Charity shop bargains

TTMCMschine

Hello all,
As I'm sure many people have noticed, charity shops have become very careful about what they're selling these days, & they seem to price things quite highly making bargains hard to find.

I though it might be helpful if we all listed the kinds of things that we've had successes with to give each other an idea of what to look for at charity shops, boot sales, flea markets & the like.

I'll start the ball rolling with 2 ideas that I've had some joy with:

1) Studio Pottery: This is the kind of hand made/ art pottery that you see oodles of at boot sales. Its normally marked with a potters seal, but usually no one bothers buying it because they can't tell one bit from another. But..... some of it is extremely valuable, eg. someone bought a Hans Coper vase at a boot sale for 50p & it sold for £14K at auction! Now I'm not saying that everyone will find something like that, but there are lots of collectable potters worth £20+ & it's quite easy to find a couple of good bits if you know what you're looking for.
There's a good ebook on ebay with marks & prices here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280059447311
& plenty of websites where you can see what it looks like.

2) Modern first edition books (& books in general): There are loads of modern authors who's work in the first edition is worth £40+, some of them are worth hundreds, some even thousands. This seems to be another area where charity shops haven't caught on. You need to do some research on authors & prices, but it is well worth the effort. My best find to date was a copy of Terry Pratchetts "colour of magic" which was an ex library (not what collectors like) copy, really tatty, had been rebound & cut down in the process, had the title page missing, etc. I paid 10p & sold it on ebay for £270!
Some of the very modern firsts are very collectable & people just don't realise.
There are loads of good websites where you can browse through whats for sale & get an idea of prices & various books on prices too.
Specialist books can do quite well too, there's usually loads of them at boot sales & in charity shops.

Hope someone can use this to find a bargain or 2.

DramaQueen29

I know what you mean, a couple of years ago i could do a charity shop run nd gets some real bargains inc a delft tile for £2 which i later sold for £42 ( yipee) However now thier asking £25 for a skirt because its new !!!

If you scrabble about there are still some things priced fairly. I know its for the charity and not supposed tobe for people to get bargains but theyve always been an outlet where people who arent as well off can still get clothing, furniture etc.
I find it sad its not the case, my local tree tops hospice shop sells furniture but when they have faded sofas for over £200 Im beginning to wonder whats happening

TTMCMschine

It is sad isn't it. They seem more geared up now to stopping the likes of us getting bargains rather than providing goods for people who need help, but I don't agree with them selling clothes for such high prices, thats just a bit mean I think.

I can understand them wanting to make as much money as poss from collectables & antiques, but there are still bargains I'm sure if you look in the right places.