Thread: Op Shop bargains

I know a bloke who regularly holidays overseas (he's a lawyer), who also outfits himself at op shops for his sabbaticals. He gets two days from a shirt and a week from pants, before they are binned.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

I know a bloke who regularly holidays overseas (he's a lawyer), who also outfits himself at op shops for his sabbaticals. He gets two days from a shirt and a week from pants, before they are binned.

I did that for a 10 day fishing trip to Swains reef. Today's shirt was tomorrow's hand rags.
I'm more of garage sale guy but my best Op shop find of late is a Mundial carving knife and a Victorinox boning knife for $2 each and an F. Dick sharpening steel for $1.

Garage sales for me.
I picked up a new Queen Anne bed size Minke blanket - thick, furry acrylic type material - from a rural garage sale for $5.00. One of the best buys of my life. It's a terrific sub zero night time temperature overlay.

I've lost track of the things I've got from such sources, including clearing sales - they include the wheelbrace in the 2a, numerous Whitworth spanners, a Lounge suite for $5, an almost new engine stand for $15, half a dozen new power hacksaw blades for $10, about 100 bread tins for storing parts for $5, etc etc.

Used to get my hi vis shirts from a local goodwill , when I had to supply my own. Five for the price of one new one.

picked up a brass sextant for $5. At a guess the prior owner would have paid several thousand for it. My last effort had my latitude only 876 km off target ,

Most op shops in the nanny state won't sell knives any more.

25 years ago I bought a smallish Sabatier carbon steel utility knife for 30 cents which still gets daily use. As they age the blade gets thinner and doesn't need sharpening at all.......... it's as sharp as a razor.

Bought a new version of the same knife for $110 for when the old one wears right out.

Years later in an antique shop I spotted what appeared to be a much larger one, going by the shape and handle. Blade had light surface rust but looked like it had never bee used.

Paid the $85 and cleaned it up at home revealing the Sabatier stamp. Blade is 14" long and just fantastic for chopping things like big bunches of parsley and mint. Closest (only) carbon steel one to this in a chef's catalogue was German, 12" and !400 US.

I find that carbon steel knives are getting harder to find and they're soooo much better than stainless.

DL