Stuff I found on Friday

I've been looking for a kettle like this for a few months now and I finally found one in good nick, at the right price of $5.99 at the Salvos in Mt Waverley this week. I love how it looks on my stove top.

I'm not someone that ever goes for novelty mugs, but this one was in the window at the RSPCA op shop at Burwood East and it really struck a chord. It made me feel quite nostalgic and we all know that us ladies live life by the way we feel. Yay that it only cost $1!

Maxwell and Williams jar for only $4 at RSPCA Burwood East.

I have no idea what I'm going to store in it, but it doesn't matter cos I finally have one.

I'm collecting mismatching pieces of 'Made in England' crockery for my 'good' crockery set. You know, shabby chic style. It seems to be taking a long time, but that's ok. This bowl was $5 at RSPCA Burwood East.

Found this Ken doll in a basket of toys at the Salvos on cnr of High St and Warrigal Rd. He's in perfect condition and only cost $4. My almost 6 year old daughter had never seen one. She has renamed him Sam cos she didn't think Ken was a good name for him. Fine by me. Now she insists that I have to find some more clothes for him. Heeeeeeeelllp!

A Sarong and A Scarf

Picked these two lovelies up at the Salvos at Glen Waverley this morning. They were $2.99 a piece.

The first is large enough to be a sarong, so I'm guessing that's what it is.

The second is a lovely floral scarf that will be used lots over this spring and summer.

St Catherine's closed

Just to let you know, that sadly the St Catherine's Op Shop on Glenhuntly Rd, Elsternwick has closed down.

a growing addiction

remember how I mentioned the nine west shoes at that little op shop on Hawthorn rd at Caulfield? well, it beckoned to me again.

I might have to start taking a different way home from the gym!

Working Out the Pricing System at Salvation Army Op Shops

I thought it may be worth explaining the pricing system at Salvos stores, as it is actually kind of complicated and something you can work to your advantage, if you’re so inclined.

You may have noticed that Salvos uses price tags of several different colours (blue, yellow, purple and something else, I think). This system isn’t arbitrary, or a way of sorting the quality or type of the merchandise. It actually functions as a measure of how long certain items have been in the shop.

This is where another of the Salvos op shop conventions comes in – the ‘all blue/yellow etc tickets half price’ signs. At any time, all items with a certain colour tag are half price. What happens is that all new items which go onto the shop floor over a seven day period have the same colour tag. After three weeks have passed, any items still in the shop with that colour are half price for a week. Then those items that still haven’t sold are moved to a different Salvos store, where there’ll be a better chance of them being sold.

After the half price week, that colour is used for the newest items again.

Clever, huh?

So essentially, if you like something but can’t afford it/think it’s overpriced, check its tag and then figure out if it is currently half price/soon will be half price. Or you could wait it out for a number of weeks, if you have the requisite Nerves of Steel.

Usually I wouldn’t sweat it if an item is in your usual op-shop under $10 category. But sometimes the Salvos (espesh in country areas) do get wonderful old clothes, accessories and homewares, and charge accordingly. If you can pick up one of these items after it’s been sitting around for a while, you get a bargain, and the shop gets to shift some old stock that they would otherwise be moving off to another store.

Why all prices at the Salvos end in 75c is still a mystery to me, however. I’ll have to get on to that one.

Do you know of a Salvos that doesn’t participate in this scheme? Are there any finer points you can add to it, or why everything has to be $x.75? Any and all insights on this or other price systems are most welcome.

(This is also posted at thevintagedetective.wordpress.com - ps, I found this info out from a helpful vollie at Kyneton Salvos who explained the whole system to me unprompted - another reason to check out the ops there!)

My Finds today

Finally having some time on my hands has allowed me to do a little hunting today (and such much needed and very late posting).
Traveled over to Temcare Op-Shop, Station Street, Oakleigh, today and quite a treasure trove! I saw the shop when it was closed and looked through the window at a very cluttered and dark shop and turned my heel and walked away. Not today!

Venturing in, the first thing I spotted was the large collection of interesting chinaware and lots and lots of pyrex in pretty good nick! Didn't need those, so I meambled my way to the linen section and picked up a lovely patterned sheet for $2, then hunted out the craft section where I scored a quilting hoop for $8, fantastic piece of cotton drill (maybe for an apron?) for $1.50 and another embroidery hoop for $2. They had a huge range of craft magazines too (just got the one Quilters Companion). The staff seemed nice, though had no idea of pricing and seemed to think about what to charge for an eon!

