Chlobo’s Cave

I enjoy collecting things. If I see something I like, I will buy it eventuality . One of the things I miss the most is going to charity/second hand shops and getting a good bargain. Lately, I’ve noticed sometimes things second-hand can be just as expensive as buying it new, especially When you have people that buy in bulk then when it sells out, put it for sale for double the price. I used to work in a charity shop every Sunday while I was at college. I enjoyed the staff discount as a volunteer. We never know what we will get and sometimes you get a lot of surprises.

My collection has a variety of items. Some cost a lot more than others. There’s some I got for free or as a gift and others I got for a good bargain. Here is a list of my personal favourite bargains that I have gathered over the years. I hope you enjoy this article.

I was so surprised to see this for sale in Oxfam. I remember trying to import an album from Kou Shibasaki from Japan and the import and shipping fees made it really expensive. With K-pop and J-pop being more popular now, they’re easier to find but back in the day it was to get physical albums from Japanese artists. It was only £1 and I had never seen an album from a Japanese artist so cheap in this country. On Discgogs, they have one available for £19.03 including shipping. It’s not a bad album either, even though I think she has better albums.

Back when Pokémon was new to the scene, Pikachu truly did rule the world. To this day there is still a lot of merchandise for Pikachu. I do own this Pikachu bag, or at least something very similar to it. I bought mine from Sue Ryder Charity shop and I only paid £1. A huge difference from the £17.99 this seller is charging. It’s crazy how some of these items are selling for nowadays.

I ended up getting this one for free. For a long time I used to consider Stripped to be my favourite album from all time. I was a big fan of Christina Aguilera and loved the power in her voice along with how carefree her music was. When I was working in the charity shop, this was one of the items they were planning to throw out, and I asked if I could have it and they said yes. I would have been happy to pay for it, but they said I could have it for free. One of the sad realities of things donated to charity shops is that a lot of stuff sadly gets thrown away. I’m sure it’s the same for thrift stores as well.

When I saw this at Scope in 2018, I already had one in my collection that I had won at a funfair, but his eyes were very worn out. When I saw one like this in Scope for 50p I knew I had to get it. Along with Pokémon plushies, I also really like collecting Digimon stuff because I like a lot of the designs. Gabumon is one of my favourites for it’s canine design and I think the horn is a nice touch. He’s a friendly wolf. It’s so weird seeing something I bought for 50p go on sale for nearly nine quid. I saw one on sale for twenty pounds as well.

I love this album. I remember winning it at an action for a low price. Much lower than the prices that are shown here. I remember feeling happy when it arrived because it is a beautiful album, and it’s one I always wanted on CD and I’m glad I own it now. It’s on Spotify and other streaming services, I reccomend you check it out. It has one of the best atmospheres ever from a metal album.

I have all seven of the Harry Potter books andI got all them from a combination of charity shops. The last four were first editions, but it’s really the first three that bring the big money. I don’t have them in my flat at the moment as I let my friend Beth, who’s a big Harry Potter fan read them. Much to my family’s shock and horror. The Harry Potter books are ones I have loved as a child and a teenager for so long. The characters hold a special place in my heart because I love the movies as well and the audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry. It’s strange how much they go for now. I was really lucky getting these books so cheap back them.

I have a love/hate relationship with this book series. I do like some of the characters like Charlie, Alice and Jacob. When I was in the fandom, I enjoyed reading Bella/Alice fan fiction. I actually remember enjoying the Twilight novel when I first read it. I wasn’t too keen on Eclipse or Breaking Dawn much, but even though my love for the series has long gone, I do appreciate how it got a lot of people back into reading. I see these in charity shops all the time where they are cheap. You can get them on Amazon and eBay, but if you look around in thrift stores or charity shops when they open, I’m sure you will find at least one book from this series in them.

This is another series I see in charity shops all the time. I got the trilogy through a book swap shelf at Oxford train station, but I didn’t like the series. I thought it was a nice idea, but Christian really pissed me off to the point I could no longer appreciate the book series. I ended up giving them to my friend Beth who ended up loving them. She’s also a big fan of the films too. I could easily get them again myself when the shops open, but I don’t really have any desire to. I don’t know why, but I found the books to be boring.