Thrift Store Hauls 2026
15I didn’t see one for this year yet, though feel free to merge or delete if in error. What have y’all found while thrifting so far? I’ll start with this awesome Zenith J430W solid state table radio I got a coule days back while out with a good friend. This was apparently one of the last ‘real’ Zenith radios they made, sold between 1977 and 1982, the last year of radio production for the company. It looks awesome and sounds great…and both the dial and the signal strength meter are illuminated!
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VAN GOGH! MANGO! TANGO! AWESOME!
Calm and bright indeed @PooltoyWolf!
Very nice haul. I need to start thrifting again.
1936 hermes baby typewriter
@zippyus Did you find it’s parents?
/showme baby typewriter named named Hermes is in the park having a picnic with it’s parent typewriters.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “baby typewriter named named Hermes is in the park having a picnic with it’s parent typewriters.”
@mediocrebot Egg-salad! I was thinking of having the family “say” things on the paper, but that would have been pretty complicated to showme. I could actually take that picture now and add captions.
@cfg83 technically, i found its grandchild. 1966 hermes 3000.
@zippyus Wow. The AI knew about the 3000 because it’s in the image. Soooooo, the picnic is with the grandparents, not the parents.
@cfg83 one of the first things fed to AIs is Wikipedia so they know about anything in there for a start. Some AIs will also run a quick web search on your prompt to pull in more text to make them temporarily seem more informed about the thing you’re asking them about. But yeah Hermes had a good run from before WWII to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or later, so AIs have plenty of data on 'em. They were to writers in the 1950s what Apple is now.
/showme the type of person into 1930s typewriters and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Style of Michelangelo’s famous “Sistine Chapel selfie”
@zippyus Here’s the image you requested for “the type of person into 1930s typewriters and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Style of Michelang…”
I saw this the other day. If it goes 50% off, then I might get it …
@cfg83 Stopped by today and the cover was slightly torn. This made me sad, so I officially rescued it for $9.
Got this for $2 yesterday. It has Kahhhhhhnnnnnn on it.
@cfg83
/giphy khaaaan
@cfg83 @zippyus tattoo must have passed him off
Couple of weeks ago, I scored a self-emptying Roomba i7 for only $25! And it works perfectly!
Easily the best ‘value’ of a thrift buy I’ve ever made.
/showme a Roomba i7 self-emptying
@haydesigner
/showme a robotic vacuum disgorging itself
@phendrick Here’s the image you requested for “a robotic vacuum disgorging itself”
@mediocrebot Ewww. Definitely regret asking…
For 8 bucks I got a Canon mx492 “Pixma” circa 2015(?) at Goodwill. It “just works” and even came with some ink. I tested the scanner before I bought it as my minimum requirement, so I was happily surprised that it even printed.
It may be a boring find, but my goal was met.
@cfg83 I run a thrifted Brother laser at work; currently 81k on the page counter, so I’ve printed over 25k pages on it already.
@narfcake Oooooh, Brother printer is a win. I’ve already scanned some olden precious photos, so as far as I’m concerned it’s paid for itself.
@cfg83 @narfcake I don’t print a ton but I’m still using my brother mf laser jet I bought as a refurb from like staples In 2004.
Unfortunately it no longer can scan on windows 11, even though it did on windows 10. Some driver bull shit/Microsoft crap since third parties can make it work
@narfcake @unksol I am connecting to the Canon from a Xubuntu Linux mini-pc. There is no official driver for this printer, but it gets the job done. The scan is at 600 DPI, and that is more than enough for me.
@cfg83 @narfcake
I just had to scan my license for some application. Brother scanner has worked for forever. They don’t offer a windows driver for 10 or 11.
10 was fine. Microsoft broke it in 11. Can’t access a basic scanner
But somehow vuescan can?
That being said I’m sure there is some app where you can take a picture and convert to pdf and send that. At least for some things
A few weeks ago I found the last of Alton Brown’s Good Eats recipe books, the only one I didn’t have. They also had a bunch of Good Eats DVDs, I managed to pick up the ones with “The Cookie Claus” and “Romancing the Bird” which are among my favorite episodes.
Over the past month I’ve been buying the detritus of the Gold Pyramid House gift shop at a Goodwill as I find it. It’s been bittersweet, because that means it’s closed, but on the other hand I now have 48 pewter thimbles that say GOLD PYRAMID.
@mossygreen
And spoons.
@mossygreen I just looked it up, is it the place in Illinois?
@sammydog01 I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but how many golden pyramid houses are there in the continental US? My understanding was one. You could see it from the highway AND the tollway!
