Christian thrift store find

[flatwater]

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/offgridbob/DSC00469.jpghttp://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/offgridbob/DSC00470.jpg
Half off at the thrift store today so I picked this cast iron waffle maker up for 10 bucks. It's a No.8 New American , Pat. 1801 , Made in Erie PA. USA by the griswald Co.

[hillbillygal]

That's a cool find! Our thrift store doesn't run specials and hardly has anything useful like that. I keep looking though because I'm in there for clothes pretty often. Congrats!

[flatwater]

Thanks Hillbillygal. Right now it's been washed , re-oiled and is sitting on the gas stove to season it again.
Flatwater

[FirestarterKY]

I run a Christian thrift store in KY.
We use to have 1/2 off all the time, now only on Thursdays, "Lady's Day" where all clothes are half off.
We are finding it hard to pay our light bill and rent and my salary, when sales at stores like this are even down.
The people who get the good stuff are the ones who come in at least twice a week.
I get real excited when things like cast iron come in and the next person in the door sees it....tickles me to death!
I will tell ya, though, the good things like cast iron that used to come in all the time, very rarely come in at all now.
I feel people are getting wise and hitting up their grandparents for the good things.
I love working where I do. I love the kind of people that shop at resale shops.
One persons trash ....... :)
I found this job because I was a shopper, a twice weekly one that got all the good stuff.
A lot of people automatically think the employees get all the good stuff.
Well, I did have someone working for me that was taking out sooooo much.
She's no longer there.
But, now I have a real good girl, who has a conscience! WOW!
Our sales are 200.00 more per day really sense she left.
I did get a butter churn for 45.00 last year, my best buy ever sense I've worked there.
I couldnt believe nobody would spend that kind of money on a perfect old churn! It was there for 2 months, and just like a shopper I watched and waited until the price fell to my range.
So, I bought it.
It's my biggest treasure.
I'm a minimalist.
Good thing....my house would be full if I wasnt!
LOL!
I cannot bring home one blouse if I dont take one back.
I dont buy more hangers.
Our home is very small......though our land is large.
And so is our barn.
I hate clutter....I can't breath in it.
I'm now in the market for an old cast iron BIG kettle.
But, I've been waiting many a year to even see one.
Maybe one day......
My hubby already made me a tri-pod for it.
Most people made planters out of theres.
Well, y'all take it easy!
Happy bargain hunting!

[flatwater]

I'm afraid if I actually worked in a thrift store I would be there best customer and go broke just working there. Maybe I could take my wages out in trade Hmmmm?
flatwater

[FirestarterKY]

I was like that the first year, but, after a while there's rarely anything that comes in that I need.
My husband would roll his eyes everytime I walked in with a bag o stuff...LOL!
Well, unless it was clothing items fromt he 70's he loved! LOL!

[Dawgus]

Thrift stores are something that I can't seem to stay away from, I admit it, I'm a thrift store/goodwill/yard sale junkie. My truck goes into auto pilot and seems to sense a yard sale sign 2 miles away.
In the last 2 weeks, I have found 4 more oil lamps for $5 or less each. Last year I found a glass jar butter churn at a yard sale for $20 (the same one was $125 at Lehmans), and I have found many a garden tool at yard sales. Most of all I get my work clothes at goodwill. I'm a pipefitter by trade, so my clothes get seriously greasy and dirty every day. I refuse to pay for new jeans and shirts when they will be ruined in a matter of weeks (if not days)

[nancy1340]

I'm now in the market for an old cast iron BIG kettle.
But, I've been waiting many a year to even see one.
Maybe one day......
My hubby already made me a tri-pod for it.
Most people made planters out of theres.
Well, y'all take it easy!
Happy bargain hunting!



Try farm auctions in your area. A friend of mine has a big chilli party every fall. She found a HUGE one a few years ago. I'd guess it's about 50 gallons.

[FirestarterKY]

Farm auctions....very good idea!
My store sits between auction companies!!!!
I know where and when they all are......believe it or not, I've never been to an auction! There's a big one coming up soon.....I'll try to go.

THANKS!!!!

Yes! That's why I want one....to cook up GOOD BIG soups and stuff.
Or when SHTF....boil my laundry....LOL!
Or..make soap like granny clampett did!! LMAO!!!
Sorry, couldnt resist!

Come to think....we say, "When SHTF" I think it is hitting it.
That we're all just in denial or something.
Oh okay, stick a fork......

I'm done....

See Y'all!!!

Karen

[oldnndway]

I ain't no hand on auctions ... too fast and furious for me and the prices always go beyond what I am willing to pay for something , at least the ones I've been tto have been that way.

I like to go to estate sales though.
You never know what will turn up at an estate sale and I've found all kinds of stuff at the ones I've been able to go to.

