What is your charity shop bargain of the week?

bestill

Hi I'm new to this list. Used to do quite a bit of charity shopping & hoping to get back in it some more now. Yesterday very pleases with 4 Maxwell Williams espresso cups & saucers for £4, retail price £10 each, so would have been £40 the lot. Also a pair of per una trousers for a £1.

Pollycat

Swampmonster wrote: »

Imho price is the key factor as money is tight and I'm a sucker for a sale especially a £1 rail.

As regards to layout I don't like things arranged in colour order as type of garment takes priority as I will be looking for a top or trousers not something say for instance in blue or red especially as it takes too long to look through everything.

So if they are arranged by type of garment then in size order within that I'm a happy bunny. As plus size section is a bonus too and as a larger lady 18+ I will always go to the charity shop with the plus size section first.

Hope this helps somewhat. All the best with your new shop.

Me too.

I want to look for thing in my size, not a particular colour.

I also don't like rails that are so jammed full of stuff that you can't look properly.

I also dislike finding clothes that are dirty.

I have my favourite charity shops in my area.
I tend to give Barnados a miss because I think their stuff is highly priced.
For example, paperback books in Barnardos are £1.99 or 3 for £5.
That's the same as you can buy new in The Works.
50 yards away, my local hospice shop sells paperbacks for 25p each or 5 for £1.
It's a no-brainer really.

Shereen

Swampmonster wrote: »

Imho price is the key factor as money is tight and I'm a sucker for a sale especially a £1 rail.

As regards to layout I don't like things arranged in colour order as type of garment takes priority as I will be looking for a top or trousers not something say for instance in blue or red especially as it takes too long to look through everything.

So if they are arranged by type of garment then in size order within that I'm a happy bunny. As plus size section is a bonus too and as a larger lady 18+ I will always go to the charity shop with the plus size section first.

Hope this helps somewhat. All the best with your new shop. :T

Brilliant! Thanks for that Swampmonster. You're not the first person to mention the sorted by size, not colour thing, so we're definitely doing that. The sale rail and plus size rail are fantastic ideas, so extra thank-yous for that

Shereen

Pollycat wrote: »

Me too.

I want to look for thing in my size, not a particular colour.

I also don't like rails that are so jammed full of stuff that you can't look properly.

I also dislike finding clothes that are dirty.

I have my favourite charity shops in my area.
I tend to give Barnados a miss because I think their stuff is highly priced.
For example, paperback books in Barnardos are £1.99 or 3 for £5.
That's the same as you can buy new in The Works.
50 yards away, my local hospice shop sells paperbacks for 25p each or 5 for £1.
It's a no-brainer really.

More good stuff, thanks Pollycat. We're going to be sorting all the stuff we've collected before putting it out, and will be selling tatty donations for recycling. We've also got a couple of volunteers in our team who are going to be on cleaning and ironing duty

I take your point too about the crammed rails. I know it puts me off if I can't get a good look at the clothes, more so if the rails are full enough for things to fall off. Must restrain my team mates from cramming all the donations out at once. Maybe if we sort the stuff in the back and have it ready by category/size; so if someone asks for more children's tips (for example) we'll know exactly what's there.

Thinking about setting the shop out and things like this will keep me from being nervous about the big day

sparrer

Took a carrier bag of paperbacks into my local cs and found a gorgeous per una skirt for £2, which matches my blue suede court shoes perfectly. (Always buy the shoes first then you can justify buying the matching outfit, as long it's from a cs )

Frith

Shereen - I too like a charity shop where things are sorted by size. No good seeing something good then finding it is a size 6!


Also, lots of shops have one high rail above a lower rail and I find the stuff hanging on the higher rail is sort of brushing/covering the hangers of the stuff on the lower rail.


I always find there are dozens of items of girls' clothing and almost no boys' clothes whatsoever.

Edwardia

Charity shop tips

Firstly, if you want fab clothes go to a wealthier area. The people there don't need to eBay their unwanted clothes for the money. You'll see less Primark and more designer stuff. If your town is full of shops like Primark, New Look, Poundland.. that's the stuff you'll find in the charity shops, mostly.

Many of the bigger charity shops seem to act like chainstores and share out donated stuff such as books. If you go to a smaller independent charity shop, you have a greater chance of finding books which aren't just recycled bestsellers. Oxfam has separate bookstores which are great, but can be expensive. If you want to read a book and not keep it, then libraries are free !

it is possible to pick up bargains because shop staff don't recognise designer names eg picked up a pair of Ermenegildo Zegna merino wool trousers for OH for 9.99. It's also possible to pay through the nose for things they DO recognise like Per Una from Marks and Spencer.

The bigger charity shop 'brands' will have more access to people who can advise on what is or isn't a designer brand, rare book or piece of studio pottery.

If you want cheap kids clothes or tshirts it's probably cheaper to buy them in sales or at supermarkets. Why pay £5 for a secondhand M&S tshirrt when you can get a new one in Sainsbury's for £3 ?

I dislike charity shops which stink. On the other hand, If a shop is laid out like a boutique, it always seems to me that every item will have been assessed carefully and the bargains will be few. A degree of chaos is better.

Pollycat

I'm almost at the stage now where I really need to discard one item before I buy another - but I did have a clearout last week and took 8 pairs of jeans and 4 pair of linen trousers (I know:eek: ) to our local Hospice and have another load to go up this morning.

My latest bargain was a 1980's Denby wide, shallow planter, probably 4 inches high and 10 inches across.

I already have lots of 'normal' planters in this design - all from charity shops/flea market - with cacti in and I'm going to do a small cacti garden in this one.


It cost me £1. I don't think they knew it was Denby as it didn't have the maker's stamp on but I knew it was as it's in my Denby book.

DianneB

Hi Shereen, another vote for items in size not colour, so much easier!! I like a shop to smell clean and fresh too and be nicely laid out. Price is obviously important too. Good luck with your venture.

Ballymackeonan

Hi Shereen -

Another vote here for sorting by size, not colour. One of my favourite CSs, though, has things sorted only into tops, trousers, etc (up to size 16, separate rails for plus-size). It's one where they offer a cup of tea or coffee as you go in (they get donations from local businesses...) so that you spend longer in the shop and are more likely to see things and buy more! Could you try this - especially for the opening?

Other peeves - bad lighting, where you can't really see what you're getting, upper and lower rails where the top one is out of reach unless you're 5'8" or over, and above all some (few) shops where there is nowhere to try on!

I'm feeling rather pleased with last week's haul - a Dash black velvet padded winter jacket for £1.99, a Marc O'Polo lambswool cardi in a lovely shade of terracotta, with dark brown Wallis trousers to go with it at £4.50 for both, a grey and black M & S Collezione top for £1.50. Plus a 12-cd set of Bach organ music for £5 (not everyone's thing, but my mother was an organist and this is the music of my childhood!) - I've checked Amazon and the set retails for £63!

The other thing I'm really pleased at - a lovely oil painting, with a good frame, for £10. I had just the place for it, and it looks absolutely great; I'm donating the one it replaced to the CS later.