A secondhand shopping expert has shared her three biggest tips for ensuring you always find the real treasures in charity shops – and conducting a ‘pinky test’ for furniture is key
Shopping in charity shops can be a gamble, but there are some tricks that can guarantee you find good items. Whenever you go into a charity shop or visit a car boot sale, it can be overwhelming to sort through hundreds of items to find the real treasures. And even when you do find something that you think is a hidden gem, you might get it home and realise that it’s not as good as you thought it was – and, in the worst cases, could even be fake.
But one social media expert has said there are a few tricks she uses whenever she goes thrift shopping that help her avoid these common pitfalls. Lauren, who regularly shares lifestyle tips with her partner, Jeff, recently shared her guide to thrifting, including three tips to help you find the best items in any secondhand shop.
In the Instagram video, Lauren explained how to distinguish genuine treasures from items that aren’t worth your money, helping you bag a real bargain and add something special to your collection.
1. The pinky finger test
Lauren’s first tip was the “pinky finger test”, which she uses on things like a chest of drawers, jewellery boxes, and anything else with drawers that open and close.
The test involves using your little finger to push the open drawer to see how well it closes. A poorly made piece of furniture will not close smoothly with the light force of your pinky finger, while one that has “expert level craftsmanship” will slide shut smoothly, allowing you to find the furniture that’s genuinely worth your money.
2. Testing glassware
Knowing whether items are glass or crystal isn’t always easy, especially just from looking at them. Crystal is a type of glass that contains added minerals, and is usually more sought after because it is usually more delicate, clearer, and can refract light into brilliant rainbows more effectively than glass.
But if you’re not sure how to tell the difference between the two in a charity shop, then you can use the sound test. Flicking the glassware with your finger will produce a sound, and the clarity of that sound can tell you whether it’s glass or crystal.
Glass will produce a short, dull, thudding noise, while crystal produces a long, musical, ringing sound. Using this technique can help you pick out the real bargains by finding the crystal pieces amongst the glass.
Lauren said: “Glass dings, crystal rings.”
3. Testing silverware
For Lauren’s final tip, she suggests bringing a magnet with you if you want to look for genuine silver items in a charity shop. She filmed herself looking through a box of cutlery marketed as silver, but when she held her magnet to it, she found out the truth.
Silver is not magnetic, but metals like steel are. If you’re looking at “antique” cutlery and find that it sticks to a magnet, the items are not genuine silver. They may still be silver-plated, but if they were genuine silver, they would not stick to the magnet at all.
This can also help you with other items like silver plates and other trinkets, so it’s always a good idea to take a small magnet with you when you go thrifting.
More charity shopping tips
There are several secondhand shoppers who make money by reselling items they buy at charity shops, and many have shared their money-making advice online.
One thrifter recently said there are two items she will always buy from charity shops, as they are always profitable: men’s cummerbunds and fancy-dress costumes.
She said the items never fetch a high price on their own, but you can turn a small profit on each one, which can add up quickly if you manage to sell several in a week or a month.
However, a charity shop manager previously shared the one item she hates receiving as a donation.
