C’mon Let’s Go Thrifting!
by Katy on June 13, 2025 · 51 comments
I was across town this afternoon and had a few minutes to pop into the N.E. Broadway Goodwill, which is one of my favorite thrift shops. Why? Because it’s small and I get overwhelmed by some of the gargantuan locations. I want to get in and out in under twenty minutes!
Okay, what treasures will I find?
How about this new-in-package set of tacky Chambong glasses? Of course, it’s not a real “Chambong” unless it’s from the Chambong region of France.
Or this also new-in-package set of Oral B toothbrush heads? Priced at $9.99, which seems close to the full retail price. I feel strongly that people who are taking a gamble on thrift store toothbrushes deserve a bit more of a discount than that!
I was 49% tempted to bring home this $2.99 painted plywood pig, perhaps as a companion for Goldie Fawn. But then I came to my senses and put this porcine pick back on the shelf.
Okay, this is where I get on my soapbox, because I hate this specific style of chair with a white hot hatred that fuels all other white hot hatreds! I get that this popular style of restaurant chair is cheap, lightweight and stackable, hence its ubiquity. However, it’s always too hot or too cold, has a sloped back, which means there’s nowhere to hang a purse and most importantly is so narrow at the back that I always end up uncomfortably perched towards the front of the chair. They exclude plus size customers and I’ll keep walking if I see that a restaurant has this style of chair.
Perhaps a scrappy triple Venn diagram might help you understand my ire:
Moving on . . . the craft aisle was pretty good today, as they had six matching cakes of this yarn for $3.99 apiece, which is decent deal. I even looked up how much they sell for on eBay, but ended up leaving them for someone else as I try not to spend $24 in order to sell for $45.
They also had a few vintage sewing patterns, which are always fun to look at as the older graphics are so adorable.
But my find of the day (and only purchase) was this brand new needlepoint kit for just $6.99. I then came home and spent a couple minutes to list it on eBay, where it sold for $120 in under five hours!
Simple to list and easy to package up, which is my favorite kind of eBay sale!
I just love how you never know what you’ll find when you go thrifting!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
I confess I’d have bought the pig’s head as a companion for Goldie Fawn (or perhaps as a disguise for her on days when she’s feeling more like Miss Piggy). But clearly your self-control is greater than mine. I’d probably also have bought the yarn–not for resale but for use by NDN’s other close friend, who is an indefatigable knitter.
And that’s a great score (and an amazing eBay profit) on the needlepoint kit!
My own recent finds include a Vera Bradley backpack in near-new condition for $7 (JASNA BFF and JASNA Panera may be fighting over this one!) and a 10-quart Revere Ware stockpot for $15 (fall soup-making season isn’t all that far off).
I’d have bought the pig’s head too – useful for the next no factory hog farm effort or other creative ventures.
You are so right – soup making season really isn’t that far away.
I too came into some found money today – two quarters next to my car door. I know people keep track BUT do you keep it in its own spot while it accumulates? Or is it just a ledger entry and into the change purse/change jar/billfold/wallet it goes?
I have a jar that I put it in. One of those Oui yogurt jars. When it is full I cash it in and put the bills back on the jar.
What a great sale. I love when stuff sells as soon as I list it. I have stuff that sits for years.
It can be a sign that you’ve underpriced an item, but I’m looking for fast sellers these days.
My great finds yesterday was a boot tray at an estate sale. I needed one. I also found an instapot at a garage sale. I’ve been looking for a used one for a while. This was $30 and only used twice according to the seller.
Great deals!
Also, if your shorts or skirt don’t cover your entire thigh area, your thigh skin sticks to the chair, suctioned on by the sweat. 😉
Metal chairs with circular punchouts all over are also on my naughty list for summertime!
Ugh, those chairs are terrible as well and should be 100% melted down!
Which is why I rarely wear shorts when leaving the house. More due to freezing my posterior in A/C that is set way, way too low (but I know why).
I sewed that blouse in blue kettlecloth in 1969, Long-sleeved with the tucks in front. I even sewed some blue lace to the back of each tuck.
That pig head would look swell in your kitchen, unless you keep kosher I guess.
Wow! $120? Who knew? Katy! Katy knew. Congrats!
Vintage kits can be worth a lot. I’ve been looking for a particular Erica Wilson crewel kit for years now, ever since the one I had half-finished disappeared. Sigh.