[Naughty_Pines]

I live in Wrightwood, CA. Every year on Labor day and Memorial Day Weekends there is a village wide yard sale ( population of 3 to 4000 full time residents but weekenders usually gome up and sell stuff too.) All kinds of good stuff to be found. One year I drove my Sears garden tractor and a trailer around the village looking for things "I couldn't live without." I live in a small place and have a very small kitchen. I found an apartment size gas stove for $30 that sell for around $300 ( my momma didn't raise no fool.)

People come from miles around looking for treasures discarded by residents. Some of you should talk to town officials about organizing some thing like this. One year I sold $500 worth of things left by the previous owners of the house and I didn't want.

Jerry the Naughty Pines ( it's a long story.)

[flatwater]

I'm with you Oldnndway, the problem with auctions is if you get caught up in the excitement one can go way over the new purchase price.
Flatwater

[TheUnboundOne]

Dear Forum Members,

I'll say you can find some good stuff at Christian thrift stores. Believe it or not, I've actually found a like-new paperback copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and a pretty good copy of The Boudoir, a reprint of Victorian Era pornographic stories...both at the Salvation Army Thrift Store!

;D

On a less jocular note, My Stepmother got her entire Summer wardrobe, a big stack of clothes, for $14 at a Christian thrift store. There are great finds to be had all over.

Good ol' American Capitalism doesn't care about whether or how the hands that make, sell, and buy merchandise pray. Gotta love it!

:)

[leera]

I love thrift stores! The little town I live in doesn't even have a grocery store.....so when I make a trip to the big city,I make a special trip to my favorite ones.In one section of town,there are two thrift stores across from each other,and on another end,they are mere blocks away.

I don't get up that way as often now that the price of gas is so high though.So shopping trips and hunts for cheap goodies are going to have to be compiled into less trips,more shopping in one trip......need to save on the costs somehow.

I've had pretty good luck at a couple of yard sales already though.

[anna]

Salvation Army & the Catholic thrift stores closed so only Goodwill is left. It reeks. Prices are way too high, never have bag sales, stuff crammed together so you can't look at it, can hardly pull it off the rack and wanted $5 for a dozen used canning jars.

I much prefer estate auctions. The key to auctions is to arrive early and look over the merchandise. Decide how much you are willing to bid on a particular item and quit if the bid goes higher. It also helps to spend a little time just listening to the auctioneer so you can understand his chant. Each one is different. I have a couple that I like very much and usually go to their auctions. There is another that I really don't understand so avoid his auctions. I prefer auctions held at auction houses with chairs and restrooms!! Heat and a/c are nice too.

[anna]

Oh, I forgot what I was going to post in the first place :-[ -- I have one of those waffle irons that I picked up at an auction for $1. I've never used it but since my electric waffle iron died maybe I should clean mine up and try it. DH would love waffles!

[leera]

Anna; I spent a lot of time at livestock auctions just watching and learning.after a while you can tell who's there just to buy what they want,who's a dealer,and who is a plant in the crowd to jack up the prices.........it just takes a little practice.

Every auctioneer is different,and some are REALLY hard to translate.

I haven't been to an auction here since the sales barns closed up and the property got sold to build condos..........

[Dawgus]

Another good idea for places to look is unclaimed frieght/salvage stores. There is a salvage store about 2 miles away that we check out on a regular basis. We've got quite a bit from this guy. We bought a case of bandaids a few years ago for $7, plastic storage buckets with lids for $.50 each, and best of all, last year we picked up 75 pounds of candlewax in the slabs, for $15!!! We also have an unclaimed frieght store not far away thats owned and operated by a trucking company. You never know what you'll find there. A few years back, a friend picked up a 16 foot coleman whitewater canoe for $50 just because it had a small gouge in the top side from a towmotor. $5 worth of bondo and its as good as new.
These places are definitly worth checking out.

[danville]

Storage facility auctions can be pretty good. People stop paying the rent on storage for things they didn't have room for or use but couldn't do without, and the stuff ends up at auction to pay the storage bill. None of it makes any sense to me but that is another post. As far as estate auctions go, I tend to look for auctions in the middle of nowhere on the same day as big auctions in town are. Fewer bidders at the small out of the way auctions and the antique dealers are bidding against eachother at the easily accesible sales.

[Dawgus]

Oh yea! Storage locker auctions are great. The guy I work for has storage lockers on the same property as our shop. Last year I happened to be there when one of the auctions was going on. It was a nasty rainy day and only 2 people showed up. I ended up buying a whole locker full for $30. I moved a bunch of boxes of clothes, tools, and misc junk, and in the back was this HUGE 60" bigscreen tv. I plugged it in, worked perfect. I had no use for that thing, so I sold it and pocketed $200, the clothes went to goodwill. (really wierd bright colored stuff like green dress shoes and orange suits lol) and the hand tools went in the garage. Also last year I went in with a few guys and got an old 6x6 amphicat from a locker for $100. We had it running in 2 days.