Interstate update

I had business in Goulburn last week and took the train, which left me a couple of hours to check the Goulburn op shops (which hadn't been updated on our spreadsheet since at least 2011).

A couple have disappeared (Does Anglicare still have an op shop in Goulburn? I couldn't find it...)

And Vinnies have moved: they're now at 136 Auburn Street, conveniently just down from the Red Cross shop.

Vinnies, Braidwood

We had heard of a Vinnies opening in Braidwood, and it had been a while since Taph and I had been that way, so we took a trip there.

It has unusual opening hours, as in that it is open from Thursday to Monday, and is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. This meant we were able to take a Sunday drive there.

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It is on the main street in Braidwood, just across the road from the very popular bakery. As Braidwood is a small village it is very hard to miss it.

It has a small street frontage, but does go back a long way from the street.

It’s a well organised shop with friendly staff and with reasonable prices.

I was able to pick up five shirts and a Pierre Cardin dinner suit for less than $50.

Now I have another quest. I am searching op-shops for a wing collar shirt in my size.

Hats off to the Shoalhaven shire.

With summer approaching, some of our regular readers will be heading down the coast for the summer holidays.

A couple of years ago, Taph and i found a copy of the Shoalhaven guide to op shops, but until we could find an online version, we didn't post about it.

We, it is now online and can at the shoalhavenholidays.com.au site or at the link below.

http://shoalhavenholidays.com.au/visitors-info/brochures/

If only other shires could get this organised, it would make our searches for op shops so much simpler.

Mission Australia – Goulburn

On a recent visit to Goulburn, Taph and I found another new op shop. 

We cannot say much about it apart from its there, as it is not open on weekends, and we are unable to get there on weekdays. 

If you are in Goulburn, pay it a visit and write a review for us. 

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Jindabyne tip shop

A late start on a trip to the snowfields resulted in Taph and I being able to visit the Jindabyne tip shop.

This is because it is only open on Sundays from 10am to 3pm.

That said, if you are in Jindabyne on a Sunday, it is well worth visiting.For a tip shop in a small town it has a good collection of stock, and was not as disappointing as the tip shops in some other towns.
We did not see the mobile op shop while we were there, but if it is still going, then Jindabyne has two occasional op shops.

If you are searching for it, the turnoff to the tip, and tip shop is here on google maps.

Ross's Relics at Yass

We have had a few people ask about the large second hand shop on the main street in Yass. We were able to work out is was Ross's Relics.

Recently Taph and i were in Yass so we called past for a look.

What we found was a converted service station that was now selling second hand goods. Every room from the old manager's office to the old work shop were stacked high with various second hand crockery, china and various bric-a-brac.

There were several things there that I would have bought, if not for the fact that in June I had to make several payments on my Dentist's Mercedes.

So if you find yourself in Yass and feel like a little op-shopping, you now have four destinations to visit:

1. Yass Vinnies,

2. Yass Salvos,

3. Yass Tip shop, and

4. Ross's Relics.

Yass - Second Hand Weekend

Yass recently held their Second Hand Sunday Weekend. So we headed over on the Saturday to see what we could find.

We did not find muh there that interested us, and a number of houses did not have anything outside. We think this is because they were only participating for the Sunday.

I guess the concept of a Second Hand Sunday Weekend can get a little confusing, Sme people will put out their stuff for the whole weekend, others for one day only.

Perhaps having it over one day is a better option.

All I did find was a pair of towing mirrors, which I intend on using with the Mobile Storage bunker (aka Caravan).

Yass tip shop – Epic fail

We paid a visit to the Yass tip shop. Usually you expect the tip shop in a country town to be a small operation, but make up for their lack of size with a good management policy, and friendly staff. Yass however was an epic fail. The photos below will show what I mean.

That being said, they did have a full on paper, glass, metal recycling facility, that I had a quick look at. And they have a nice stack of computer desks there, either assembled, or still in boxes, for $10 each.

Pambula op-shop celebates 28 years

Back in February when Taph and i had our op-shop trek down the coast we paid a visit to the Pambula op shop. We got there just on opening time, but no-one was around, and with storms pressing we figured that we should set off for home before we got flooded in.
I recently found a story on-line about how the shop has just celebrated 28 years of operations.
With summer coming and people from Canberra heading down the coast for holidays, i think this shop is worth a special visit if you happen to be in the area.

Yass - Second Hand Weekend

While the date for the next Second Hand Sunday in Canberra has yet to be advertised, the Yass Valley Shire will be having a Second Hand sunday Weekend on Saturday, 23 October and Sunday, 24 October 2010.

For more details keep an eye on the Yass Shire website.

