The official thrift/discount store bragging thread

No connections really, just a small stint of long-overdue luck!

Wow.

I'm a 46r!

Originally Posted by AlanC

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Wow.

Double that.

Wow 5 brionis with no flaws thats just ridiculously sick. Nataku you have got to have the best thrifting luck ever! First those zegna suits now that wow.

Originally Posted by EBTX66

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One of my favorite haunts gets hit heavily by flippers. I still go because the manager puts suits out only at certain times and she was kind enough to let me know when. She's mad because the Board of Directors knows about eBay and flippers and they want her to start selling directly on eBay so that they can make more money. She's fighting them on it but has raised her prices quite a bit recently to try and pacify them.

What's wrong with flippers? If anything it just gives thrift stores more business.

Thanks guys! I'm hoping this lucky streak lasts a bit longer!

Originally Posted by crashoran

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What's wrong with flippers? If anything it just gives thrift stores more business.
If you ask this question, you must not be an avid thrifter. I have no problem with the casual flipper. I'm sure we've all bought stuff we'd never wear or wasn't even close to our size because we know someone on SF will buy it and enjoy it. Plus, you'd be a fool not to buy a nice Brioni/Kiton/Isaia piece for, say....$8. It's the big flippers I have a problem with. They come in nearly every day and clear out anything that has any value at all. I'm not talking about just the uber high-end stuff most people on here gravitate towards, but they snatch up everything from Polo RL, Hickey Freeman and Burberry to Brioni, Oxxford and Attolini. We've all seen them before. Carts piled high, usually blocking off a whole isle for themselves as they inspect each and every label. They leave nothing for nobody and basically ruin the hobby for the rest of us. Another thing is that I'm sure most of us wear stuff we thrift. I'm keeping 3 of the jackets I purchased today for my own personal wardrobe. A good 90% of my wardrobe is thrifted. The big-time flippers couldn't give a rat's ass about wearing the clothes. In fact, most of the flippers I see going through the men's clothing racks are women! /rant.

Originally Posted by crashoran

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What's wrong with flippers? If anything it just gives thrift stores more business.

Yea exactly. Most thrift stores get their merchandise through donations, so if they put a price on something and get what they are asking for it, then its 100% profit, and they got what they wanted. Just because the guy who bought it turns around and sells it for a profit doesnt mean the thrift store lost out, it just means that individual buyer had a specific venue in which to sell it for more money.

Ive been in Value Villages and seen them randomly decide to price a jacket at $150. Sure it may get that if it was in a higher end vintage store, but when you are shopping in a Value Village you are looking for cheap clothing so it doesnt work and they rarely sell. I remember one specific store I went to in another city a few years ago and there was a womans jacket priced way too high. I had been back there a while later and the same jacket is still hanging there on the rack. If they had priced it at their usual $35 for the type of jacket it was then someone may have come along and bought it to sell in a vintage store downtown for $150 where they have the type of clients who are looking to spend that amount of money on that type of jacket. Then everyone would win. Instead it just sits there rotting away on the rack.

Originally Posted by Nataku

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Thanks guys! I'm hoping this lucky streak lasts a bit longer!



If you ask this question, you must not be an avid thrifter.

I have no problem with the casual flipper. I'm sure we've all bought stuff we'd never wear or wasn't even close to our size because we know someone on SF will buy it and enjoy it. Plus, you'd be a fool not to buy a nice Brioni/Kiton/Isaia piece for, say....$8. It's the big flippers I have a problem with. They come in nearly every day and clear out anything that has any value at all. I'm not talking about just the uber high-end stuff most people on here gravitate towards, but they snatch up everything from Polo RL, Hickey Freeman and Burberry to Brioni, Oxxford and Attolini. We've all seen them before. Carts piled high, usually blocking off a whole isle for themselves as they inspect each and every label. They leave nothing for nobody and basically ruin the hobby for the rest of us. Another thing is that I'm sure most of us wear stuff we thrift. I'm keeping 3 of the jackets I purchased today for my own personal wardrobe. A good 90% of my wardrobe is thrifted. The big-time flippers couldn't give a rat's ass about wearing the clothes. In fact, most of the flippers I see going through the men's clothing racks are women!

