Charity Shops

[Captain Crunch]

I can't believe there hasn't been a thread about charity shops on here before.  Maybe if this one sinks like a turd I'll find out why.

But it's a simple pleasure isn't it, wandering around your local charity shop, fingering through the old records, standing with your head to one side to read all the book titles, daring to stick your hand to the bottom of that scary linen basket hoping to find some fully fashioned stockings.  What self-respecting tightwad would be without it?

Just today for example I got a few books including a book about London in the 1940's written by this spiffing chap:



and another one called 'Line Upon Line - Earliest Religious Instruction The Infant Mind Is Capable Of Receiving'.  I bet I still won't understand it though.

Anyway, it's not just the swag it's the little window into other people's lives - "They threw away this perfectly good Bluetones t-shirt?!" or "oh no, someone had to donate half the series of Car Craft, I hope they didn't die just before issue 46."  Boot sales are the same but even worse because if you disagree with someone's decision to buy or sell an item they're standing right there so you better keep a poker face just in case. 

Of course every great thing is not without its downside*.  Some charity shops inflate prices to such an extend it can become higher than original selling price.  Madness.  I also once heard a vicious rumour that Oxfam employs someone to go through all the books and records they have in then check if they can get a fat profit for them on eBay / amazon.  Ok, they want as much money as possible for the cause, great, but it removes the thrill of finding treasure for everyone else.  A selfish attitude I know.

^{*(except oral)}

Your turn now - please share your experiences by boasting about the top finds you've come across and mentioning any great shops near you which might be worth a visit.

Thanks.

[The Widow of Brid]

The Amnesty International book shop on Gloucester Road in Bristol is fab, anything and everything seems to come through there and there's a nice mix between dirt cheap charity shop tat and slightly more expensive (but still reasonable) books in good nick.
It's also mostly staffed by mad old women, which is the bare minimum I expect from a charity shop.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I absolutely love them too, recently I've managed to pick up Misty's Big Adventure's Funny Times for 50p, the first three Belle and Sebastian cds for a pound each, and the Tv Go Home book for 75p. For some reason I can't buy clothes from them though, it's not like I look down on anyone who does in any way*, but I just don't like the idea at all of wearing second hand stuff.

I also once heard a vicious rumour that Oxfam employs someone to go through all the books and records they have in then check if they can get a fat profit for them on eBay / amazon.  Ok, they want as much money as possible for the cause, great, but it removes the thrill of finding treasure for everyone else.  A selfish attitude I know.

That's definitely the case for some charity shops, a friend puts in an afternoon a week at one and someone comes in every Tuesday at hers to go through the stock.

* That said, the sight of women buying second hand knickers at car boot sales always seems a bit grim to me.

Edit: I forgot to mention I paid £2 for the first ever Leisure Larry game last week. Though that's probably something to be less than proud about.

[23 Daves]

I absolutely love them too, recently I've managed to pick up Misty's Big Adventure's Funny Times for 50p

What?!  That's an insult, it's only been out since November!

Charity shops are fantastic for flop glam rock singles, I find - ones from 1976 that barely charted and seemed hopelessly dated even at the time.  I picked up a great one from Oxfam called "Interplanetary Twist" by a band called Screemer, and it's pure Creme Brulee.  "Now people of the twenty first century ain't never seen a rock and roller!"  I've never seen a picture of the band, but I really, really hope they all dressed in silver space suits.  Of course, it worked its way on to a glam rock compilation Cherry Red put out much later.

I've also picked up the Inspiral Carpets self-released demo tape from an Oxfam in Walthamstow - fuck knows how the hell that ended up all the way down here, but presumably it was dumped by a local music journo or record company A&R man.  I'm not too sure what I've done with that since.

It has to be said that whilst the Oxfam in Walthamstow is huge, it's also a bit smelly and filled with stained sportswear, romantic novels and fifties easy listening LPs, so I very rarely see anything I want in there. 

[Jackson K Pollock]

I absolutely love them too, recently I've managed to pick up Misty's Big Adventure's Funny Times for 50p, the first three Belle and Sebastian cds for a pound each, and the Tv Go Home book for 75p. For some reason I can't buy clothes from them though, it's not like I look down on anyone who does in any way*, but I just don't like the idea at all of wearing second hand stuff.

That's definitely the case for some charity shops, a friend puts in an afternoon a week at one and someone comes in every Tuesday at hers to go through the stock.

* That said, the sight of women buying second hand knickers at car boot sales always seems a bit grim to me.

Edit: I forgot to mention I paid £2 for the first ever Leisure Larry game last week. Though that's probably something to be less than proud about.

Now that's a bargain - currently going from £34.99 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tv+go+home&Go.x=10&Go.y=8 - and that's second hand!

and the only one I could find on e-Bay is already up to £13!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Blimey, I might have to sell that then, as I've read it now and whilst it was enjoyable enough I can't see myself ever re-reading it.

