Show us your Thrift and/or yard sale finds

[DNO]

Found in a Sally Ann store today. I'm really just posting this one to drive Tom crazy!

Don't know who Ivy was/is but I know where her book ended up!

 

[jamespowers]

Found in a Sally Ann store today. I'm really just posting this one to drive Tom crazy!

Don't know who Ivy was/is but I know where her book ended up!

Tom is going to faint.

 

[tonyb]

Goodwill doesn't seem to be doing very well at all in our area lately, too many thieving opportunists.
I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down completely in the local area. Too many of their employees cut off the merchandise before it can even get to the sales floor. They grab it for themselves and then hit ebay.

That just sucks. I can't say that it doesn't happen around here, but I'm confident that if a Goodwill or Value Village or whatever employee was caught stealing the merchandise, or doing anything underhanded short of outright theft to get his or her mitts on it, he or she would be out a job.

Thrift store shopping doesn't carry the stigma it once did. Indeed, in some circles it's almost chic. That is perhaps the biggest contributor to escalating prices, especially in the larger cities.

 

[jamespowers]

That just sucks. I can't say that it doesn't happen around here, but I'm confident that if a Goodwill or Value Village or whatever employee was caught stealing the merchandise, or doing anything underhanded short of outright theft to get his or her mitts on it, he or she would be out a job.

Thrift store shopping doesn't doesn't carry the stigma it once did. Indeed, in some circles it's almost chic. That is perhaps the biggest contributor to escalating prices, especially in the larger cities.

The crooks and the chic need:

 

[tonyb]

One obvious hustle would be a thrift store employee alerting outside accomplices to certain desirable items soon to be on the sales floor. Cell phones surely would make that easy. You know, excuse oneself long enough to visit the comfort station, from where a text message would be sent, a coded message, to be on the safe side.

Seeing how so much of what ends up in antique/vintage stores, and on eBay and Etsy, and on dealers' tables at flea markets and the like, is acquired from thrift shops, there certainly is ample incentive to work such a scheme. I just can't imagine there not being firm policies against such practices, especially at the larger operations, such as Goodwill and Value Village/Savers. But still, a penalty means nothing to a person who believes he or she won't get caught.

 

[RetroToday]

One obvious hustle would be a thrift store employee alerting outside accomplices to certain desirable items soon to be on the sales floor. Cell phones surely would make that easy. You know, excuse oneself long enough to visit the comfort station, from where a text message would be sent, a coded message, to be on the safe side.

Seeing how so much of what ends up in antique/vintage stores, and on eBay and Etsy, and on dealers' tables at flea markets and the like, is acquired from thrift shops, there certainly is ample incentive to work such a scheme. I just can't imagine there not being firm policies against such practices, especially at the larger operations, such as Goodwill and Value Village/Savers. But still, a penalty means nothing to a person who believes he or she won't get caught.

Just saying, It's not really an employee hustle if the managers are in on it as well. ;-)
I also noticed that once they found out a new "old" item I liked to buy, all of the sudden that item became very scarce to buy. And no, it's not that I don't know the good times to hit the sales floor.

In the end I know it's not working in their favour, as persistent "news" is rumoured of them being shut down due to very poor sales.

Sucks, but that's the way it is.

Just makes me feel even better when I snag something good and vintage which they had no idea about - and that the money went to a good cause, instead of them.

 

[Sharpsburg]

Our local Salv Army has been completely taken over by the local pickers and hoarders. I see them opening going right into the back room to help themselves to whatever they want and those of us not in the "club" get the scraps. I have never, ever seen any good costume jewelry at the store and i know a dealer gets everything set aside for her first pick. They have raised prices so much if is not really a bargain for the poorer people who are the intended shoppers of the store. It just feel competitive and just not much fun any more!

Mary

 

[MikeBravo]

One obvious hustle would be a thrift store employee alerting outside accomplices to certain desirable items soon to be on the sales floor. Cell phones surely would make that easy. You know, excuse oneself long enough to visit the comfort station, from where a text message would be sent, a coded message, to be on the safe side.

As long as the items get to the sales floor and the thrift shop gets its asking price, I don't see a problem with that. They are ensuring the items are being sold. Hopefully the store management is asking a decent price and not selling cheap to friends, that I would have a problem with.

