Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Resale, thrift, and consignment shops are my retail suppliers of choice. I would no sooner go first to a “real” store before checking out the secondhand possibilities, than I would rip up 20-dollar bills.

And not really only for budgetary reasons. Sure, a major perk of latching onto others’ cast-off treasures is that my money gets me more (who wouldn’t rather spend $5 at a Friends of the Library book shop than $25 at Barnes & Noble?) but that’s not the only reason to shop for gently-used good stuff.

Why shop second-hand FIRST?

• Selection. As it gets harder for “real” stores to turn a profit, they stick more and more with sure bets, things they know will sell. That limits your choices to what they want to sell you…whether you like it or not.
• Style. If this year’s colors, styles, patterns are not your favorite, why kow-tow to someone else’s taste? Put together your own unique style, whether we’re talking wardrobe or domicile, by shopping secondhand.
• Quality. Look like a million on someone else’s million.
• Finding treasures. Haven’t you always dreamed of a rocking chair just like Granpa used to have? Or a string of amber beads that look like they were bought by D.H.Lawrence in some exotic bazaar?
• Putting your money where your mouth is. If a charity you admire runs a thrift shop to earn its operating budget, isn’t it a good thing to patronize that shop? If you like your town’s downtown area, wouldn’t shopping the local merchants instead of the Big Boxes keep the area vibrant and attractive?
• Limited use. Only going to use that ball gown or baseball bat once? Why blow the budget?
• Fickle heart. Not sure if that look is for you? Try it out without stretching the budget. If your best friend insists it makes your butt look big, it hasn’t flattened your wallet. And hey, maybe you can consign it back!
• Fluctuating circumstances. Diet working, or not? Change sizes easily. Temporary quarters? Why buy every pancake flipper and wine glass new? And of course the greatest fluctuations of all: kids. Growing. Or going to camp. Or getting paint all over their “good” clothes.
• Turning your Cluttered Closets into Cash.
• Better things to do with your money. Whether it’s groceries or a graduate degree, there’s better places to spend your hard-earned cash than on material goods.
• Better things to do with your planet. It takes over 2 pounds of insecticides and fertilizer to create a single Tshirt and jeans. That’s not counting manufacturing the poisons, transporting them from plant to growing field, someone spreading them on the crop, poison in the air that person’s children must breathe…. and the associated harvest, manufacture, shipping of the finished garment (oh yes, and the chemical finish that’s applied to that garment!)

Why buy new when secondhand will not only “do”…it’s more imaginative, more fun, and so much MORE?