Thrift shop shopping, and flipping the good finds! (1 Viewer)

[Parmcat]

My wife and I used to do a lot of thrift shopping/garage saleing/antiquing. I had great luck finding decent stuff, and flipping on online. I mostly targeted 50's glassware, smalls like brass bells, figurines.

Because I am in Canada, the dollar sucks right now, I am interested in picking up the hobby and making a bit of coin.

Just wondering if anyone else hits the thrift stores, and if so, what are good items to target? I love to do the research, and dive all in.

TIA

Parm

ETA...1997 was a good year for me, as we made a profit of almost 17,000 flipping Beanie Babies at the height of the craze

 

[eoMMan]

This is ####### awesome!!!!

 

[Thunderlips]

LEGO

If you're lucky you have a Goodwill Outlet near you where you get buy stuff by the lb. At that price point, you can pretty much make money on almost any toys for children 4-18 years of age.

 

[Parmcat]

LEGO

If you're lucky you have a Goodwill Outlet near you where you get buy stuff by the lb. At that price point, you can pretty much make money on almost any toys for children 4-18 years of age.

I have never seen a store that sells by the pound. And Lego is pretty tough to find around here

 

[McGarnicle]

My wife's cousin does that with clothes. People donate all kinds of designer stuff and the thrift stores sell them for next to nothing compared to what they can fetch on Ebay. It's just a matter of knowing which particular articles are hot and buying them in good condition. It's pretty cool. Reminds me of Bubbles from The Wire.

 

[fantasycurse42]

Typically, I'll find items that are priced for less than they're worth, then I'll sell them for more. This is my strategy.

 

[Parmcat]

My wife's cousin does that with clothes. People donate all kinds of designer stuff and the thrift stores sell them for next to nothing compared to what they can fetch on Ebay. It's just a matter of knowing which particular articles are hot and buying them in good condition. It's pretty cool. Reminds me of Bubbles from The Wire.

I was out the other day....found lots of stuff from brands like:

Hilfiger, Sean John, Juicy, plus lots of old vintage rock shirts. Not sure if I should have pulled the trigger on that stuff...hence the topic start

 

[VA703]

my mom does this. the key is to hitup thrift shops in rich areas

 

[Parmcat]

Typically, I'll find items that are priced for less than they're worth, then I'll sell them for more. This is my strategy.

Well Einstein, what sorts of items do you typically look for

 

[VA703]

checkout these books

a lot of this crap is worth some money

 

[Thunderlips]

LEGO

If you're lucky you have a Goodwill Outlet near you where you get buy stuff by the lb. At that price point, you can pretty much make money on almost any toys for children 4-18 years of age.

I have never seen a store that sells by the pound. And Lego is pretty tough to find around here

Goodwills have them. They're kind of few and far between.....but they are awesome in a Third World kind of way. Picture a giant warehouse filled with shallow bins on wheels...about 4x8 feet.....every so often, a bell goes off and they make all the shoppers go to one side of the store behind a line. They then roll all of those bins off of the floor (the one near me has about 80 of them), out one door and then bring 80 new ones out from another door. After that, they ring a bell....and it's Thunderdome....old ladies trying to get copper and other metals, FOB African families buying nothing but shoes.....and then shipping huge containers of shoes over to their African family members who own stores,.....little Asian guys trying to buy gaylords (big boxes) of electronics or multi-media.....toy people, book scanners who fight to fill up shopping carts full of books...where they'll then spend the next hour scanning them to see what they're worth on Amazon, crafts people.....clothes people. It's like the Mumbai dump....but cleaner and inside.

 

[Hastur]

A lot of the time, it is worth the time to find a goodwill/thrift store in a high end area. You will have a much better chance of finding designer clothes or quality toys in a store that is located in the area where the doctors and lawyers live.

 

[McGarnicle]

My wife's cousin does that with clothes. People donate all kinds of designer stuff and the thrift stores sell them for next to nothing compared to what they can fetch on Ebay. It's just a matter of knowing which particular articles are hot and buying them in good condition. It's pretty cool. Reminds me of Bubbles from The Wire.

I was out the other day....found lots of stuff from brands like:

Hilfiger, Sean John, Juicy, plus lots of old vintage rock shirts. Not sure if I should have pulled the trigger on that stuff...hence the topic start

You want current styles in like-new condition. You'll probably have some duds in the beginning while you're learning what types of things fetch decent money. Wife's cousin makes thousands per month, but she's developed a keen eye for the best stuff and hits the stores multiple times per week.

