Thrift store raid

Sounds like you hit the hiker jackpot there. The thrift stores around here just have ratty old sweaters & used wally world junk for the most part. Once in a while you can find something classy like JC Penney's or Sears.

Your thrift stores ain't nothing like the ones we've got around here, that's for sure! Now, I'm just jealous :(

Tom

micropuff?! wow. What a find! I do pretty well at the thrift shops here in Columbus, OH (of all places). I've posted on the other thrifting thread, but more recently I've found another pair of marmot precip pants ($2), a golite wind breaker made of epic ($3), and a striped patagonia poly shirt ($6). Oh, and a hooded softshell jacket for $6.

I forgot the pair of Dr Dean Adair 2.5 reading glasses ;)

I left behind two pairs of Patagonia Baggies– they were the old style. Then again, I did get a pair of prAna Mojo shorts new with the tags for $5 last week. I wasn't big on the color, but they will be my go to hiking shorts next summer :)

It's weird, sometimes the cornucopia just opens up and you find a load of stuff in one store or all in one day. I really was looking for a light insulation layer and a quality point and shoot– I guess I got those boxes filled!

C'mon Dale, you know it's all about me. You could have just dropped those Baggies in the post pack to keep the pants company!!

Getting a bit excited now, figuring either tomorrow or Mon. Then I'll be able to stand up in my avatar.

Rod

Now you're just bragging :P

Tom

That was a great haul, for sure. It pays to live in an area with a lot of outdoorspeople. The most exciting thing I've found lately was a 1-liter Platy with sport cap for 25 cents. This was in that most unathletic of places, Woonsocket, RI. They didn't know what to do with it in the thrift shop, so they put it in with the curtain hardware, soap dishes and air filters. :-D

And forgive me for doing so but last week Todd and I spotted a free pile across the street from our house (on a busy street in Wallingford). We weren't the first ones there so who knows what we missed, but that garnered 12 MSR stoves (4 dragonflies,1 international, 1 pocket rocket,3 say EX,a few still ?), 2 MSR pots (heavy but we also car camp), 1 OR brimmed cap w/ detatchable sun shield plus another mesh version of the same (not OR). waterproof map bag and a couple stove stuffbags and maintenance kits. Since we now have so many stoves to tinker with (all have evidence of less than perfect storage, although some are very nice), I picked up three free MSR fuel bottles (old logo) and an old Sigg for FREE from the craigslist.com free column [where last year I scored a Whisperlite International (old valve), fuel tank, trillium, and a (rather plain but near mint) tent from a new young pregnant couple who didn't want redundant gear].

Mother of god linsey, I live in Wallingford, how could I have missed that? Obviously I havce to start "taking the dog for walks" more often.

I got a pair of used once Leki Explorer trekking poles for $10 at a garage sale. For climbing booty – that means FREE – and free totally beats all your cheap deals that you still had to pay for, I've pulled in a pink tricam, #2 tricam, #10 abc nut, wild country friend #3.5 (all of which are currently in use, I've gotten other pro not good enough to use, and a Metolius #2 that has a broken strand in the main cable, so it is only for easy aid) plus loads and loads of carabiners, including a Chouinard reverse locker that I sold on Ebay for close to $30 as a collecter's item.

I haven't had too much luck at thrift stores though, as far as gear goes. But I always look.

Went to one of my favorite local thrift stores today for a quick look while running errands and spotted a Highgear Altitech watch/compass/altimeter with no price tag on it. The cashier ran it by the manager and came back with a price of 69 cents! Got it home, popped in a fresh battery and it works like a charm. It goes for $99 at Campmor!

Now I have to read the 23 page PDF I downloaded….

I think we all need to raid Dale's Thrift store!!!!
Yet I was surprised to find here on Maui the other day
at my local thrift shop:
REI Thermal Top and Bottoms for my granddaughter
Hi-Tec Hiking Boots again for the 7 yr old
Hiking pants forgot which brand, but the convertible kind
A Columbia Snow suit for my baby granddaughter as well.

It's there now and then…but you have to be willing to spend hours finding it!!

Hint: Spend one day looking at it all, then just pop in from time to time and you can spot the newest additions quickly.

Hey, isn't this branch for gear-deal alerts? How's listing out your thrift shop purchases supposed to benefit anyone?

