Thrift Store Hauls: Crafter's Edition

That's a really lovely looking typewriter, Patter. I've never seen one with green keys before, and such a good price too. Have some fond memories of getting to play with one of these in grade school.


Wasn't a pretty one I'm afraid - just plain dark blue, with gold embossed 'AVON' on one side, and a number on the back. I'm guessing it was originally some kind of product catalog that was carried to customer's houses? I really only wanted the inserts, which are very thick and double folded pockets, perfect for holding big dies.

October is always more sparse at Value Village (aka Savers for the American folk) since they devote a large amount of floor space to new Halloween products. It's one of their best money-making months from what I've heard, not too surprising given costume stuff is expensive if you go to a specialty party shop.

I'm not too terribly befret, given I picked up a second-hand copy of Gloomhaven (22lbs of boardgame goodness!) from a private sale and foresee spending a lot of hours with it.

Oldies but goodies! It's always exciting to find 'deadstock' for things you want - stuff that's sat around on a shelf or warehouse but never been used. And chipboard seems far less common than paper, at least around where I am.

That was a great deal on all those tags and other goodies, LavenderLayoutLady - I wish our VV had prices that low; they never put out anything for less than 2$ it seems. That said, I didn't have a bad day yesterday!


Picked up a very nice Hallmark 12-pocket portfolio card storage thing. (3$) It's already been put to use for board-game tile storage. I was actually looking for something exactly like this and it couldn't be more perfect. Also grabbed some unusual paper and a Cuttlebug embossing folder (big dots). The paper feels a lot like my specialty origami paper, and has shiny fibers in it, gold leaf or embossing. Pretty fancy stuff, though mostly scraps there's still a few full sheets and it was ~1$, same with the embossing folder.  Brand new 25 pack of black 12"x12" cardstock, also 3$.

The model builder in me couldn't resist picking up a Gundam model kit. Original retail price still on it was 99.99$, paid ~4$. Missing a few small bits but I'm having a great time, and the fun : price ratio was right.

What a nice looking guillotine trimmer! I have two thrifted ones in my craft space and love them both. They're workhorses.


Can always use a corner rounder to clear that problem up. Takes some time, but the end results are nice. Sounds like it was a great sale!

Wasn't expecting much today given it's only a few days until Halloween, but was pleasantly surprised with a few supplies to add to my stash. ~1.5 packs of mixed blue cardstock, some cold lamination sheets, a laminated unicorn themed divider, two packs of assorted wooden ladybugs and leaves, pompoms, and bells. On the non-crafty side, an unused Pokémon activity book plus reticulated giraffe, grizzly, and pinto foal figures + saddle. All told ~5$

Sometimes you see people with carts or baskets and just have to go 'huh' based on what they're loading up on.  I too would have head-scratched over this - maybe it's for a school project?  P.D. day?  Or she just really likes cameras!

Heck yeah!  That's an absolute steal, let alone for 1st party titles like Pokemon or Mario.  I'd have grabbed 'em all too.  You can never have too many games or handhelds.

The big dump of snow kept us from heading out to the thrift store earlier in the day when we usually go, so imagine my surprise at finding this bundle of goodies still left on the hooks:


All of that for less than 5$! I couldn't be more pleased. There were a bunch of cheap pens mixed in, the usual promotional kind and ordinary blue/black/reds, but even after taking those out there were still a ton left of the better artist grade stuff.

Two big punches (I stickered one of them because the measurements were wrong) and a plethora of pens. All of them work, and are in mint to near mint condition. The jewel of the ensemble is of course the Copic Multiliner SP 0.7. Thrilled to have this one in my toolbox. SP's aren't cheap, I only had one prior to this.

At the back we have a Staedtler compass, pencils and Technico lead holder. Already had one of these but it's got 2H lead in it instead of 2B, so now I can have both. A Pilot gold pen that still works, and an empty Montana Marker pen. Previously had whiteout or white paint in it, I cleaned it out because it was goopy and gross. Haven't decided what I'll put in it yet.

A good set of Staedtler Triplus Color pens. Didn't have any of these, so they're welcome additions. Two grey fine liners that are doubles, and a gold Sakura Gelly Roll. My first one. Other singletons are a Stablio Green point and a Staedtler pigment liner.

Middle row are all Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens. Most are the fineliner tip, which is great because I didn't have any of those either. A set of blacks including a small calligraphy/chisel nib, a gold and one brush tip (the minty green).

Top level are all Sakura Pigment Microns. Several duplicates but a nice array of sizes from 005 through 1 and 2. I think I'm good on pens now for the next decade or so...

... unless more Copic Multiliners wish to grace me with their presence. I'll never say no to those!

Only because we go regularly to look, and live in a decently large city. And skip reporting on the fails, because they tend to be unexciting - who really wants to read about 'ho hum, nothing all that interesting today' over and over? No sense in boring y'all to death.

End up leaving a lot of things behind. A big book of paper, stacks on stacks of gift wrap, yet more punches - a single big one and two teeny tinys in a bag for 13$ (?!!?! how do they price things, a dart board?) three times over. Yikes. Old yellowed craft paint, separated in the bottle, big bundles of pipe cleaners and dollar store craft kits, half used. An assortment of kids activity sets, the kind that come with an instruction book and supplies... binders upon binders upon binders. There's always a ton of regular stationary stuff to sort through. This is the first bag of artist markers I've gotten, and I've been looking for many a year. They also had a small set of Prismacolors for 8$, but I don't do pencil colour work and have a whole tub at home so they stayed on the rack. Miles of premade cards, envelopes, party decorations, beads (ugh I touched one bag and someone had already been rummaging around in there and it dropped a bunch of little beads and stones on the floor. *sighs* I can't even really pick that stuff up since it's all just going to fall out worse if I try to put it back.)

But yeah. The good stuff's out there, you just have to keep going. Most of the time it's nothing exciting. Just wish I had crafty or artsy friends nearby to share the extra fine liners with. Doubt I'll end up using all of these myself.