No, you lost a half-finished one?!
I think my cleaner tossed it. sob. And now I can’t find another one.
It’ll happen eventually.
Thanks, I was almost tempted to needlepoint it myself.
Oh, my goodness, that needlepoint kit was a super find and you get the “Super Finder” award. That one will carry you along for some time to come.
Each reseller/thrifter has their own areas of expertise and I’m fully aware of how expensive these needlepoint kits kits are at full retail. This one sells for $170 new!
When I make a donation, I expect the shop to sell at a reasonable price so that people who have need of them can buy and use them. Why are people buying up something they don’t want in order to profit themselves? Not a good thing in my opinion.
A needlepoint kit is hardly as item for someone in need. Thrift stores have more than they can even sell due to overconsumption and the money I spent on the item they priced went to support their non-profit mission.
Plus I got to help someone in Alabama who was looking for this precise item.
For myself, I feel that once you buy something you own it and can do what you want with it: use it, gift it, sell it, modify or upcycle it… same with selling things you get from a free pile. But that’s just me. It’s OK if you follow a different path.
Julia T., and Katy,
I agree with both of your comments. I am not a reseller, but I watch various reseller reels on Facebook (for fun) – hey, if they’re making a living or have a thriving side hustle doing it, I say that’s their choice, and more power to ’em. Some of them buy clearance items at places like TJMaxx, and flip them for much more than they paid.
I don’t know where the idea came from that thrift stores are just for poor people. As Katy said–a needlepoint kit? A Chambong? (That one stunned me in its utter uselessness.) I am always so tired and worn out, if someone can make a profit on something I donated, go them. I also give food in kind, etc, to people.
Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, my husband and I gave superlavishly to NYC letters to Santa. Your kids need clothes? Here you go. You need food? Here’s a supermarket gift card. Your little girl in the hood wants a white baby doll? Here you go. Your kid wants a PlayStation? Yep, we bought them too. People thought that many of the things would be sold for drugs, and probably some were, but I feel it’s important to give with love in your heart and hope that the people they’re given to will benefit.
You have to do the best you can for everyone, which includes sometimes letting other people enjoy a bargain, and sometimes it’s just really nice that the person searching for that exact article on eBay found it. If someone is smart enough to recognize a bargain at a thrift store, why shouldn’t they profit from their knowledge?
So if anyone sees an Erica Wilson black-background crewel kit with (basically) weeds in it, Queen Anne’s lace, dandelions, etc, save it for me, I’ve been looking for it.
Rose,
Well said. Many years ago, an older, wiser co worker/friend and I were talking about a man who approached me asking for money after I worked my second (retail) job. I gave him the $5 I had, which wasn’t much, but it was all I had. I didnt feel comfortable taking him anywhere to get a meal, and there were no open restaurants within walking distance. I mentioned that I had no idea if this guy would use it for drugs or alcohol, because how can you know….she told me that when you try and help someone out of a jam, you offer what you can in the spirit of giving and good will, being generous, possibly paying it forward. If that person then uses the gifted money (or valuable item) for ill, that is *on them*. They need to look in the mirror every day, and be at peace (or not) with their actions.
I’ll keep an eye out for that crewel kit. 🙂 Usually, I just see really tacky ones with plastic mesh and the like.
Mmm. My son and I were having coffee at a McDonald’s a year ago or so, and the manager was giving a hard time to an obviously down on her luck lady. She pulled her hood over her face and scrunched up in a booth, and I felt so bad for her, as we left I left my untouched ornage juice and ten bucks on her table. (All I had.) My son said, “Well, that’ll go on heroin.” Sigh. I don’t fault the lady for wanting to come inside and sit for a bit and the manager obviously has to deal with these people all the time who will put off the paying customers.
In conclusion, I wish I could change everything about the world some days.
I’ve never subscribed to the throw the baby out with the bath water, aka the preferred what passes for the republican party these days stance.
Tis bad karma if someone sold a gift/money given with good intentions. To quote Maude “god will get you for this “.
I’d rather a child had food to eat than not.
That’s one reason I stay OUT of GOODWILL stores. The ones in our area have such a high mark-up that is often the same price it would be if you bought it new.
I think it’s a nice sentiment that things you donate to a thrift store will go to someone in need. There are so many pickers scrounging thrift and other resources that isn’t likely anymore. One of my kids walked and rode a bike all the time. He would drop money near homeless shelters all the time.
