Thrift and Consignment Shops..

[Nataku]

^^ What he said. Anyway, Salvation Armys here vary because most/all dontations are trucked to a central distribution center, processed and or priced and trucked back out to the stores. You can find garbage from Elk River (smaller town with basically nothing nice) in the Edina store (very wealthy city) and great stuff from Edina in Elk River. Makes driving to different locations a pain **********, because you basically have to go to every store in the metro area to find the good stuff.

 

[rioni]

how often do you find the "good stuff" at the salvation army?

 

[Nataku]

Originally Posted by rioni

how often do you find the "good stuff" at the salvation army?
Depends. During the summer/fall months I hit long dry spells where I won't find a single item worth buying. During the late winter/spring months when it's tax season, I usually find something every time and I go once a week. A couple weeks ago I found three practically new (1 2003 and 2 2006) Isaia mtm suits with the original hangers. I've also found numerous ties (Charvet, Brioni, Robert Talbott Seven Fold, etc), shirts (Brioni, Borelli, Etro, Oxxford, and lots of non-SF friendly designers like Dolce and Gabanna, Gucci and the like. I've also come across stuff that nobody would even give a second look over. Obscure, yet well made Italian labels, probably from Yoox and bespoke shirts that have no labels, but just the feel tells me it's well made. That said, after 5 or 6 years of going to all the metro-area Salvation Armys every week, I have yet to find anything from: Hermes, Kiton, any authentic LV clothing and of course anything from Thom Browne and Tim Hamilton will never pop up here, as nobody in Minnesota knows who they are, except Eric Glennie. Overall, it depends on the season for me. I do get some nice stuff in the summer months, however it's few and far between. Edit: It also depends on your area. Here, we have wealthy cities like Edina, Wayzata, Plymouth, Eden Prarie, Minneapolis & St. Paul to get donations from. If you live in a small town in Iowa or North Dakota for example, you're gonna be pretty much fucked unless you find joy buying old ripped up flannel shirts and Nascar t-shirts.

 

[playdohh22]

Originally Posted by blackplatano

what are the top thrifts in NYC?

same question...

 

[Karo]

Would it be possible that during the whole process; until reaching the rack that employees get dibbs on all the good ****?

 

[California Dreamer]

Originally Posted by texas_jack

Find them yourselves, chumps.
+1.

I wouldn't put it so bluntly, but finding them is a big part of the fun.

 

[amerikajinda]

Originally Posted by HomerJ

^^ I'll take that RLPL and Oxxford ^_^

Those I'm keeping!

Another great thrift shop for Northern Virginians is the Salvation Army in Herndon in the Clocktower Shopping Center... (found a Drake's tie and an Hermes tie). They have 25% off everything each Wednesday, and the guys who work there will let you set stuff aside (inside a chest of drawers, for example) so that you can come back on a Wednesday for the 25% off...

 

[gumercindo]

What usually has a better selection in your opinion, Goodwill or SA?

 

[The Deacon]

GW

 

[Nataku]

Originally Posted by Karo

Would it be possible that during the whole process; until reaching the rack that employees get dibbs on all the good ****?


It happens. In fact, when I worked at the Salvation Army, I was the only clothes-hound there for about 2 years. Then two guys came aboard that pretty much scoured the racks. Then again, one guy went for the Mecca, Fubu, Lacoste, Polo, type stuff. The other guy would go for your typical Nautica, Hilfiger, Polo RL stuff but would snatch up some nice stuff like Thomas Pink too. In reality, 99% of people working in a thrift store thinks Tommy Hilfiger is high-end and snatched that **** up and leaves the Dunhill/Brioni/Oxxford alone, thinking it's "inferior" to his $69 Tommy shirt. The rest are usually women who really don't give a **** about men's clothing.

What you have to really worry about is the fuckin women who scour the men's rack to sell on eBay. What the hell?! Here I am, a guy, looking for something nice I'd like to wear, and here she is, someone who isn't even going to wear the item....plowing through the racks taking every single nice item and tossing it onto the pile in her cart, depriving us who want to wear the stuff of the good clothing. I usually give them a dirty look when they push and shove to try and get to a rack before I do, and then they look at me like "Ha! Whatcha gonna do now." I just keep going though, as I feel something hidden will turn up if I dig deep enough.

Speaking of which, I'm off to do my weekly thrift route. Good luck on the hunts!

 

[mbell]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

I like the Goodwill on Route 236 in Annandale, Virginia.

Sounds like a place I need to check out next time I visit my family in Fairfax. I usually just go to Yesterday's Rose. You have to wade through a bunch of junk there, but I have found a few nice things including an Oxxford navy blazer. I've noticed a fair bit of Far East custom/bespoke there as well, but nothing that's ever fit or wasn't worn out.

