This has worked out well!

[mccoysnina]

I have posted in the last year or so of finding two American Girl dolls, Kit at a ts for $2.50 last summer and a few weeks ago I found a Samantha for $5 at a garage sale.  I was proud of myself as I had really wanted an AG doll but never wanted to spend the $$$$$ to get one. 
When I found them, Kit had on a dirty dress and one shoe, and Samantha had on her shoes and socks, so some new clothes were in order.  Haven't had time to hit the $1 pattern sales at the fabric stores and start sewing but did find a bag of really pretty (and expensive!, one tiny ball was marked $12) yarns in my favorite thrift last week for $2.  Cashmere, mohair, lurex etc, maybe 12- 15 balls of yarn. Guess no one looked at the labels  on the yarn. Aside from the slubby cotton yarns DD grabbed to knit a sweater, not much of any  one yarn to do anything but small projects but hey the dolls are small.  So now the girls have new sweaters, skirts, shawls and dresses, hats.  Just need to  find some white coton yarn for some undies as poor  Samantha is still going commando but even if I have to buy some retail that stuff is cheap.  This was meant to be somehow. The thrift gods smiled on me that day:)
Jeannie

[valleythriftshopper]

Sounds cute, lucky you know how to knit/crochet.  I have tried to learn but I am just not into it for some reason.  Great yarn find, so much ugly acrylic out there, great find on those dolls too, my daughter has a few but I'd still like to find more at a thrift!

[SplashsMom]

Congratulations on your finds.  I love when something you have been wanting for a while turns up unexpectedly.
As for yarn prices,  it always depends upon who is in the back marking.  I've tried asking for one skein to be marked down if I have another very similar with a lower price.  Rarely works,  in fact  one time (it was a GW)  they said, no  and that I had to pay the higher price if I wanted both.
Needless to say I did not take either.

[mccoysnina]

I never understood that mind set.  I can find two items virtually identical and one is priced way higher than the other.  Never figured out the system, guess it depends on who is pricing what on any given day.
That reminds me of the time I  found Kit, the first AG doll I found in a ts.  She was marked $2.50.  She was just laying on the counter and no one seemed to want her.  I picked her up and confirmed what I thought and looked around waiting for someone to snatch her up and say she was mispriced.  No one seemd to care so I decided to get her  and get out.  I got in the shortest line and realized there was a woman and a little girl about 9 or 10 in line ahead of me. If anyone would know what I had, they would.  Not wanting anyone to suddenly shout out "Hey do you know what you have there?", thereby alerting store personnel to their blunder, I got out of that line.  I looked around and in one line there were two big hairy fat guys with Harley tshirts on.  Figuring they wouldn't know/couldn't care less about a doll I got behind them.  Sure enough, they glanced at my doll and didn't look back again.  I've never had anyone actually come up to me and say
"We've changed out mind and are changing the price on that"  but I didn't want that to be the day it happened.   Made it home with Kit, grateful to the biker dudes for their disinterest. My own paranoia perhaps but I really wanted that doll.
Jeannie

[Mattie]

Why do thrift stores think they can change their mind after they've put a price tag on an object?  Retail stores don't do that.  It's not the customer's fault if someone in the back room didn't recognize a valuable item and underpriced it.  I haven't had that happen to me, but I'd probably stop shopping at a store if they didn't honor their prices.

P.S. - Congrats on your good score, mccoysnina!  That was smart thinking to get in line behind the hairy biker dudes.

[mccoysnina]

I don't know if they would refuse to sell so they could re-price but I wasn't taking chances.
I figured if the biker dudes knew anything about the dolls, they likely wouldn't say anything out loud:)
Jeannie

[thriftymama]

wow, does that actually happen, where the change prices on you? if they did that to me, you can bet i would complain!

[Mattie]

The last two times I've been at Thrift Town, the manager has stopped customers who had either switched prices or innocently picked up items with switched price tags.  I can understand a store doing that, but I've never heard a cashier say, "Sorry, this price is too low; you'll have to pay more if you want this."  That would be a deal-breaker for me.

[FleaQueen]

They do that at the St. Vincent de Paul here.  A sign by the books says they're "$1 and up" but the prices aren't marked.  When you take a book or books to the counter, the lady will look you up and down, and heaven forbid if you're well-dressed, she's gonna quote something outrageous. 

[thriftymama]

what? that's ridiculous!

[valleythriftshopper]

The food bank thrift by me doesn't have any of the bric-a-brac marked.  All the little stuff is up to the cashier on duty.  They are never ridiculous but one woman tends to fluctuate on her prices, the other cashiers are usually more than fair.  I will sometimes wait until one of the cheap pricing ladies is on duty to buy something.  You can haggle with them too but I don't do that.

The clothes are all the same price by category (ex. all shirts $3, etc).  So if there is something new with tags, vintage or a better brand item it is a good deal.  Books are really cheap, most 1 dollar or less, but they rarely have good ones (for me at least!).