Thrift Finds in St. Augustine

Any summer that the family and I don't have big vacation plans (which is most summers) We spend a week in St. Augustine. Its about a 3-4 hour drive from our house. My sister in law, who is stinking wealthy and really awesome, does vacation home swaps, so we get a huge condo, on the beach for half the price as they normally charge. This was our 4th time staying at this condo. We have been there enough, and done all the touristy things, so there is time to hit the thrift shops. (There is ALWAYS time to hit the thrift shops)

I was looking most forward to visiting the one I went to 2 years ago. It was a ginormous warehouse that was stacked high with stuff. Seriously, the most stuff I have ever seen at a thrift shop. Decades of stuff stacked to the ceiling. Okay, bad news, its closed down now. Devastated. Anyhow, carry on.

The pickings were slim, surprisingly for such an old city. We (my son, Evan and I) first stopped at one that looked fantastic on the outside:

You cant really tell from this picture, but it had ton of stuff on the outside, and was really large in the inside. It was called Omega Alpha Thrift Shop. Mostly crappy stuff and newish stuff, ALL overpriced. Evan got a cool EXIT sign for $10, now we just need to figure out how to wire it.



Then we came upon this gem:

Complete with the homemade "thrift store" signs. I thought, "this has got to be good!"
See the dark opening? That's what it looked like in the inside. No lights, no air, just a fan blowing on the cashier, who had little to no teeth. This place really was full of old treasures. Caked in decades of dust, many items water damaged. I knew I could find some cool things, if I dug around, and perhaps had a flashlight, but I ended up being too grossed out to continue. And grossing me out at a thrift shop takes a lot! I didn't want to accidentlly find a carcass or something.

We ended up hitting a few others that were mediocre at best, I did manage to wrangle up some goodies. We went to one that had brand NEW with tags New Religion jeans for $30 each! With the original tag of $345! If I was an Ebay seller, I would have snatched those up in a heartbeat and turned around and sold them for $200 each. (they had about 5 pairs). Sadly (yet not sadly) I am not an Ebay seller.

At one place, again overpriced, we did manage to get some good stuff, They had a section of "vintage books" which always pisses me off, because you know they will be priced high. And they were. They must have had about 100 really cool ones. I wanted them all, but I narrowed it down to about 20. Then Evan picked up some random eyeglasses that were on one of the shelves. And said, "whoa, these are my exact prescription!" They were girl glasses, from Nine West, but for $1 we agreed that they would be okay in an emergency if he broke his glasses, or whatever. Spare pair for $1, can't go wrong.

The next stop was at a thrift shop that the proceeds went to animal causes. These are my favorite places to spend my money. Nabbed a few goodies there. I would have liked to have spend more money, but it was a really small place, so there was only so much. Then on the way out, I got stuck in the parking lot. I have a SUV and back in the day, those St. Augustine lots were not made to accommodate large vehicles. Evan got out of the car and tried moving the trash cans around and guide me, but it really was no use. I ended up having to ride backwards (which I suck at) the whole way out.


The last stop almost didn't happen. It looked like some crappy tiny shop in a shopping mall. But we thought, what the hell? Lets check it out anyhow. Whoa, surprise! This place opened up into a mega thrift! I am guessing that it was maybe a former grocery shopping store.  Seriously, HUGE! First thing Evan grabs is a Limited Edition The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, PEZ set, All still in the original box, It has nine characters and 12 Pez candy containers. He got it for $5. Just to have, I suppose, Its not like he's going to open it up and eat the candy.

This place was also overpriced. Oh, St. Augustine, you did me wrong.


Here is some of the goods I came home with:

I did get about 40 other vintage books, but you will have to visit my shop to see these and the rest. 

RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM

This next item used to be in my bricks and mortar shop in Largo, but I took it home to sell in my Etsy Shop:

Check it out here------------------->FLOWER POWER DISHES



While you are there, check out my other fun vintage goods I have listed.


Usually, when I am on vacation, I put my shops on vacation. However, this year I decided to try something new. Business has been slow (typical this time of year), so I figured, instead of putting my shops on vacation, which completely shuts down my shops, I decided to keep them open and offer a 10% refund, due to a few days delayed shipping, to any orders that I received during that time. AND OMG, for whatever reason, my shops were on FIRE, crazy amounts of orders! And everyone was super cool with the 10% discount, most of them said that it wasn't necessary. I gave them the discount anyways, of course.

Here is just HALF of my orders I packed up upon returning:

So the moral of the story is: I have to go on vacation more often. 

Oh wait, I almost forgot to show you a beach picture! Here it is.

Yep, kinda have the whole beach to ourselves. 

We decided to rent bikes and go for a nice ride on the beach. We made a mistake. We rode with the wind, 3 miles, when we started. When we turned around to head back, it was 3 miles against the wind. And let me tell you, it was one extremely rough ride. My 8 year old daughter couldn't make it. So we ended up walking our bikes back the 3 miles, in the hot sun. Which even sucked more than riding against the wind. 

Later on, since we still had the bikes until 8pm, Evan and I decided to take the bikes out,  (Avery and Greg were done!) We started by going against the wind, so when we turned around, the ride would be way easy. Get the hard part out of the way while we had energy. Wow, what a difference!  

Home now and we are all thankful to be in our own comfy beds. Our 21 year old cat missed us (even though she was in great hands while we were gone, thanks to Katy and family)

Now to get ready for the school year. (UGH). 

Did you have an interesting summer? Any great thrift store finds? 

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @Random Goods Vintage  for COUPON CODES,  and  check me out on PINTEREST,  because how many recipes do you really need?