Conscious Choice: ...Another (Wo)man's Treasure

April 2000

...Another (Wo)man's Treasure

Making the most of thrift, vintage, consignment, and family hand-me-downs

by Laura Hoofnagle

The desk on which I write this once belonged to my old neighbor, Bob, a frustrated English teacher in Chicago’s pubic schools. He moved to California, with little more than a car and a bag of laundry, and probably a bunch of notebooks. Its top surface is probably close to the size of a door, and it has five roomy metal drawers — think the government offices in the 1970s. It’s probably strained the backs of several sets of movers. Each time I move, I think about getting rid of it, but it works, and where am I going to get another like it — for free?

The chair I’m sitting in belonged to an attorney who works in the office down the hall from mine. It had a broken wheel. I called our local office salvage man, and for a small fee, he put a new bottom on it. It’s good as new — and ergonomic.

The coat I still wear in the winter appears to have been a surplus army coat in post- WWII Germany, made to be worn by the soldiers who guarded the Berlin Wall. Four or five years after the fall of the wall, it found its way to Something Old, Something New at Belmont and Seminary, where I discovered it, ecstatic at the fact that it was made of thick, warm wool, and hung to my ankles and covered my hands.

The best things in life may not be free, but a good number of them can be found at a discount by people who know where to look.

Better Than the Mall

I became hooked on secondhand shopping when my best friend took me to Rummage-O-Rama, a weekend-long "rummage convention" where people purchase booths to sell a variety of vintage and used items, in Milwaukee. I was about fifteen years old, and in the process of "finding my own identity," which to me at the time meant looking like no one else, not even the black-clad goth kids I hung out with. I soon realized that shopping for new things at the mall — or in any store — would never measure up again.

This particular friend had been a secondhand shopper all her life. In grade school she had been ridiculed for her "sixties clothes," but when she hit her teens, secondhand shopping was suddenly "cool." By that time it was not a choice for her but a way of life. Today, she and her one-year-old son pick out clothes and toys at the Salvation Army resale store. They often find things that are unused or hardly used, and the used items they find have already been "kid-tested" for durability. And everything is a fraction of the cost of new items. It does not make sense to her to pay more. Even if she had unlimited finances, she would see buying new items as wasting them.

Secondhand shopping became a way of life for me, too. I spent so much time in Something Old, Something New during college that the young man I was dating at the time used to wander in there at random times looking for me — and usually found me. For my twenty-first birthday, this boyfriend (by then having been schooled by me) gave me one-of-a-kind gifts that didn’t break him — a red leather jacket and a pewter heart-shaped box, both from Shangri-La, at Roscoe and Damen.

My current boyfriend has picked up several suits and leather jackets, and countless pairs of jeans and casual shirts at Salvation Army, which he prefers over for-profit stores. The apartment I share with him is furnished almost completely with furniture that has been downsized by his or my parents, and everything goes together quite nicely, being mostly wood. Adding accent to the rooms are a few things my boss was getting rid of, and some garage sale finds from those not-quite-forgotten college days. Our record (yes, record), tape, CD, and book collections are about 50 to 75 percent preowned, and we’re working on building a computer game collection the same way.

A Recycling Way of Life

Recycling doesn’t just mean putting soda cans in blue bags. The true spirit of recycling lies in reusing useful things, many of which, unlike glass, paper, and plastic, do not have to be ground down to their elements and built into new things, but can simply be passed along, among families, friends or strangers.

Everyone reuses. There are entire publications dedicated to resale, of which the west-suburban based Tradin’ Times is perhaps the best known. People are buying and selling preowned items on-line. Television shows appraise old attic-kept items to discover they are worth small fortunes. In my experience, there frequently has been someone in my general "community" — family, friends, coworkers, neighbors — in need of items I was getting rid of. More often than not, there has also been someone getting rid of things I’ve needed, when I’ve needed them.

Resale

If your own family doesn’t have extra items, there are plenty of people who do. These people have brought those items to resale stores everywhere. Today there is at least one thrift, consignment, vintage, or resale store in nearly every neighborhood in Chicago. Buying preowned items is no longer just for people short on funds. Upscale consignment stores are every bit as common and popular as thrift stores.