PS Yes, Wadsworth, Illinois.
@mossygreen @sammydog01 This forum is so educational! I never knew about that.
@Kyeh @sammydog01 It’s extremely regional. I am morally certain that Ripley’s Believe It Or Not filmed a segment there back in the '80’s when Jack Palance was hosting, but I can find no evidence of it. Extremely regional it remains.
@Kyeh @mossygreen It’s the first golden pyramid I found but I didn’t keep looking. Sad about the fire. Have any plans for 48 pewter thimbles? I understand how you couldn’t just leave them on the shelf at Goodwill (which is why I try to not go there unless the siren call is particularly loud).
@Kyeh @sammydog01 I’M GOING TO HOARD THEM.
@mossygreen @sammydog01
Of COURSE!
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 Thank you. Long live the Hoard!
/showme Frightened minimalists being confronted by the Filthy Hoarders!
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Frightened minimalists being confronted by the Filthy Hoarders!”
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 48 thimbles are more than enough for chess.
/showme Chess set that uses pewter thimbles as chess pieces.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Chess set that uses pewter thimbles as chess pieces.”
@mediocrebot Holy crap, those are RIGHTEOUS!
@cfg83 @mossygreen @Kyeh You should get one of these and fill it with identical thimbles. It might even fit a spoon or two.
Also I read the Wikipedia entry for all 77 Jack Palance episodes and couldn’t find it. I may look some more.
@mossygreen @sammydog01
@cfg83–HEY! Who the hell are you calling filthy! I’ll have you know everything in my hoard is clean, and so is my house. Just clutterd.
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 I apologize, I was imposing my world on yours.
/showme Frightened minimalists being confronted by the Super Clean Hoarders!
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Frightened minimalists being confronted by the Super Clean Hoarders!”
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 But did you read Jack Palance’ book?
@mediocrebot Wow, there is no middle road for showme right now.
@cfg83 That’s more like it.
@mediocrebot We gotta dial this in …
/showme Minimalists being attracted to the cool things that their clean hoarder friends have.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Minimalists being attracted to the cool things that their clean hoarder friends have.”
@cfg83 @mediocrebot
YES!!! That’s exactly right! Just needs some pop cans in puffer jackets, Dr. Suess mugs, and Irk stuffies.
Oh, and I guess a bunch of pewter thimbles.
@mediocrebot What @Kyeh said.
@cfg83 I have a friend whose husband is a collector/dealer of vintage toys, and a daughter who’s a collector/dealer of everything Barbie. Their house is like a museum.
@Kyeh As it should be. A thousand years from now, Dr. Zaius won’t be able to learn anything when he digs up the homes of the minimalists.
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 This case reminds me of this wonderful little shop in the ORIGINAL Farmer’s Market at 3rd and Fairfax in Los Angeles. It had rows and rows of Hagen Renaker figurines. I still have a lot of them stashed here and there. Maybe I will make my own shrine to that little storefront.
https://www.etsy.com/market/vintage_hagen_renaker_porcelain_figurines
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 Ohh! I just remembered. I needed to repair the wing of my little Hagen Renakar penguin …
Dr. Crazy Glue says the prognosis is good.
@cfg83 @mossygreen @sammydog01 I love Hagen Renaker figures but wow, they’ve gotten super expensive! When my brother was a kid I got him the little green dragon. He took that with him everywhere.
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 Ok, Hagen Penguin Renakar is reunited with his Peruvian friend …
@cfg83 @mossygreen @sammydog01
That’s a nice tableau! How many of the HR figures do you have?
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 They are everywhere. I am guessing 20 or 30, but I hope it’s more. I got a baby brachiosaurus at Magic Mountain in the 1970s. I broke it’s neck at one time but I fixed him … I just realized he’s in danger in a frame on the wall. He must be saved.
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01
/showme how @cfg83’s baby brachiosaurus he got at Magic Mountain in the 1970s is in danger on a wall shelf
@therealjrn Here’s the image you requested for “how @cfg83 s baby brachiosaurus he got at Magic Mountain in the 1970s is in danger on a wall shelf”
@Kyeh @mossygreen @sammydog01 Holy crap, there is a youtube channel …
https://www.youtube.com/@TheHagen-RenakerChannel?app=desktop
@mediocrebot @therealjrn That about sums it up. Here he is. The black rhino and hippo little rubbery fellas you could get by the cash register.
@cfg83 @mediocrebot @therealjrn Yeah, you probably should get a display case. They’re on eBay & etsy for mucho bucks!
@Kyeh @mediocrebot @therealjrn I can go to Daiso (Japanese 5 and dime) and get a decent case for under $20. I just need the “staircasing” levels. If I use alien tape, then they won’t fall over and break (easily).
