Thrift Store Finds

I love thrift stores and I'm sure I'm not the only one on here...

I'm curious about what thrift stores are like in other parts of the country and world - mainly the level of randomness and awesomeness.

So far I've only been inside thrift stores in Mississippi and Tennessee, and I've found some cool bullshit in both locations. What are they like where you are? Find anything worth noting?

I remember finding some ba barracus records:

FZ and the Mothers - Absolutely Free (mono)

The Beatles - Meet the Beatles (mono)

Nirvana - Muddy banks of Wishkah

All for 99 cents....

lots of shit records in thrift stores. i've decided to stop looking because they are never in good condition.

Unless you like polka music. Although yeah, that stuff is usually scratched to hell as well as being covered in beer stains.

I don't like polka music, for the record. Juss saying, was surprising how much of it was bought at a certain point by some people last century.

is a thrift store a charity shop? or just generally a bit and bob shop.

i did my community service sorting out stuff in the back of a charity shop, and i got some absolutely amazing clothes. best one was a mint condition posh 300 quid semi-designer coat. mostly everything else was junk though.

I used to find cool stuff to circuit bend in thrift stores. Now that I'm not into that, there isn't much. The only thing that's been consistently worth scouring are the cassettes. There's just so much weird random shit in there, especially if they have homemade tapes. None of it's really GOOD but sometimes I just want weird.

Oh, yeah, and I still want to make some collages out of old National Geographics.

EDIT: #3 explains why thrift store records almost always suck.

i love to dig round in secondhand shops for musics. i've found unbelievably rare recordings in quite decent condition. one example being two 10" records filled by remakes of a collection of the top tracs in the 80's, extremely lo-fi 'empty orchestra' sound, recorded with quirky short bits peppered throughout, by an anonymous russia gentleman. quite hilarious really. i've a significant amount of recordings i would not have found, if it were not for these shops. i think, to some degree this ritual is essential for any dj who performs on regular basis

No doubt, I picked up pauls boutique and the chronic the other day on cassette, both were 49 cents.

I'm also scouring the 99 cent VHS section these days too, find some weird shit there!

Also buying a discwasher opens up the possibilities

Another phenomenon I find is any number of items that people made....like the other day I found a side table that had fake legs for legs, adorned with sneakers and leg warmers

Totally coked out creation from the 80s

i found all of these last weekend at a salvation army

if you think you can't come up at thrifts then you won't son

leave that shit for me

all of these were dead mint

note the B.O.C single

I've gotten NES and SNES games, old albums and clothes (usually Florsheim shoes) pretty often. I like to thrift once in a while. I'm always checking used shops for music tho. There's a local record store that gets lots. As well as a used book/music store that lots of college students use for course books and stuff. They dump a lot of cds at that shop.

and

I remember it being kind of like finding cool things at certain locations. I bought a Boom Bip Remix CD (Corysomething or other), Hrvatski, an !K7 promo compilation cd all at the same thrift shop somewhere in Pasadena. I never got that lucky at other thrift shops... I haven't been to once since like 2003.

i think the bigger your city the better chance you have finding good records for sure. i can find good used records here, but not at thrift shops.

I think yek hit the nail on the head there. The bigger the city, the better the finds.

That being said, Calgary is a pretty big city (1.2 million pop) but the thrift stores here are pretty much just old clothes and kids toys. At least, thats when I have looked. Perhaps there are some gems hidden in them, not sure. All things considered it is a fairly affluent city so it would make sense that some expensive or good stuff trickles down into the thrift chains. I remember my mom saying she nabbed a 300$ pair of jeans for 20$ once

i have found great stuff in the middle of nowhere thrifts but yea you guys are correct

big city-more crap being turned over

these steals were in brooklyn of all places -williamsberg and greenpoint

i think the key is to consistently hit them

maybe the hipsters be stealing my records..

Check yard sales sometimes too. They may not have music out on display, just ask. If you are lucky you can catch a baby boomer selling all their records for cheap and you get all sorts of 60s-70s goodies if you are into that.

Ahh fuck is what I have to say about those records

I actually said yikes when I saw that geogaddi promo

And who the fuck gets rid of their copy of 36 chambers?

Good fuckin finds man, I have to go to Brooklyn now

Discovered Diamanda Galas at a Salvation Army, been terrifying friends with her ever since.

Picked up an Atari 2600 with a bunch of games for $15 from a building I delivered pizza to about 7 years ago. It's the only thing that makes me wish I had a TV . .

They're all chic as fuck in San Francisco. You won't find something unfashionable unless you go to a Goodwill. Ohio Thrift in Columbus was a regular stop for my in high school. I used to find some sweet stuff for cheap.

A couple years ago I found a classic Technics shirt for like $10. Score!

yeah, who the fuck finds boc at a thrift store? * jelly *

There are some really great charity stores/op shops in Melbourne, but none really have any decent records. I mostly find good books or suit jackets. I love looking through all of the tacky kitchenware as well; those places are great to buy cheap unique gifts for friends.

I found my ridiculous cloudprint-esque suit jacket there, what a fucking amazing find!

i can never find good records in thrift stores around here. sometimes there are good classical or jazz cassettes though. mostly i go to thrift stores for clothes, got a sweet shirt and sweatshirt this weekend actually.

I end up buying a lot of kids toys/synths that make weird sounds at thrift stores, usually for less than $5 a piece. Also, $1 wine glasses.

I found a vinyl copy of the Pixies' "Doolittle" at a Salvation Army for 25 cents.

I also got my Drukqs CD at a Goodwill. Go figure.

I remember thrift stores being awesome when I was a teenager, not so much nowadays. Craigslist and pawn shops still deliver though.

I have friends who are thrift store fiends and regularly find cool stuff - including a BOC CD recently.

The best thing I ever found at a thrift store was a mint condition Gordon & Smith Fibreflex skateboard with ACS trucks and Road Rider 4 wheels - all for $6.00.