How many secondhand sources do you have?

**nuisance26** · 04-30-2010, 07:26 AM

~I've been thinking about this all week because I actually have so much available to me that I don't take advantage of.
In my county there is a Goodwill, a Salvation Army, two independent thrift stores(that I know of), a Flea Market, seasonal yard sales, a couple of antique/junk shops,Craigslist and Freecycle.
I generally stick to 6-8 yard sale weekends, 6 trips to my favorite thrift store and 4 trips or so to Goodwill every year. I used to do Freecycle but got frustrated with Yahoo Groups and the fact that I never seemed to get the items I could have really used.
I really want to branch out more this year. Who know what treasures I may find?
How many options do you have?~

**frugalwarrior2** · 04-30-2010, 07:36 AM

I do all those plus ESTATESALES.net and there are auction resources too. Of course ebay and all the used book sites. Our local paper is a great source. Our area has a schedule of church mom to mom resales. These are in valuable when you have small children. Call a local church.
I map out the subsales in our local paper. I have gone so much they expect me.
Library sales are great. I call all the local libraries and put the sale dates on my calendar.
For the most part everything I buy is used. For example our coffee pot died. Our coffee maker was from Sams Club and not size compatible. I bought a new maker from Costco. $29.99 then got 2 NIP pots from Salvation. $2.99 and $6.99. So now I'm set for a long while. It has a permanenet filter so I double scored.

**Pemberleyan** · 04-30-2010, 08:28 AM

When I was younger and lived in a larger town, I used to be a serious yard-saler. Now I just don't need that much and I live in a very rural county. There is no craigslist or freecycle. I go to a large thrift store several times a year when we shop in a nearby county, as well as a consignment shop.

**Debbie-cat** · 04-30-2010, 10:12 AM

We only have SA (which is very expensive here) a Goodwill, craigslist, freecycle which is useless unless you want to sit on that site ALL day, and garage sales. Nothing else but I don't need anything and when I do, I seem to have the best luck at Goodwill.

**krbshappy71** · 04-30-2010, 10:20 AM

We have tons. Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Arc Thriftstore, Salvation Army, "The Funky Monkey" and about three other junk-shops downtown. (not claiming to be antique, just thrifty shops) flea markets, garage sales galore, Freecycle group for our town, annnnd...I think that's it.

*wait just remembered, we have Day-Old bakery shop and an Esch's Discount Grocery shop too*

**Palooka** · 04-30-2010, 10:34 AM

We have a few Goodwill, Salvation Army and a few independent ones and Savers too. Our Craigslist is pretty good.

**Neeley** · 04-30-2010, 10:43 AM

We live in a large city. Not only is it large size wise, it is also heavily populated. Here's a basic idea of what we have:

Salvation Army: They moved it to a part of town I won't go into so it's a big fat no-way.

Goodwill: There are two. One on my side of town. It has limited inventory, mainly clothes, and smells like stinky feet. I go in there about twice a year. But, never find anything. They send all of the "good" stuff to the other location. The other location is located on a road known for drugs and prostitutes so I don't go there either.

Habitat For Humanity Store: Not a bad store, just all the way across town - which is a 20 minutes drive - so I don't get there much.

Antique/Consignment Stores: There are a bunch. A couple of them are huge - one is a three story building. There are also a few smaller ones. All in all I think we have around 15 to 20 of them.

Yard Sales: Yard sales go all year around here. Any given weekend we will have between 50-150 sales around our city.

The Bulletin Board:We have a publication called The Bulletin Board that comes out every Thursday. Citizens can run ads for free for anything from advertising a yard sale, church sale, estate sale; items for sale like cars, houses, toys, animals, jewelry, furniture - absolutely anything. It is by far a better resource than the newspaper for secondhand items.

Flea Markets: Flea Market day is the first Saturday of every month, except January and February. We have one called Santuck that is one of the country's top flea markets. Then there are lots of other smaller ones that have followed in Santuck's footsteps, but are just not as big or well known.

Estate Sales(real ones - not a glorified yard sale): There are three companies that handle estate sales. They each have 1 - 2 sales a month.

Freecycle:We have two FC groups. I am a member, but do not really participate. I am more of a giver and not taker in the FC world.

