I haven’t seen things that’ll blow you away with how weird they are. Just things like old antique standing doll figure things or the odd looking mug.
I saw a jacket full of syringes at GoodWill.
I volunteered at a thrift store years ago, and I was in charge of looking at the condition and prices of books that were donated. One person dropped off about 10 boxes filled to the brim with Playboy cartoons. They weren’t worth anything and couldn’t be put out on the floor anyway, so they were thrown out. I also remember that someone donated a biography of Benjamin Franklin from 1835. The cover was coming apart, but the pages were in wonderful condition. We sent that to a bigger thrift store in the area that ended up auctioning it for about $350.
A full wallet among other wallets, perfectly disguised. Somebody left it there a few hours before. It was a guy from Scotland on a trip with his friends who went shopping for party clothes. He answered on Instagram (after much stalking) at midnight when I was already inside a club and they were on their way to the club too. So we rendez-vous at 6 AM after clubbing because they had a train at 8AM for another city. They left some joints at my place as a thank you. Also offered some ketch for a, I shit you not, “crunchy landing”.
Used to work at one a long time ago. The weirdest stuff is the stuff that never makes it to the floor. Take for example this framed picture of young Michael Jackson which we promptly hung on our wall in the back.
This thing!
It’s hilarious, and a damn good phone holder. Freaked out a few family members when they saw just one part of it sticking out of my luggage, before I could explain 😅
I think it goes without saying but please don’t donate garbage to your local thrift store. In most cases they aren’t even gonna put it on the shelf.
YOU SAY THAT - and are totally right - but that does bring back that memory I’ve got of seeing an utterly disgusting beer brewing kit being sold in the box for $10. The entire store smelled like decay.
I used to volunteer at my local thrift store and that sometimes meant going through donation boxes to determine what was worth keeping. Sometimes those bags had actual garbage in them. Lots of older men who didn’t wash the back of their neck (or if they were in a home the nurse didn’t)
We had two bags in the back for stuff we didn’t keep. If it was actual garbage it went in the trash. If it was just unlikely to sell and someone was willing to make the trip it would go to Goodwill.
Some of the bags contained older men with dirty necks?
Looking back I provided absolutely zero context to that statement lol.
Their shirts. Men’s button-up shirts, especially if they were white, would always have a big brown stain on inside collar where the shirt would rub up on the back of your neck. Those went in the trash.
3.5€ for a brand new cast iron wok. Instabuy.
Bob Ross head chia pet. I really wanted it so I opened the box to make sure the pot was inside. Found a dead lizard instead. Store employee had to properly dispose of the whole thing.
Like, no Bob Ross chia pet? Just the dead lizard? That’s fucked.
Sorry, should have been clearer. The chia pet was inside too. Well, at least the pot was. I didn’t really want to stick my hand in to see if the seeds were there too; on account of the dead lizard
Did the dead lizard have a green afro?
Not so much weird, but it’s weird that it’s simultaneously hilarious and day-ruiningly depressing.
I saw a little bowl with small jewelry in it like charms and earrings. Among them was the right half of a heart that read “FRIENDS” and just below that was “EVER”. I’m 100% certain that there exists somewhere the left half of that heart that reads “BEST” and “FOR” with identical formatting, and that friendship either ended dramatically or fizzled out over time.
It made me think about some previous close friendships I’ve had and how people can either just grow apart or have a violent falling out. And I wondered who in their right mind would buy just half of that best friends forever charm. Why would a thrift shop even have that available?
Kinda fascinating that an entire coming of age story can be told by just half of a piece of jewelry I found at a thrift store, and I’ll never know the truth, yet I’ll never forget it.
I once bought a custom engraved Zippo that said “Daddy believes in you” at a pawn shop for $15. I bought it for very similar reasons.
And I wondered who in their right mind would buy just half of that best friends forever charm.
anyone who would like to joke with their depression. I can imagine doing that.
now I actually want something like this
You were supposed to buy the charm and use it to find your soulmate
Oh also I got an oxygen concentrator from the wholesale Goodwill where everything is sold by the pound. Paid $13 for a $800 medical device.
I use it to get my fireplace going. Works like a charm.
A failed 3D print. Some Pokémon missing a leg.
My GF worked for a thrift shop, and when I picked her up after work she was admiring a 2 foot statue of Venus that had just been donated. So I bought it for her. That evening she was cleaning it up and noticed the wooden box at the foot of the figurine was hinged, but locked. I opened it with a bent paper clip and inside was a bag containing - a butt plug and anal beads. Then we figured out that if you twisted the head, it pulled a dildo out of the body.
“I’ll give you $5 if you sniff it.”
Whomever draws the dildo from the statue shall be crowned king or queen of degeneracy.
Damn. That would be me!
You gotta admire the creativity and craftsmanship
/thread
I’ve volunteered for a few charity shops (UK version of a thrift store) in the past, the weirdest thing was the trash people would “donate”, like used diapers.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure
Gross story incoming…
In my 30’s I worked with people with developmental disabilities. There was a 45 year old man I worked with occasionally who had brain damage from a fever when he was a baby. He had a strange fetish for dirty diapers and could not control it at all. If he smelled or saw a dirty diaper he was getting in there and there was no stopping it. I got called by his worker one day to help get him out of a dumpster. He found a bag of dirty diapers and was like a dog on a poop pile, rolling around and smearing it everywhere. Gross.
Not so much a weird thing, but more a weird price.
My local thrift store are known to have high prices. Not because they sell high-quality stuff, the prices are just high. The most insane thing there is what’s clearly a jar that used to hold pickled beets. It’s clean, though, I’ll give them that. Pickled beets are cheap and available in all groceries here. The thrift store chose to price this, empty, jar at 150% the price of a new jar including pickles!
Sounds like they were in quite a pickle.
Front for money laundering?
We live in the same place. Pickled beets and overly expensive thrift stores.
does it rhyme with Schmennsylvania? lol
