What do you look for in charity shops?

[Eatyourveg88]

I love a good charity shop rummage and mainly look for clothes from Reiss, Whistles, LK Bennett, Banana Republic, J Crew etc

But I also like the bric-a-brac and have picked up some nice pottery items.

I check out baby clothes too for DD - recently picked up some great stuff that will fit her in a couple of years - I know that might sound daft but too much of a bargain to miss

What are you on the hunt for?

I love a charity shop rake! I have found some good brgains but nothing quite like a Mulberry Bayswater for £4!

I do get some high street things though - I got 2 pairs of Hollister jeans for £4 once and I still wear them regularly! Also love to pick up old teapots and the like! I just love raking about and seeing what random treasures I fall in love with!

I look for knitwear for myself, don't find anything very often but have ended up with the odd cashmere or wool jumper or cardigan every now and then.

I always look through the children's clothes, and I've found plenty of great bargains, but you do have to sift through a lot of faded, bobbly old stuff. I tend to end up mainly with Boden for the kids, it seems to last well, but some of the Next children's clothes I've found in charity shops have been absolutely fabulous quality, really thick, sturdy fabrics, so much better than the new stuff in the shops. It really shows how quality has declined. I reckon I get about 1/4 - 1/3 of my kids clothes from charity shops.

We have a charity bookshop in our town which is great, and I have bought loads of stuff there.

Lana, I totally agree about charity shops being a chance to indulge my inner snob! I also look for brands I wouldn’t buy full price - many mentioned on this thread already - or I’ll maybe consider something a bit riskier from a brand I’d usually play with.

I’m also always keeping an eye out for LeCreuset cookware and crockery. I’m slowly building up a dinner service.

Oh and books! I’ll just have a rummage and see what takes my fancy

Oh I got a lovely red le creuset teapot for £2 from a charity shop!

I live in a fairly affluent town and often have a charity shop rummage for high end bargains, but I’m usually disappointed with the usual supermarket/Primark/H&M/M&S/Next offerings.

Having said that, this month I’ve found a Toast knitted dress that looks unworn for £6, and a Twenty8Twelve (Sienna Miller’s defunct label) dress for £5.

Agree with PP about London charity shops being so expensive.

I'm always on the look out for nice kids clothes and retro china.

I wonder if anyone would be up for a Charity shop “ Show and Tell” thread? I’m curious to see all your bargainous finds.

I have just come back from my local charity shop (central London) and there was not a single nice thing there. I have been going there for years and have found nice things there in the past, but it’s just been refurbished and under new management, so I can’t help thinking that anything nice is being sent somewhere else...

I remember when I was a teenager I could get charity shop clothes for a few quid. That was back when they were unpopular. But yes I refuse to pay silly prices for fast fashion!!

Is it acceptable for teenagers to be seen in charity shops now? I remember when I was a teenager I wouldn’t be seen dead in one! I had to volunteer in one for my Duke of Edinburgh Award and I had to check no one cool was looking before sneaking in and out!

Stuff that I like and can afford which fits and which I will wear. Couldn't care less about the label inside.

I am always diving into boxes of vinyl records, for every unplayed Fall album I have sorted through thousands of Max Bygraves. Clothes-wise I look for things for DP as he is massively into the 60’s ‘rudeboy’ look, so button down shirts, Crombie coats and brogues. I’m always on the lookout for mid century furniture and crockery etc, particularly Ercol furniture. I’ve had some luck with a set of Ercol ‘all purpose’ chairs for a fraction of the usual price, but my holy grail is Ercol pebble tables.

Teens, like adults, have varying attitudes to charity shops depending on their social group. DD loves them because she thinks it’s the intelligent option - buying a Hollister top for a fiver second hand rather than fifty quid new is self-evidently a better choice for her. AFAIK her comfortably off group of friends agree this is entirely reasonable. She also has quite quirky taste so enjoys finding unusual stuff.

When DD was younger I got a constant string of Monsoon party frocks for her from charity shops: party frocks and fancy dress are great charity shop buys because they’re usually lightly worn.

Killer heels are a good bet as well (if you’re good at walking in them) because so many women buy them optimistically, wear them once, fall over the first time they try to walk down a step, give up and donate them to Oxfam.

I agree that jigsaws are and excellent purchase. Books I tend to get from, and donate to, my local tube station book swap.

I don't shop with a goal in charity shops or on market stalls. I run my fingers across the rail and stop to look when I feel nice fabric. Then I assess colour, size and quality. It filters out most of the tat.

I look for jackets, short to the waist ones in another colour as l find they're brilliant with jeans and you feel you have a complete new outfit. I have so many from charity shops.
Also ds is big into sports autobiographies and they are so expensive. People usually read once and donate. I buy any l see.

Vintage ceramics and glass. I used to find allsorts maybe five years ago but it’s dried up now. Mostly because the owners google the brand and decide to sell it on EBay, or the charity shop googles it and they sell it on EBay (or for the same price it would achieve on EBay). There are no bargains to be had any more.

No designer labels in our charity shops. We are lucky if we get Next.

I look for jeans. I am tired of wasting money on jeans that shrink. Charity shop jeans have been washed multiple times and no longer shrink.

I look for nice-ish branded dressed and tunic tops. Wearing a Laura Ashley dress now (Oxfam Bury St Edmunds). If I see something my DDs will grow into that's classic styling and a good brand I put them away for when they grow. Currently collecting 12+ year old.

I also love vintage jewellery and crockery/glass. Picked up a lovely glass cake plate last week; now I need to bake a huge cake worthy of it.

A lot of our furniture is from charity shops. Both sofas, and a chair in the living room, a dresser, a glass table, little cabinets we use as side tables. We tend to vintage oak furniture anyway but have all the big bits. The corner sofa was a great buy; not because it will last forever, but because we wanted to try the shape and it only cost £125 to do that.

Got a pair of jones the boot maker brown knee length boots yesterday for £5 and a pair of massimo dutti trousers for £4
A le creuset casserole dish last week for £2.50
Today a merino wool cardigan for DF £3.50 and a Filofax for £2

Shoes! I've had some cracking bargains from the local charity shops. There was a beautiful pair of blue Carvela heels in at the weekend but they were just too small.

I used to work in a dry cleaners that offered a seamstress service and we used to get loads of proper vintage designer bargains in that people had picked up in the charity shop for cleaning and altering. I've never been lucky enough to spot a proper designer bargain.

In my town there is a fashion school and I
See fashion students in charity shops all the time - judging by their unique clothing and hair choices they are open minded about what they consider good. Our local Scope has the most amazing over the top bedazzled and bejewelled evening dresses and brocade evening jackets for men which comes unworn from ASOS. They had gold lame pleated trousers and my friend was so put out I didn’t flag them to her earlier. I just don’t have the lifestyle for it sadly

Beautiful vintage china, cake stands, Burberry trench coat for a fiver - nearly fainted when I saw the prices in their seconds shop, DH got a leather Hugo Boss jacket for a tenner.

Good fabrics. My best ever buy, which I wear all the time during the winter, was a huge oversized merino wool cardigan with a collar that doubles as a hood, some obscure German or Swiss brand. It’s the warmest garment I have (apart from a down coat).