Bargain hunting can be hit and miss, but offer a chance to hit the jackpot
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If you go by social media, thrifting is fun, easy and lucrative. But it’s not all lost Picasso paintings and discarded Queen Anne chairs.
In fact, thrifting — when done right — can be kind of a grind.
“It’s something I joke about with my friends, because they’ll say, ‘I want to go thrifting with you,’ and then they go with me, and they’re like, ‘this is awful,’” said thrifting expert and writer Virginia Chalmee.
“Everyone thinks that you just go in and there’s a bright light shining on this wonderful painting. But the reality is, you’re on your hands and knees, you’re lifting up cushions and you’re wiping dust off of things. And for every really incredible find, I’ve probably gone to at least six different stores.”
For Chamlee, thrifting began as a hobby.
“Growing up, I thrifted with my grandmother. I have always considered myself a collector, and then probably about eight years ago, I started selling my finds, and this was really just a way to scratch an itch. I would find something really cool, but maybe I didn’t have room for in my house. I wasn’t even viewing it as a money-making endeavour.”
Now it accounts for about half her income.
Thrift stores, antique malls, yard sales, estate sales — Chamlee is an equal-opportunity bargain hunter.
“I just did the world’s longest yard sale, which is this 700-mile stretch through the southeastern U.S. of just yard sale after yard sale,” she said. “And I go to a lot of estate sales, which, as you can imagine, are really common in Florida, since we have an aging population.”
When travelling, she makes sure to check out thrift stores and antique malls.
“I use Instagram to ask people to send me their recommendations. But with thrifting, it’s more about going to as many stores as you can. Thrift stores are so hit or miss. You can go to one thrift store and not find anything and go to the same one the next day and find five things. That’s just the nature of it, because of how things are being donated and put on the floor. I try to use Google Maps, and I’ll just search ‘thrift store’ or ‘antique’ and try to go to as many places as I can within a small radius of wherever I might be.”
You can learn a lot about a place from what you find for sale in charity-run second-hand shops and other havens of the second-hand, used, vintage and pre-owned domain.
“Detroit is a great example. It’s a city that really came of age in the mid-century due to the auto boom, and so a lot of the thrift stores there have all this really incredible mid-century modern furniture. Similarly, in, like, Palm Springs in California or Palm Beach in Florida, you’ll see a lot of colourful 1960s Hollywood Regency-style pieces from when those places were in their heyday.”
Of course, the value of most items is only a few clicks away, so it’s a more difficult to come across items that have been undervalued than in pre-Internet days. But the industrious thrifter can still hit the jackpot.
“I remember, when I was younger, going to thrift stores and being able to find things that you just can’t find now, or it feels like you can’t find now. That said, people are still donating stuff every day.”
At the Vancouver Fall Home Show, Chamlee will share tips on how to buy vintage art, furniture and other home accessories.
“And certainly, I’ll be sharing a lot of images and stories of some of my most valuable finds. I have this great trunk, for instance, that I got for under $100 and I’ve since been offered more than $30,000 for it by the team at Sotheby’s. I’ll be talking a lot about styling as well.”
True to her thrifter’s creed, she’s blocked off a week to see what Lower Mainland thrift stores have to offer.
“I’m at the Home Show for two days, but if I’m travelling all that way, I definitely want to stay,” she said. “And I understand it’s a really beautiful outdoorsy place. So I have a lot of time marked off for that. And I do have some second-hand shops on my list.”
Virginia Chamlee will appear at the Vancouver Fall Home Show on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. and Oct. 27 at 2 p.m.