That is the only thing we get for free

[Slave to the Phone]

It would never occur to me to try to haggle the price down even more! They're already dirt cheap!

This is how I feel about charity shops. They are already dirt cheap AND they are selling stuff to make money for the charity.

When we bought this place, we needed table lamps. I went to a charity shop and found the perfect lamp with an intact lampshade. SCORE! As I recall, it was something like 2 bucks and would have cost at least 50 in a retail store.

I asked if there was a way to plug it in and see if it worked, so I would know if I needed to stop at the hardware shop to buy new guts for it. I wasn't haggling, I just wanted to know if I needed to make another stop.

The clerk instantly marked it down 50% and then we had a quiet discussion about me being willing to pay full price and her being all surprised that I wasn't trying to get it for half price.

It was a charity shop, and I saved big bucks paying their asking price. It made me sad that the poor clerk just marked it down because she didn't want to argue with me over it.

[Kogarashi]

Our local Goodwill has reasonable prices, as well as doing those "color of the day" sales every single day, where tags of a given color are 50% off on that day. I rarely seem to find anything I want with the color of the day when I go in, but I have benefitted from it before so I figure I'm just generally unlucky overall.

I really like thrift stores for acquiring new wardrobes for my oldest. It's too expensive to buy her all brand-new clothing each time she grows out of a size, especially when I can hit up a thrift store and spend $20 on several shirts and pairs of jeans rather than one single outfit. And I've got no hang-ups about putting her in secondhand clothing, either. I was the oldest out of all my siblings, but thanks to people in our church with older girls, not to mention aunts who weren't much older than me, I still got hand-me-downs fairly often. It's nice having the denim items already broken-in.

Our couch was also a thrift store find, cost us less than $50, and has stuck with us for 11+ years. We're going to redo the cushions, but the frame is nice solid wood and really just needs a sanding and re-staining. That's a project for this summer.

If there's one thing I think the town we currently live in lacks, it's thrift and consignment shop options. I miss all the secondhand places in the Upstate NY town we last lived in.

[Trixie]

I've just started (I have like 3) collecting old video games so the only thing I wish Goodwill would do is separate out the software from the movies/cds. That's really the only thing.

I just think it's pretty sad that people will haggle over a price for anything, anywhere.

[Seanette]

At least the hagglers are somewhere near honest (even though they drive me nuts, too). The price-alterers or outright shoplifters are worse.

[Catwoman2965]

but the direct to charity run stores around here are where the value is at. Most of them are attached to their church or building (hospice etc) so their costs are lower.

I went to one of these recently with a friend. Small church, 4 rooms in their basement, but nicely set up. After my first pass, didn't see anything I wanted or needed, but went back to the first room to wait for my friend, who has to look at every blessed item, pick up, and so on. Sigh. But I was glad I did since i spotted something on the floor; a very nice, vintage, Wearever cast aluminum 12 qt pot. For $2!!! I like it becuase unlike many stockpots, its not tall, but more wide. I also got a nice 8 x 10 picture frame for $4.

[icmedia]

Our Goodwill is hit-or-miss. Brand name dress shirts like Izod or Tommy Hilfiger that usually retail for $50+ can be had for $8-$9. Urban Pipeline (Walmart brand) jeans or slacks that cost $12 brand new are marked at $15-$20. I understand needing to make money, but it would help if the people pricing had at least some brand awareness.

[ladydyani]

We went to several thrift shops on Saturday to look for a prom dress for my daughter. Well, we tried. I found four thrift shops in our area online, and three of them were no longer in business. We ended up at Plato's Closet.

[Javarod]

Huh. I haven't noticed the Goodwill here being overly expensive. The one in my home town I did think was a little high, but the town was considerably wealthier as a whole.

I think its the branch of Goodwill you deal with, I loved the ones in Phoenix, great selection, clean stores, great prices, don't remember the name of them out there. Here in St Louis, the MERS stores are dirty junky stores, poor selection, alright at best prices for the most part.

[Becks]

Oh, and please don't get me started on price tags.

Just yesterday, Bella and I were out and about and we decided to swing by the GW closest to her house.

I was looking at cloth place mats, and I found a set of 4 (you wouldn't believe how many sets of *3* that they had, but anyhoo).

It had an original price tag from whatever store for $2.99.

Price tag from Goodwill?

$4.99.

Yeah.

No.

[PenquinzRule]

I love shopping at Goodwill and thrift stores! I like hunting for the awesome bargain that's 'hiding' in plain sight - like the new-with-the-tags-still-on Vera Bradley laptop bag I scored last week. $20 - and it retails for over $100 Virtually all my clothes come from thrift stores because I just refuse to pay some of the insane prices shops charge for plus size clothing.

[wolfie]

I found four thrift shops in our area online, and three of them were no longer in business.

If you're in Ontario I can understand that. Within the last couple months, the organization that runs Goodwill in the province shut down their entire operation without notice.

[EricKei]

My dad loved to talk about his best "kill" ever from the thrift store (it is a hunt for worthy game, after all) -- a complete, brand-new Brooks Brothers suit set, with the original price tags still attached...for twenty bucks. ^_^

[Mr Hero]

My dad loved to talk about his best "kill" ever from the thrift store (it is a hunt for worthy game, after all) -- a complete, brand-new Brooks Brothers suit set, with the original price tags still attached...for twenty bucks. ^_^

He had $20 in his pocket.

[EricKei]

He did seem to think that the deal he got was fucking awesome.