Back Before Thrifting was ruined

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Bearcat22

New Member
Used to be you could find inexpensive and even rare things in thrift shops. Predatory resellers and desperate upper middle class
shoppers have ruined that forever.

Years ago I took up the hobby of playing board games, and sometimes wanted to try one but could not find it still in print or could
not afford to buy it, so I started buying games at thrift shops.....something a person got as a gift, sat in a closet for years and finally donated.3
Some real hidden gems.

Then I took up the hobby of making my own copycat versions of out of print or expensive games by hand, very rewarding and fun. The website BoardGameGeek has wonderful
advice and resources to help you do this if you're interested.
 
Bearcat22 said:
Used to be you could find inexpensive and even rare things in thrift shops. Predatory resellers and desperate upper middle class
shoppers have ruined that forever.

Years ago I took up the hobby of playing board games, and sometimes wanted to try one but could not find it still in print or could
not afford to buy it, so I started buying games at thrift shops.....something a person got as a gift, sat in a closet for years and finally donated.3
Some real hidden gems.

Then I took up the hobby of making my own copycat versions of out of print or expensive games by hand, very rewarding and fun. The website BoardGameGeek has wonderful
advice and resources to help you do this if you're interested.
Click to expand...
I feel this. I love to sew and when the kids were small I used to go thrift shopping for clothes to cut up for the fabric. Now, that's a trend and the stores get swamped with people emptying the racks as soon as the stores open. I went recently looking for fabrics to use for sewing clothes for my Barbies and the sales girl there talked to me a bit about her frustration with this.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted, anyway. (I did manage to find some nice fabrics that day; not a lot is needed for Barbie's clothes.)
 
Medusa said:
I feel this. I love to sew and when the kids were small I used to go thrift shopping for clothes to cut up for the fabric. Now, that's a trend and the stores get swamped with people emptying the racks as soon as the stores open. I went recently looking for fabrics to use for sewing clothes for my Barbies and the sales girl there talked to me a bit about her frustration with this.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted, anyway. (I did manage to find some nice fabrics that day; not a lot is needed for Barbie's clothes.)
Click to expand...

Greed is destroying the world. Private Equity is killing off places such such as Jo Ann fabrics, where you used to be able to buy remants for cheap.

I am age 64 now and I remember my stay at home mom making and mending clothes on her sewing machine that had been passed on from my grand mother. Butterick patterns and a fabric store in Concord NH, I think it was called Britts.
This was before the era of dirt cheap imported clothing. When people consciously bought "made in America".

In the early seventies, the high school my older sister went to changed it's dress code and girls could wear pants. My mom sewed my sister a polyester leisure suit to wear, and she got her photo in the paper as the first girl not to wear a skirt to school.
Girl Scouts used to teach girls how to sew.......if they even still exist now, what do they teach? How to get a tattoo and a nose ring?
Do girls even play with dolls any more?
 
Bearcat22 said:
Greed is destroying the world. Private Equity is killing off places such such as Jo Ann fabrics, where you used to be able to buy remants for cheap.

I am age 64 now and I remember my stay at home mom making and mending clothes on her sewing machine that had been passed on from my grand mother. Butterick patterns and a fabric store in Concord NH, I think it was called Britts.
This was before the era of dirt cheap imported clothing. When people consciously bought "made in America".

In the early seventies, the high school my older sister went to changed it's dress code and girls could wear pants. My mom sewed my sister a polyester leisure suit to wear, and she got her photo in the paper as the first girl not to wear a skirt to school.
Girl Scouts used to teach girls how to sew.......if they even still exist now, what do they teach? How to get a tattoo and a nose ring?
Do girls even play with dolls any more?
Click to expand...
I was sad when our Jo Ann's closed. :( Loved that store.

I was a Girl Scout Troop leader for my daughter and what we taught was kindness and friendship, mostly.

I play with dolls so, yeah, they do. ;)

That must have been fun for your sister (and your mom). :)

Welcome to SF.
 
Bearcat22 said:
Girl Scouts used to teach girls how to sew.......if they even still exist now, what do they teach?
Click to expand...
Current badges one can earn include...
  • STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math): Space Science, Robotics, Coding, Cybersecurity, Automotive Engineering, and STEM Career Exploration.
  • Outdoors: Camping, hiking, nature observation, horseback riding, archery, paddling, and tree studies.
  • Life Skills: First Aid, cooking, personal finance (budgeting/investing), and sewing.
  • Entrepreneurship: Cookie business, marketing, and innovation.
  • Civics & Global Action: Local government, democracy, global community, and environmental protection.
  • Arts & Humanities: Digital arts, photography, painting, and digital storytelling.

    But the Scouts really didn't "teach" anything. It was not school with a professional teacher.
    It was more about team-building and camaraderie, and how to be a good citizen.
 
hearlady said:
Our local thrift store that I shopped at for over 30 yrs closed. Ok for me, I have everything I need but young people starting out won't be able to benefit like I did.
I miss Joanne's too!
Click to expand...
Young people used to get set up with things their grandparents no longer needed, or they got married and set up house with practical
wedding gifts.
 
I used to scour the thrift shops for various little luxuries and necessities but stopped when Covid hit.

I agree that competition has increased, more people chasing fewer quality items but the deals are still there and IMO it’s still a level playing field for those willing sacrifice their time.

In my case, I’ve found that it’s actually cheaper for me to use my imagination and improvise with the things that I already have and buy a very few new things if I really can’t come up with an acceptable solution.
 
asp3 said:
If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend the boardgamearena site. They have lots of board games online and you can almost always find people to play them there.
Click to expand...
thank you, great suggestion. I've always appreciated the tactile factor. When 'Eurogames" came on the scene, I was so impressed by the quality of the physical components, how nice it was to use them and look at them.
Europeans for the most part don't make disposable trash, they build things to last because they cant afford to live a lemming American lifestyle.
Almost all of the American economy relies on Consumer Spending.
 
I would argue that thrift stores are either closing or raising prices to a point of self-destruction is because Goodwill Industries went all industrial and bought a bunch of them out, forcing smaller ones to close - nothing to do with predatory resellers and a desperate upper middle class; just the greed of a charitable industry wanting to become a massive, self-profiting industry.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I used to scour the thrift shops for various little luxuries and necessities but stopped when Covid hit.

I agree that competition has increased, more people chasing fewer quality items but the deals are still there and IMO it’s still a level playing field for those willing sacrifice their time.

In my case, I’ve found that it’s actually cheaper for me to use my imagination and improvise with the things that I already have and buy a very few new things if I really can’t come up with an acceptable solution.
Click to expand...

The deals are still there, you say.....yes, the con man is still dealing out the game of Three Card Monte with marketing.

It is irrefutable that durability and reliabilty are vanishing. Nothing is worth anything if it breaks soon after purchase. Read Amazon one star reviews, low quality is an epidemic.

The deals are still there, you say.....this reminds me of going to parties in the eighties and people talking about buying things and bragging that they found it somewhere for less money...without any regard to whether or not it was worth ANY amount of money.
They were caught up in the lie of hunting for "deals".
 
Murrmurr said:
I would argue that thrift stores are either closing or raising prices to a point of self-destruction is because Goodwill Industries went all industrial and bought a bunch of them out, forcing smaller ones to close - nothing to do with predatory resellers and a desperate upper middle class; just the greed of a charitable industry wanting to become a massive, self-profiting industry.
Click to expand...
Thank you for mentioning that, it is a factor. Go into a goodwill and it no longer looks like volunteer run, it is the simolar to a Target or Walmart in look and feel.
That said, go onto Facebook Marketplace to try to sell something in my region and you will be deluged with predators who can barely speak English trying to nag and bully you into selling for less so they can resell it at a profit. I dont' care if their ancestors did this for centuries it's creepy to me. What part of the phrase "The price is non negotible" in the ad do they not understand, but you can't say anything now becusse that is considered "racist" if they don't speak English.
 
Bearcat22 said:
... Go into a goodwill and it no longer looks like volunteer run, it is the simolar to a Target or Walmart in look and feel.
That said, go onto Facebook Marketplace to try to sell something in my region and you will be deluged with predators who can barely speak English
Click to expand...
Two separate issues, but, I agree, both predatory. Best bear in mind the wise old sayings about so-called bargains. There are several of them.
 
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