Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

I’m a mild thrift store junkie and won’t pass up a quick pop in to any thrift store if I am in the neighborhood and have a few extra minutes. Last week when I researched Shareen Vintage in downtown LA, I also stopped into the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store just down the street.  I walked away with a superb buy in some simple crystal wine goblets at $6.50 for a set of 8. At the rate I break my wine goblets, I could never afford to keep a full set unless I hunted at thrift stores. The trick is to go for simple lines and stay away from ornate sets.

Today on route back from a cool new bargain source, I stopped into the super hidden SOS Thrift store at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Glendale. I found a discontinued Nambe serving tray for $6.99 and a cute pair of old Salt and Pepper shakers that match my dinner set for $3. The Nambe platter had some scratches, but I have Nambe polish and 0000 steal wool to remove the scratches and polish it to look new. So after some elbow grease and a couple of broken nails, I have a fabulous platter that would have sold at upwards of $100 for just $7.

Unfortunately, the salt and pepper shakers didn’t have the original stoppers in them. But I figured a search on the net would yield leads. I found some stoppers for my newest thrift find at several different websites. One site sold them in volume… but I only needed two. Another site sold them individually but I had to have a $10 minimum order for free shipping or pay $5 to ship two, 10-cent items. I backed out. Thought I should check with a couple hardware stores and cooking stores before I did anything else (advice from bargaindawg).

Sometimes thrift store shopping is awful… when the store smells, is unorganized or the donated product is beyond any redemption. You do have to hunt, but when you find a treasure, its well worth the extra effort. Look at my latest loot…. I got about $150 of good stuff for just under $17

Now if I can only get my hands on some stoppers.