The one that got away...

[wabi-sabi]

For me it was a gorgeous red "Valentine" portable typewriter by
Olivetti designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1969.  It was only $5! but I
had just spent all my cash on lunch and by the time I went back it
was gone.  That was ten years ago, now they have it in museum collections.

[Cookie]

Here's a photo of it I just found for you to pine over.  Sorry for your loss!

[Marion]

Wow, what a pretty red typewriter!  Pine, pine, sigh, sigh...

All I can think about right now, in "the one that got away" department, is:  Years ago I saw, each for something like $2.50, two Issey Miyake wool tops, one a beautiful deep blue, the other what I perceived as a saggy mousy brown.  I wasn't into brown so I took only the blue one.  I still have and wear (on occasion...) this blue one, and now brown's more in style (in my book...) and I kind of wonder what the exact shade of brown that other Issey was...

Marion
P.S.  For each "one that got away" there are hundreds that DIDN'T get away...

[Troy McClure]

A purple tuxedo with black lapels....
$6 ....I thought Taco Bell needed my money that day more than Goodwill. I went back the next week andthe tux was gone. Iam not sure whereI ever would have wore that thing, but it would have looked great in my closet.

[Josie Rosy Posy]

Clean, never worn, kept in a time-capsule since 1976. Wacky prints, wonderful colors, all different sizes, even MULTIPLES of some things, but oh that brown Jersey dress with the cinched wai st. Alas, I was on a road-trip budget.

[Marion]

Here's one that I THOUGHT got away. At a flea market, just as I arrived on the scene, someone was buying a necklace with yellow and white square beads, something I had been wanting.  The price was $3.00.  IN A FEW DAYS, however, Urban Outfitters had all their "square beads" necklaces (including white/yellow) on sale for $1.99 (reduced from something like $28).  So not only did it not get away; it did one better (LITERALLY one, meaning one dollar and one cent...)

Thrift stores weren't in this story, but the thrifting SPIRIT was...

Marion

[Good Buddy]

While cruising some thrift stores in Apache Junction AZ, I came upon a .50 cent sale at a Salvation Army. I had literally just spent my last cash at a great St. Vincent dePaul.
I was just finishing my route in AJ (Apache Junction) and the SA was the last store to look into. I had forgotten it was .50 cent day and I was hoping not to find anything. As I rounded a corner there they were, 4 inch platform saddle shoes, my size in mint condition. I reached in my pocket and dug up .44 cents. I walked briskly to my car and reached into every knook and kranny of my Mazda. I knew I needed only 10 more cents and found a nickle and 4 pennies. Now I was only penny short. I looked up to the sound of the thrift shops front door chimes and there was a lady walking out with the shoes in hand.
I'm not sure how many times I would have worn them but they were very nice and I only needed to have an entire .54 cents to complete the purchase. I probably should have walked them up to the counter and asked the clerk to hold them for a few minutes, oh well..
Lesson: Stop thrifting when you're out of money, or Keep an emergency $10 for the times when you are out of cash.