And dammit, no, I am NOT jealous at all. My face is just naturally green… :)

Well, yes, it is bragging. And I am trying to make a few points in the process.

*You don't need to spend thousands to get decent gear.

*It is good to recycle and there's no better way than recycling material in it's primary form.

*The profits do help support programs for the disabled and work training.

*And I don't brag about the everyday things (note how many months old this thread is), but when I find something for 0.5% of its original cost, I mean, GEEZ BEN I GOTTA TELL SOMEONE :)

Other than that today, I got a pair of new-with-the-tags REI Sahara shorts for my daughter for $5, an REI polyester running shell for $6, a pair of Rail Rider pants for $6, a pair of Patagonia nylon climbing pants for $5 and a ton of other stuff that has nothing to do with UL hiking. You should see me in the Evan Picone tortise shell sunglasses I got for 99 cents– I could kick *** on Project Runway!

Dang, Dale! Which thrift shop(s) do you go to? I have two or three reasonably close by, but they never have anything worthwhile — just tons of cotton tees and sweats, old juicers and coffee makers, and wall-to-wall yellowed paperbacks… :(

Keep in mind, I'm surrounded with outdoor folk and Seattle is the HQ for outfits like:

REI

Outdoor Research

Cascade Designs:
MSR
Thermarest
Platypus
Sealine

Filson

K2 and all its subsidiaries

Ex Officio

Seattle Sports Company

Gerry

And I'll bet there are 20 others I don't know about.

Then you have all the Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and dozens of other hi-techs with their serfs trying to make up for the 60 hour weeks at the keyboard. And they shed toys like leaves.

I've seen quite a few threads like this over the years here and on TLB … if these thrift stores are like ours then they're run by volunteers for charities supporting good causes.

If they sell you a Contax camera worth probably $300 even second hand for a few dollars, or something worth $99 for 69 cents mostly because they just don't know the true value of what they're selling, aren't you just ripping off a good cause? Why not offer them $50 or $100? You'd still be ahead since it's cheaper than retail or what you'd pay on eBay and the good cause would have received the value that the donor probably intended them to have.

What is the ethics of doing that and then BOASTING about it?

Actually, the one I got the altimeter at is a for-profit outfit that buys good by the pound from local charities. Outfits like Goodwill actually get more stuff than they can sell. A lot of the clothing gets bundled and sold for rags.

I've also seen stuff that was priced totally out of reason, but that's part of the deal.

Is there an ethical issue? I see your point, but the draw— and the game– is bargain hunting. And I have thrown out some stuff because it had defects I didn't notice, or funky smells that wouldn't wash out, or just didn't work. It ain't Nordstrom's and this stuff doesn't come with a guarantee, so I'm absorbing the risk too. I have a Kodak digital camera sitting on my desk that quits after 30 seconds and is a write off. I bought a Bogen tripod the other day that turned out to have a damaged casting and I ended up selling it as parts on Ebay.

So I'll brag that I have spent hundreds of dollars in the last year helping to support these organizations. When I was selling on Ebay as part of my business I spent thousands– no joke.

"And I have thrown out some stuff because it had defects I didn't notice, or funky smells that wouldn't wash out, or just didn't work. It ain't Nordstrom's and this stuff doesn't come with a guarantee, so I'm absorbing the risk too."

Fair enough with something like a camera, personally I'd presume a Contax in an op shop was probably dodgy – but what was the risk with the Micropuff or the knife?

"So I'll brag that I have spent hundreds of dollars in the last year helping to support these organizations."

If you want to support these organisations why not pay more and therefore support them more?

Enough. Take it to chaff.

Hmmm, well, if you're going to go down that road, how then you might as well take on the original prices that the manufacturers' ask for, especially for stuff made by a company like Patagonia that touts itself as being "ethical", but which asks for absurd prices. First you have to look at how much it costs to actually produce such gear, then look at the ethicality of what is an acceptable rate for pricing and making a profit, and finally at the ecological footprint of producing anything that doesn't directly benefit the environment and at the same time the monetary cost of getting rid of products that have become trash. Few companies think beyond their products going out the store door; most certainly not at the cost of destroying, reducing, or recycling all that garbage.

Hi Miguel

As Dale suggested I took this to chaff.