 

[Thunderlips]

####ty location stores though have, a lot of times, stuff from cleared out houses. That's where you find your hidden gems....in those row homes and borderline neighborhood homes where the owner has lived for 40+ years...has passed and the kids just come in a get rid of everything.

 

[comfortably numb]

My wife's cousin does that with clothes. People donate all kinds of designer stuff and the thrift stores sell them for next to nothing compared to what they can fetch on Ebay. It's just a matter of knowing which particular articles are hot and buying them in good condition. It's pretty cool. Reminds me of Bubbles from The Wire.

I was out the other day....found lots of stuff from brands like:

Hilfiger, Sean John, Juicy, plus lots of old vintage rock shirts. Not sure if I should have pulled the trigger on that stuff...hence the topic start

The key to these items is knowing each designer to make sure you are not selling a knock off.

Ebay will have little tolerance for someone selling a CAOCH pocket book

 

[Gawain]

Thrift store flipping, especially name brand stuff feels slightly dirty to me. Goodwill/Salvation Army markets higher end clothes donations as a way to help poorer people acquire a wardrobe that could help the less fortunate land a job.

 

[Parmcat]

Thrift store flipping, especially name brand stuff feels slightly dirty to me. Goodwill/Salvation Army markets higher end clothes donations as a way to help poorer people acquire a wardrobe that could help the less fortunate land a job.

While I see where you are coming from, I strongly disagree. The money they make filters through to all sorts of low income organization's. It doesn't matter where that money comes from?

 

[jwb]

Thrift store flipping, especially name brand stuff feels slightly dirty to me. Goodwill/Salvation Army markets higher end clothes donations as a way to help poorer people acquire a wardrobe that could help the less fortunate land a job.

While I see where you are coming from, I strongly disagree. The money they make filters through to all sorts of low income organization's. It doesn't matter where that money comes from?

I think he's talking about the buyers - flippers take decent stuff away from the poor to make their ebay profits.

 

[shuke]

Thrift store flipping, especially name brand stuff feels slightly dirty to me. Goodwill/Salvation Army markets higher end clothes donations as a way to help poorer people acquire a wardrobe that could help the less fortunate land a job.

That's not really the purpose of Goodwill. Goodwill uses the money they make from sales to train people for jobs.

So the more that people buy, the more they can help the less fortunate. There is nothing dirty about it.

 

[shuke]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

 

[Parmcat]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

I agree with this. With all the reality TV, everybody seems to check the value of their stuff before they sell. It seems harder to find big steals now

 

[Gawain]

Goodwill's Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees makes available business clothing to male and female job seekers who participate in Boston-based job training and placement programs to assist them in their efforts to obtain and retain meaningful employment. Clothing is provided free of charge.

Offered quarterly at Goodwill headquarters, 1010 Harrison Avenue, Boston, each Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees program includes a wardrobe seminar to reinforce the basics of dressing appropriately for work, prior to the selection of career attire among racks and racks of clothing and tables filled with accessories.

A significant quantity of the work-appropriate clothing offered at the Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees is supplied through Goodwill's annual Put Your Clothes to Work clothing drives hosted by local corporations and organizations throughout the year.

I think having viable clothing to interview in is one of the main thrusts of Goodwill.

 

[shuke]

Goodwill's Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees makes available business clothing to male and female job seekers who participate in Boston-based job training and placement programs to assist them in their efforts to obtain and retain meaningful employment. Clothing is provided free of charge.

Offered quarterly at Goodwill headquarters, 1010 Harrison Avenue, Boston, each Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees program includes a wardrobe seminar to reinforce the basics of dressing appropriately for work, prior to the selection of career attire among racks and racks of clothing and tables filled with accessories.

A significant quantity of the work-appropriate clothing offered at the Clothing Collaborative for Job Trainees is supplied through Goodwill's annual Put Your Clothes to Work clothing drives hosted by local corporations and organizations throughout the year.

I think having viable clothing to interview in is one of the main thrusts of Goodwill.

Right, this is stuff they collect and provide free of charge. It's not the stuff that's out on the racks at the store.

 

[Eminence]

My parents have a booth in a consignment shop and they do just this. I'd say it brings them maybe $200 - 300 in sales a month. They don't calculate gross profit, it's just a hobby to them.