Op-Shopping on Family and Community Day

On Monday we were faced with a public holiday in Canberra but across the border it was a normal working day.

Hooray Taph said. Let’s go op-shopping across the border.

So we piled into the sub-zero, and set a course for Queanbeyan. Our first stop was the Red Shield Store on Morrisett Street.


Fate seems to shine on us as we got rock-star parking outside the door. However the fate gods left us as there was nothing there that followed us home. However, they do have a good supply of 4xl and 6xl Mens S/S Shirts.

We did a short walk to the Salvos Store, and all we found there was a Country road linen shirt and a jar.

Feeling that the Frugaling gods would shine on us at our next two stops, we moved the car closer, and were rewarded with another Rock-Star Car Park.

Taph picked up a jumper, and a vintage knitting patten. I found a CD for the Collection.

But our luck ran out at Bargin Hunter, and we left empty handed.

We had a quick Brunch at the Central Café as we shared a Big Breakfast.

A quick visit to SpotLight for some needles, also turned up some bargain wool.

We were finished in Queanbeyan by 12, so we set course for Cooma.

Our first visit was to the Red Shield store. For the grand total of $10 we got a shirt each, a Tupperware mixing bowl, some genuine Croqs and a selection of knitting patterns.

We headed down to the Vinnies and got a Book, Shirt and knitting pattern.

We decided the day was still young, and Adaminaby was 30 minutes away. The cruise control on the Sub-Zero got us there well before closing.

It is easy to find, there is one main shopping street, and it is supporting the Snowy Mountains Museum.

We had a lovely time inside. I picked up a pair of xc-skis for $5. The Bases are shot, but I will use the bindings on another pair of skis.

Taph got a pure wool jumper, Tupperware rock and serve, Cheese knives and a cook book. All up this cost us $11.50.

We took the back road home via Namadgi national park. It is a lovely road, but don’t do it if you are in a hurry.

Making Good Use

Macksville is a favourite frugalling haunt on the mid-North coast.   It has 3 op-shops.  One run by the local Anglican community, a Vinnies and a Salvos Red Shield shop.

I have no idea what I will do with this roll of wallpaper, but at 50c it was coming home with me.  TOF and I have been singing the Wombles song (much to the annoyance of my mother) and think it may well be our anthem.

Pin up

TOF and I are holidaying on the mid-North coast. 

South West Rocks is a town we both knew as children.  In recent years my parents chose it for wintering in.  It's a small town with two op-shops, both church run. 

Our first frugalling foray yielded a few needed pieces of Tupperware (surprising, I know, but we didn't pack any and needed some for bait, sugar, coffee etc), some vintage Patons knitting patterns for the collection, craft materials for our mothers and this, one of my favourite finds for quite some time.

Vintage marquasite leaf pattern brooch, in perfect condition.  $5.  Photo taken in low light on camera phone - it's still shiny pretty.

The Op Shop ladies of Emerald Hill

I just stumbled across this documentary on ABC iview. No idea how good it is as I don't have time to watch it just yet...

Vinnies too downmarket for Bowal?

lifted from Sydney Morning Herald website

Vinnies is too downmarket for Bowral's shopkeepers
by  STEPHANIE ANDERSON


February 15, 2010

Upmarketshop owners in Bowral have joined forces to prevent St Vincent de Paul opening a store in the town centre, deeming the charity an ''unsuitable tenant'' as a neighbour.

More than 60 business owners signed a petition to block the move by Vinnies which would see its charity shop relocate along Bong Bong Street.

The Southern Highlands regional president of St Vincent de Paul, Joseph Buhagiar, said this disappointment had come after five years of looking for a new location. He said arrangements had been made for the shop to relocate on February 1 but he had been approached before the move by a neighbouring shop owner, Linda Dunsire.

"She said 'we are putting a petition on' because she said it would devalue properties," Mr Buhagiar said.

"The next thing I know, she put this petition to council saying 'we are opposed to this move'. On the eleventh hour, the [landlord] pulled out. It was all set but the signature."

The petition, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald, states that the retailers, restaurateurs and businesses were "most opposed" to the move by what they labelled as "unsuitable tenants".

"Bowral has tried to maintain an upmarket shopping destination for tourists and residents alike … a second-hand charity shop does not fit this criteria," it stated. "The more unsuitable businesses that continue to appear in Bong Bong Street will in turn effect tourism and tree changers from coming to our beautiful area."

The petition outlined concerns regarding illegal dumping, stating that the proposed location for the St Vincent's store would provide a "perfect late- night dumping ground".

Mr Buhagiar described the Bong Bong Street location, which already includes a secondhand clothing store, as "not all that flashy" and was adamant that rubbish would not be an issue.

