7 Keys for Better Thrifting

Finding a secondhand treasure takes equal parts luck and skill, like the time I stumbled upon Life’s D-Day issue (they didn't call it that then!). I was fortunate to grow up around expert treasure hunters. Our family was so committed to thrifting that Grandpa once wrote an ode to garage sales and, at one time, several relatives shared a single subscription to a savings guide with a name like Cheapskate Monthly, which they passed around from house to house.

For those of you didn’t grow up with such a family, here’s how I found several of my best treasures — and what you can do to land some of your own.

1. Know your options.

Not long after I moved to New York City, I discovered the street-find culture that thrives in many urban centers. But it was not until a couple years later that I encountered a real expert on making the most of stoop giveaways. In a teaching audition for Kaplan I attended, one young red-haired New Yorker explained that you had to think strategically to make the most of the freebies regularly on offer in the city.

First, he said, know which neighborhoods are the wealthiest, and therefore the most likely to give up valuable goods just because it’s too much hassle to post them on Craigslist. Second, plan to scout these neighborhoods around the times people move out — especially the middle and end of the month. (If you live in a college town, you could add to that the end of semester and school year.)

I didn’t move to Brooklyn only because of his advice, but it turned out that going for late-night walks up into the wealthier parts of Park Slope could net some very fine freebies indeed. These included a hardwood futon frame I still own; a screenwriting book I resold on Half.com for $15; a mid-century desk I stripped and refinished in a cheery red … and the queen of them all: a mid-century cedar wardrobe.

As I recall, it could have been sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. when I passed that gem, scarcely a block from my house. I kept walking. I didn’t need a wardrobe, and I’d gone out to pray through some writing questions. But when I returned and found the wardrobe still there, I got to thinking. It was certainly a beautiful piece. What a shame if the garbage truck ended up taking it! Could I fit it in my half of a small, shotgun apartment? I thought I could. That left the problem of moving it.

First I went back to the basement of our building, and looked to see if the landlord kept any kind of dolly there, but I couldn’t find anything. Then I walked back and decided to see if by any chance I could maneuver it alone. Being cedar and largely hollow, it wasn’t that heavy, just boxy.

Too boxy, it turned out, for 5’8” me to manage alone. But just as I was about to give up, a woman who turned out to be a female cop returning home from her shift saw me struggling with it and offered to lend a hand. The wardrobe and I made it home, and it’s been a staple of my bedroom furniture ever since.

2. Ask for what you want.

The second principle has frequently paid off at yard and estate sales. Several years ago, I wanted more canning jars. So one Sunday afternoon, I asked after some at a yard sale. I hadn’t seen any; I just had a random impulse to ask.

Did that ever pay off. A few minutes later, the woman took me back to a box in her backyard, filled with dozens of algae-covered jars, including several antique or large-capacity ones. They’d sat there for close to two years, she confessed, as the growing threat of spiders had kept her from ever throwing them out. Lucky for us both, I wasn’t so scared of spiders or green things. Thus, for just a few cents a jar, her filthy trash became my treasure (after several cycles through the dishwasher).

The same thing happened more recently — though thankfully with far less cleaning involved — when I saw a couple fabric pieces at a yard sale in Anchorage. After I asked if the woman had any other prints, she went inside to check with someone. A short time later, she came out with a whole cardboard box of pieces and offered me the lot for $10.

I bought it, but had my doubts about the worth of my find until I got home, started washing everything, and realized I’d netted more than 60 yards of material! Even with what I gave away for mask-making, it still came out to something like $.40/yard.

3. Don’t be taken in by pseudo-deals.

At this point, I should add a word of warning. While garage sales can appear to offer good deals — and often do — it always pays to know the worth of things brand new. I once got a leather Geoffrey Beene briefcase at some Sunnyvale Hippies’ garage sale for maybe $.05. (Like many things mentioned in this article, it’s currently in a storage unit, so I don’t have a good picture, alas.) That was a deal — and probably a once-in-a-lifetime one.

Other people see thrift and yard sales as chances to make good money, a view that probably limits their overall profit. I once visited the estate sale of a Berkeley woman who’d supposedly been a favorite collector. And indeed, she’d certainly acquired a great deal of fabric over the years: her cardboard boxes filled most of the front room. That was my first warning. (Maybe a cynic would have called her a fabric hoarder?)

The second warning came when the daughter said how much she wanted for her mother’s supposedly special selections. As one woman prepared to fork over $100 or more for perhaps five pieces, I was one of multiple shoppers who urged her in a whisper not to accept the obscenely high price.

I’m no expert, but I’ve splurged on my share of Liberty Tana Lawn cotton from London — and even some of their jerseys and silks. I’ve bought wax-print fabrics in Ghana and South Africa, silk from Beijing. This woman had nothing like that, from what I saw.

No, the true fabric trove appeared not long after — and proves the exception to my rule about high-priced sellers. One Sunday, I stopped in at an estate sale, and recognized the manager as a man I’d once seen selling some extremely overpriced garden accessories. Based on that experience, I didn’t expect to find much from him, until he happened to see me fingering some fabric on a folding table.

“If you’re looking for fabric, there’s lots more out back,” he called. I hadn’t known the sale extended outside, but wandered back until I found the carport, then caught my breath. Barrel after cardboard barrel crammed the slab of concrete, each one filled with fabrics in all manner of colors and textures.

Secondhand fabrics always pose a difficulty, in that few to none include details of the materials along the selvedge edge. (If you’re fortunate, the proprietor will let you do a small burn test on things you really care about; other times, an experienced hand suffices.) That day, I didn’t run any burn tests, but by the time I left, I’d filled two garbage bags with fabric — enough to nearly fill the trunk of my small Toyota. It cost me a whopping $30, or roughly $1 a piece, regardless of yardage.

