very sweet! I'll post pix later. All this for less than $35! About the ties: I found about 20 BB Makers ties this week, 2 RL Chaps, and an Armani, a nice Robert Talbot and also a made in England tie. An unusually good day for me!!

And on the way home I stop at the local junk man and he takes everything off my truck!! Sweet!!

 

[seanpatrickb]

That is an awesome day^. One thing I almost never find around here are decent shoes, unfortunately.

 

[California Dreamer]

Today was pretty ordinary. I had to settle for a pure wool Brioni instaed of cashmere. Oh, and there was a small mark on the Zegna blazer. Still the SA took 10% off when she saw it. She almost took 10% off the Brioni because it was missing a button, until she realised it was a 2-button.

When I got home, I found a navy hand-rolled silk PS in the pocket of the Brioni.

Picked up a couple of Paul Smith Jeans shirts for the hell of it. No idea of the quality, but they fit OK.

 

[tsaltzma]

Today was meh...

Polo blue label sportcoat (matches corneliani label)
Orvis gingham sportcoat - I really like this but it's too big

BB tan cord sportcoat

 

[WRAdvisor]

Originally Posted by Temujin

Later today my wife and I had a little spat.

In an attempt to work out some anger, I loaded my truck with somethings that needed to be taken to the land fill. I get there and it closes at 3:30 and it is 3:50 ! Now I am doubly angry

! I realize am only about 2 miles from a small GW, so I go there for some thrift store therapy. Found a sweet pair of AE 10.5 Brown Sanfords. And it is half off for Mother's Day weekend, so they are only 1.49! I think to myself "Hmm! There is another GW about 5 miles away, maybe there are some good deals down there." So off I go. Score! Two more pairs of AE, 1 Ferragamo, 1 Belvedere Handmade, 3 Cole Haans. and a vintage pair of Masons. And a nice BB blue herringbone jacket. I'm flyin' high now. I can now go 12 miles to home or 11 miles to the next GW and be 23 miles from home. Do I gamble and go 3 for 3 or go home? On a half off weekend? You know what I did!!!! There I got a pair of suede Cole Haan Country, another pair of AE, a pair of John Weitz kidskin, Grensom in my size, and several other pairs that I can't remember. A pair of vintage Wright golf shoes, and a chili colored cashmere blazer with leather buttons the brand of which I have not researched yet. The 23 miles home was very sweet! I'll post pix later. All this for less than $35!

About the ties: I found about 20 BB Makers ties this week, 2 RL Chaps, and an Armani, a nice Robert Talbot and also a made in England tie.

An unusually good day for me!!

And on the way home I stop at the local junk man and he takes everything off my truck!! Sweet!!

Great score! Looking forward to seeing the ties and shoes!

 

[mat135ta]

I have a beige Giorgio Armani linen/coton 56/44 sportcoat in US44. The cuff button holes are made ready for working cuff buttons, one just need to cut the holes open and re-attach the buttons.

Let me know if anyone is interested. I am open to trade or cash.

 

[bc842]

Picked up a nice recent Zegna SC for Louis Boston. Also, grabbed a 1 Zegna tie and 1 Thomas Pink tie. Total damage was 12 bucks.

 

[Kiwi Man]

Originally Posted by Nataku

For thrift shops that don't use a central distribution center, this is very much true. For one, there needs to be a place that sells high end clothing new in the area. Second, there needs to be people who buy the said high-end clothing new. These people usually live in wealthy cities/developments/etc. If there is a place that takes donations near where these people live or work, they're going to get the merchandise.

What exactly do you mean by "For thrift shops that don't use a central distribution center"

Is Goodwill considered to have a central distribute center?

Thanks!

 

[Nataku]

It all depends on where you live. In my area, the Salvation Army uses a central distribution center. All donations from their pick-up routes and bins at the stores get picked up and sent to the main store where they get prices and sent back to stores for sale. This means stuff from the wealthy areas will get sent to the poorer area shops and visa-versa.

Goodwill in my area operates strictly by taking in local donations and processing them in-store. This means you'll have less luck finding good stuff in a store that's located in a poorer area due to low quality donations. It all depends on where you live. Ask a thrift worker next time you're in there how their donation process works.

Hope this helps!

 

[idfnl]

Originally Posted by Nataku

It all depends on where you live. In my area, the Salvation Army uses a central distribution center. All donations from their pick-up routes and bins at the stores get picked up and sent to the main store where they get prices and sent back to stores for sale. This means stuff from the wealthy areas will get sent to the poorer area shops and visa-versa.

Goodwill in my area operates strictly by taking in local donations and processing them in-store. This means you'll have less luck finding good stuff in a store that's located in a poorer area due to low quality donations. It all depends on where you live. Ask a thrift worker next time you're in there how their donation process works.