"We've always had a shop in Bowral and we've already had none of that stuff and we're not having a drop-off bin," he said.

"At no stage is there ever a problem with stuff dumped."

Bowral Business Chamber's chief, Tony Springett, disagreed, stating that the expected rubbish "would take away from the streetscape".

"If you've got a shop like Witchery, you wouldn't want a shop like that next door," he said.


The SOHI magazine team  have set up a petition requesting that this decision be reversed and warning of boycotts to shops campaigning against Vinnies.

Coastal Tip Shops

Taph and i have been down the coast researching op shops and other second hand dealers. We may put up a travelogue of our trip, but here is a quick post about some things that struck me.

Most of the op shops we visited were fairly neat and tidy inside. There was one we visited that looked like a bomb had hit it, but it was not aligned to any organisation.

Recently Vinnies and Salvos have been engaged in a corporate branding of their stores. This seems to be having an effect as most shops we visited were neat and tidy, and had a similar pricing, as they all wanted around $5 for shirts. I also noticed that Vinnies in Bega were attaching a coloured tag to the sleeve of their shirts. This maybe to enable them to turn stock over in a similar way to the coloured tags at Salvos stores.

We visited Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Bega Valley Shire areas. While we were not able to visit every tip in the region, all the tips we did visit had a tip shop attached to them. About 18 months ago we stopped at Cooma Landfill, and asked if they had a tip shop there? We were told that they did not, and when we drove past on Monday we saw nothing to say this had changed.

The links below will take you to the webpage showing the tip shops details for each Shire.

Shoalhaven Shire Landfills and Tip Shops

Eurobodalla Shire Landfills and Tip Shops

Bega Valley Shire Landfills and Tip Shops

Jindabyne now has a tip shop at its landfill. while i cannot find anything on the locals councils website about trading hours and location, they are looking for a better name for it, then the Jindabyne tip shop. The competition to name it closed on February 1 and when i hear what it will be called i will post something here about it.

This also means the next time i go skiing i will have to report back about it!

On the road

TOF and I hit the road early tomorrow for a long weekend of op-shopping and relaxing. We're heading north to Nowra, then down the coast, ending up in Eden then back via Cooma.

We've prepared a hitlist of likely opshops using the telephone directories (love public library collections!), the Vinnies and Salvos lists and Yellow Pages Online, but we've probably missed a few.

Anyone got any South Coast favourites?

BTW - did you see you can now follow us on Twitter?

Snowy Mountains Gem.

During a camping holiday, I stumbled upon my new favourite gem- the Adaminaby Op Shop. The op shop has a large selection of clothes, shoes, books. A cursory glance at the back section showed men and children's clothing and handbags. Unfortunately I did not have enough time as I would have pleased... impatient travelling companion. However, I did manage to purchase a fantastic tie front blouse.. $4. Fantastic.

Denison St
Adaminaby NSW 2629
(02)6454 1088

Not sure of opening hours however is open on a Saturday morning around 11am!

Bywong tip shop

Taph and I headed out of town on Saturday. As we were driving along Macs Reef road I noticed the sign for the landfill (Garbage tip) there. I remembered that years ago there was a tip shop there, so we swung the car around and went to check it out.

Their range was fairly limited (it is only a small tip) and we have no idea as to what their prices are like as the attendant was up at the tip face (once again, it is only a small tip and we could only see one guy working there).

It is open Thursday to Sunday and keeps the usual tip hours (7:30 am to 4 pm).

It is the Bywong local tip and is located 5 kms along Macs Reef road (from the federal highway end). The turnoff is just before Banker road. According to Google maps the GPS coordinates are -35.184191,149.299393

Score!

Okay, I know this is primarily a place for extolling the virtues of Canberra op shops. However due to working full time (doh) and a lack of Sunday opening times, I haven't had much opportunity (sorry bad pun!) to be thrifting in my home town.

I just had to share this great score though that I picked up on my way into Sydney last week. Out of the corner of my eye on the highway I spotted a big blue and red Salvos building. Hastily turning off I just managed to catch the last 20 minutes before they closed and quite politely but firmly asked me to leave. It wasn't nearly enough time, however a lovely crystal bowl set was my prize for only $8.00. The bowls are quite heavy and haven't been used much - they even have gold "Made in West Germany" stickers still attached. I am thinking they will look lovely for serving up some summery fruit salad.

The store is in Canley Heights: 136 Torrens Street CANLEY HEIGHTS NSW 2166. Ph. (02) 9724 0017.

Funnily enough as the guy helped me load my purchases into the car, he saw my number plates and mentioned that there had been a succession of Canberra people that day buying up big in the store!