jeffk/Flickr
I recently spoke to Michael Gold of TheThriftShopper.com about the three elements of thrifting, how some thrift stores fool patrons, and where the best thrifting can be found. Gold buys all of his clothes at thrift stores, most of his family’s furniture, all of their reading materials second hand.
What is one thing people don’t realize they can find at thrift stores? What people don’t think they can find at thrift stores is everything. People think that thrift stores are only clothes. Larger thrift stores are mini used department stores. I don’t think people realize you can go to Habitat for Humanity and buy a refrigerator.
Do environmental concerns come into play for you? I enjoy the three elements of thrifting: saving money, giving to charity and being environmentally friendly.
What’s special about your website, TheThriftShopper? We only list charity resale shops exclusively. There are many thrift shops out there where they will play religious music, have crosses behind the desk, and say ‘God bless,’ but none of the money goes to charity.
How do you tell if a charity is benefiting? I verify all the listings in my directory through conversations. There is one exception to my rule. Any thrift shop benefiting veterans organizations are for profit. The dictionary definition of charity is giving money or a product to benefit a charitable cause. If you are benefiting yourself, you are not a charitable cause. Yes, people have the right to make money but they do not have the right to forgo the option of the donor to take the donation to a legitimate charity.
How many listings does your site have? 95,002.
What’s the best way to introduce someone to thrift stores who is, for whatever reason, reluctant to buy used? I bet you can’t take anybody into a thrift shop and have them look at things and not find something they’ll want to take home. I work with the National Navy UDT-Seal Museum and the administrative assistant was saying, ‘what can you find at thrift shops?’ I don’t know if you have to do it at gun point, but they’ll walk in and see it.
What is the best thrift deal you’ve gotten? We got a set of Broyhill Brazilia furniture set. Brazilia was a president of Brazil who decided to build a city in the middle of the Amazon. He designed it with jets and space in mind. Broyhill Braziliza came out with a line of furniture to reflect that style. My wife and I found a full bedroom set – men and women’s dressers, side tables – for $300. Once it’s finished it’s a $4,000 bedroom set! The best thrifting is in the best part of town. Whatever ritzy blitzy you have going on, that’s where the best thrifting is.
What are your tips for getting the best deals at thrift shops? Ask about the sale schedule because many thrift shops work on a color tag system and each week a certain colored tag will be on sale. Make sure you sign up if they have an email list. They’ll send you coupons. Find them on Facebook and Twitter. More and more thrift stores are becoming web savvy and they are marketing through social media.
There have always been people interested in thrifting. How has the economy changed thrifting? The economy has opened people’s eyes. ‘We had better find ways to save money. Let’s check out thrifting.’ The traffic on my website has done exactly the opposite of what the economy has done.
I’ve heard parents are shopping at thrift stores for back to school. Is this something you’ve seen? Oh yeah. Some thrift store mangers are really sharp. They do the regular seasonal thing that the regular department stores do. They have a back to school sale going the whole month of August. They’ll put all their school supplies and clothing for young people on sale.
Anything else you want to add? If you thrift shop you have to also consider giving back to thrift shops. My wife and I constantly have a pile that is going to be donated.
Related Posts
Reader success story: shopping bargains
Bargain Babe scores at the local thrift store
My Crunchy Product Experiments: Which Work And Which Don’t? Part 2
Frugal Decorating: Seasonal Mantel Update with Thrifted Finds
Bargain Pitfalls: 7 Items You Should NEVER Buy at Thrift Stores
Money morality: legit to shop at thrift stores?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
I found some great stuff for my granddaughter. This last weekend all clothes were 50%. I got her a sweater from Gymbree and a Rusty jacket both for under $5.
Michael Gold sounds like a great human being and he’s convinced me, I’m going lokking…
I love the Thrift Shopper Directory – when I am visiting a new city – I just type in the zipcode and print out a list of thrifts in the area to take with me.
Michael Gold doesn’t seem to know a lot about charities. He says he verifies by conversation…not a reliable method. Any charity exempt from taxes by the IRS is listed on the IRS website in a searchable database. The name may vary from a store name, but it should be there unless they are exempt from filing (see IRS site for these), have not yet received approval from the IRS, or have lost their tax-exempt status due to suspension or revocation.
He also says anything to do with Veterans is not a charity. Not true! In fact, when I pull up my zip code, 92782, on his very own site, he shows Disabled Veterans Charities in Baldwin Park, CA. I just checked and they are indeed listed on the IRS website as tax-exempt.
I’d seen the Thrift Shopper Directory before and it had some outdated information, which can happen of course. It seems to be better now. Just be sure to check on any shops you may be wanting to go to first to avoid driving there for nothing.
I often buy VHS tapes of movies. the S.Army sells them once a month 3 for $1…good buy! You need a VHS player….When my wife passed away, I called Good Will to ask if I could bring all her clothing over, would there be someone to accept it?..they started asking questions ..what were the items?..were they cleaned?…were they on hangers?…what were they worth?…After I answered…I became annoyed…took them to S. Army and have never shopped again there.
You can get great buys at thrift stores and I buy almost everything for house, clothes, and home decorating there. The Salvation Army has days, about once every 2 weeks, where they roll out several racks of clothing with a certain color tag and those clothes are $1.00 each that day. I always find something. Usually about 15-20 pieces of name brand, gently worn clothes. For 20 dollars I can take something “new” home to everyone in the family. And who doesn’t like getting something new?
When I was a single parent, I decorated and furnished my new home with all thrift store merchandise. No one would have known it but me. However, I was so proud of the deals I got, that I had to brag when people came over to see my new house. My best deal was a black leather love seat for $5.00 and black deep comfy overstuffed couch for $35.00. I also got a king sized battenberg lace duvet cover with the down comforter inside for $14.00 ( I later found the same one in Speigel catalog for $400.00). Then, as I was walking to pay for it, I found brand new matching accent pillows (retailing for $20.00 each) for only 3 dollars each.
You have to be willing to take the time and look, but the buys are there to be had. Some things get marked up too high, but you may get lucky and find things that are a steal, as well.
In response to Susan C.:
Disabled Veterans Charities Thrift Stores are For-Profit businesses that benefit Disabled Veterans Charities, which is a 501 (c) 3. The people that run the business take on all the responsibilities of running the store and also collecting the donations. They buy the goods from the charity and then sell them to the general public. They are my clients and I’m fully aware of their status as a business entity. I know full well about the charity affiliation of my listings.
Also the way I verify the listings is a sound method that works well for my users. I’ve not ever heard anyone complain yet.
I bought all my apartment’s things at thrift shops and garage sales after my divorce for less than $500. That includes dishes, linen and drapes, pans and most of my furniture. I even found a nice lager screen television there for a mere $75.00, my best thrift shop find and a a dining room table and 3 chairs for $18.00. I usually like to use the thrift shops away form the city and church sales, I find that they tend to have lower prices and a wider selection .
Hey, fantastic submit many thanks for expressing !
we have a new thift store that donates to displaced women/children center. They have great items, this week they offered 50 cent for any item from summer. I purchased some new shorts from Target, they still had the label on them. I remember seeing them at Target. Because it’s a ‘thrift’ store, doesn’t always mean its been ‘worn’ before. I’ve found many new items at Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. I found some new stationery items at Goodwill. You just never know.
I checked out something similar to this post while browsing google news… I became interested and then started looking around, and then landed at this page… anyhow, I feel that I somewhat agree with what you talk about here. However I am going to go see what additional information I can look up too.
This is awesome !! Finally got the correct info…