That in itself was a great price, but several pieces had a lot of yardage (even better) and nearly a dozen were part or all wool. One huge orange wool piece was so thick, it would only serve to make a blanket.

I’d been tempted to write that man off based on past prices, but I’m sure glad I gave him a second chance that day.

4. Negotiate over defects.

Now, let’s talk about thrift stores. Some chains price things much higher than others, which can raise the question of whether or not they’re worth shopping at. That calls for a different strategy: negotiate. Though most chains have a standardized system of pricing, thrift stores also have to turn over their stock pretty often to keep customers interested. (For more on this, I highly recommend Elizabeth L. Cline’s Overdressed and Adam Minter’s Secondhand. Note that those are affiliate links, from which I might earn a small percent.)

What this means for customers is that you have some leverage to negotiate. If an item seems reasonably priced to me, I usually don’t bother to lower the price. But if I’m intrigued and don’t like the price, I inspect it for possible defects. Issues that have gotten me past discounts includes stains, moth holes and missing parts, like a tea strainer that didn’t have its rest (25% off).

That’s how I got my most recent score: a pair of vintage purple Columbia snow pants. Because of COVID-19, the store’s changing rooms were closed, so you had to buy clothes and try them on at home. When I got the pants home and on myself, I discovered the zipper was broken.

Back I went to the thrift store the next day, to see about a discount (as a reasonably experienced sewer, I hoped I could replace the zipper). After an initial mix-up over the tag that had the store manager practically accusing me of fraud, he eventually confirmed I’d bought the pants with the incorrect price tag and offered to take them back.

“Well, what are you going to do with them?” I asked.

“Oh, we’ll have to recycle them,” he said — no profit whatsoever.

I then explained about my hoped-for repair, but noted I’d have to buy a new zipper, rip out the old one, and so on. He offered to give me half off.

But by the time I’d finished some other shopping, he’d increased the discount to 75% — basically a couple dollars. After changing the price and ringing up my other purchases, I left 17 cents the richer.

5. Shop with a purpose.

Unlike this next principle, the snow pants I bought on a whim. But the reason I came across them is that I’d gone to that store on another errand: to find a used pair of knee guards. After trying my body at ice skating for the first time, I’d discovered I needed protection. But since I wasn’t sure how long I’d continue at the sport, I didn’t want to drop lots of money on gear (fortunately, a friend had loaned me her skates to try, which fit perfectly).

Thrift stores are perfect for this type of situation. Many times, you can find a perfectly good version of what you need secondhand, rather than brand new. Recent mission-based finds have included:

• $1 wooden sewing chair from the ReStore
• $3 knee pads for figure skating
• $5 work lamp to improve lighting over a sewing table I have to keep in the closet

My best purpose-driven buy, though, is the metal ironing board I got for $1. Now, an all-metal ironing board was exactly what I wanted, because a few people had warned me about bedbugs in secondhand goods not long after I moved to Anchorage. After a nightmarish battle with something similar a few years ago, you don’t have to warn me twice.

This might have called for a brand-new ironing board, but I didn’t want to spend the money on one, since I have a good ironing board … in my California storage unit. I just needed one as a cheap stopgap, but which had fewer places for bugs to hide, and which I could more easily clean. Enter the all-metal ironing board.

It was exactly what I wanted, except for the price: $5 seemed too much for something I’d have to sew a cover for. So I asked about the issue at the cash register.

“How about a dollar?” the woman asked. At first I thought she meant a one-dollar discount, but then I realized she meant the price! I’m still not sure if she felt generous, or just wanted to make her last sale quickly since I’d come in minutes before closing time.

6. Treat items as materials, not finished goods.

As the ironing board demonstrates, thrift stores can be an excellent source of materials, depending on what skills you have or want to practice. Here are some thrift-store buys I’ve turned into something else:

• Denim comforter case that I cut the zipper off and have used the fabric from — give total yardage! — to make denim suits of armor for two boys, and will hopefully get a pair of jeans and maybe even a dress out of.

• Men's shirts that I've turned into nightshirts.

• Men's extra-large sweaters that I cut down and resewed into princess-seam sweaters for myself.
• Men's lumberjack shirt that I ripped, cut down and made to fit myself.

• Women's hand-knit sweaters that I ripped out for the yarn (most of which turned out to be wool).

• Women's commercial cashmere cardigan that I unraveled and am knitting into a wrap. At $3 total (half off, at the cheaper of the two thrift store chains in town), I couldn't possibly have found even one ball of equivalent yarn for the same price.

7. Protect yourself from unwanted guests.

Lastly: you’ve found that great bargain, but now you want to ensure it’s not a hiding place for stowaways. Here’s how I treat my finds:

• Furniture: Buy wood or metal you can easily spray down, rather than anything with upholstery that could hide bed bugs. If you take a risk on upholstery, I’d ask the seller more detailed questions about what they know regarding the provenance and what, if any, treatment they’ve done. Consider letting the item quarantine in a sufficiently hot or cold space to kill anything inside.
• Items made of cotton or other sturdy fabric: Wash and dry on hot, checking for any stains first (always a good idea for fabric you plan to sew with).
• Delicate or hard-to-wash items: If they’ll fit inside my oven, I put them in for 90 minutes at 170 degrees, and keep an eye on things to ensure nothing ignites. So far books, manila folders and even a box of dot-matrix printer paper have all come through without flames.