As for the Misty's cd, I didn't realise it was that new, that makes me even happier about the bargain. And I've been to the Oxfam in Walthamstowe Daves, and found the charity shop's in the area generally a bit poor, though I've picked up the odd bargain in the Cash Converter's round the corner from Oxfam from time to time.

[Futurebobbers]

Oh, it's a terrible time for second hand goods.

Oxfam definitely scan their items on the net - a book I bought there had its eBay, Amazon and ABEbooks prices jotted on the inside cover in pencil. The dedicated Oxfam bookshops are ridiculously expensive. I know it's for charity, but I still can't bring myself to spend £4-5 on a well used paperback bestseller, especially when Publisher's Outlet or Tesco often have the same books brand new for less.

The Age Concern near my house has recently banned all electrical items, which is a shame because it's where most of mine originated. A nearly new VCR for £15, a big television for £20 and countless small gadgets. I also got a year's worth of Word/Uncut cover CDs for £5, about the cost of one magazine. They were all sealed. Who buys those magazines and doesn't open the CD?

There aren't even any car boot sales around here anymore. The two giant ones have closed, and the last one I went to was awful. All the decent stuff goes on eBay and they bring the junk to the car boot. I used to drive ten minutes to the local sale and I could fill the car with old phones, old cameras, a valve radio or two and tonne of CDs, LPs and videos for less than £30.

All gone now.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Surrey's still pretty good for car boot sales in the summer, Epsom has a huge one at the Hook Road Arena which I've picked up lots of bargains at, and there's some other good (if slightly smaller) ones in the area in general. The only good one I've found in London was at Wimbledon, but it takes about an hour and a half to get too from my place in Kilburn so I rarely bother with it.

[Hank_Kingsley]

I got £45 squid for my copy of the TV Go Home book, I've got a spare copy as well.

Ah, some cats got more money than sense.

What I want to know is, where were these people when they were being sold for £3 at Fopp?

[Famous Mortimer]

I got £45 squid for my copy of the TV Go Home book, I've got a spare copy as well.

Ah, some cats got more money than sense.

What I want to know is, where were these people when they were being sold for £3 at Fopp?

Shite, I didn't know they were that cheap.

[Hank_Kingsley]

It's like a license to print money!

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I lost my copy, I'm really pissed off about it!

[Galeee]

I can't resist charity shops - it's the element of serendipity, also combining the smug virtues of being charitable & recycling stuff with being unashamedly tight. My black cashmere coat, from Harrods of all places, cost me £5 & I picked up a boxed set of Syd Barret CDs recently for £4.

They're quite cheap in the rural area where I live, even the Oxfam bookshop, where paperbacks are around £2. I wish they didn't mark up the art books so much; they're out of my price range.

[Artemis]

Earlier on last year I threw out vast loads of my property because I couldn't go travelling with them and didn't want to pay for storage. I threw the whole lot out without thinking about it. Referencing it casually at work, several people were utterly horrified that I didn't take any of it to a charity shop. The though simply never occured to me, and in hindsight I do actually feel enormously crap about it. One particularly social-conscienced colleague didn't make eye contact with me ever again for the rest of the time I worked there.

[Don_Preston]

I got a lovely tweed jacket from one in Frome for £9 not long ago.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

There is a bloody massive British Heart Foundation shop on Victoria Road in Aldershot, possibly the biggest charity shop I have ever seen.  It's on the site of the old Co-Op supermarket, which may or may not give you an idea of its size.  It sells tons of electrical goods and looks like a Dixons inside.

Really can't blame charity shops for attempting to price stuff at the going rate, no matter how bad it might seem if you just want to pick up cheap shit.  This goes for classic vinyl and stuff like that especially, charity shops used to get fleeced a fair bit by record collecting experts (like Danny Baker for instance - he kept going on about charity shops employing record experts on this radio show and how there were no bargains to be had any more).

Picked up Don Delillo's 'Underworld', John Updike's 'Brazil' and James Ellroy's 'White Jazz' for £6.50 from the Oxfam bookshop at the top of the High Street yesterday which is a more than reasonable deal.

[rudi]

I've also picked up the Inspiral Carpets self-released demo tape from an Oxfam in Walthamstow - fuck knows how the hell that ended up all the way down here, but presumably it was dumped by a local music journo or record company A&R man.  I'm not too sure what I've done with that since.

If you were to come across it in the near future I'll happily bite your hand off for it. They're my weakness...

[trotsky assortment]

I visit all of the chairy shops in my town on a weekly basis.  Once a week, I jump in the car and go to a different town.  I'm mainly on the lookout for CDs and occasionally books.  I've picked up some top bargains.