Vinyls are an easy flip, obv.

 

[Das Boot]

I love thrift stores, I probably stop in 2 or 3 times a week.

Mostly I"m watching for cool / interesting / unique / vintage stuff for myself, but occasionally I pick up something I think might have some eBay value.

Last week I found a 1966 Kentucky Derby glass... looks like that year goes for around $25 on eBay.

I need to start selling some of the eBay-destined junk I've bought over the years though.

 

[Das Boot]

LEGO

If you're lucky you have a Goodwill Outlet near you where you get buy stuff by the lb. At that price point, you can pretty much make money on almost any toys for children 4-18 years of age.

I have never seen a store that sells by the pound. And Lego is pretty tough to find around here

Goodwills have them. They're kind of few and far between.....but they are awesome in a Third World kind of way. Picture a giant warehouse filled with shallow bins on wheels...about 4x8 feet.....every so often, a bell goes off and they make all the shoppers go to one side of the store behind a line. They then roll all of those bins off of the floor (the one near me has about 80 of them), out one door and then bring 80 new ones out from another door. After that, they ring a bell....and it's Thunderdome....old ladies trying to get copper and other metals, FOB African families buying nothing but shoes.....and then shipping huge containers of shoes over to their African family members who own stores,.....little Asian guys trying to buy gaylords (big boxes) of electronics or multi-media.....toy people, book scanners who fight to fill up shopping carts full of books...where they'll then spend the next hour scanning them to see what they're worth on Amazon, crafts people.....clothes people. It's like the Mumbai dump....but cleaner and inside.

One of the Goodwills here used to sell clothing by the pound, but I've never heard of anything like your description - that's wild.

 

[spreagle]

I would think you could find very old silver for cheap at thrift shops. Everyone looks for the sterling or .925 marks but some of the old old stuff is marked 80% silver (.800) or just stamped with hallmarks and people looking for the newer silver marks don't know what to make of ithe so they may consider it pot metal. The .800 silver looks like total junk if it's not cleaned, it's tarnished brown and black and green in places. Once cleaned it looks like regular silver.

 

[pollardsvision]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

I have a buddy that makes pretty good income via flipping on his eBay store. He hasn't stepped foot in a thrift store in a very long time. Thrift store flipping might be a fun hobby, but it'd be very hard to do enough volume to make any real money. Particularly, when you factor in the time wasted driving to and rummaging around in those awful places.

Auctions at auction houses are better than thrift stores, but there's still the time issue (bidding on items or lots one by one over a few hours can really suck your time). At local auctions, you'll find they guys making a living at this showing up at the end trying to buy everything that's left over for next to nothing. No high dollar items, but less wasted time and more volume.

But yeah, estate auctions are the way to go.

Even better is when you network enough be able to buy estates privately and just skip the entire auction process. That obviously takes a long time to get to that point.

 

[comfortably numb]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

I have a buddy that makes pretty good income via flipping on his eBay store. He hasn't stepped foot in a thrift store in a very long time. Thrift store flipping might be a fun hobby, but it'd be very hard to do enough volume to make any real money. Particularly, when you factor in the time wasted driving to and rummaging around in those awful places.

Auctions at auction houses are better than thrift stores, but there's still the time issue (bidding on items or lots one by one over a few hours can really suck your time). At local auctions, you'll find they guys making a living at this showing up at the end trying to buy everything that's left over for next to nothing. No high dollar items, but less wasted time and more volume.

But yeah, estate auctions are the way to go.

Even better is when you network enough be able to buy estates privately and just skip the entire auction process. That obviously takes a long time to get to that point.

I think you are wrong on this end

 

[pollardsvision]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

I have a buddy that makes pretty good income via flipping on his eBay store. He hasn't stepped foot in a thrift store in a very long time. Thrift store flipping might be a fun hobby, but it'd be very hard to do enough volume to make any real money. Particularly, when you factor in the time wasted driving to and rummaging around in those awful places.

Auctions at auction houses are better than thrift stores, but there's still the time issue (bidding on items or lots one by one over a few hours can really suck your time). At local auctions, you'll find they guys making a living at this showing up at the end trying to buy everything that's left over for next to nothing. No high dollar items, but less wasted time and more volume.

But yeah, estate auctions are the way to go.

Even better is when you network enough be able to buy estates privately and just skip the entire auction process. That obviously takes a long time to get to that point.

