cycleheimer

Remember the recent complaining here about no bargains* to be had at thrift shops!

Bargain shopper finds real Picasso on thrift-store shelf
https://now.msn.com/money/0329-thrift-store-picasso.aspx

Zach Bodish, a thrift store regular, paid $14.14 for a framed Picasso "poster" at the Clintonville, Ohio, Volunteers of America outlet. But after some online research, he learned that the red signature in the corner had probably come from the artist's own pen and that it might be worth $6,000 -- or about 428 more thrift-store shopping sprees. Ohio State art professor Lisa Florman examined it, declares it is not a poster but a signed print and said Picasso created it for a 1958 exhibition of his ceramic works. Bodish is already debating what to do with his bargain-priced Picasso. "There's a good chance I'll probably sell it," he told the Columbus Dispatch. "I want to keep it, but money is tight."

*bike bargains

(Now only it were a Rene Herse for $14.41!)

wrk101

i think some of the best bargains at thrift stores have moved from bikes to other, more obscure/harder to ID and value items. My wife and I continue to find deals on non-bike stuff at thrift stores pretty much every week, but not to the extend of the smokin hot deal above!

juls

Good for him! I found a Dale Klee-old ford painted on old barnwood in a t/store a couple of years ago. His prints go for 500+. Sadly no one wants to buy it. (lol)

wrk101

Wait for the next reality show" thrift store wars (just what we need), it will include widely inflated valuations and lots of picker drama to make participants look like geniuses (see the earlier show with the same great theatrics, "storage wars".

cobrabyte

I dunno, American Pickers seems to hit the mark with bicycles and prices. The taller guy really knows his stuff when it comes to bikes.

robtown

I like the show, one of the few I watch. I suspect the producers plant some unique items in some lockers. The participants probably get some cash for submitting to the film crews that supplements their earnings.

I've seen several bike estimates at least 3x what I would consider valid.

Drillium Dude 

Sometimes you just get lucky; I once found a Scatalo del Tempo triple-watchwinder jewelry box in an antique store here in WA. I got it for $20 and sold it on Ebay for $3900 the following year.

I also bought a period book on Sudio 54 in a used book shop for $5 and sold it to an Ebayer in Austria for $200 - I guess some Europeans are really into the history of our debauched celebrities' lifestyles

DD

Poguemahone

Im not complaining. Both my Eisentraut and my Trek 720 came out of the same thrift. It's gotten harder, though, and it's not just bikes that are tougher to find nowadays. Many more folks picking than ten years back.

Drillium Dude 

^ Too true. Works the other way, though, too - I actually saw a Regina wheelset with Shimano hubs, stupid-large dork-disk and completely rusted spokes for $175 at the same antique mall I found the watchwinder box. First time I've ever seen bike components at any antique store (save for complete bikes - mostly balloon-tired and held together by rust) I've ever been to.

DD

Chris_in_Miami

I don't have anything that can compete with a Picasso, but I scored this 1964 Millicent Krouse linocut print a few years ago. The mantle clock, Snoopy phone, and the lamp base (shade is modern) were all thrift shop scores also, I've probably got less than $40 in the lot

pitbull007

I scored a picasso art exhibition poster from the 60`s once , most likely a repo but I will have to get it checked out some day.
Also a Birks Sterling silver plater for $5 26 ounces of sterling
Donna Summers platinum framed record $29
6 small metal filing cases full of old postcards bought them for $12, sold a lot of good ones on ebay, one in partricular sold ON EBAY for $132 it was of Marie one of the quintuplets, boy my heart was pounding.

Johnonaschwinn

I scored a brand new bell cycling helmet tonight at the salvation army new never worn 6.99

cycleheimer

I recently got a kick in the pants...and I'm still kicking myself in the pants! I had bought a 1927 copy of Thomas Lowell's The Sea Devil, the Story of C. Felix von Luckner (quite an interesting guy, btw) at a thrift shop. I read it, and then donated it...it's gone. Now I discover that certain old books (like that one) go for $200+. I don't know if people are paying the prices, but they are asking big bucks for certain copies. Caught me by surprise.

I did keep my "made in England" Karrimor panniers that I bought at a church thrift shop for $1 when I was a kid.

conradpdx

I use to work at one as a pricer (15 years ago not a goodwill though). It's not necessarily getting harder to find deals because of more competition on the sales floor. Most the good stuff never gets there. There are businesses and collectors that get items sorted out before they have a chance to hit the floor. The more retro,vintage,antique stores that go up, the less of that stuff hits the floor.

For example we'd hold musical instruments for one buyer, furniture for a few different people and stores, the appliances were sent to the rehab center our store supported to train the patients "job skills", tools for another place....etc These folks would come in and buy most the lot we held for them. Their rejects then went to the floor.

You gotta remember, these places exist not to save you money, not to recycle, but to make money. And the back room sales make the most sense business wise. We pretty much assumed that 80% of the stuff that hit the floor was going to the dumpster soon anyway.

Though even though I was an art major in college with a minor in art history. I probably wouldn't have thought that the Picasso was real, You got about 5 seconds to price everything, or to pass it on to who ever knew more about that type of item than you did. Though if it was a print of his work from certain periods of his career, it probably wouldn't have hit the floor, but would have been hanging on my wall.

TireLever-07

Cyclehammer, are you complaining? Like,,, lousey tandems are pricey & ho-humm ones are too. Any bargain i'd grab it with both hands, and run. Chris

gitarzan

Holy Cow! I shop at that same store all the time! It's just across the freeway from me. I bought a Raleigh M40 there.

Bikedued

Yeah he really picked that Moto Grand Record. He offered thirty bucks and the uninformed people took it. I stopped watching after that episode. Getting an insane deal is great at a flea market or thrift store, but when you start to roll cameras it's a little insulting to the uninformed owners of said picked items. Kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth about the whole concept.,,,,BD

cycleheimer

Not me. For better or worse, I'm hard-wired for bargain hunting. Maybe I was misunderstood. My comment about the $14.41 Rene Herse? Hey, it's just that finding one of those in a 58-62CM frame size would make my day...week...month...millenium! I'd still swoop it up in any other frame size. It would then just only make my day...week...month...century! On the downside, finding one would probably send me into a state of shock, possibly give me a heart attack, or something.

Man, how I do like the looks of these bikes...

https://reneherse.com/