I was so excited to find these vintage items while I was out thrifting the other day ~ it was really a case of hidden treasure! There aren’t big baskets of fabulous sewing notions, or the $1.00 Bakelite bangles casually hiding amongst the plastic junk ~ no, true vintage pickings in Aussie thrift store are very slim to say the least.
Actually, I’ve noticed that this seems to becoming an rather alarming trend. Less vintage & poorer quality items + inflated prices seems to be hitting other charity shops overseas, not just here on my home turf. A couple of UK and American blogs I read have commented on the increasing difficulty in finding decent stuff for a reasonable price at the local thrift store. I don’t know whether it’s all the vintage sellers to blame; are they scooping up anything and everything remotely saleable and leaving us with the scraps? Or is it the vintage trend, meaning that more Jo Blowettes are shopping around leaving less merchandise to browse from?
Either way, it’s rather hard on those with vintage style aspirations and slender pocket books, and I really wish things would change, but I hardly think that that is going to happen anytime soon. So in the mean time, I will enjoy what treasures I do manage to dig up.
And to be fair, I suppose that’s part of the thrill of the chase! It does make thrifting a lot more interesting when you never know if you are going to find anything good or not.
What do you think m’dears? Can you still discover good finds? Any tricks for hunting down the best bargains? I am always on the look out for a good thrift tip!
xox,
bonita
Well, I can't speak for the country as a whole, but I have a fair idea of why the op shops in my area might not have any nice stuff: they would have been cleaned out by the Year 12 students at my work as they hunted for outrageous outfits to wear at dinner on their retreat, thanks to the theme of "Op Shop Chic". Although, recalling some of the outfits, I couldn't actually say they were the higher quality items...
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