I think you are wrong on this end

I might be. Just my thoughts. Sure, you can uncover some gems. I'm just not sure how you do it consistently or in large enough volume. It would seem you'd need a really dumb thrift store. The problem is, a dumb thrift store owner (that's not finding the good items themselves and making some money on them) probably isn't going to be around very long.

The resale market is alive and well and very saturated. The only way I can think these stores survive is with somebody on-site that understands the value of things, and not consistently letting $500 items walk out the door for $5.

I'm no expert, and obviously, there are plenty of different routes to making money buying/selling used stuff.

 

[VA703]

local M&P thrift shop has someone in the back actively on ebay

only good thing abouit this place is they give you blank receipts for donations

 

[The Big Guy]

There is/was a reality show on a couple of guys who do this out west. Shows them going to thrift shops and even yard sales and looking for retro clothes and obscure designer labels and turning them around on ebay. Might want to look it up and pick up a few ideas from them. Seems less scripted and faked then auction locker shows.

 

[VA703]

There is/was a reality show on a couple of guys who do this out west. Shows them going to thrift shops and even yard sales and looking for retro clothes and obscure designer labels and turning them around on ebay. Might want to look it up and pick up a few ideas from them. Seems less scripted and faked then auction locker shows.

American Pickers?

 

[The Big Guy]

There is/was a reality show on a couple of guys who do this out west. Shows them going to thrift shops and even yard sales and looking for retro clothes and obscure designer labels and turning them around on ebay. Might want to look it up and pick up a few ideas from them. Seems less scripted and faked then auction locker shows.

American Pickers?

On my phone so no link, but it was on Spike and called Thrift Hunters. Not sure if still out there, but I would imagine finding it on demand or something of the sort would be easy enough.

 

[Thunderlips]

My wife and I used to do a lot of this, but we acquired more through estate auctions than thrift stores.

It seems ebay is about 10 times more saturated with items than it was 10 years ago, so I imagine it's more difficult to make money.

I have a buddy that makes pretty good income via flipping on his eBay store. He hasn't stepped foot in a thrift store in a very long time. Thrift store flipping might be a fun hobby, but it'd be very hard to do enough volume to make any real money. Particularly, when you factor in the time wasted driving to and rummaging around in those awful places.

Auctions at auction houses are better than thrift stores, but there's still the time issue (bidding on items or lots one by one over a few hours can really suck your time). At local auctions, you'll find they guys making a living at this showing up at the end trying to buy everything that's left over for next to nothing. No high dollar items, but less wasted time and more volume.

But yeah, estate auctions are the way to go.

Even better is when you network enough be able to buy estates privately and just skip the entire auction process. That obviously takes a long time to get to that point.

I think you are wrong on this end

I might be. Just my thoughts. Sure, you can uncover some gems. I'm just not sure how you do it consistently or in large enough volume. It would seem you'd need a really dumb thrift store. The problem is, a dumb thrift store owner (that's not finding the good items themselves and making some money on them) probably isn't going to be around very long.

The resale market is alive and well and very saturated. The only way I can think these stores survive is with somebody on-site that understands the value of things, and not consistently letting $500 items walk out the door for $5.

I'm no expert, and obviously, there are plenty of different routes to making money buying/selling used stuff.

the Goodwill isn't exactly staffed with geniuses. No disrespect to those people, but the store level employees aren't really paid to analyze the potential value of most goods that are donated. At the best, they might be told to look for certain brands.....and then those brands are kicked over to their regional office where they're sometimes put on shopgoodwill.org...but even then that's not always the case.

 

[Courtjester]

On another site I am on, they have a thread dedicated to this and it is just amazing the things they find.

You are spot on that iknowing what to look for is the key. They post images of what they bought and what it sold for.

An example I saw on there what looked like a really ugly shirt, but then you find out it was really this certain brand that is rare and flipped for a $35 profit. Who knew an extra large Hawaiian shirt is so valuable??

The other thing they find at almost every thrift store is old sport jersies with a vast percentage of them being autographed. People just dump jersies once the player retires or gets traded.

I think this also depends on how many other people are doing this in your area. I had a friend who was a collector/seller of Hot Wheels cars. He would religiously go to the stores early and look through the new stuff put out the night before. That worked for a while, until 3-4 others started doing it. I think the same would apply to thrift shops as well.

