Wackadoodle Thrift Store Pricing

My husband had off work yesterday and was hankering to go to the beach. And as the air quality in our city was rated “very unhealthy” (due to the California fires), we thought it might be clearer by the ocean so we headed off to Half Moon Bay. 

Well the air was better, but only marginally. Still we made the best of our day out. Our first stop was the Main Street Diner for lunch. This is a true diner. No frills seating, a jukebox and real diner food. I got a BLT and fries. Afterwards we did a little window shopping and I popped into a thrift store that I never seem to catch open but found it was today. 🙂

The store was housed in an old cottage with a number of little rooms. Even though it was tiny I was hopeful…for about 10 seconds! Oh boy, the pricing had my head spinning. For example, I liked the looks of this large pewter bowl by Wilton Armetale, but it was priced at $45. I did a quick in-store search and found some for sale online, typically between $30 and $50. I put the bowl back on the shelf. Here’s a photo from an eBay seller. It’s a handsome piece, but not old or valuable.

I overheard two volunteers talking and started to understand their pricing. One gal was mentioning that a recent donated item was selling for $75 on eBay with a $50 shipping price. She said to the other volunteer, “So we could sell ours for at least $115.” Phew. That’s some wackadoodle logic. I get it, but still.

Now here’s the kicker, I just looked on their website and the thrift store is closing permanently December 15th of this year! (Stuff will be 30% off from November 16-30 and 60% off in December. I missed the start of the sale by one day.) The site didn’t go into the reasons for the store’s imminent closing, but I’m guessing if their pricing had been less aggressive they would have done better.

In the end I bought two books (for $2 each) and six delicate Teneriffe lace coasters (for $6) which I think will make lovely Christmas ornaments. No sure yet if I’ll starch these a tiny bit to make them stiffer.

I identified the lace from a cool website called “The Rook and Raven.” The writer lives just over the mountain from me and specializes in selling lace and Scottish bits on eBay. I’ve bought some wonderful old Scottish horn cups from her in the past.

One of the books I bought features upscale, vintage costume jewelry. Hoping to find some of these beauties!

Afterwards my husband drove along the coast for a while and then pulled into to an area where we could access the beach…except we couldn’t because a creek that flows to the beach had flooded the access. Poop! So we looked at the ocean from the headland through the haze. Glad for the quiet and less smoke and marveling at what a strange and sad time it was for our state and country.

As always, happy hunting,

Karen