/rant.

I've just started thrifting, I check out my goodwill or salvation army on my way to class, and I usually don't find anything. Sometimes I get an oxxford,HF,armani here and there. I've found one HF bespoke blazer. Really I'm doing this to save money for my business/school and to help feed myself..

Originally Posted by Nataku

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Thanks guys! I'm hoping this lucky streak lasts a bit longer! If you ask this question, you must not be an avid thrifter. I have no problem with the casual flipper. I'm sure we've all bought stuff we'd never wear or wasn't even close to our size because we know someone on SF will buy it and enjoy it. Plus, you'd be a fool not to buy a nice Brioni/Kiton/Isaia piece for, say....$8. It's the big flippers I have a problem with. They come in nearly every day and clear out anything that has any value at all. I'm not talking about just the uber high-end stuff most people on here gravitate towards, but they snatch up everything from Polo RL, Hickey Freeman and Burberry to Brioni, Oxxford and Attolini. We've all seen them before. Carts piled high, usually blocking off a whole isle for themselves as they inspect each and every label. They leave nothing for nobody and basically ruin the hobby for the rest of us. Another thing is that I'm sure most of us wear stuff we thrift. I'm keeping 3 of the jackets I purchased today for my own personal wardrobe. A good 90% of my wardrobe is thrifted. The big-time flippers couldn't give a rat's ass about wearing the clothes. In fact, most of the flippers I see going through the men's clothing racks are women!

/rant.
THIS.

Originally Posted by crashoran

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What's wrong with flippers? If anything it just gives thrift stores more business.
Nataku answered it wisely. Nothing personal but they screw up my hobby. So actually it is personal)

Originally Posted by crashoran

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What's wrong with flippers? If anything it just gives thrift stores more business.

I have been accused of derailing the thread with my anti-flipper rants from time to time but I will try to be more constrained. I actually prefer Antirabbit's solution: gunfire, but as a seminary student I'm afraid that would send mixed signals.

Once you really get into this hobby you'll learn to hate flippers, especially if you're like me and just trying to build a nice wardrobe for personal use. Things got so bad in my area for a time that I have learned to recognize when one has been through the department ahead of me. All of the ties are flipped over so the label is showing. The size tags of the jackets are hanging out of the coat pockets. You would think that would be one of us since flippers usually don't care about sizes but we tend to tuck the tags back in (don't we, guys?). I guess some sizes just don't sell. The shirts and pants are usually nuked and 40% of them are on the floor because those size tags are hard to get to and it's too much trouble to re-hang them.

When they first start out - probably after buying some $199 book off of an infomercial that told them how they'd get rich doing it - they clean everything out. It's not even worth going. One of them who was at that stage stole a sportcoat out of my basket. It gets worse once they learn the labels because then they take the stuff we love but neophytes tend to pass over. The guy I was up against got so successful that he hired people to be at the stores when they opened. He read this thread and figured out my route and even conned me into giving him my best, secret spot by sending me a "fellow believer down on his luck and in need of a good, cheap suit for a family funeral" email.

Hey, I know we're supposed to love everyone, even our enemies, and all jokes aside I certainly don't wish him any harm. That doesn't mean I have to LIKE him, though.

Now back to our regularly scheduled bragging...

On second thought, those types of flippers definitely suck.

Either way you look at it...Flippers SUCK.

We are there to find the gems, to wear and to love.

They are there to pillage.

I find my blood pressure rise when I see these a-holes running through the racks with the piled up carts, or the un-educated flipper going through the jackets by turning the collars up to see if they are hand sewn. Nothing like arriving to see all the collars popped on every jacket in the store.


I do cringe to think how much this thread and this forum has helped fuel this behavior...

GUNFIRE!

Its actually kinda funny how many people have probably learned how to be better at flipping just from casual google searches for menswear brand names which almost always leads to this forum and a discussion about the pros and cons of the maker as well as the potential value for resale.

Ive only ever seen a flipper once at the store I go to most frequently. It was a slightly older woman going through the menswear section with a cart full of stuff. Luckily I could tell that most of the stuff she picked out was total crap so it wasnt so bad although Im sure she has been there other times when I wasnt and probably picked out some nicer things.