Honey holes and Heck No holes

[thrifty2]

When I started full time selling in January 2015 (although have bought and sold since 1997), my favorite honey hole was a community thrift that would let me pile my shopping cart high and they’d charge me one price for the whole thing, normally $20.

Then new management stopped that. Darn. However that made me way more selective in what I was buying, no more tossing what-nots in the cart just because I could.

This thrift is starting to dry up. Management cleaned it up a great deal which resulted in much less inventory. Donations aren’t accepted as much as before. Shelves and shelves of glassware of little substance (IMO).

My 2nd honey hole is 1.5 hours away. Hubs wanted to stop one day and I said no because I saw Tiffany style lamps in the window as we drove by. Reluctantly I agreed and what a shock. It’s an old warehouse full of everything, it’s not fancy at all, and the lady and her husband get their inventory through lots of liquidations/estate sales/that kind of stuff. You can buy vintage, modern, tools, gas cans, home appliances and furniture-you name it.

The best part is after 2 visits I finally noticed the big hand written sign on a door to the back: Fill a box for $5. That is where I make my beeline to, and it hasn’t failed me yet. That’s full of holiday items, toys, puzzles, games, glassware, on and on. I always find the biggest box and pack it.

I’ve never told her I’m a reseller but she probably guessed it (she sells on Amazon) with the eclectic stuff I get.

My 3rd fav is the hospital thrift. It’s very small and very inexpensive. I look for large bras there, .50 each, and have done well with them. Shoes and boots are $2.00 a pair, winter coats $5.00, and when I get it right I’m there when they have very low price specials. Because they are small and a charity, they are very selective in what donations they will accept, so most of the things are pretty nice. Not high end nice, but no stains nice.

Just this past weekend I started buying on local Facebook pages. Spending more $ on single items (after research) with hopes of making more profit on ebay. I need to step up my game, and again thanks to Jay and Ryanne for sharing how they are doing it as well.

• This topic was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by thrifty2.

[Liz]

Ok, I have to ask. Large size bras sell well? Have you had any issues with creepy guys asking too many questions about the bras? I have never considered selling these, because…well, I associate second hand undergarment sales with creeper-guys.

That is one area I have always said “Heck no” to, but if there is potential, I will look again. Large size bras are depressingly expensive!

Any tips on what to look for?

[Jay]

Its great you have a couple places you can keep going back to. But we’re always on the look our for new places because they come and go. We never depend on any one place.

[JasonK]

Those sound like some pretty awesome thrift stores. I seem to be both blessed with a huge abundance of thrift stores in my area and cursed with an alarming trend of stores individually researching and pricing every single item.

I’m currently really into sourcing shoes so I did a little bit of research last week. I went to ALL the thrift stores within about a 10-15 mile radius of my house and each time I visited one I marked it on my Google maps app on my phone and made some notes about shoe prices. This project took 2 days and when I was done I had about 20 stores marked and only maybe 3-4 that actually had shoe prices I could stomach. The rest of the stores individually priced ALL their shoes or had super high flat prices. Many stores seem to have a system where all the junk shoes are a flat $4-$5 but then anything decent is priced as high as $30! Ironically Goodwill which is definitely in my “Hell no hole” category was actually kind of in the middle as far as shoe prices go. On one of their special 1/2 off sales it might actually be worth buying shoes there. The worst offenders were “charity” chain stores such as St. Vincent De Paul and a number of reseller shops that seem to cater/prey on bored snowbirds that have never heard of this thing called eBay. The “Honey Hole” stores were several church stores that operate in a spare room at one of the local churches. These often had flat $3-$5 prices on shoes but they are so small that visiting them more than once every few weeks would be a total waste.

I’d love to hear the types of thrift stores that are “honey holes” in your area. Here in Florida it seems the big stores all have to charge high prices to pay their rent while the church stores get free rent and just want to make a few extra bucks for the church so the prices are much lower but so is the volume.

[WBird]

That’s interesting. The St. Vincent’s closest to me is a reliable source of $1-3 good quality shoes, even Made in Italy and the like. The local manager runs daily tag sales and specials, while the other locations don’t. The Goodwill, Salvation Army, Savers and Red Racks stores in my area are delusional. I do well at the Goodwill Outlet, but all items must be inspected carefully. More than once I have brought home two matching left shoes.

[JasonK]

WBird, I have a feeling the pricing is at the managers discretion at a lot of the chain stores. The St Vincent De Paul near me must have a very greedy manager, there is another one that is a bit more of a drive and their prices are not quite as bad but still too high for resale. I’m not 100% sure what drives the high prices I see in my area and it only gets worse the further south you go on the west coast of Florida. My guess is that retirees really like to go to thrift stores, I see whole groups of them frequently and I think thrifting is entertainment for them the way teenagers used to always go to the mall. There is such an abundance of thrift stores and the prices are often so high that I can only assume they are subsisting off all the retirees.

[WBird]

I think you’re right, JasonK. I just wanted to encourage everybody to check individual St. Vincent’s because it does seem to depend on the manager.

[cebanak]

I have a few auctions I go to that supply most of my inventory. I also advertise on Facebook that I buy clothes at 25 cents a pound. I have had good success at the Goodwill outlet but it’s a hour and a half drive for me, so I only go if I am out of inventory or want to visit Charleston.

Yard sales is next. They are hit and miss but you find weird stuff at them sometimes or nice items people are trying to move. I don’t like yard sales that look really neat or have 15 items… They are usually trying to make a lot of money. I’ll take the yard sale with heaps of clothes on tarps in the yard cause I know that is going to Goodwill later (or me I sometimes hand out cards and offer to buy all the clothes when they are done).

I do go to all of my local thrift stores at least once a month, even ones who overprice items will often miss something because they do not know what it is. I feel like the buying part of this job is the fun part so I don’t mind wasting time doing it spending a whole day at thrift stores is good retail therapy and when you find that $200 item for a few bucks it’s what this is all about.

[Author]

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