My in-laws were visiting this weekend, so my wife gave me permission to abandon my family for half a day and go adventuring. Most of the time I spent shopping for stocking stuffers (did you know there’s a new Muji flagship in LA?), but I made a little time for thrifting.
There didn’t seem to be much of interest when I walked into one of my favorite shops on the west side of Los Angeles. I went through the racks, found nothing. I wandered through the shoes, came up empty. Found a nice German urntable. It wasn’t working, but they told me $30 and I thought I’d take a flier and see what my guy would charge to get it going. I grabbed a couple of Starting Lineup figures for my boy (Cal Ripken Jr., Ozzie Smith, Bo Jackson and Shawon Dunston, if you’re keeping track) and a boys’ baseball glove. I figured I was done.
I walked up to the counter, and was about to pay, when I noticed a rack of suspenders. Just suspenders.
So I asked them to hold on to my little pile and walked over to the rack. I pulled about ten pairs out and brought them up with me. Five bucks each. She mentioned off-handedly that there were two big boxes in the back. Would I like to see them?
Well yeah. Of course.
So I got entrance to every thrifter’s dream: the inner sanctum!
It took me the better part of an hour to go through all the suspenders. By the end, I’d picked out forty-seven pair. Two hundred thirty-five dollars worth. I left behind at least twice as many.
Will I keep all those braces? No. But hopefully the ones that sell on eBay will pay for the ones I do choose to keep. And maybe even the turntable and if I’m lucky the repairs thereto. I’m happy to pay for Shawon Dunston out of pocket.
All in all, a pretty good day at the thrifts.