I think people do not understand the mission of Goodwill. Its big focus is on providing employment opportunities for people who struggle to find jobs for various reasons. To do this, it welcomes all shoppers. Great idea, great organization, in my opinion.
Marilyn,
I know Fru-Gal Lisa has mentioned how much they helped her with resume building, job finding, etc.
What a lovely kit you found and sent to someone to enjoy!
My arthritis yells at me if I sit in that kind of chair. I gave up on trying to hang a purse on restaurant chairs and instead put the purse between my ankles and secure the strap over one knee. That keeps it safe and off the floor. It looks a bit weird but I do not care.
I have chronic low back pain, and that kind of chair is just awful for me to sit in. A local craft brewery has chairs like that one – that’s the only kind of chair they have – so we don’t frequent their establishment.
If you’re in a super super swanky place, they provide a chair just for your bag.
I don’t eat there either unless someone else is paying.
Oh, color me envious on the needlepoint kit! I always look too. Found a total 1970s crewel kit that I’m going to enjoy myself, refreshing it with a little bit of yarn in more blues and less harvest golds.
My favorite find, about a year ago, was a Berkey Traveler water filter and stand. Of course I had to buy new filters and a silicone plug or two for it, but just the tank and stand approach $400 new!
Forgot to say, the Berkey was $15 in pristine condition.
I’m with you about those metal chairs, but you forgot one thing in your Venn diagram: they are as ugly as sin! I just don’t get why they were/are popular.
IMO, they are only good for recycling. Which we all may be doing if the Orange Ogre keeps taxing and tarriff-ing metal imports. It might trigger a steel shortage. In that case, scrap metal recyclers will likely pay lots more.
I tend to think it’s something vaguely like the Emeco 1006 chair, which is a heavy, beautifully designed chair for the Navy to recycle aluminum in WWII. Google it–you’ve seen it before.
I agree that the Chambong is a ridiculous toy. However, one of our daughters got one for Christmas one year and we all gave it a go, and it was a lot of fun. Very silly and lots of laughs. Since we didn’t buy it ourselves, I felt free to enjoy it; however, buying it second-hand would be the only way I would have ever.
GREAT score on the needlepoint kit.
Lol. I caught that. 😉
Have you never been to the Chambong region in France? Its quite lovely, I hear. 🙂
Yes, it is. You can see the Champagne grapes growing right next to the marijuana plants and the opium poppies. 🙂
Sounds delightful!
Katy, I know you’re in the PNW and I’m on the opposite coast in PA. At our local Walmart, those Mandala Yarn Cakes sell for $5.37 each (+ 6% state sales tax). Not counting the tax, you would have saved about $1.38 each. Would not have had much of a profit margin selling on ebay. I crochet, and I wouldn’t even buy it at $3.99.
So my instincts were correct!
Have you never been to the Chambong region in France? Its quite lovely, I hear. 🙂
Oops, sorry about the duplicate comment.
Like you , I loathe the Tollix chair, and have never understood its popularity.It looks as if it was designed for suspects to sit on, in a bleak police interrogation room, very noir!
Went tag sailing for fun, came home with a new pair of sketches in box for $5. A big stack of bricks for free and a free chandelier that I will turn into a solar powered light for our outdoor dining table.
ooh, please tell us more about the chandelier being converted to solar! super fun!
It is like a treasure hunt when you go to a thrift store or trash picking. You never know what you might find.
1. My high wattage hair dryer burned out. I am using a hair dryer that was my husband’s that is likely 30 years old. It is an ancient 1000-watt Conair brand. It gets my hair dry just not very fast.
2. I brought some leftover sandwiches from work home.
3. I used 25$ in Fetch points to get a gas card.
4. I snagged a 2-week teaching gig. I haven’t had a paycheck since Dec 2024. I was happy to get some work although I would have preferred to not teach HS students. Beggars can’t be choosey.
5. I wore my scrubs to work so no new clothes needed & the school provided a lunch some of the days.
6. Frugal Fail: My upstairs neighbors had a water leak & it dripped into my unit. They do not have homeowner’s insurance. I have insurance but do not know yet if it will cover another person’s negligence. My new beadboard ceiling & flooring looks ruined. I will find out more when I go to FL to investigate. I am trying to stay calm. Last month I had a car wreck involving a hit & run. What will be next?