I got this little sweetie from my favourite local op-shop, Ashburton Services, along with a daisy tablecloth. This shop is getting more and more popular, so you have to quick smart to nab a treasure.

I also found a chenille bedspread which is in perfect condition (though no label so not absolutely 100% sure it is pure cotton; the fringing doesn't feel like it) in a delicious icy pink. Yum!
(Co-posted at Whippet Good)

too much excitement, so a collection instead

Yes, it has been excitement a plenty here in the Whizzme household. First Amelia asked me if I would like to post here (of course!) and secondly, I made it to the Salvo's designer sale.  Now, if I was a more organised blogger I would be able to show you my booty from the sale (italian boots, Nolita sweatshirt, jeans, skirt, silk tie for Mr Whizzme) but unfortunately I am not that sort of blogger!  Well then, what to show you first fellow op shoppers? So many finds I would like to share, but lucky for you I managed to take a deep breath and limit my first post to one item, or rather a small section of my collection of one item.  Vintage patterns.  I love, love, love them.  No matter that I will probably never make them (especially given that most of these patterns require a woman to have not bust, I most certainly do have one), although Mr Whizzme may get one of those dressing gowns one day.  The pattern section his always where I will head to first.  Most of my favourite finds have in fact been in small, tucked away op shops in country towns.  (In fact, in a small seaside town in South Australia I found a rare Issey Miyake pattern for the outrageous sum of $2).  

1. Saturday's finds, 2. thrifting, 3. men's dressing gown, 4. vogue swimming attire

I love the hand sketched designs and the wordy outlines.  Maybe one day Miss Whizzme will need to attend a 60's party, and she will be able to wear an original creation?  maybe one day....

added: and here you will see a real collection - oh my!

Death and Nudity: The Ruder Side of Op Shopping

(Hi everyone...this is my first post on this [rad] blog. It's one that has previously appeared on my blog)

When I began op shopping about 12 years ago, I was but a wee bairn. I’d come home with plastic bags straining against the weight of cheap Kurt Cobain-esque (or at least so I thought at the time…they may have been manufactured by Katies) cardigans and ‘old man pants’ which were neither ‘retro’ nor sanitary.

All of this was much to my mother’s chagrin. As I stumbled through the door with yet another crap-jackpot, she would raise two main objections:

1) That thing may have belonged to a person who is now dead, and/or:
2) That thing may have touched someone’s “rude parts”

Of course I responded with the level of maturity you’d expect from an 11 year old; somewhere between ‘But mu-uuuuuummmmmm’ and ‘Who cares?’

But I do ponder these fears every once in a while, and now I raise the question – to what extent do such objections, raised so often by those who don’t frequent op shops, matter?

For my part, the first objection doesn’t worry me in the slightest. I’d like to think that when I shuffle off this mortal coil, someone will have a field day at my local op shop, allowing my greatest sartorial moments to live again. Rather than seeing the recycling of clothing once belonging to the dearly departed as somehow macabre or unclean, I think it’s a good, and – dare I use a term so cheesy – “life affirming” thing. Let’s face it, many of the things in op shops did end up there as the result of a posthumous clean out of someone’s home/wardrobe. Better that these things have new life breathed into them than end up on the scrapheap, I say.

However, the second one has me vaguely more concerned (and look, vague does mean vague…nothing is going to stop me pouncing on the architectural magnificence of a 50s bathing suit). Where is the best place to draw the line? Here is my own personal Acceptable and Unthinkable list of Questionable Items:

Acceptable:

• Shoes (unless they have a bad odour)
• Sleepwear (yes, I wash it)
• Bras (but they would have to be Really Awesome, and a good scrub would be in order)
• Sheets (wooooo, controversial! A wash here goes without saying)
• Wigs
• Swimwear (but again, it has to be particularly cool for me to go there…same goes for bodysuits/leotards)

Unthinkable:

• Undies/knickers/"g-strings" (and yes, some op shops do sell these - WHO IS BUYING THEM?)
• Socks and Hosiery (there’s just no need to go there)
• Sneakers (peee-yew! Unless they’re new)

Yep, that’s it. Can’t think of anything else that doesn’t reach the necessary hygiene benchmark.

But what about you? Are there things that are just too gross or too ‘personal’ for you to buy at the oppy? Or do you have what I call the ‘Statue of Liberty’ approach to op shops, namely:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me”

(Though I don’t know how ‘free’ you’d be breathing if you gleefully housed someone else’s undies, but perhaps that’s just my Outrageous Standards talking).