A Good Day

Over break, I've had some quality time to thrift around my area and visit some shops that are ordinarily out of the way to get to. One of the key elements of successful thrift shopping is persistence. You might visit 3 different stores, and find one quality find between them all, or you could strike gold and find half a dozen or more great items (per store!).

This will be a rather long post, but I wanted to show off some of my favorite steals from the past week or so.

Last week I traveled to 5 different stores, and came back with a small handful of items. Today, I made it to 6, and attempted a 7th, but that's a different story... Regardless, I found some items I'm pretty happy with and will showcase here.

This houndstooth jacket seemed like a good buy at $8. It is USA made by Anderson-Little. It's 100% wool, 2 button and darted, it's not the most traditional of jackets but it will look good worn casually where a blazer might be a little too bold. The material however feels pretty nice and it was very clean and shows minimal signs of wear.

I had never heard of "Embassy Square" before but apparently it was a line by Anderson-Little before that company got bought up and re-marketed

Paid: $8

Retail: ??? Let's say $100 as a low-ball figure

Perhaps one of the nicer things I've come across at a thrift store recently, two pairs of new-with-tags J.Crew chinos! There must have been a store that donated their extra stock to the thrift store (for tax purposes?) and I was the lucky recipient of two pairs in my size. As a preppy rule of thumb... you can never have too many khakis. True tradsters won't wear jeans past their driveway.

The unfortunate part was that there was an excellent pair of tuxedo pants (also new) that were a size too small, so sadly I wasn't able to walk away with those today. (Of course I find out AFTER I get home that those retail for $265 and sell on eBay for at least $90... d'oh!!!)

 Paid: $13 ea.

Retail: $70 ea. ($140)

Long Sleeve shirts were in short supply on today's trip, but I did make off with a J.Crew point collar and a RL buttondown Yarmouth shirt. I was happy to find a good, clean shirt in white as this is a rare color to find fairly pristine in used condition.

Paid- $3 ea.
Retail: $60 ea. ($120)

These I picked up a couple weeks ago, but have been some of my favorite pants this winter! They are J.Crew chinos, lined with flannel for extra warmth; and warm they are! With the cold weather we've had, I haven't been able to stop wearing these since. 

 Paid: $4

Retail: $98

Did someone say marco?  Polo shirts from RL are one of the items you can consistently find in thrifts given their popularity and availability. The difference is, shmucks are paying $68 for these retail, and I paid about $16 for the lot (possibly less).Paid: $4 ea.
Retail: $65+ ea. ($260)

This was not a true thrift acquisition, but instead an online purchase from a fellow forum member at AskAndy.  It's a pullover shirt like a rugby, but has a oxford cloth button down collar. Pretty nifty!
Paid: $20
Retail: ~$80

I spy three golden fleece and one... green one. Ah, the joys of a BB polo, regarded by many as the best available on the market in terms of quality. I hit the proverbial jackpot today in finding three of these (usually rare) treasures. Even better, they were half price at $2 ea! Only problem was the sizing was a tad large so I attempted some shrinking methods and they are now an alright fit. There are actually 3 different shirt fabrics here, with the top and middle being pique and the other two being a softer cotton weave.
Paid: $12 total
Retail: ~$65 ea. ($260 total)

You can't go wrong with $1 ties... Well, maybe you can but I spotted a couple that fit my interests pretty well. If you take a look at my "wishlist" page, you'll see a Brooks Brothers BB#4 Repp tie that is somewhat similar to the Land's End I found today. This one however, is really skinny! On the left is another emblematic with some spinnaker action.

 Paid: $2

Retail: $20

End Result? A thrifted outfit that doesn't look half bad. Pictured here with the aforementioned jacket, a Polo tie, RL shirt, and J.Crew chinos.

The total "savings" from this post? Just $14 shy of $1,000.
Which I certainly made up in other purchases not pictured here.

A good day indeed.

Stay tuned, as I have some more very interesting items I've saved for a future post. Thanks for reading =]