The Nike sneakers I thrifted for $12.99 arrived in pristine mint condition, with no wear marks or odor. They are very well made shoes and fit my guy perfectly. I think they were a display pair; I found a tiny scuff mark on one of the soles that suggested someone had maybe tried them on and walked around the store with them, but that's all. I can see someone paying $80.00 for them as they are now. Because new namebrand men's sneakers are so rare to be able to thrift, much less at the minimum bid, plus it took me months to find them, I'm going to call this my thrift of the year.
The lot of Vera Bradley bags I thrifted for $9.99 proved to be in much better shape than suggested by the listing title (some stains and rips were mentioned.) I found some stains on the inside of one tote that barely show on the outside, and a single rip in the outer pocket of the big duffel bag that is an easy fix for me. The rest are in very good condition, with three in what I'd call unused condition. To my delight one of the bags that I assumed was a purse actually turned out to be an insulated, plastic-lined lunch bag.
Now here's why thrifting pays: I looked up the prices of what it would cost to buy these bags (three are evidently retired patterns and one is rare.) The total retail to buy all of them used -- yes, used -- is $307.90. Vera Bradley is pretty pricey, so I don't even want to think about what they cost new. I will be doing a post in the new future about cleaning, repairing and reusing this lot, so stay tuned to the blog for that.
The lot of eight quilting and craft books I thrifted with no challengers arrived in very good to mint condition, and will add greatly to my reading pleasure this fall. I can't tell you how many times I've almost bought The Quilter's Bible new; I just couldn't pay thirty dollars for a quilting book. Anyway I looked at all the prices on the books and they totalled $174.72. At half price for used book resale they would cost $87.36. I paid $9.99 for all eight.
The savings by thrifting was wonderful, but what makes me confident all three of these listings were worth every penny of the minimum bids I won them for is simply the happiness they delivered. My guy has new sneakers, I have new purses and more books to read, and all of it won't be dumped in a landfill. It doesn't get any better than that.
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