My Thrift Scores: A Top 10 List

by Danica
(Thiensville, Wisconsin)

The Best Thrift I've Ever Found.... As a child I went garage sailing with my parents, and as a university student I worked at Value Village.

Here is a list of the best stuff I have ever found.

10. A cast recording of Hair in Hebrew!

9. A orange and brown striped velor shirt. It was my signature shirt, and I layered it over a long underwear shirt.

8. A brown vintage ballgown with a jewel clasp. I wore it on Halloween, and my boyfriend wore one of my Army surplus jackets.

7. A really cool patch work quilt at a flea market. I was looking for one and I found one (of many). My initial one was falling apart, so my Mom replaced it with another patch work, a beautiful orange and yellow one on the condition I threw out my first one. My parents also bought me a beautiful reversible patch work quilt (traditional squares, black and gold on the other side) for 50 dollars from a lady who sold them out of her trailer.

6. At a university book sale I once bought a book for 2 bucks that had 40 dollars of movie theater gift certificates tucked inside.

5. As a kid I loved Archie comic books. They were my favorite thing to look for at yard sales and I loved finding them in cardboard boxes at garage sales, and were usually 25 cents. I had a collection of over 100 of them. My favorites were the vintage ones from the 70s.

4. My sister-in-law carried home a nice bookshelf from a yard sale. I had it for years before I upgraded.

3. This isn't exactly a thrift store, but I made a dream discovery in a Ross (deep discount department store.) I found a pair of Sienna fit Paper Denim and Cloth jeans for 10 dollars. I kept going back to the store (in Homestead, FL), and trying in vain to squeeze into a size 8, but on my last visit before having to go back home, they had a pair of size 10! I did an aisle happy dance.

2. An oil painting of ab orange flower landscape. This painting caught my eye at a liquidators (a store that specialized in both used items and liquidated stock). I loved it and my mom bought it for me, it was like 25 bucks. It proudly hangs in my living room. The guy at the store (called the Junk a roo!) told me he found it a bed and breakfast that went out of business.

1. Green suede shoes from Roots. I've never bought used shoes before, but these were never worn, but still very worn. A boy in my class complimented me on them. That boy was my future husband. I later learned he never ever looked at shoes, but those caught his eye.