Hope this helps!


This gets complex, because not all goodwills operate this way. Some centralize, and others peel off the good **** and send the crap to a central location where it gets sold in bulk to rag shops.

Then you get the thrifts like Unique, Value Village and Savers which host phony charities and do the same thing. Their only objective is to manage both organizations so that they get the best tax benefit and the most for each donation. They centralize, pick the best crap and then sell the rags to 3rd parties, usually in africa. Ever notice when you see a kid with an AK47 wearing a Mike Vick Falcons jersey... thats capitalizzzzm's jizzim for you.

 

[lynch_king]

Originally Posted by Nataku

It all depends on where you live. In my area, the Salvation Army uses a central distribution center. All donations from their pick-up routes and bins at the stores get picked up and sent to the main store where they get prices and sent back to stores for sale. This means stuff from the wealthy areas will get sent to the poorer area shops and visa-versa.

Goodwill in my area operates strictly by taking in local donations and processing them in-store. This means you'll have less luck finding good stuff in a store that's located in a poorer area due to low quality donations. It all depends on where you live. Ask a thrift worker next time you're in there how their donation process works.

Hope this helps!

i have a question for you guys, Do all SA's use trucks as donation centers?

all the ones i've went to have you walk up to a truck and load all your stuff into a truck as a donation center

 

[WRAdvisor]

I don't think so. In two different states I've lived in over the past couple years, the SA used the Donation Boxes in central areas like supermarkets, strip malls, etc.

Fortunately for me, the GW in my area doesn't use a central distribution center, so there are a couple really high-end GW's close by with great items. Picking up Talbott BOC ties for 2 bucks is the norm.

 

[CasmirRadon]

Originally Posted by Temujin

Found a sweet pair of AE 10.5 Brown Sanfords. And it is half off for Mother's Day weekend, so they are only 1.49! ... So off I go. Score! Two more pairs of AE, 1 Ferragamo, 1 Belvedere Handmade, 3 Cole Haans. and a vintage pair of Masons. And a nice BB blue herringbone jacket. I'm flyin' high now. I can now go 12 miles to home or 11 miles to the next GW and be 23 miles from home. ... There I got a pair of suede Cole Haan Country, another pair of AE, a pair of John Weitz kidskin, Grensom in my size, and several other pairs that I can't remember. A pair of vintage Wright golf shoes...

Wow. What is this, 16+ pairs of shoes? That certainly beats the time I came home with 7 pairs. That's just plain going to take up a lot of room in your house. Maybe we'll be seeing some good stuff for sale here soon?

Man, I just had another thought. That's a lot of time conditioning/polishing shoes.

 

[Joe Cool]

Monster day this past Wednesday. Probably the best day I've ever had thrifting and perhaps as good as I can ever expect to do in day...

I stopped in at a local GW after a late afternoon meeting and spot a Kiton Napoli suit jacket. Modern cut, charcoal with a blue & beige pinstripe, 3 roll 2 side vented, surgeons cuffs, super 180's wool construction. It's in fantastic condition, looks and feels fantastic and best of all it's a size 54/44L, which is my size.

I'm stoked!

Upon further searching, I start to worry...I cannot find the trousers anywhere. I scoured every rack but I COULD NOT FIND THE GODDAMNED TROUSERS anywhere. To add insult to injury, the jacket had apparently been sitting on the rack for nearly a month. The staff were in the process of pulling old clothes to send off to the outlet center to be bailed up and sold by the pound and for all I know the trousers are in perfect condition but on their way to the scrap heap.

I'm crushed.

After the long and fruitless trouser search I decide to turn for home but to hit another GW on the return trip. I head in and make my way over to the suits and I find ANOTHER Kiton jacket!

I couldn't Freaking believe my eyes.

This one's not as nice as the first one but it doesn't look so much like an orphaned suit coat. It's a medium weight green wool with a blue and salmon windowpane pattern. It's got a couple miles on it with a couple small imperfections but it's also also a size 54/44 and fits as well as the first one and should clean up niceley with some small repair.

I pull myself together after finding the 2nd jacket and I head to the dress shirt rack where I locate & confiscate 3 sweet Brioni dress shirts which are also my size & freshly dry cleaned:

To cap it off I located a terrific pair of vintage French Shriner 12A shell cordovan longwings on the way home:

It can take a nothing day and suddenly makes it all seem worthwhile.

 

[Shikar]

^CONGRATS Joe Cool!!!
To thrift Kiton + Brioni + Shell = THRIFTORGASM!!!!

Regards.
PS. Now go smoke a cig n relax.