Thrift Store Adventures Volume 3: Seven Favorite Finds
For the this installment of Thrift Store Adventures, I thought it might be nice to show why I enjoy going to thrift stores. It’s not always for the lulz. Sometimes you see some really cool stuff. Here are seven of my favorite things I came across in my thrift store adventures:
1. Outdated Rambo Merchandise
What could be better than an 80s Rambo lunch box? A sealed copy of First Blood on VHS, of course. The VHS tape came from Half Price Books, but for 50 cents, it was a no-brainer.
2. Small Chest of Sorts
I’ve been going to thrift stores for as long as I can remember. This item is associated with my earliest thrift store memory: I saw this item in the Knick Knicks section without a price tag. I thought it was interesting, so I asked how much it was. A manager stopped by and priced it for a dollar or something affordable for a child.
3. Greek Currency
About 15 years ago, we took a trip to a massive Goodwill in Seattle. I think it must have been the regional center or something, because I remember it being a massive facility complete with a taxidermy stuffed bear and a whole display shelf devoted to foreign currency. I was amazed at how currency from all over the world ended up in my part of the country and bought some of the more unique looking ones. Now thanks to the Internet, and specifically my good friend Chris, I have some idea of what it is, and what it’s worth: “Greek democracy, 1992 Vergina, 100 Drachmas. Great Alexander, King of Macedons.” Piecing together childhood memories, one item at a time.
4. TRON: Legeacy Toys
While it wasn’t in the Top 20 crazy or bizarre things I’ve seen at a thrift store, it was still odd seeing a at least a dozen Target exclusive toys from TRON: Legacy at a Goodwill. I bought one of each and a duplicate to open.
Don’t leave me out here!
To take all the magic out of this: this is a resin block with pennies inside of it. My best guess is that the resin was poured very slowly into the block to allow the pennies to hold in various angles. The result is impressive. My hat goes off to the artist – let me know who you are too!
6. Random Fandoms
I’ll be honest: I avoided Harry Potter because of all the hype. A few months back, Jeremiah pointed out that the EarthBound series was like Harry Potter. Interesting. So when I saw this dude for $2, who I could tell was from Harry Potter because of the red/yellow scarf, I thought to myself: I’d buy that for a dollar. But it was not a dollar! And it wasn’t from Robocop.
7. 59′ El Camino
Stylin’.
Honorable Mentions
I purposefully excluded videogames, movies, and books because these are obvious choices. Happy hunting!
Posted on November 18, 2012, in Occurrences, Opinion and tagged coin, comedy, El Camino, Greece, Greek, harry potter, Outdated Rambo Merchandise, thrift stores, TRON: Legeacy. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
A Nerd Occurrence 
Regarding the Tron Legacy stuff, Target will only drop the price on clearance items so far, and then they are donated to Goodwill. I’m assuming they’ve worked out an exact point where the tax deduction from the donations exceeds what they’d make if they dropped the price any further. In my experience the price once the item hits Goodwill goes back up from Target’s lowest price, often pretty dramatically. Goodwill also seems to get a lot of Target’s damaged or partially shoplifted merchandise, like action figure two-packs with only one figure left.
Thanks for the clarification. I did wonder the story on that set, and your explanation makes more sense than some random toy collector donating everything to Goodwill. I could see one or two toys being donated by unassuming family members or whatnot, but an entire fleet of toys is weird. I saw some Prince of Persia movie toys there a while later. Meh. I did eventually buy a Prince Dalstan from Half Price Books… for a dollar.