Unreal Thrift Store Find!!

So last Saturday my two daughters and myself are doing the thrift store thing and they are no digging it at all. The first store we hit I find a peanut guy, then a Trader Dicks surfer girl. Already have a surfer so I put it back down hoping the Tiki Gods will show me good fortune. Well guess what, at the end of a 6 hour day I go to the final thrift store in town. I went by this glass case like two times looking inside seeing nothing but the third time I look on top of it and see a black moai from The Fireside in Wisc. you can all understand my excitment and it was only $3.50 way cool. So we stroll around the rest of the store the I find the real goldmine. A TikiBobs look a like from the Bali Hai, then 2 black Aku Tiki mugs (BOT176) without the markings. So as I can barely contain myself I walk up to the counter to pay. As they ring it up they tell me today is 25% off day. So when all is said and done I get a TikiBob, a black moai, and 2 black Aku Tiki's for a whole $9.00. So to all of you who doubt the thrift store find doesn't exist here you go!

Awesome day for ya. I find all my tiki items basically at the thrift stores around here which isn't much but boy when I find something YOO HOO! I'm high as a kite. Yesterday went to Goodwill and got a hard back book on Mysteries of the Ancient by the National Geographic Society. Has a big Moai on the front. Gonna hit some more today and good luck again on your thrift store shopping. I'm like Tikifish when she says it's the hunt of the item. So good hunting...

The thrift store finds is what I like best. Not because of the price but the actual hunt! I can feel my tiki radar going off and usually that day we'll find one at a thrift store or very reasonably priced at an area antique store.

I wish thrifts stores were open 24 hours!

On 2002-12-31 11:04, tiki_kiliki wrote:
I can feel my tiki radar going off and usually that day we'll find one at a thrift store or very reasonably priced at an area antique store.

Damn, I wish my tiki radar were more accurate! Sometimes, I'll walk into a place and see mountains of stuff and think to myself "oooh, I'm going to score today" and come up with nothing. Other times, I don't even feel like stopping and looking because I just don't want to waste the time and end up being disappointed, yet I get lucky and find something anyways....

Oh and TikiGoddess, I too wish thrifts were open 24 hours. One of my pet peeves is arriving at a thrift store only drive up to a closed building.

I found a major portion of my collection in and also surrounding areas of Birmingham, Alabama believe it or not.

The stores there stay open until 9:00pm! I used to load up my truck with thrift finds. There's also about 14 at last count to hit in the area. I also remember one night I came across 3 tiki finds just sitting there waiting for me on the shelf. Here's a pic of one of them.

wow thats awsome! good job and happy hunting

I scored yesterday on a tiki mask for 4 bucks. My boyfriend put it on the tiki shed outside on the door-looks great. Other than that just a few clothes.

I got a good story, It didn't happen to me(dam it!) It happend to a local antique dealer that I get my steve crane rum barrel and the kine with the red lips, yellow face and red on top. both mugs in da Bot.
anyways i asked him how he get em!?

He said he went to the pearl city swap meet and was on his way out when this kid with his grandpa started putting a whole set of steve crane mugs on the mat in front of them, he said he sh-ted on himself an wen ask how much dey want fo da mugs.....$2 each!!!!!! where was i that day!
he sold them all in his shop.

It's VERY VERY hard to get anyting Hawaiiana or tiki in thrift stores here on da islands because there are so many collectors....I personally dont think it even reaches the shelves. the last ting i eva get was about 4 months ago. it was a hinky dinks ashtray that was dated 1980 something on it. love your thrift store stories!

happy new year from da gek!

My thrift store pet peeve is when they close 15 minutes early!! If the sign says closes at 6pm lock it up at 6pm!! If they need 15 minutes to close up, change the sign to 5:45. I can live with their hours better if they follow them!

I miss the thrift store glory days, when there was more to find than 100 baskets and a broken exerciser, and there were no "antique" sections.
Remember "THRIFTSCORE", the zine? What a funny funny gal that Al Hoff. Her book "ThriftSCORE" is a classic, unmatched source of American consumer fad history.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/OopBooks/UsedBook.asp?userid=4YPWJI7673&sourceid=00393694017231846760&bfdate=01%2D02%2D2003+22%3A57%3A39&ean=2781159122680
A cheaply made book, with lack of illustrations, but very insightful and funny text, it once was available for $12.95, but no more...

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2003-01-02 21:10 ]

#&@$! How do you post a long clickable URL without bending the page outa shape?
Hanford Help!

7 gently used copies are available here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060952091/qid%3D1041616217/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-2233747-1380656

Click on the "New & Used from $9.99" link to the right of the photo.

SugarCaddyDaddy

The vast lot of my collection came to me in thrift stores in the mid to late 80's. I rarely paid more than $5 for anything besides furniture and passed up so much stuff just because this particular 50's lamp wasn't better than one of the 14 in my living room at the time. Now all those lamps go for a minimum of $30, and usually up around $70. That's still not a lot, but when you are used to $3, it seems like it. And you just don't see it anymore.

My ideal thrift store has a one price policy. That's a true thrift store. Shirts $1.50. Pants $1. There's one in Minneapolis (or was) called Diggers and it was priced by the pound!

No Kidding! Most of the thrifts now are barely a step up from the dump. You can still find some scores but they are few and far between. Although that does make them that much more exciting. I scored a Trade Vic Coconut yesterday and a pair of Islander mugs a couple of weeks ago.
Aloha!
:tiki: