If It's Meant to Be, It Will Be There When You Come Back...

[SecondhandSophisticate]

and at half price, too.  Y'all know what I mean, fellow thrifters?

Last week, I saw a beautiful mottled blue-green redware? planter at the SalArm for 12.99! It was very heavy, and somebody had put a drainage hole in the bottom which had a bit of a hairline around it. Not deep and no big deal for such heavy pottery. What fazed me was the price.  I left it there and said to myself "Next week when the sale color changes, I'll check and see if it's still there and on sale."

While out doing errands today, I ran in and searched the place. It was gonegonegone. I looked at everything  in the store and there was nothing I needed or had to have.  I got my keys out and walked toward the door to leave, and I turned around to say goodbye to the cashier. As I turned, I spotted the planter. It had been directly in front of the door, to the left, but since I normally go to the right when I enter, I missed it entirely.

It was 6.49, half price. I picked it up and paid and did a little happy dance.

I'll try to post a pic this week. I'm so glad I waited.

SeSo

 

[Zed Simon]

I love stories like that. I'm playing the waiting game myself this week on a pair of speakers. What will happen first:

a) someone buys them at full price
b) someone waits and gets them at half price before I do
c) I get them at half price?

or god forbid, d) someone only buys one of them since they're not marked together. That happens a lot here.

I kinda hope someone else gets them so I can put them out of my mind forever and save the $20! (Then again, they are good speakers and I have a slightly smaller pair from the same company that I like.)

[SecondhandSophisticate]

Zed---ooooohhhh A gambling man! I admire your nerves of steel.

Remember the universe is vast and infinite .  If not these, then another pair. There is a never-ending supply (as I keep telling myself), the Source of All.

I like how you say:  "If someone else buys them, I'll have saved $20" Yeay!

This reminds me of a corny poem I learned in high school, back in the 70s (that's the 1970s, not the 1870s  )


"If there is something you want in life,
Let it run free.
If it doesn't return to you,
It was never yours to begin with.
If it does, love it forever"--

except that the "something" read "someone". I know it's corny, but to me, it's like a thrifter's prayer, you know? If it's meant to be, it will happen. So let us know if you get those speakers. Good luck!

Ciao,
SeSo

PS: I'll probably find out that my planter is from K-Mart  But I love it anyway.

[Scott]

I used to play this game with myself ALL too often. Unfortunately it almost always ended up in disappointment in missing out on something I KNEW I should have bought, and nagging regretful feelings that I should have just shelled out the original price.

Except once. One lonely time (according to my meager memory) I went back and my item was still there. I was out shopping on a Saturday several years back, and I found an absolutely perfect Blenko bottle vase. It was a substantial piece -- over 2 feet high -- and was priced twelve or so dollars, which I thought was much too high. The next day, though, those pangs of regret had set in and I knew if I didn't go back and at least see if it was still there the thoughts would drive me batty. So I returned and found the bottle still there in the same place. Of course it wasn't half off, but I made the purchase and a week later decided to sell it on ebay. I made somewhere in the range of $350 over my purchase price. I never will know why I passed it up in the first place.

I rarely play that game these days.

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Yep, me neither. I'm always the one who feels I've lost out when I try that. Thrifting for the good stuff can be too competitive.

I'd say instead I've had to learn to make good solid decisions super-quickly. This freaks out my poor dad a bit when he comes to visit and we go thrifting or flea marketing. He likes to mull everything over for a while. And then there I am, halfway across the aisle already, spotting something, negotiating and paying.

[ChrisMiss]

Great that your planter was still there and you got it at half-price!  I'm not a gambler anymore when it comes to thrifting, too many other bargain hunters to take chances on losing the item I want.

[MrsGoodwill]

Rock on, SeSo! I love your attitude!

And Scott, I grew up in WV and I can remember my grandparents taking me to the Blenko factory when I was 8 or 9. (This was in the 1980's.) I loved looking at the glass, but I found the tour...not so interesting. After we finished the tour, my g-parents let me choose a piece from the gift shop.

I wish I could be lucky enough to find a nice piece of Blenko. The piece that they bought me got lost in a move.

[Scott]

I can see why an 8 or 9 year old might be underwhelmed by such a tour ... but I'd love to be able to tour the Blenko facilities today as they would have been back then! That was right towards the end of their "modernist" period, and the shapes they had come up with prior to the 80's were phenomenal.

I see Blenko pieces fairly often ... most often the little pinched ivy vases (the one in the middle, here: http://www.blenkocollectors.com/images/colors/ruby/Ruby.jpg).They were made for a very long time, and seem to come out of the woodwork compared to other glass of similar quality and style.

[Magpie18]

I am not so brave as to wait for a sale/discount.  If I want something at a thrift-- I get it.  Sometimes perhaps I could have gotten it for less but in my experience -- the items I thought were interesting are never there when I come back later in the week.

LOL,  sometimes I am certain if I put something down another shopper who is eye-ing my basket will purchase it.

I even had one lady ask me if I was going to buy the pearl set I was examining.

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Magpie, I'm with you on the getting the thrift while you can technique. Otherwise it will be gone. I've had too many people see me with things and either tell me THEY had been planning to buy that item, or ask to "see" the item, with some indication that once it was in their hands they would have it for their little ol' selves.

Carpe Thrift!!!!

[Jay2TheRescue]

I agree.  If an item is that cool it probably will not be there later.

-Jay

[Big Daddy Audio]

Your only hope is that EVERYONE else is a cretin, and doesn't know what it is.  I saw an autographed copy of a Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (paperback) in the Sun City Goodwill.  It was $2.00.  Was there a week later and it was half price and still there, although it had been moved to a different shelf.  So, it was either moved by a clerk during a restock, or it was picked up by a customer, thumbed through, and set back.  Either way, for a dollar, I was able to score.

Regrets?  Sure, but I get over them.  There's always more fish in the sea.

That is all.

[Big Daddy Audio]

Zed - What kind of speakers are they?

I always ran into that (someone buying one speaker to kill the pair, then buying the second at half price a week later or so) at Selden Thrift on Middle Country.  That drove me nuts.  I also ran into people taking the screw-off fuse housing and pocketing it, thus making the item a boat anchor for anyone but them.  They return when it's half price and buy it.  How do I know about the second type of scheme?  There was a receiver (forget the make and model now, but it was a respectable mid-size receiver) that was marked at $29.99 - blue tag.  It was complete, including the pre-out / main-in jumpers that many of the older receivers had so that you could add a more powerful amp section later and both fuse screw-off caps.  It was complete - this was when I was just starting out and was looking more for the slot car stuff - back in my "thrift store tenderfoot" days.  Anyway - went back to look at it again after doing some research on eBay, and those elements were gone.  These things don't just "fall off."  Then went back when blue was half off and sure enough, the receiver was gone.  I guess if you have to have it...   

That is all.

[Good Buddy]

d) someone only buys one of them since they're not marked together. That happens a lot here.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Like Anakin Skywalker cries out..

[Zed Simon]

Zed - What kind of speakers are they?

They're a/d/s L620s.