 

[MikeBravo]

Our local Salv Army has been completely taken over by the local pickers and hoarders. I see them opening going right into the back room to help themselves to whatever they want and those of us not in the "club" get the scraps. I have never, ever seen any good costume jewelry at the store and i know a dealer gets everything set aside for her first pick. They have raised prices so much if is not really a bargain for the poorer people who are the intended shoppers of the store. It just feel competitive and just not much fun any more!

Mary

Maybe it is different in US, my understanding is that the goal of the store is not so much to make cheap goods available for the needy to buy, but to raise money to assist the needy. Or maybe a combination of both

 

[Shangas]

In Australia at least, we sell stuff at such shops really cheap so that lots of people will buy them. And the money that's raised goes to fund homeless-shelters, food-kitchens, laundries, dental-care, housing, etc., etc...

 

[tonyb]

Just saying, It's not really an employee hustle if the managers are in on it as well. ;-)
I also noticed that once they found out a new "old" item I liked to buy, all of the sudden that item became very scarce to buy. And no, it's not that I don't know the good times to hit the sales floor.

In the end I know it's not working in their favour, as persistent "news" is rumoured of them being shut down due to very poor sales.

Sucks, but that's the way it is.

Just makes me feel even better when I snag something good and vintage which they had no idea about - and that the money went to a good cause, instead of them.

Sounds like the operation is corrupt from (nearly) the top to the bottom. In such a case, it serves 'em right to go under.

Thrift store upper management must keep in mind that their inventory is donated by people who hope for their contributions to benefit causes at least somewhat more noble than enriching the thrift store's employees and their associates in the "vintage goods" business. Should a critical mass of those donors get the sense that the beneficiaries of their largesse are not the folks they would choose, they'll stop donating. The pickings at the stores grows thinner, the traffic goes down, et cetera, until it is no longer a viable operation.

Playing it straight is not only the ethically right thing to do, it's also the best way to run a business.

 

[tonyb]

As long as the items get to the sales floor and the thrift shop gets its asking price, I don't see a problem with that. They are ensuring the items are being sold. Hopefully the store management is asking a decent price and not selling cheap to friends, that I would have a problem with.

Well, if the merchandise is priced such that a store employee deems it worthy of tipping off a professional-picker associate to its presence, it almost but not quite necessarily follows that it is underpriced. And even that aside, such practices eventually drive away those not so favored by the store staff. Rubs 'em the wrong way, you know. Sure would me.

The mission of a thrift store is not to enrich people in the vintage business. It is, rather, one or more of the following: To benefit a "deserving" cause; to provide honest work to people who might be difficult to employ in other industries; to be a source of low-cost goods, especially to people of modest means; to keep usable merchandise out of the waste stream; and, in some cases, to turn a decent profit (think Value Village/Savers, a for-profit which partners with non-profits to solicit donations in the non-profits' names, for a very significant piece of the take).

I'm hoping not to come across self-righteously here, because I'm certainly no paragon of virtue myself. As one of the most prolific posters in this thread, I've made it apparent that I enjoy scoring a real bargain on all manner of cool old stuff, which means that I frequently take advantage of the ignorance of the people pricing the swag at the thrift stores. And I'm on friendly terms with people in the old-junk business, people whose businesses depend on taking such advantage. And I admit that if I were in that business I might well be tempted to befriend thrift-shop workers who could be persuaded to give me first crack at the most desirable and resellable merchandise, but I wouldn't pretend that there was nothing sleazy about the arrangement.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Am I that predictable? lol Awesome find! It was Mr. Welk's birthday today, too.

Found in a Sally Ann store today. I'm really just posting this one to drive Tom crazy!

Don't know who Ivy was/is but I know where her book ended up!

 

[jamespowers]

Am I that predictable? lol

Yes!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

So was that answer, coming from you lol

Yes!

 

[jamespowers]

So was that answer, coming from you lol

I knoooowwww.

 

[A Little Odd]

I've had a lot of luck with labels lately. The trousers are WW2 German & the shirt even has the pin/paper collar. Both are incredibly new looking. Yard sale finds. Anyone have an idea on the age of the shirt? thanks

 

[DamianM]

the EW shirt looks late 50s early 60s

 

[tonyb]

the EW shirt looks late 50s early 60s

That would be my guess as well, with a tilt toward the later end of that range, admittedly (in my case) as inexpert as that guess is.

 

[A Little Odd]

Thanks so much