The Bradford Exchange

[EarlofShrewsbury]

Having a browse on the Bradford Exchange is a guilty pleasure of mine.

I seem to end up there once every couple of years and I'm always surprised to see it's still going. It's quite a wild place, is it even real? Who shops there?

It's like a time machine.

https://www.bradford.co.uk/dianabag.html?_gl=11ceiu7y_upMQ.._gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiA8vXIBhAtEiwAf3B-g7jAf3sGoiMDuKK2spZyQbMhoVEVd5VCCsKbLCF3D2iKpfm3y0FL8RoCCHcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Diana bag anyone?

I've never bought anything from there but I bloody love it for a browse. Reminds me of my nana.

“Since 1973” and it shows 🤭🤣

I thought this was going to be about trains in West Yorkshire

I’ve never heard of this - it’s a website/shop?

Thank you for reminding me this exists. The Diana bag comes close, but I don't think anything will top the Christmas tree that features cats meowing carols: https://www.bradford.co.uk/catchristmastree.html

Oh goodness me! And they are cross-eyed kitties too! I don't actually know HOW to feel about it!!

I have never even heard of this before. But they certainly put the 'exchange' in Bradford Exchange don't they?!

Haha, reminds me of Skymall

That kitty christmas tree lacks a video. So I went searching for one. Behold!

Is it real or some sort of scam?

Brilliant!

I think the Bradford Exchange has been around since before scams were invented 😂

It's even more awful that I imagined.

It was back from the days when everyone got a Sunday paper, with full page ads in the supplement or TV pages. Probably next to the one selling newly minted count sets.

Oh, like the Innovations catalogue?? We kids used to fight over that when it fell out of our parents' Sunday Times.

The baby dolls section has made me so sad - who are the people who buy these, paying in installments so they can afford them?
Somehow it is tragic.

Isn't that Bradford Interchange?
But yes, so did I.

Ah yes I have elderly family members who buy things from there. They have done for 30+ years

Im sure I remember them having ads in newspapers and magazines back in the 90s, or have I made that up?

My great aunt spends about 1k per month with these con-artists.

I wish i was joking but i am not.

My eldest child was gift 5 THOUSAND POUNDS of this shit. It only dtopped when i stopped accepting it and refused to tale th / returned them to her.

I thought it was a real place, a bit like Halifax's Piece Hall which was a great place when I was last there a few years back.

We have the Wool Exchange in Bfd which is now a very, very beautiful Waterstones. But yes, the train station used used to be called the Exchange and I also came on here wondering why someone was talking about it!

Ha ha ha thanks!

I actually thought the cat tree thing was 14.95 and considered buying it as a joke for DD for Christmas. I got the decimal point in the wrong place. Who buys this stuff apart from the great aunt of the pp?

Are the pictures representative? I mean, good taste aside, is the stuff decent for the price? I think my mum would love a lot of that stuff 😬

The dolls and figures are rather lovely, if you like that kind of thing.
Dustcatchers, but my mum’s a sucker for an animatronic!

Though she’d be disappointed the kitten tree doesn’t go round 🤣

Yes.

The items they sell are an absolute joke.

I have beem "gifted" 2 x princess di style bags (and matching wallets!) in diff designs.
Its the kind you get from a market stall for £5 each, 2 for £8 type thing.

Even the charity shop lady made a face when i took them in!

The "coins" she insisted on collecting drove me insane. She spent thosands. The combined value is about £3-400.

I found the waste and disregard of my feelings upsetting. Had the cash she paid for those useless coins been invested correctly they'd have paid for driving lessons or a summer abroad.
She geniunely believes i am the idiot. She understands the cash value is 90% less than purchase but fervently believes the value lies in it being a "collectors item" and impresses upon me the importance of keeping tgem in their packing 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
<smashes head into wall>