Thrifting Smart, not Stupid

Folks are picking up on thrifting. Neighbors, companies, and communities have been regularly dropping off perfectly good things, tools, toys, clothes, parts and furniture. Granted, it’s all been used, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used again, some items for plenty of years still. However, because discounted and used goods with plenty of worth are valuable again, especially thanks to inflation, people getting laid off from jobs and tariffs, as well as the fact that multiple generations today want things from their childhood, used stuff is selling.

So, that means a whole lot of folks are online buying stuff. And it also means a lot of people a catching on that thrift stores can be very good places to find deals to resell. Unfortunately, it’s also a quick way to lose a lot of money getting caught up in the thrift trend FOMO. Here’s why — someone says something is hot. It could be a type of clothes brand, a board game, a type of tool or even some vintage antique ceramic plate. Whatever it is, the statement is verifiable; folks can look it up and see, “oh my gosh, it’s really selling!” So they go out and buy everything remotely similar to that item, plus anything physical near it as well. That can be tens, hundreds and even thousands of dollars. There’s one problem; now they have a whole bunch inventory they had to pay cash up front for, and it’s not selling. What happened? Well, aside from the…