 

[bizkliz]

Also recommend using discogs.com - "vintage" records are always in demand, but now collectors are targeting compact discs, cassettes and 8tracks to some extent. Discogs gives entire rundowns of almost every artists catalog, along with all the different versions, labels, years, etc that the albums were released on.

 

[VA703]

On another site I am on, they have a thread dedicated to this and it is just amazing the things they find.

You are spot on that iknowing what to look for is the key. They post images of what they bought and what it sold for.

An example I saw on there what looked like a really ugly shirt, but then you find out it was really this certain brand that is rare and flipped for a $35 profit. Who knew an extra large Hawaiian shirt is so valuable??

The other thing they find at almost every thrift store is old sport jersies with a vast percentage of them being autographed. People just dump jersies once the player retires or gets traded.

I think this also depends on how many other people are doing this in your area. I had a friend who was a collector/seller of Hot Wheels cars. He would religiously go to the stores early and look through the new stuff put out the night before. That worked for a while, until 3-4 others started doing it. I think the same would apply to thrift shops as well.

care you share?

 

[arrow1]

On another site I am on, they have a thread dedicated to this and it is just amazing the things they find.

You are spot on that iknowing what to look for is the key. They post images of what they bought and what it sold for.

An example I saw on there what looked like a really ugly shirt, but then you find out it was really this certain brand that is rare and flipped for a $35 profit. Who knew an extra large Hawaiian shirt is so valuable??

The other thing they find at almost every thrift store is old sport jersies with a vast percentage of them being autographed. People just dump jersies once the player retires or gets traded.

I think this also depends on how many other people are doing this in your area. I had a friend who was a collector/seller of Hot Wheels cars. He would religiously go to the stores early and look through the new stuff put out the night before. That worked for a while, until 3-4 others started doing it. I think the same would apply to thrift shops as well.

care you share?

 

[playin4beer]

My sister does this with used bras of all things...

Picks up the high end ones at Goodwill and resells them mostly through yardsale boards on Facebook...

 

[VA703]

ive heard women can sell used underwear/unwashed. for high dollars if theyre hot

 

[McGarnicle]

ive heard women can sell used underwear/unwashed. for high dollars if theyre hot

I have an insane tightwad aunt who returned maternity underwear to Sears after wearing them for 9 months.

 

[VA703]

ive heard women can sell used underwear/unwashed. for high dollars if theyre hot

I have an insane tightwad aunt who returned maternity underwear to Sears after wearing them for 9 months.

shoulda flipped them on ebay

 

[Rick Harrison]

ive heard women can sell used underwear/unwashed. for high dollars if theyre hot

I have an insane tightwad aunt who returned maternity underwear to Sears after wearing them for 9 months.

shoulda flipped them on ebay

How much was she trying to get out of them?

 

[comfortably numb]

ive heard women can sell used underwear/unwashed. for high dollars if theyre hot

I have an insane tightwad aunt who returned maternity underwear to Sears after wearing them for 9 months.

shoulda flipped them on ebay

How much was she trying to get out of them?

If you need to call someone to look at them...PM me

 

[Parmcat]

So was out again today browsing. I am in some of the Thrift stores anyway, looking for some temp clothes for me, as I have lost a ton of weight, and need some clothes to get me by, as I keep losing.

I think what you need to do is pick a few items to target, and become very knowledgeable about them. I looked at a lot o clothes today, and thought a lot of it could be worth a bunch, but in checking, it is not. I am not sure clothes are for me to be flipping.

I am going to check records though. I see some titles are decent for flipping, so that may be one that I may try.

 

[McGarnicle]

Here in the states a lot of people like to buy a large quantity of something, add some fillers to increase the amount, then package it into small vials and resell it. You can end up making 5-10 times what you paid for the original quantity. I understand there's very little risk, and you don't have to report your profit to the IRS.

 

[EYLive]

I was thinking about donating my mediocre baseball card collection to Goodwiil, would they take a big box of miscellaneous cards from the late 80s-mid 90's?

 

[comfortably numb]

I was thinking about donating my mediocre baseball card collection to Goodwiil, would they take a big box of miscellaneous cards from the late 80s-mid 90's?

I'll take any Wade boggs you may have?

 

[Das Boot]

I was thinking about donating my mediocre baseball card collection to Goodwiil, would they take a big box of miscellaneous cards from the late 80s-mid 90's?

Heck yes, they'll gladly take it.

Sports cards always sell to someone.