How do i find a rag yard?

rubysmum

Hello all,

Looking at ways of getting in a few more pounds each week and i have been trying to find a local rag yard where i can buy clothing by the kilo and hopefully sell on ebay or the like.
The problem is finding these places!!! Its like an official secret.

Think i will phone the council maybe they will know. Also googled and got nothing.
Anyone any ideas how i would find one in the north west?

Thanks

LizD_2

Cooltrikerchick is your woman - she runs one of those recycling companies.

nexuss

You will find most of the companies that collect charity clothing from houses actually sell it on ebay via the tonne or to rag clothing merchants who send it abroad.'Local rag yards' as you refer to would charge you more for the clothing than the price it would be sold for on places like ebay.

TabathaKnowsBest

Sorry, kind of not what you was asking for, but you wouldn't believe the amount of people who spell brands &/or products wrong on eBay. You can pick up some really good bargains with a bit of digging due to searching for misspellings, purchasing cheap and then reselling with correct wording.

LizD_2

Try http://fatfingers.com/ for finding misspells

DKLS

rubysmum wrote: »

Hello all,

Looking at ways of getting in a few more pounds each week and i have been trying to find a local rag yard where i can buy clothing by the kilo and hopefully sell on ebay or the like.
The problem is finding these places!!! Its like an official secret.

Think i will phone the council maybe they will know. Also googled and got nothing.
Anyone any ideas how i would find one in the north west?

Thanks

Its not quite as simple as walking in picking your rags,paying the Mill owner and leaving. The whole business is corrupt, basically it goes like this.


1. Work out exactly what sort of rags you want, Designer, Denim, Sportswear, Children and baby clothes or Vintage and antique.
2. Find your Rag Mill (Loads in West Yorks)
3. Find the Head Rag puller
This is where your negotiation skills come in as you have two options depending on the mill,
i Open the bin liners yourself and sort out what you want, very hit or miss, finds can be fantastic like Channel Couture ball gowns or in one case half a dead seal :eek:
ii You "tip" the rag pullers who will sort the sort of items you want saving. I used to regularly tip up to £250 for each rag puller each time I visited depending on what they had saved for me.
4. As a newcomer, depending on what sort of clothes you want you will be at the back of the que, and will be offered at best 2nd pick 3rd or even 4th pick. If your after Vintage and antique I would say forget it, you wont stand a chance.
5. After you have tipped the rag pullers, then you pay the Rag Mill by the KG.

Its a corrupt system, and the bosses tolerate it as they can often pay the rag pullers under the national minimum wage. One place I used to visit, the staff were paid £1 per hour, but the good ones who pulled vintage clothes could earn up to 1K a week in tips.


Pm if you want info and locations. I warn you though its very hard work, and unlike going to a wholesaler you never know what you will find.
I have found some amazing clothes and textiles at rag mills, from unworn Couture Dresses to an SS Officers suit.

TabathaKnowsBest

LizD wrote: »

Try fatfingers.com for finding misspells

Great link, that certainly saves some time in getting together a list of misspells. I'd also suggest, for those who a slightly tech savvy (again, to save time), set up individual 'RSS feeds' per misspell. This mean you won't need to keep going to eBay to do a search, simply open your browser and the RSS ticker will inform you if anything new is for sale. Most browsers come with RSS readers as standard now, like FireFox & Google Chrome.

rubysmum

Thanks you guys i will bear all this in mind.