I found a brand new in box iPad 3 in a thrift store. It was only $15.00. This was not recent, but this will be in a few short years I’m sure.
The calculators we used to have to pay $100’s for are now a couple of dollars. Expensive video game consoles, and computers and best seller books are pennies on the dollar. But, what goes around, comes around. Those very first calculators may now only be $2 in the thrift store, but could be again tens or even hundreds of dollars to collectors. It’s all time travel. I remember when the Texas Instruments representative came into our electronic store many years ago, with their first prototype pocket LED calculator. It was encased in clear plexiglas so you could see the large integrated circuit they made, and the TIXL series LED display. I’d pay a bunch for one of those prototypes for my collection!
A thrift store is especially a time travel machine. You can go to several different dates, back in time, and see what was around. An antique store is a little more specialized, as it has just the more interesting and valuable items throughout time. The thrift store has all the other junk too. They smell different too. The smells are the same, no matter where you go. The thrift store has an additional “old humans” mustiness. Old bookstores have old paper mustiness, all together different. Antique stores have dusty mustiness smells. And the best is old radio collections. They have the antiques store’s dusty musty and additional bakelite and phenolic smell mixed in. I especially like, in this order: Old radio smell, then bookstores, then antique store smell. I don’t care for thrift store smell. It makes me want to wash my hands a lot. If you are an avid picker, what is your favorite smell?