Asklemmy

I volunteered at a thrift store years ago, and I was in charge of looking at the condition and prices of books that were donated. One person dropped off about 10 boxes filled to the brim with Playboy cartoons. They weren't worth anything and couldn't be put out on the floor anyway, so they were thrown out. I also remember that someone donated a biography of Benjamin Franklin from 1835. The cover was coming apart, but the pages were in wonderful condition. We sent that to a bigger thrift store in the area that ended up auctioning it for about $350.

I saw a jacket full of syringes at GoodWill.

My GF worked for a thrift shop, and when I picked her up after work she was admiring a 2 foot statue of Venus that had just been donated. So I bought it for her. That evening she was cleaning it up and noticed the wooden box at the foot of the figurine was hinged, but locked. I opened it with a bent paper clip and inside was a bag containing - a butt plug and anal beads. Then we figured out that if you twisted the head, it pulled a dildo out of the body.

I haven't seen things that'll blow you away with how weird they are. Just things like old antique standing doll figure things or the odd looking mug.

This thing!

It's hilarious, and a damn good phone holder. Freaked out a few family members when they saw just one part of it sticking out of my luggage, before I could explain 😅

Oh also I got an oxygen concentrator from the wholesale Goodwill where everything is sold by the pound. Paid $13 for a $800 medical device.

I use it to get my fireplace going. Works like a charm.

Breville toaster oven, in perfect shape, for $25. That’s around $300 off.

Rang up at about $17 due to a sale.

A full wallet among other wallets, perfectly disguised. Somebody left it there a few hours before. It was a guy from Scotland on a trip with his friends who went shopping for party clothes. He answered on Instagram (after much stalking) at midnight when I was already inside a club and they were on their way to the club too. So we rendez-vous at 6 AM after clubbing because they had a train at 8AM for another city. They left some joints at my place as a thank you. Also offered some ketch for a, I shit you not, "crunchy landing".

Used to work at one a long time ago. The weirdest stuff is the stuff that never makes it to the floor. Take for example this framed picture of young Michael Jackson which we promptly hung on our wall in the back.

Not so much a weird thing, but more a weird price.

My local thrift store are known to have high prices. Not because they sell high-quality stuff, the prices are just high. The most insane thing there is what's clearly a jar that used to hold pickled beets. It's clean, though, I'll give them that. Pickled beets are cheap and available in all groceries here. The thrift store chose to price this, empty, jar at 150% the price of a new jar including pickles!

Not so much weird, but it's weird that it's simultaneously hilarious and day-ruiningly depressing.

I saw a little bowl with small jewelry in it like charms and earrings. Among them was the right half of a heart that read "FRIENDS" and just below that was "EVER". I'm 100% certain that there exists somewhere the left half of that heart that reads "BEST" and "FOR" with identical formatting, and that friendship either ended dramatically or fizzled out over time.

It made me think about some previous close friendships I've had and how people can either just grow apart or have a violent falling out. And I wondered who in their right mind would buy just half of that best friends forever charm. Why would a thrift shop even have that available?

Kinda fascinating that an entire coming of age story can be told by just half of a piece of jewelry I found at a thrift store, and I'll never know the truth, yet I'll never forget it.

3.5€ for a brand new cast iron wok. Instabuy.

I was in a Goodwill when an insane person took over the stores PA system and started saying crazy shit. The weirdest thing was that I didn't see a single person reacting at all, it kept going on and on but everyone in the store was acting like it was totally normal. I couldn't handle it and had to get out of there because I was laughing too much and feeling creeped out at the same time.

It's great place to source wood if you like woodworking.

As old people die, their furniture ends up there. Young people seem to prefer particle board style furniture.

Happy me prefers real wood.

Bob Ross head chia pet. I really wanted it so I opened the box to make sure the pot was inside. Found a dead lizard instead. Store employee had to properly dispose of the whole thing.

I think it goes without saying but please don't donate garbage to your local thrift store. In most cases they aren't even gonna put it on the shelf.

A little ziplock bag full of nipple clamps

Off-brand "magic wand" sex toy

A failed 3D print. Some Pokémon missing a leg.

I've volunteered for a few charity shops (UK version of a thrift store) in the past, the weirdest thing was the trash people would "donate", like used diapers.