You're Thrifting Wrong: 8 Ways To Score Great Secondhand Items
Want to know how to find good items when you’re thrifting? The experience can sometimes feel like a never ending search if you don’t know what to look for.
Andrew Harper, host of the YouTube channel Reissued, gives invaluable tips in a YouTube video. Harper worked at a thrift store for three years and has decorated his home with vintage pieces. Here are eight of his expert tips on how to find some gems at thrift stores.
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1. Get There Early
Harper said it’s best to get to thrift stores right when they open — or even a little before — to have first dibs on any new items they might have received. During his experience working at a thrift store, he said there was no set time when they put out items on the floor. However, you’re bound to see some fresh items if you get there right at opening.
2. Know What You’re Looking For
Harper suggested making a list of items you need for your home before you go into the store. This way, you won’t get distracted by other items and blow your budget on something you don’t need. You also can use your list to talk with thrift store employees and see if they’ve seen anything that’s a match for you.
3. Take a Lap First
Don’t settle for the first thing you see in the store. Instead, Harper said to take a walk around the entire store before committing. When you do this, he said to look for two types of items: low-hanging fruit and the items that jump out at you. Low-hanging fruit refers to trendy items that are priced well.
“These are the things that everyone is going to want to jump on right away. So, once again, we want to make that quick pass and snatch up those items first,” Harper explained.
For items that jump out at you, these can be things that are specifically on your list or simply just speak to you.
4. Understand the Price Structure
Harper said it’s important to understand a particular thrift store’s pricing system. Typically, each item will have a tag with a color that denotes how much it’s discounted that day. Some stores will also have specific days that their discounts are revealed. These are the days you want to come in so you can take advantage of the deals before other shoppers find them.
Another tip: don’t haggle if you don’t need to.
“I, personally, as someone that worked at a charity thrift store, found it a little bit tacky when customers would ask for discounts because ultimately the point of our store was to raise money to support the organization and the cause,” Harper said.
On a different note, he said if an item was discounted a week ago and isn’t anymore, feel free to ask the associate if the current price is correct and if they could match the price from the week before.
“I never had a problem with price matching an item for a customer or honoring a discounted price that someone had forgotten to put on there,” Harper said.
5. Look for Quality Materials
Not sure what kind of materials to look for in the thrift store?
“When in doubt, we're looking for leather, marble, solid wood, glass and we're generally avoiding all of the things that pretend to be those things,” Harper explained.
Harper said if an item has a little bit of damage, that’s often where the authenticity can get revealed. Faux leather will be fuzzy where it’s worn, and faux wood won’t have the wood grains in chipped areas.
6. Know Your Measurements
If you’re looking for something specific, make sure you know the measurements that will accommodate your space. Keep those measurements in a note on your phone and bring a tape measure with you to make sure the item you find at the thrift store will work. Otherwise, you might be stuck in a situation where an item doesn’t fit in your room and you’ve gone through a lot of work to find that out.
7. Be Familiar With What the Store Carries
Harper pointed out that, although thrift stores offer a little bit of everything, each store tends to have a specialty. This is highly dependent on the types of donations they accept. Do some research and look up what a store accepts to get an idea of the items you’re likely to score.
8. Use Google Reverse Image Search
If an item doesn’t have a brand name on it, you can use Google’s Reverse Image Search to find similar or exact items online. This way, you can get an idea of how much it’s worth. You can also find out if it’s truly unique or being sold currently at a retailer down the street.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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