• Please note that there are a few updates and clarifications made in the Audiokarma Rules, mostly relating to advertising and the addition of the new "Paying it Forward" & "Giving back" forums in the AudioKarma Audio Marketplace section.

My first foray into Thrift stores was less than memorable!

Cleve

Cleve

Super Member
If this should be under "General Discussion", mods please feel free to move.

I've read about many thrift store scores here at AK, so I decided to finally test the waters myself today. I stopped at two places - a Salvation Army, and Volunteers of America outlet store near Rochester today, with visions of vintage speakers and electronica dancing through my head. Boy, was I underwhelmed! A selection of small, cheaply made bookshelf sized Realistic speakers, and an Aiwa cassette deck, and that was about it. Oh, and some small "Thrusters by Panasonic" speakers, and that was it.

Obviously, I'm not giving up on the idea, but I'd like some pointers. For the guys who hobby in this, how many stores do you guys hit in a week, and how often does the stock usually change? There are probably 4 or 5 Salvation Army/VOA stores in the Greater Rochester area (not including these two) is there a preference for either/or? It might be fun to blow a Saturday and hit a bunch of them.
 
Register to hide this ad
Thrift Theft

Same experience in Birmingham, Al. All that I found was a couple of old shelf systems - you know, the ones with the BASS BOOST button and a stack of busted up VCRs with $49 price tags. Geez, you can buy a new VCR for less than that - unless you're particularly fond of used ones with cracked face plates.
 
Ok guys, those are the facts of life if you only go once or twice. I go several times a week and I go to many stores. If you keep at it you will find the stores where there is a chance of finding something and those that are a waste of time.
Let's take last week for example, a store that I hit about once a month had a Carver CD player in mint condition for $10.00 which I bought and found to be in great shape.
Yesterday another store which has been "dry" for me for a few weeks suddenly had a Yamaha T-1000 in apparently great shape for $5.00 and it turned out to be a great buy and works well.
You have to get out there, be patient and plug along and be lucky from time to time but the stuff has to show up sooner or later. Good luck and keep on trying!!
 
Thrifts hunting

Hitting the thrifts one time can be disappointing. Alot of stuff is cherry picked by the staff, some is put on line(GW), alot has to do with timing. If something good makes it to the floor it probably won't sit more than a few days and sometimes only hours. You have to be persistent and regularly check. You might also check resale and junk shops and other charitable resales. Everbody hits GW and SA but sometimes you do get lucky, last week I picked a pair of Ohm-Ls with perfect cabinets and bad foam surrounds for three dollars. Good luck and good hunting.
Marc
 
Skip going to the store. Just go to shopgoodwill.com and hit search and pull down the seller list for your local store or distribution center then hit search. My store has offered 1600 items in the last 90 days. They even auction the non working electronics!
 
Law of averages

Go once and find nothing then your sucess rate is 0%.

Go 10 times and find one item, 10% sucess--not bad.

Since the new year I've been keeping track of how often I stop to shop and what I buy. In January alone I made approx 70 stops at various stores and I bought a few albums, a few books, a broken Scott receiver, a small DBX unit and a pair of MCM speakers.......Nto alot but enough to keep me going back :thmbsp:

So my 70 stops in a month works out to over 2 times per day, every day of the month. Eventually something will turn up that might be a big score, I'll never know what I missed if I stop shopping.
 
I saw a set of small JBL monitors in the window of the thrift store on my way back from lunch. Stopped in on my way home and they were gone. "Missed it by that much."
 
The only thing I found at a thrift store was a CD player by LXI. It was black and had $3.00 as is written with a wax crayon on top of it. What got me about it was that it had a metal case and faceplate not plastic. I plugged it in, pressed the open button and the door slid out. I said sold. Took it home cleaned it up and it works perfect. Now we all know what the boys of Audiokarma think of LXI (CRAP!!) but hey for the price....makes a great backup. Sooner or later I will find something of value.
 
Yep, repetition.

I have a route, roughly a circle, that I go on whenever I have a chance. It includes thrifts and resale shops.

Most of the time I only end up with a couple of lps' - and that's ok.

Sometimes I go through long dry spells for other-than-lps, I'm in one now :( .

This all applies to garage sales, too, usually minus the lps and plus whatever other junk I come across, mostly hardware.

