General Discussion

I don't believe I've ever found anything particularly valuable, but I like to buy Build a Bears and unstuff/wash/restuff them. They are a lot cheaper then buying brand new bears (and usually better quality, too, if they're an older one).

I actually got a bear I really wanted to obtain one day from the thrift store - a Seasons of Hugs: Winter Hugs bear. It was one of four bears themed around the seasons (from late 2000s, I believe?) and each came with their own enamel pin (unfortunately, mine was missing her pin). I named mine January. ^^

edit: just remembered another cool find; a Coca-Cola Splash Barbie, still in the box. She's from the late 90s if I remember correctly.

Love going thrift shopping because you never know what cool things you might find! I usually go to the chain stores like Savers and Goodwill because that's all I have near me but my family also goes to this antique fair on the countryside that happens 3 times a year. I'm mostly a collector of toys and merch but I also enjoy collecting cool trinkets as well. I love buying stuff in person, everything is way too expensive on sites like eBay and Mercari.
My cool finds:

• I found a piece of transferware china from the 1800s at Savers. I only recognized it because my mom is a collector of those and I ended up buying it for her. It was maybe $7
• Really nerdy but I found a toy lightsaber from 2006 still sealed and after further research I learned the specific one I had found, Mace Windu's, was super rare and would sell for like $90 on eBay. I removed it from the package though because it was damaged but its on my shelf now and I think its really cool.
• I found a little electronic toy of the Carnotaurus for the Disney movie Dinosaur from the early 2000s that still worked!
• I found a Toothless plushie that has wire wings that can be posed. I believe it was from universal studios but I could barely find anything on it online.
• I found an Oculus Rift that's just missing its controllers. I still have yet to test it because I need to get controllers first.
• I found a plushie and animatronic version of the blue dragon from Avatar (sorry I forget what its called) and bought both for my friend who likes the movies. They were both Disney World exclusives and quite expensive to purchase at the parks.
• My sibling has found quite a few rare beanie babies and we think someone must've donated a whole collection to this particular Savers.
• This is my only find on this list that wasn't at a chain thrift store. Last time I went to the antique fair with my parents I bought the original 90s T Rex toy for Jurassic Park for $15! Its broken and missing an arm but I love it so much and I'm glad I didn't buy one off eBay instead because they tend to be $50 in that condition and that's ridiculous imo.

@Eucyon It was called Meat Market, and true to its name, the gore effects appear to be made with ground beef. And that's honestly the least objectionable thing about it. It's very not safe for work. My coworkers and I were lucky none of our elders walked by the tech garage that moment.

Our shop had some rules about being family friendly which we couldn't extend to materials that needed a lot of time vetting. We stocked novels on the shelf, with the caveat they're for the 14 and up crowd as indicated by stickers on the spines.

My top 3 favorites are;

- Was doing a road trip some years back for the big garage/yard sale that goes on most years in the US and spans like multiple states and days and found a dragon statue that looked amazing. The guy had a whole collection and was selling them for like $5 a piece and I wanted them all but money was limited so I only bought my favorite one. Turns out they're collector's items that were only made in limited runs and are worth several thousand a piece. I'd never dream of selling the one I have because it's so cool though.

- Hitting up a second hand store in the area I found a beer stein that's wolf themed. It has wolves painted on it, the lid comes up to a mountain with a little howling wolf on top, and the piece on the back of the lid you press to open it up is a circle that's got markings on it like the moon. Paid $10 for it and on the bottom it says it's a limited run of only 100 made but it's otherwise not branded so I can't find any info online about it but it looks cool as heck. Beer steins of similar make, however, are easily upwards of $80 online so I assume the value is close to that.

- Same second hand store had what looked like a small drinking horn made of frosted glass on a little stand for $5 so I bought it. Tried to look it up online but there's nothing exactly right and the closest equals are around $50 so it was quite a steal.

Some of my favorite clothes have also come from second hand places. I got sweat pants with a camo print and t-rex skulls that's officially branded Jurassic Park merch, a shirt that says "Sorry, I'm booked" with a stack of books on it, a set of thin pants that are bright pink and have coffee cups on them, and my personal favorite a nice leather trench coat that I paid like $20 for. And a body spray that smells amazing that the place it comes from no longer makes.

I'm looking forward to next year because things are lining up where I might be able to visit local thrift stores again on a weekly-ish basis. I normally am looking for craft supplies or things I can make into crafts, but I love finding the random things and looking through their clothes because so much of my wardrobe has come from those kinds of places over the years XD

a 'mosaic lambskin' patchwork leather jacket for 18 bucks, it is now heavy with pins and in dire need of a repair, right sleeve has a tear, but man that thing is awesome

i found these really cool (apparently hand-made) drop-crotch pants!!! >:D This is about what it looks like, except it has a bunch of pockets, and all the seam lines is yellow string. Such a vibe. [img]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31-rQVJfPXL.jpg[/img]

A sabre sword with some really neat engraving on the blade at a garage sale a few years back, for $20. It's not very sharp but hey, cool sword! [img]https://imgur.com/2bdcxcP.png[/img] [img]https://imgur.com/r0nJFmD.png[/img]

I once found a handknit chunky blue sweater with a tuxedo cat on it that has the front of the cat on the front and the back on the back. I paid $10 for it. the cat on the sweater looks just like my cat. It's one of my favorite articles of clothing of all time.

another time I found a wacom intuos tablet that was two sizes larger than the tablet i had been using at the time for $4. It didn't have the cord or pen, and nobody working at the store knew what it was, so they seemed kind of perplexed by my excitement, but I got probably the best deal of all time on a significant upgrade on my drawing tablet.

Got an air fryer/pressure cooker combo appliance for sub-100 bucks. Been making so much beef stew from it and living my BEST life.

Close second is a decent stand mixer for 55 bucks. Bread dough and whipped toppings fall to the red beast and my hands stay CLEEEEEEEEEEEAN

Not sure I can say here in full but a full set of hand-painted decorative plates with the other side of the story of Lot's wife becoming a pillar of salt. The fiery part. Didn't buy obviously but gawked at for a long time. Some old guy seriously themed his kitchen after that. Epic.

The exact pair of jacquard jeans in my size that I wanted from Anthropologie a few months ago but could never afford, still with tags. (People always tell you not to buy full price because it'll get thrifted eventually, but this is a one-time shocker for me.)

Lovely art prints.