What are some of your best thrift store shopping tips? I love thrift stores but it seems like other people always get the best finds. How do they do it?

Time and patience. When I go I look thru pretty much everything. For example if I am looking for something in particular I will go to that area and browse thru everything. Alot of our clothes come from thrift stores. I have found many name brand clothes for a fraction of the retail price. And the best thing is....no one can tell that I didn't buy it brand new. I have a few thrift stores that has sales. One has 50% off every Sunday on certain colored tags. The other one has all clothes 99cents except current colored tags. Then the next day they will do 50% off everything in the store except the current colored tags. Places like Goodwill color coordinates their clothes. Makes it alittle easier to shop. HTH

I think the single most important thing to remember at thrift stores is to go often. The people who get the best deals and find the amazing things are there browsing all the time.

Go when the store opens and take your time looking around. I have found 2 very nice Kate Spade purses one was sold for $5 and the other $3. Depending on the worker if they know their designer labels you can find designer clothing cheap, if youre lucky.
Not everyone knows all designer labels, like me. But I know a few.

Search around for all sorts of thrift stores and then keep a few that you like. So far in my neighborhood I have 1 but I have found a better one a few miles away.

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Alex & the spider monkey

call different stores and figure out when they have the best sales. Goodwills in my city have quarter day where they pick a color and everything marked with that color is a quarter. some days it's buy 1 get 2 free. some stores are cleaner than others so figure out which is your favorite and shop as often as you can.

Don't go shopping looking for a particular item because you'll be disappointed most of the time. Go with an open mind and surprise yourself when you find a good deal.

If you have storage space grab bargains that your kids will fit in in the future. I have 2 tubs full of clothes that will fit my oldest in the next couple years

One of the greatest bargains at goodwill are children's books.

My sister is PHENOMENAL at thrift store shopping and getting the deals. She picked up a $450 jacket for my mom, tags still on it, for -- not joking -- $2. No tears or rips or anything wrong with it.. I was floored when I saw it. I'm like um if Mom doesn't want that, I do!! LOL

A big thing (I think it was already mentioned) is to be thorough and check OFTEN. My sister goes all the time, drops in and asks if they have anything new that just came in, if she could check it out real quick. Often times she can look through the "to be stocked" rail of clothes that they're working off of. She isn't necessarily spending hours in there every time she goes in, but she knows the stores well enough to go through the sections pretty quickly. Also, learn to have a quick eye. Glance at something and assess if it's torn, stained, mis-sized (stretched, misshapen or unproportional), funky misaligned patterns or worn out, etc. In doing that, you can whip through a lot of things quite quickly without getting held up on the little things for every piece.

Oh another thing. Don't be afraid to check out the mens section for clothes. I've found some really nice sweaters, lounge pants, etc.

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I get to go only once a week, so my tip is to make sure you've got at least 2 hours to devote to each store (if it's average sized, not a tiny boutique). But have a full tummy, empty bladder, good walking shoes on, comfortable clothes. I go through everything but the clothing first to see what's there. Then going through the clothes is most time-consuming. But if you know what you're looking for, that can help.

Today I had a "gut instinct" to go to the thrift stores. But I knew I wasn't going to look at clothes, so we hit 3 stores. We all found the most awesome things this time, where usually it's mediocre/good.

I love thrift stores... we went to one the other day and got ds a Power Wheels Jeep for $5 it needed washing and needs new stickers, but it runs and came with a GREAT battery. I was thrilled!

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I recently won a $100 gift card to my local thrift store, I guess I had entered some summertime contest and they drew my name! I havent used the card yet. Too cool, just had to share.

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Alex & the spider monkey

I found a great thrift store, its so diorganized that their is great stuff on the bottom. My only complaint is that most thrift store over price the furniture. Garage sales are better for stuff like that.