Other:
*We have 3 different (each run by a different person/business) kids/baby sales that come for a week each twice a year in September and March
*The Junior League has an annual flea market/yard sale in March.

**YankeeMom** · 04-30-2010, 11:47 AM

We have:
~Salvation Army
~The Thrifty Shopper
~Urban Mission Thrift Shop
~Freecycle & Craigslist
~several independently owned consignment shops (usually more expensive than the thrift stores)
~yard sale season
~estate auction season (my favorite)

**frugalfranny** · 04-30-2010, 12:44 PM

I am lucky in that I have so many options I haven't used them all. But I don't need much. I keep a list of what I need and just use stores in the valley.

In the valley we have : Goodwill, Value Village (high $), Salvation Army, and one called Classy Rack that I really like. We also have some 'close out' stores for kitchen/groc. type things.

In town we have all the above mentioned, plus more, and I seldom get to them. The Goodwill is huge and has a consignment store next door. Went to that Goodwill a month or so ago. I like it and go once or twice a year.

**Teresa T** · 05-03-2010, 09:28 PM

We have a great PAWS thrift shop. Clean, great stuff and great prices. Volunteer run.

A small volunteer run local charity shop. It's been in the same spot for years. Clean and good prices.

There are other shops but I stick mostly to these two. Goodwill closed a few years ago in this area. Salvation Army is just too expensive for clothes. (we actually have 3) Good place for dishes though.

A town in the hills about 20+ minutes away has an awesome consignment/estate clearance shop. Really good prices. Family run. Nice people known to be animal lovers and they have found homes for many pets over the years.

**bast** · 05-05-2010, 12:54 PM

Neeley, I think you live close to me, and I've used most of those same sources at one time or the other. Unfortunately, I've lived around here for 11 years and still haven't made it to Santuck, but I've been meaning to go forever!

I'm pretty fearless about what parts of town I go into during the day, so I don't mind the occasional trip to that one Goodwill and that one Salvation Army....but my errands tend to take me closer to the other Goodwill, and I've had mixed results there. There's another Goodwill and a Salvation Army closer to where I live, too...they are both pretty small with a limited selection, but I've found random goodies at both places on occasion. There's also a Faith Rescue Mission where I've found some good stuff, but they are a bit more expensive than either Goodwill or Salvation Army.

There's one particular flea market that I really like, but it tends to cost me more money than it saves if I spend too much time there!

I also go to some of the kids' consignment sales around the area. They're not so great if you have older kids/teenagers, but for kids my boys' ages (4 and 6), there's always something.

I tend to shop at thrift stores when I'm going to be out of town anyway...like the huge Goodwill near where my parents live, and the big Goodwill and Salvation Army near my grandparents.

I would kill for a Value Village here.

**imagine** · 05-05-2010, 01:13 PM

Some people don't think of second hand stuff at retail stores but retail sometimes sells used stuff also.

Like my daughter is going to sell a ds game she is finished with to Game Stop when she is planning on buying a used game.

A book/music store in town bought used movies, CD, and books and sold them at a great discount price.

The video store sells their used movies, games etc. The kids bought some X box games there for $1.99.

Local used book store in town also.

**nuisance26** · 05-05-2010, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by imagine

Some people don't think of second hand stuff at retail stores but retail sometimes sells used stuff also.

Like my daughter is going to sell a ds game she is finished with to Game Stop when she is planning on buying a used game.

A book/music store in town bought used movies, CD, and books and sold them at a great discount price.

The video store sells their used movies, games etc. The kids bought some X box games there for $1.99.

Local used book store in town also.

~Great point! I'd forgotten about the used dvd's and games at Gamestop. We also have a used bookstore but the prices are astronomically high.

~

**bumplett** · 05-05-2010, 04:18 PM

let's see......

we have:

Goodwill
4 local church run thrift stores
year round yard sales, but spring & summer are the bulk
craigslist
freecycle
discount bakery
salvage grocery
gamestop
2 used book stores
2 consignment stores (one is kids clothes only)
2 large churches do kids consignment sales twice/year

I think that's it.... for those that need the extra help, there are also numerous church run food pantries, we also will give out pet food to those that may need it at our shelter.