There are too many thrift and consignment stores to give proper and informative mention of every one with merit. The particular ones I mention are those that have stood me in good stead over the years, or those that have recently caught my eye. A look at a neighborhood phone book (under the headings of resale, consignment, thrift, or clothes — consignment and resale) or on-line directory, or in many cases, even a walk down the street can help you locate stores that meet your needs.

Thrift Stores

Many thrift stores are for the benefit of a particular charity — the Salvation Army shops being perhaps the oldest and most ubiquitous. The charity itself often attracts a higher quality of donations. My former roommate and I have found many professional work outfits at the Brown Elephant (I’ve also found some snazzy kitchenware for just a few dollars), which benefits the Howard Brown Health Center and goes the extra mile by providing a pick-up service for furniture, electronics, and large quantities of clothing. I’ve seen some beautiful paintings (many of which I still can’t afford) at the White Elephant in Lincoln Park, which benefits Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Donations to thrift stores are, in almost every case, tax-deductible. It is helpful to make a list of the items and their price estimates before taking them to the store. Most stores will issue a receipt for your records.

Consignment

Consignment can earn a little money for the owner as well, and is often used with designer clothes, furniture and other large or costly items. Consignment agreements vary from store to store, taking into account the price and salability of the item, but generally, the owner signs a consignment agreement with the store, agreeing upon a price, a period of time to sell the item and a percentage split, usually 50/50 or 60/40. If the item does not sell in the agreed-upon period of time, it may become the sole property of the store, which may then mark the price down at its own discretion, or, in some cases, usually with smaller, inexpensive items, get rid of the items altogether, usually by donating them.

Selective Secondhand

Vintage stores, in general, pay special attention to the quality and condition of the clothing and items they sell. Clothing is carefully selected from a variety of places (and most vintage store owners will never tell you where) dry cleaned and restored, to keep as much of the look and feel of the era it came from as possible. Some vintage stores concentrate on a specific era, while others combine vintage wear with hip new clothing, like North Halsted Street’s Beatnix and Flashy Trash, where I’ve picked up numerous costumes and fabulous evening wear.

Antique stores are perhaps the classiest resale stores. Here we find furniture and smaller items that grew old gracefully, some of which was quite costly originally, and some of which now commands a higher price because of extraordinary craftsmanship or a particular nostalgic pull.

Rummage Sales

Many small organizations — theater companies, for instance — know that rummage sales are a great way to raise cash without going very far out of their way. Simply find someone with a large vehicle, cart everything down to a central location, get the word out, and you’re in business.

There was a time when I simply could not pass any type of garage sale without stopping by, unless I absolutely had to be somewhere else. These days I have to give myself a sort of reverse pep talk before going in — "OK, you may buy CDs but you have no room for any more clothes until you get rid of some of the ones you have, and by no means should you buy any furniture unless it is a plain table that you can use as a spare counter in the kitchen." Sometimes, if I know I’m feeling particularly compulsive, I have to drive right on by.

For some of us who know the value of used items, getting rid of our own used items can be the hardest part. We must remember, it is important to have, as well as shop at, garage sales. It is important to give to as well as buy from thrift stores. Every storage space has finite capacity, and not everything deserves to be stored. Not every item will bring big bucks on Antiques Road Show. The collecting spirit is a good one, but like all instincts, it must be used wisely. A collecting instinct left unchecked only necessitates bigger and bigger living quarters. Sometimes I have to leave those fabulous finds on the shelves, lest I wind up bringing them back at next season’s cleaning.

I just tell myself there’s more where that came from.

My Chicago Favorites

Vintage

Shangri-La, 1952 W. Roscoe 773-348-5090

Quality Thrift

Brown Elephant, 3651 N. Halsted 773-549-5943; 3939 N. Ashland 773-244-2930

Consignment/Antique

Time Well, 2780 N. Lincoln 773-549-2113

Kids Clothing/Furniture

Once Upon A Child, 2908 N. Ashland 773-281-9957

A Bit of Everything

Something Old, Something New, 1056 W Belmont 773-271-1300

Flashy Trash, 3524 N. Halsted 773-327-6900

Beatnix, 3400 N. Halsted 773-281-6933

Strange Cargo, 3448 N Clark 773-327-8090

Media

Reckless Records, 3157 N. Broadway 773-404-5080; 1532 N. Milwaukee 773-235-3727

Second Hand Tunes, 2604 N. Clark 773-281-8813; 773-929-6325

Resale Papers

Tradin’ Times, 630-620-SELL

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