Great UK's Top Designer Charity Shops Hunt

MSE_Martin
MSE_Martin Posts: 8,272
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Money Saving Expert
What's it about?

Pick the right charity shop and you can profit. The celebs in Hampstead or Belsize Park have been seen dropping of their old Manolo Blahniks into charity shops, and the footballers' wives set in Wilmslow probably do the same.

What to do

This hunt is to find the UK's best charity shops for designer goods and labels, so you can keep up with the Jones', but pay like the Steptoes.

Click reply to let me know where you've found a good designer charity shop. Please post using this format:

Shop name:
Location:
Examples of what you've spotted there:
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Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
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Comments

  • IMO I have found that the 'lower' end of the charity shops, meaning the ones that look like jumble sales :D They are the ones that your more likely to get the bargains in. Have a good rumage, you'll be surprised what you find. Yesterday I found some BNIB fly of London black leather wedge boots for £2.
    I also remember the words of my friends, but I would rather have enemies than friends like you :p

    :p would like to make it known that ZubeZubes avvy is a DHN, she's not dancing :o
  • Sophy
    Sophy Posts: 486 Forumite
    Yeah, the Primark & Tesco clothes being sold for more than they cost new is a fairly common phemnomenon these days. As is a kind of belief that anything with a label on it is going to be valuable - you see worn, 4 seasons old D&G hoodies for more than they cost (which was not much) new in TK MAXX last autumn. Actually, I wish the charity shops well in getting the money (a thing is only worth what you're willing to pay for it) but these things just don't seem to insipre quick turn over. If only there was a time machine, I could recommend a dozen charity shops that were brilliant 5 years ago, but are fairly dismal now!
  • starlite_2
    starlite_2 Posts: 2,428 Forumite
    The Oxfam originals stores are always really good. Theres a particularly good one near oxford street. They are slightly more expensive than normal Oxfam, but far better quality clothes.

    I find british heart foundation really expensive. I once saw a top in there for £8 which I'd bought from Primark just a few weeks before for £2.

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    Membre Of Teh Misspleing Culb
  • Rad
    Rad Posts: 81 Forumite
    I would recomend any of the 8 that are in St Andrews. I was up there earlier in the summer and got a Karen Miller 3 piece suit for £8, my mum got a Wallis dress for £3. There was loads of good stuff but this might have been because all the students had just left for the summer and had donated a load of stuff.

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    2007 comping challenge - Won £25 / need £104
  • gooismeid
    gooismeid Posts: 283 Forumite
    Cheadle in Cheshire has five charity shops on the high street (including BHF, PDSA, St. Annes Hospice) and are regularly full of M&S, Next and Wallis stuff among the Primark, Tesco and Bon Marche rejects. I've even spotted a few DKNY and other designer label things in there, and the prices aren't that bad - a fiver or less for an M&S dress. Not exactly designer labels but I usually find something I like - having them all within a half-mile stretch of high street makes it very easy to trawl all of them in my lunch break! The St. Annes Hospice shop also has a special bridal department which admittedly I haven't visited but their window displays look really nice.
    Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes. Then, when you do criticise him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes.
  • Sophy
    Sophy Posts: 486 Forumite
    Incidentally, I do wish charity shops would find a method of cleaning clothes other than steam cleaning!! Yes, it's thorough, but that sickly sweet, slightly stale aroma is repellent! Takes about three spins in the machine and an overnight airing (preferably on a rainy, windy night) to get rid of the eau de charity shop smell.
  • Perhaps surprisingly, Cancer Research in Hounslow High Street produces some great finds. It's a clearance store and most items are priced at £2 or £3. I have bought a Ralph Lauren jacket and Thomas Pink shirt, both in beautiful condition, for a grand sum of £5!
  • Cerenia
    Cerenia Posts: 1,857 Forumite
    I got a River Island blood red corset, still with the original labels (39.99) on for £2.50 from Hope House in Oswestry.

    Also had a Morgan dress for £4, sold on for £18, from same place.
    ~*Cerenia*~

    2017 Goals
    Wedding Saving Pot - £1300/£2500

  • JennyB
    JennyB Posts: 224 Forumite
    Has anyone been to the Oxfam on King's Road (SW10 0LR)? I heard it was very good for designer bargains but I haven't been there myself. Looking forward to seeing the results for this hunt as I love good quality clothes but I'm too broke to afford them at the moment!
  • maryink
    maryink Posts: 12 Forumite
    Chalfont St. Peter! There are 2 or 3 shops on the high street where I've spied Versace black jeans, size zilch naturally, for a tenner, loads of designer and vintage party frocks, and my own favorite oversized polaroid sunspecs from the Netherlands, vintage 1972-ish, dead ringers for the 160 quid Dior pair in the shop next door, which I bought for a pound. (So I can go round thinking I look like Paris Hilton when I really look like Jarvis Cocker - tee hee.)

    However my favorite charity shop of all time is the Harlington Hospice on Harlington High Street. Half of what DH & I really wear and love comes from the 50p rail there. And such a good cause...
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