There's hope even in my area
I'm in NJ and I pretty much thought that unless I went way far south, thrift stores here would have identified all the treasures and at best, put them behind a glass case. But the Goddess of Thrift smiled upon me this weekend and I had multiple moments of "omg how is no one else seeing this?! I better be quick about taking a photo of the item on the shelf in case someone snatches out from underneath me!" and it wasn't even like I was there first thing in the morning or lingering around to pounce on a new cart as it came out.
- On Friday night after a day of running errands and popping into antique malls, I stopped at a thrift store because it happened to be open until 7pm and I was on my way to a birthday party my kids were attending. Saw this Sunbeam jadeite mixing bowl as soon as I walked in and did a double take, because I didn't think I'd ever see jadeite in the wild.
This one should glow under a UV light! I collect Fire King jadeite and not any of the uranium jadeite brands, but couldn't pass this up for $6, the find in the wild, and that it should be quite a useful shape! I've seen this listed for $65+ at antique booths, and seems like it's sold for $35+ on eBay and Etsy in recent times.
Then last night, I saw this Butterfly Gold I 475 Cinderella round casserole pop up on FB marketplace for $8! It was going to be an hour's drive away and on the turnpike, so between the gas and the tolls, I'm not sure I really came out ahead, especially once I got there and saw it had this noticeable scratch on the side. The older lady who sold it to me was really sweet though and also encouraged me to look through the other kitchen stuff they were trying to clear out and just take anything I wanted with me.
Since I was making the drive anyway, I arranged another FB marketplace pickup about 15 min away from the first pickup location for this Spring Blossom Green I 443 Cinderella mixing bowl. This one was $20, negotiated from $25, and has a little scratch through one of the flowers.
With those pickups being successful but feeling a little disappointed at the scratches, I thought I'd see if there were any local thrift stores nearby to pop in before I headed all the way back home. It turned out that there were 4 (!) all within a 6-7 min drive of each other! And at the first one, I found this Sandalwood 443 Cinderella mixing bowl! It's not one of the Pyrex patterns I've wanted to collect, but it was in quite good condition, and for $10 and to find it in the wild, I figured I can bring it home first and then maybe see if I can list it to pay back a little of the other money I've been spending on vintage glassware collecting.
And then. I popped into a Goodwill, of all places, and at first was pleased to recognize a fridgie lid. It has a chip in it but I figured I can just speculatively get it and store it since it wouldn't take up much room. But then I turned around...and had that moment of shocked disbelief to notice something that people around me haven't, which I think we're all chasing when thrifting. Amish Butterprint 474! In great condition!! For $5.19!!! This is also not a print I was intending on collecting, but it's so popular that I also just assumed I'd only ever find it from dealers.
I read a comment awhile back that described thrifting as "gambling with your time" and I think it's so true. And when it pays off, it feels amazing. I'd missed out on some estate sales nearby that had vintage Pyrex and I actually could've made the openings of (hard to do usually with kids' school drop off timing), if only I'd known about the online signup lists in time. But these successes will fuel my motivation to just pop in to random thrift stores wherever I already happen to be!