So cheap I feel like I committed a felony:

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I go once every couple of months. Recently bought a perfect condition Charles Tyrwhitt dress shirt for $2.50.
I found the same shirt on their website for $140
Their selection of dress shirts is usually pretty good.
The Goodwill I visit is a few miles from a neighborhood with multi million dollar homes.
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These beautiful Shell Cordovan wingtips from the late 1970s were found at a local Savers store. I spent an hour polishing them for looking like they were covered in red mold to this kind of dull shine. I think they're going to need a lot more elbow grease but they will come back eventually.
They were made for "VAUGHN AT SATHERGATE". This is a defunct Menay store 3000 miles west of me, formerly in Berklee CA
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Originally posted by evanparker View PostThese beautiful Shell Cordovan wingtips from the late 1970s were found at a local Savers store. I spent an hour polishing them for looking like they were covered in red mold to this kind of dull shine. I think they're going to need a lot more elbow grease but they will come back eventually.
They were made for "VAUGHN AT SATHERGATE". This is a defunct Menay store 3000 miles west of me, formerly in Berklee CA
I am into them for about what I would have paid for new Alden shell shoes. I don't think they were a good investment.
But from a thrift store like yours? SWEET!WHY ARE THE GUYS IN SUITS HERE? HAS SOMETHING GONE WRONG?
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Originally posted by mebejoseph View Post
Have you continued getting them in better shape? I have some vintage Florsheim shell shoes--Just to win the ebay auction was $250. Then the resoling. And now I am waiting to get them back from yet another restoration project (stripping and re-dying because after I stripped off 50 years of polish, the leather in the shoes didn't match).
I am into them for about what I would have paid for new Alden shell shoes. I don't think they were a good investment.
But from a thrift store like yours? SWEET!
the little rolled edging piece on the back top of the heel is kind of messed up. I thought maybe i could replace it but I haven't really had luck sourcing it. I also haven't looked that hard LOL
i'm not exactly a shoe maker, maybe a shoe fiddler at best. I really don't think there is anything I can do. So they're just sitting on my shelf I guess.
Mostly theyre in good shape, besides a few little spots i guess. sorry I wish i had more better news than that LOL
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Originally posted by evanparker View Post
YOU KNOW it's funny, i haven't' done anything with them. i kind of already have wingtips like that anyway, and these don't even fit me
the little rolled edging piece on the back top of the heel is kind of messed up. I thought maybe i could replace it but I haven't really had luck sourcing it. I also haven't looked that hard LOL
i'm not exactly a shoe maker, maybe a shoe fiddler at best. I really don't think there is anything I can do. So they're just sitting on my shelf I guess.
Mostly theyre in good shape, besides a few little spots i guess. sorry I wish i had more better news than that LOL
So, if you want to invest about $350-$400 more into those shoes, I can refer you to some cobblers who fix them up and a person who can do a great job restoring the finish. But I'm guessing that's not what you want to do.WHY ARE THE GUYS IN SUITS HERE? HAS SOMETHING GONE WRONG?
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Since i bought my house an hour south of my old neighborhood in Brighton, right next to Boston Univeristy, i haven't been thrifting in any successful way almost at all. I have a couple stores in providence but they are always picked clean, since it seems like there is definitely demand for the thrift items from multiple sorts of classes of people in the city. i haven't found anything really remotely good in maybe 6 moths, when i saw those shell wingtips that i really don't need.
My old thrift spots, one of which actually closed anyways, and the other of which was the Goodwill store on Commonwealth Ave on the edge of Allston, i miss them so so much! lol...
If i could impress any suggestions of 'how to thrift' into this thread, gained from my nearly 25 years going to Goodwill and digging around it would be that LOCATION IS KING. when thrifting. You never find anything in the thrift stores in the poor neighborhoods, they are picked SO CLEAN that sometimes it's just not even worth going inside. Same with the rich neighborhoods, the thrift stores have a couple good items occaisonally but no one really goes to those stores, so they don't have alot of turn over. Item turn over is the thing that brings stuff in the door and it is absolutley crucial.The best stores are always always the ones right on the dge of a good neighborhood and on the edge of a bad one. These stores have lots of demand, therefore turnover,, and lots of supply.
The BU goodwill, next to a neighborhood of immigrants and poor 20 year old, and the BU rich rich people paying 50k a year plus to go there, the best one in the area.
My childhood Savers, right on the boston line in West roxbury, and right on the line of Dedham a relatively rich upper middle class kind of town, most of it. This savers is EPIC and a place where most of my best stuff was ever dog up.Last edited by evanparker; February 26, 2021, 08:26 AM.
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