In Austin I have the best luck at the various Goodwills. My favorites are the one on Lake Austin Blvd and the one near North Lamar and Koenig. The one in Oak Hill is small, but seems to have a nice surprise every so often. Austin Goodwill prices sometimes are a bit high as thrifting goes. Thrift Land can have some nice stuff and their prices are usually pretty low.

mike

 

[amerikajinda]

Originally Posted by mbell

Sounds like a place I need to check out next time I visit my family in Fairfax. I usually just go to Yesterday's Rose. You have to wade through a bunch of junk there, but I have found a few nice things including an Oxxford navy blazer.
Yesterday's Rose! Wow, that takes me back... I remember its original location (same shopping center but closer to the 7-11.) That was (I'm pretty sure) my first thrift shop experience -- my mom used to bring me along with her when she went there every week when I was in high school. It used to be A LOT better, but what happened is they got a new manager/owner -- and he totally jacked up the prices and made it more of a "business" than a "charity". It's really a shadow of its former self... Now I only go there when I'm in the neighborhood - usually eating at the Pho restaurant next door, and I usually end up not with clothes, but with a bag of books. My personal feeling on the matter is that while I might have my favorite thrift shops that I prefer over others (due to their proximity to my house, or the fact that they're located on the route between my home and office), what I've found is that ANY thrift shop can turn up jewels at any time -- it's really just random. I prefer the larger ones because there's a greater chance that you'll find something due to the simple law of statistics -- if you average finding one good dress shirt out of a hundred that you look at, then you'll obviously have a better chance of finding something in the store that has 300 dress shirts rather than the store that only has 30 dress shirts. The key is consistency -- you really have to "make the rounds" of your 5 - 10 favorite shops on a consistent basis. I can do it pretty quickly now -- e.g., I can walk down an entire row of sweaters with my hand out and just stop when I feel a cashmere one (I impress my friends by doing this with my eyes closed!) So it really just boils down to "hard work is rewarded". If you put in the time and hit your local thrifts consistently, you're bound to turn up a few gems sooner or later!

 

[mainy]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

Yesterday's Rose! Wow, that takes me back... I remember its original location (same shopping center but closer to the 7-11.) That was (I'm pretty sure) my first thrift shop experience -- my mom used to bring me along with her when she went there every week when I was in high school. It used to be A LOT better, but what happened is they got a new manager/owner -- and he totally jacked up the prices and made it more of a "business" than a "charity". It's really a shadow of its former self... Now I only go there when I'm in the neighborhood - usually eating at the Pho restaurant next door, and I usually end up not with clothes, but with a bag of books.

My personal feeling on the matter is that while I might have my favorite thrift shops that I prefer over others (due to their proximity to my house, or the fact that they're located on the route between my home and office), what I've found is that ANY thrift shop can turn up jewels at any time -- it's really just random. I prefer the larger ones because there's a greater chance that you'll find something due to the simple law of statistics -- if you average finding one good dress shirt out of a hundred that you look at, then you'll obviously have a better chance of finding something in the store that has 300 dress shirts rather than the store that only has 30 dress shirts.

The key is consistency -- you really have to "make the rounds" of your 5 - 10 favorite shops on a consistent basis. I can do it pretty quickly now -- e.g., I can walk down an entire row of sweaters with my hand out and just stop when I feel a cashmere one (I impress my friends by doing this with my eyes closed!)

So it really just boils down to "hard work is rewarded". If you put in the time and hit your local thrifts consistently, you're bound to turn up a few gems sooner or later!
+1. Getting friendly with employees helps also. At most of the stores I go to, they know me by name, will tell me when they're putting new stuff out, give me additional discounts (Whoa, why is this priced so high? *hits a key and gives me 30% off*), I've even had the chick that manages at one hold stuff for me because "it looked nice" (a few Brioni shirts)

Be nice, don't knock stuff off the racks, and you will make friends!

 

[The Deacon]

Originally Posted by mainy

+1. Getting friendly with employees helps also. At most of the stores I go to, they know me by name, will tell me when they're putting new stuff out, give me additional discounts (Whoa, why is this priced so high? *hits a key and gives me 30% off*), I've even had the chick that manages at one hold stuff for me because "it looked nice" (a few Brioni shirts)

Be nice, don't knock stuff off the racks, and you will make friends!

+1!
Being friendly helps alot. I reaped 5 pair shell cordovan shoes and a total of over 30 Allen Edmonds, Cheaney, ALden, Bally over a 6 month period because a GW cashier would hold them for me or let me know by phone what time they were putting the shoes out for display. She gave me great discounts of $3 or less per shoe. My subsequent sale of those shoes funded the near total update of my wardrobe, current shoe collection and paid some bills.

 

[lithium180]

Originally Posted by The Deacon

+1!
Being friendly helps alot. I reaped 5 pair shell cordovan shoes and a total of over 30 Allen Edmonds, Cheaney, ALden, Bally over a 6 month period because a GW cashier would hold them for me or let me know by phone what time they were putting the shoes out for display. She gave me great discounts of $3 or less per shoe. My subsequent sale of those shoes funded the near total update of my wardrobe, current shoe collection and paid some bills.