[Anon]

Picked up Don Delillo's 'Underworld', John Updike's 'Brazil' and James Ellroy's 'White Jazz' for £6.50 from the Oxfam bookshop at the top of the High Street yesterday which is a more than reasonable deal.

'king hell, you'd be fortunate to get one of those for that price at the Oxfam where I am!  It's a shame, because they've had a few nice things in there before but for far more than you'd be willing to pay (a Cabaret Volitare album on vinyl for a tenner stands out in my mind) - I'm very much in agreement with the "Oxfam are overpriced" crowd here.

[The Plaque Goblin]

If everybody who worked in charity shops got mininum wage jobs instead and donated their earnings, would they generate more or less money?

[thugler]

I used to like them, mostly to hunt for vinyl. But recently they seem to have worked out the proper price for everything and there are zero bargains.

[chocky909]

My local charity shop in Peckham is trying to sell a season of Friends on VHS (5 tapes I think) 2nd hand for £10. You can get any single season brand new on DVD for less than that. See?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

My mate told me that charity shops are for stinking losers.

[Go With The Flow]

I worked in a charity shop for a bit, the one I worked in did look for some stuff on eBay/Abebooks etc - but only the stuff they thought might be really rare, they weren't arsed doing it with every book/CD/LP that came in. They also tended to put the decent-brand clothes on eBay. I have managed to get a few bargains from various shops though, such as Weezer's self titled (Blue Album) and New Found Glory's self titled for £3 each.

Liverpool doesn't tend to have any decent car boot sales though, although they are great for selling stuff - me and a mate managed to get a load of VHSs and Cassette tapes sold for £25 a pop (as in, the lot of them rather than each) - saved us a lot of time selling them singularly. When we arrived and started setting up, they came at us like bargain hunting zombies, it was horrible!

[jennifer]

http://dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com/

I really like this blog, that reviews music solely from the tape bin in Dalston Oxfam.

Today in Oxfam, I bought Chuck Palahniuk's Fugitives and Refugees and a card with a small polar bear looking out of a big polar bear's legs for my mum for mother's day.

The other day from Cancer Research in Crouch End, I got a 3.1 Philip Lim dress for £15 which is fucking stupid money for a charity shop but admittedly it's made of cashmere and worth about £350 quid, woo http://www.matchesfashion.com/catalogue/ladies/dresses. I also got a book called The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan by James T Farrell, which features a confident man with wide open legs and a cocky expression molesting a lady and being louche on the front of it.

My favourite dress in the world came from a charity shop in Crouch End, a black silk sheath dress with tassled 'tiers' in the 1960s fashion, £6.50. The moral of this story is, always go to charity shops in posh places. 

[drberbatov]

The moral of this story is, always go to charity shops in posh places. 

I totally agree, or charity shops in small rural towns. I picked up some leather bound Byron books for a couple of quid t'other day

[daisy11]

My favourite dress in the world came from a charity shop in Crouch End, a black silk sheath dress with tassled 'tiers' in the 1960s fashion, £6.50. The moral of this story is, always go to charity shops in posh places. 

Oh, I got a fabulous black silk tailored Nougat dress, some books and rare vids for under a tenner in one shop near Hyde's Park, on Bayswater Road I think it was (don't live in London, only flat-swap now and again with a friend but nearly turned their flat into another Steptoe and Son's abode after my visit with all the bargains I'd found and left, as I couldn't take them on the train or plane home). 
I'm now a label-snob as I've been so spoiled by finding Coast, Whistles, Jigsaw, Karen Millen and other less expensive ones such as Kookai, Warehouse etc in shops. We know of a great shop where it seems overpaid lawyers donate their goods, superb.
I prefer the less corporate charity shops and the Oxfam bookshops are just a bore really unless you're looking for an out-of- print book but certainly, it's unexciting browsing as there's no anticipation of discovering a really, rare find for peanuts.
One tip, if anyone's browsing in charity shops and you see a Stephen Patrick Morrissey book for a few quid, buy it quickly.

[jennifer]

Oh, and if you see a copy of David Baddiel's 'Time for Bed' snap it up quick, as it is in no way available from every charity shop in the world, for some reason.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oh, and if you see a copy of David Baddiel's 'Time for Bed' snap it up quick, as it is in no way available from every charity shop in the world, for some reason.

Heh, quite. The Darkness' Permission To Land can also be found in every charity shop across the land, along with Oasis' Be Here Now. Oh, and a bit of an obvious one this, but I've never been in a charity shop which didn't have at least five copies of Titanic.

[23 Daves]

Foster and Allen singles and albums seem to be constant features of East London charity shops, which makes me wonder if all their fans have died in the last little while.  "A Bunch of Tyme" is bloody all over Walthamstow on seven inch.

Semi-shattered CD cases containing "All Change" by Cast seem to be quite common around my way as well.  Clearly not an album held in much affection by those who bought it at the time.