@cfg83 @mediocrebot @therealjrn I would be a bit leery of using Alien tape because I’ve seen people say that it’s really hard to remove things taped with it. Maybe do a test first with some small similar object that isn’t valuable? There’s a kind of wax used in museums to hold things in place. That might be safer.
@cfg83 @mediocrebot @therealjrn Oh, maybe not, on the wax - I looked it up and found this on Reddit:
@Kyeh @mediocrebot @therealjrn I agree. I have to be careful.
@Kyeh
@mediocrebot
/showme how cfg83 is protecting ALL his Hagen Renaker figurines by shielding them with his body
@therealjrn Here’s the image you requested for “how cfg83 is protecting ALL his Hagen Renaker figurines by shielding them with his body”
@cfg83
BTW - I said this -
I think it sounded like I was saying the display cases are mucho bucks, but I meant that the figures are now very expensive. So definitely worth protecting.
Black and Decker Toaster Oven for $8 …
I’ll clean it up and test it this week. If it doesn’t pan out, then I can return it within 7 days.
@cfg83 Toaster oven works like a charm. It only needs some easy-off in a few places. Toasty bagels await!
“Vaultz” box for $4 …
It had this horrid red glitter on it, so I used an X-ACTO to cut it off. it was actually interesting because the glitter was on cloth. Once I started peeling, it came off super easy. None of that hours-long sticker/scraping work.
The red piece is the glitter. The white piece is the cloth under the glitter.
@cfg83 Are you going to cover it with something else or just leave it nekkid?
@Kyeh I was thinking of a carbon-fiber sheet sticker, but the exposed surface is a cardboard that is not smooth. I could either paint it or shellac it (for waterproofing) or felt-sticker it or sticker-sticker it.
Maybe I will try to sand it with a fine grit first to see how smooth I can get it.
@cfg83 If you paint it or varnish it the sticker ought to adhere, right?
@Kyeh Yes, but the sticker might be bumpy. I will test sanding it first.
@cfg83 I hope we get to see the results!
@Kyeh Oh crap, now I am on the hook to do it (that’s actually a good thing).
@cfg83 Haha!
@Kyeh Even though you are NOT the scapegoat for this month, I blame you.
I used this sheet from Daiso as the application sheet :
It looks pretty good :
The “staircase grid pattern” of the sheet made it easy to cut it accurately.
I had to do 12 patterns overall, but the sides had a lot of repetition. Where the sheet didn’t hit the edge, I used a black sharpie to fill in the gap, so it’s hardly noticeable. I think it took about 4 hours to do at a leisurely pace.
@cfg83 Hah! I’ll gladly take that blame. That looks fantastic!
Wasn’t bought this year but I finally did tested it out. Yay, I didn’t waste the $10 for this Z390 motherboard. I did
spendwaste $10 for a NIB CeleronCPUsocket protector, though, as I didn’t have any 8th or 9th gen computers at home in which I could borrow its processor for testing.The PSU was also a thrift store purchase. As was the CPU cooler. And the 8GB came from a thrifted computer.
Now to wait for a thrifted GPU …
@narfcake Wow, Similar Z390 is $179 motherboard on amazon.
@cfg83 Unless I run across a higher-SKU CPU for a reasonable enough price, I probably going to sell this board off. $120+ for a i7-9700k that gets beaten by a $60 Ryzen 5 5500 - it doesn’t make sense.
On a different paw, one of my other thrifted PSUs will be getting e-wasted. Even though it was $3 and completely unused, I still should have looked up some reviews first:
Besides, the EVGA N1 I use on the test bench is bad enough already:
(I have a few of those Thermaltake Smart PSUs as well. They’re also not good, but at least it has the decency to commit seppuku instead of taking everything else out when it goes out.)
One of my axe places went out of business which makes me very sad. But I did snag their chip display for $10.
{VMod edit: resized to 50%.}
@narfcake I don’t know how to make this photo reasonably sized but you might.
@sammydog01 Hmmm …
/showme cat lying inside clear glass bowl that is attached to pole that is attached to flat circular basel.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “cat lying inside clear glass bowl that is attached to pole that is attached to flat circular basel.”
@mediocrebot Oh wow, so comfy!
@cfg83 I guess I need four cats.
@sammydog01 Yes!
/showme Human named “sammydog01” with 4 happy cats on his couch.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Human named sammydog01 with 4 happy cats on his couch.”
@sammydog01 That’s a very nifty thing! What sort of chips did it used to display - the kind you eat, or some other kind?