thrift store

The Hollow Treasures Of Storage Wars

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

Why is “Storage Wars” one of the most popular shows on television? A&E’s megahit has turned the relatively obscure practice of bidding on expired storage units into the most popular game show on television.

Each episode builds up the anticipation of not only finding out the contents of each unit, but then learning just how much each unit is worth (though my biggest problem with the show is the values are often dubious in their interpretation).

Secretly everyone watching considers becoming a storage unit bidder. You think to yourself, “Is it really that easy? Spend a hundred bucks on a storage unit and turn a couple thousand dollars profit?

I thought about “Storage Wars” quite a bit as I prepared for our church’s yard sale this past weekend. At one point I even met a church member at her storage unit to pick up some items.

She had not been to the unit in years. When she unlocked the door the mountainous contents were overwhelming. Continue reading →

Thrift Shop Gospel

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

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Who ever thought the thrift shop would be in style? With his ridiculous ode to secondhand shopping, Macklemore has the hottest song in the country, a horn-heavy homage to the greatness of Goodwill shopping.

Seems secondhand stores are bigger than ever. Besides general thrift stores like the Salvation Army, specialized consignment shops are popping up everywhere paying top dollar for used clothes, DVDs, cds, and books. Even big businesses like Best Buy and Toys R Us are now giving away cash instead of taking it, buying back old video games and Blu Rays.

Just the other day I put together a pile of movies and books cluttering up my shelves and headed to the local thread of thrift stores in Augusta. I rode into parking lots pumping Macklemore’s hit on my speakers, expecting to walk into the store with twenty dollars in my pocket and walk out with a secondhand swagger, or at least with twenty more bucks in my pocket.

I ended up just keeping most everything I brought in as I saw the trade-in value come up on the screen when each item was scanned: 75 cents, 15, cents, 10 cents, 5 cents, 1 cent. How could a DVD that cost $15 have a trade-in value of just a penny? The stores didn’t even want some of my movies, rejecting them out right.

And then I remembered this always happens. I build myself up with dreams of easy money from trading in my unwanted things. Instead I walk out feeling cheaper than ever, the collectibles I valued so much now deemed worthless. Continue reading →