Thrift stores

How to do well

1. Choose stores by their donors. A shop near older, well-off neighborhoods gets estate clear-outs; one near a campus fills with brand-name clothing every May and June.
2. Learn the tag rotation. Many chains give each week’s stock a color and put an older color on sale, then pull what’s left after a few weeks. Something you like may be half off next week, or gone.
3. Staff price by category, not by maker, so read what they had no time to. Turn pottery over for a maker’s mark, check labels for wool, silk, linen and cashmere, and look for dovetails and solid wood in drawers.
4. Look behind the glass. Frames are priced as frames, and a signed print, an original or a good mat can be inside. Check the back for a gallery label, and the paper for the pressed rim of a plate mark.
5. Find your nearest Goodwill outlet. These “bins” sell unsold stock by the pound before it leaves for good: dusty, competitive, and the cheapest good finds anywhere.

Bring

• A small magnet: it won’t stick to solid brass or sterling
• A flashlight for marks and signatures
• A tape measure and your sizes

Where to find them

• Thrift stores near you

  Your map app, on the charity and resale shops around you, with their hours.

  Open your map: thrift stores near you (opens in a new tab)

• Goodwill outlets near you

  Your map app, on the by-the-pound outlets, where unsold stock goes last.

  Open your map: goodwill outlets near you (opens in a new tab)

• ShopGoodwill

  Goodwill’s online auctions, where stores send their best pieces. Most lots ship.

  Go to ShopGoodwill (opens in a new tab)