Pete
 
It's a lot like fishing. A lot of days, you eat Mrs. Pauls. Occasionally, you feast on walleye filets
 
I know several guys hit it at thrift stores. But I will tell you all the good stuff they get the employees and others get first chance.

Try looking at the want ads in local papers and the Thrifty Nickle type neighborhood papers. I hit a pair of JBL L-100 in the paper a few weeks ago. I also bought a nice pair of HPM 100 for a guy at church. I ads are cheap you might try putting in a "I want to buy....." ad.

Try garage sales too. I picked up my Sanusi 9090db, Akai ap 270 turntable, sony cassette deck, pioneer Sx 720 and 1100 and more at them. Each was less than $15. But of coarse we go fri and sat early.

I never have found anything at thrift stores. The speakers that were with my Sansui did not sell and I went back and they had taken them to a thrift store. They were gone from there but the garage sale was the first best, place to have picked them up for two days.

Charlie
 
Yeah, those guys that work at the thrift stores hit it big in more ways than one.

But that's ok...by the looks of most of them, they can use all the help they can get.
 
I've been in Vegas almost 3 years, and while I've never been a regular prowler of thrifts, I never found shite until about a month ago- now I can't walk in one without something following me home. It's just dumb luck in my case, but I know a lot of people work very hard and consistently at it. Like today at lunch fer instance..............there'll be pics of my score later in the Pioneer Forum.
 
Need to look at all options. There are more than SAs and GWs. We have both and also a local Christian Mission TS. Some towns have DAVs and other thrift stores. I have done well at all for different things over time. Got a Sansuii 7900Z for $5.00 at the Mission, A vintage mint Technics 25 WPC/ wood case recever at the SA and also my Pioneer DSS-9's. If you are on the hunt for LP's ask the store staff if they have any stuff in the back room that has not gone out that you can look at. I have a SA up in Atlanta where they let me look at the LPs in the back. They normaly have 3 or 4 large full boxes of LPs in the back. I spent about $100.00 my fist time and run $30 or $40 other times (At a buck- A-Pop). My local Mission has "Buck-A-Pop" CDs. Best time is on Mondays as they do not put stuff out on the weekend (they do pick-ups) and they put stuff out on Monday. In fact I am listen to some of the CDs now... :banana: Like some folks have said you gotta hit 'em on a regular schedule and if you get a good hit 5% or 10% of the time you are doing good. All it takes is ONE nice score and it is all worth it...
 
Sometimes the pawn shops are a good place for speakers. What you have to do is ask what is their best price, a lot of times they will cut the price by 20-50%. Picked up pair of Marantz 2130's (3way) for $70. The cabinets were in good shape, and the woofers had been reconed.Also picked a Yamaha CR440 for $40 in great shape.
 
persistence

A pair of Large Advents at a Goodwill started my thrift store bug.

I go every Saturday morning and most of the time I come home with nothing. Other times I find something that may not be tip top shape, but works and sounds good. If I have to run ar errand at work I try to hit the thrift stores downtown.

I have a route that I go and in that circle I hit around 12 thrift stores. It took a while for my first score, but after that it was all worth it.

I think it all has to do with persistence. Your odds of finding something good are better if you go frequently.
 
In order to find nice things at a thrift you have to live somewhere where people had the jobs and money to buy them. Economically depressed areas are just that.....
 
Thanks OMI for varifing that "some" can get first choice. I will have to ask. But thrifts like garage sales are hit and miss for sure. The chase is the fun anyway!

I know the fellows at Salvation Army do not look too good and probably do not buy much. SA is a Christian organzation and hire the down and out. They also do not pay managers much. I always give to SA. Goodwill is for profit and upper excutives get in the hundreds of thousand $ a year (Forbes did a story on them a few years ago). Local thrift shops vary with some being run for charity and some for profit. Most all have backrooms where the sorting goes on.

A well run for profit thrift shop, pawn shop or antique shop has a backroom or even a in view up front computer where the more valuable little stuff is being eBayed.

Lucky for us much audio stuff like big receivers and especially loud speakers are heavy or bulky and therefore expensive to ship. Many eBay sellers specify local pickup.

I find the best selection of amps, receivers and speakers at pawn shops but prices are normally market as these are pros.

Charlie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom