Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

By Azriel Knight

It’s no secret that film photography gear is getting more expensive. I’m no economy expert but I can safely assume that part of this is because everything is getting more expensive. I don’t believe that this is the entire picture though. One of the worst offenders, in my opinion, are influencers and celebrities. Promoting their favourite film camera is almost guaranteed to hike up the price and that is one of the major differences between the analog and digital community: that while DSLR and mirrorless cameras are more often priced on their build quality and features, film cameras are priced on hype. This is why cameras like the Olympus mju point and shoots, despite their incredible unrepair-ability go for hundreds of dollars. The commercial failure like the Nishika N8000, which were garbage when they were new, often go for way more than their worth, and I could name more but I can already feel you fighting me in the comments. I’m also not here to argue the value of cameras, as much as help you find more of them for better prices than you’ll pay at KEH or eBay. While those are fine choices, and if you want something specific, the way to go, one of my favourite things was hunting for randomness.

Going into this, you should know a couple things. First, I don’t exaggerate when I say these are my best tips and if I was still thrifting, I would not dream of giving them up. Over the years, while posting videos and photos of my hauls, people would often ask how I do it and I never said a peep. It’s funny because sometimes people in my own city would say “man, I have such a hard time here, how do you do it?” Like hell I’m going to cut into my own finds by giving up my secrets to the competition. But, as some of you may already be aware, I’m no longer making videos on YouTube and no longer shooting film. For those reasons I’m ready to pass on the knowledge in hopes that you can start to control these outrageous prices and the more of you out there finding cameras for less, the better.

The other thing that needs to be said here is you do require at least a passive knowledge of what to look for in order to know if a camera works. Also, as you’ll see with my advice, sometimes testing a camera works in your favour, and other times it actually works against you. It’s very counterintuitive but some of this, as you’ll learn, is a numbers game. Sometimes that means taking a chance on a camera only to get home and discover it doesn’t work.

Before we dive into the real gold mine, which I believe to be garage sales, let’s have a gander at optimizing thrift shops. I know what you’re probably thinking by now, which is something along the lines of “Azriel, thrift shops notoriously overprice cameras and there are little to no deals left.” It’s hard to disagree with this because there’s a lot of truth there. Over the last ten years we have seen an industry wide trend of thrift stores increase their prices as retro becomes trendier. People are realizing that while the quality of new merchandise is on a down trend, much of what was made twenty years ago or more is of a higher calibre. It’ll come as no surprise when twenty years from now, these thrift shops will struggle to maintain the inventory they have now. A great example of this is Pyrex, but I digress. None the less I still had a few tricks up my sleeve and here are my best tips, starting with preparation.

Make A Map

One thing I did that saved me a serious amount of time was to make a custom Google Map of all the thrift shops in my city, and if you want to see it, you can find it here.

It includes a few cities that I added when I planned on visiting them, or passing through, but you’ll see the one for Calgary is colour coded. Unless I was going to drive around for twelve hours, I would not be able to get them all, so I broke them down into smaller routes. These routes are numbered in the order of visitation to minimize driving time. Optimizing your own routes may take a little trial and error, but part of making these thrift store finds worth it is to maximize your time. In addition to price increases, I have noticed a significant decrease in volume, and thus, this becomes a numbers game. Once you have a map, the next thing you’re going to need is a kit…

Battery Bag

Now, I should preface by saying this is the best tip I rarely used, because I always seemed to forget it, but I maintain it’s an amazing idea, due to how many times not following my own advice came back to bite me in the ass.

Buy a small bag with lots of pockets and fill them with the most common batteries used in film cameras. LR44’s, 2CR5’s, CR123A’s, etc. and make sure you test the camera before you buy it. I don’t know how many times I bought a seemingly fine SLR, only to discover it was an expensive paperweight. Still there are exceptions here. If the price is low enough, and you know you can resell it for parts to at least break even, then saving yourself the time is the priority. Same with if you find a bunch of cameras. Sitting for an hour going through them all is not always worth your time.

A couple other things you’ll want to include in your testing kit is a small flathead screwdriver. This will open battery compartments common for LR44 powered light meters, and it doubles as a chisel to remove battery acid from the contacts if needed. Once you have determined you’re going to buy it, there’s a way to potentially bring the price down…

Tags

Not all thrift stores have coded tags, but some do and we’ll talk about two I am familiar with: Value Village and Goodwill.

Value Village, or as it’s known elsewhere, Savers (both names having less meaning these days) use a coding system that shows the sales team how long an item has been on the floor, or in many cases, locked up in one of their special display cases. Now, I have never known how to decipher these tags, and you won’t need to. If you are at a display case, it’s likely a staff member is there with you. What I’d do was simply point at the tag while asking “how long has this item been here?” and if they say it has been several weeks, I’ll ask for a discount. 100% this will require a manager, and if they say yes, it’s usually a final sale.

Bonus Unethical Life Pro Tip (ULPT): If you find something on the shelf and think the price is too high you can rip the tag off and tell a staff member that it doesn’t have a tag and they will have someone in the back price it. It’s possible it’ll come back for less, but it’s a gamble.

Goodwill uses a colour coding system and offers a discount to the items that match the colour for that day. It will be the same at all locations and I imagine with enough effort, and recording of inventory and their colours you could come back and snag a deal, but I’ve never gone this far, as most decent cameras tend to be scooped up pretty fast.

Bonus ULPT: If found on a shelf, you could hide the item somewhere else in the store and come back on the day of its colour sale.

I wish I had more advice for you in terms of thrift stores, but the truth is it’s tough out there. However, if garage sales are seasonal like where I live due to the weather, then it’ll be your only option if you desperately need a fix for your G.A.S. habit. Garage sales though, I have a lot more to say, the first being that some of the best deals can be had without even leaving the home…

Message Them First

It was common for me to settle in with a cup of bean juice on a Saturday morning, and search though garage sale listings and just message them. Such an easy task that so many of us miss. I used Kijiji which is the popular choice in Canada, but if you use Craigslist or something else, the same rules apply. Your searches should be “garage sale,” “yard sale,” “moving sale,” and “estate sale” and you should be blazing through them with a little copy paste line like “Hey do you have any old cameras?” Don’t bother with anything long or complicated. Ninety percent of the time they will reply letting you know if they do or not. If they say no, simply reply with “okay, thanks!” This does two things: one, it’s just polite and two it’ll help sort out your messenger when you sift through it as you go. Seeing the message preview with an “okay, thanks” makes it a lot easier.

Now if they say yes, then politely ask if you can see a photo. More often than not they will oblige without any fuss, and you can negotiate from there. Occasionally you’ll get someone saying, “just come look” and don’t waste your time.

I cannot tell you how many cameras I have found without leaving my office, and how much time I have saved. Still, when you have to take the hunt to the streets, one of the best ways to maximize your effort is …

Community Garage Sales

To the uninitiated, community garage sales are pretty self explanatory. A neighbourhood puts out a notice to its residents that they are having a community wide parade of garage sales all on the same weekend. Sometimes there can be as many as fifty homes involved. This is where emailing won’t work because the contact on Kijiji (or whatever) isn’t aware of what everyone has, understandably. The other way to maximize your finds is to check the community demographics, specifically the average age of the residents and this can be done though the municipal website. Older communities are going to produce more older cameras, it’s simple math. Getting through the parade may seem a little overwhelming but there’s a simple way to shave a bunch of time off….

Ask Them

This tip doesn’t just apply to the community sales, but any time I show up at a garage/estate/yard sale I just find out who is in charge and ask if they “have any old cameras.” Not only does this save the effort of sifting through everything but what I have found in a significant chunk of my grabs is that they don’t even have them out, and in that case one of two things will happen. They will either go get it or they will ask for your contact info and you can come back at a later time to look at it. The number one reason I was told why it wasn’t on display was “I didn’t think anyone would want it.”

Once you have the item in your hand, you may be tempted to pull out that trusty kit I told you about earlier…don’t. The last thing you want to do is test the camera in front of them, and I know this might feel counter intuitive but the uncertainty of whether the camera works will help the negotiation phase. Do however, look over the camera in every way you can, but the main goal here is to…

Find Flaws

Now, this is where some of you won’t agree with my tactics but as part of my repertoire of getting good deals, I sought out issues with the camera. The easiest was the light seals, especially on cameras from the 1970s. I’d open the back, run my finger across the seal, and almost always some gunk came off, and I would show it to them and say, “the light seals are going to need to be replaced.” If they still seem stubborn or you haven’t reached a number you both agree on, I’d ask if they tested it and when was the last time it was used. You want them to say “no” as much as possible to get them to say “yes” to your price. You might be asking how you yourself determine this and that’s an easy one…

Get Comfortable Saying One Number

Pick a number and get used to saying it over and over again. You want to seem comfortable and confident in your choice, so it makes sense to say the same thing. For me, I held up the item and said, “five bucks?” Now, people are getting more savvy, or they are overcompensating, but always pick a low number, a price that you can recover if it turns out to be a hot piece of garbage. If you’re worried about insulting the seller, this may actually work in your favour, as outlined in the book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, a read I cannot recommend enough. The basic idea of it is it throws them off their axis and makes negotiating easier. Have a different number for single items and bundles, and that brings me to my last tip I’ll give you and possibly my greatest piece of advice: If you take one thing away from this today, it’s to…

Never Empty the Bag!

A number of years ago, I’m at a garage sale and I come across a camera bag, circa 1970s and it’s just packed with stuff, and I start pulling it all out while the owner is dealing with someone else and then I realize that if I come up to them with an armful of stuff, negotiating will be a lot harder. It’s the subtle psychological difference of selling a bunch of items, and a bag of stuff. The other added bonus is if they are stubborn and won’t come down in price, you can then start pulling out the gems and negotiate those, knowing they won’t go over their final number of the total, assuming they are willing to break up the bundle. This helped me once at a flea market when I saw a camera with two lenses, and while the trio was overpriced, I ended up with a good deal on a single lens, as the seller overvalued the camera body, but undervalued the lenses.

A note about morals: While I used to feel bad if I swindled someone out of a camera for much less than its worth, the reality is they have access to the same internet as I do and a five minute search will give them any answers they seek. It’s not our job to educate the buyer. If someone did say they’d get a better price on eBay, I would agree saying “true, but you may sit on it for six months” and this was usually enough to sway them.

Conclusion

Without a doubt there will come a time when all of these thrifty finds will be gone. Ten years ago I could pick up an entire darkroom for fifteen bucks and now I see enlargers going for a thousand. All I can say is, thankfully Pentax is taking initiative and producing new film cameras and what that means is people will be able to start opting for a brand-new film camera with a warranty, rather than taking a risk on a possibly broken antique with a bloated price tag. Even though I’m not shooting film anymore, I still want to see the prices come down because right now the analog community seems to be just for the privileged. One of my last videos, which I have since removed, was a suggestion that everyone’s first camera should be a disposable one. It’s an easy entry into film that almost anyone can afford, they could go buy one at their local drug store today and have it developed tomorrow, doesn’t have the risk of being broken, and still showcases the most important part: the process, mystery and magic of film. It was not well received. I had a horde of snooty, overprivileged hipsters and boomers in the comments tell me what a horrible idea that was, and someone brand new to film, should just go and buy a real quality camera to start. Unfortunately, that is the biggest downfall of the analog community over the last ten years, at least on the face of social media…it’s becoming classist.

If you don’t get attached to a specific model and have a little DIY savvy, there are a bunch of cameras out there that aren’t AE-1’s or RZ67’s for a good price being completely ignored by TikTok. Good luck out there.

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About The Author

By Azriel Knight
Alberta based photographer and former Youtuber Azriel Knight has been shooting everything in sight for twenty years.
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Comments

Andrew on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

You are spot on regarding the influence of “influencers” and celebrities on prices. Some are now frankly ridiculous.
In my experience, the only real value left if you want a good photo from a fully functioning piece of equipment is a used digital SLR. So far, they seem to have escaped the trend. And the other bonus of a DSLR is that you can always request the shutter count which gives you a good indication of how much life is potentially left.
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Ellis on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

great article, very thorough - I just wanted to politely ask that you add some information about the AI generated images you've used. I'm fairly certain every image in this article is AI generated, but you've not mentioned it? I really think it's important, especially as this is a photography website, as unmarked AI images are our kryptonite as photographers
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Azriel Knight replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I mean, you seemed to figure it out just fine ;)

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Nathan Sherwood replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I also thought it a little disingenuous to use AI images on 35mmc. I think you should be at least mention why you chose to use them instead of genuine photographs.

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Azriel Knight replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I mean, I searched high and low for a hipster on a mountain of cameras but I couldn't find the hipster. I also could only find a ruby encrusted rangefinder, unfortunately.

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Khürt Williams replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

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James E. Langmesser on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

There is yet another approach to buying at these sales that adds a bit of surprise to the buying process. Ask someone else who goes to these sales to "buy it if it is German, and metal" for you. I had this arrangement with a friend for years, and he not only came up with some interesting things, but, as noted in the post, developed some of Arziel's negotiating skills. Sadly he passed away.
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Azriel Knight replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Good advice!

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fleetwoodler on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I really enjoyed reading your article—thanks so much for sharing it! It’s wild to think about how influencers and YouTubers can drive up camera prices. Just last year, I bought a Chinon Auto 3001, an underrated gem for street photography, for just 20€. That was the average price back then. But after it featured in a popular street photography YouTube series, the price shot up to 100-200€. What a crazy market shift!
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Ivan Baptista Jr on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Great read, thank you for your guidance.
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Azriel Knight replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

You're very welcome!

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Keith Drysdale on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

That's a great article but it makes me sad to hear you've stopped doing the videos which I very much enjoyed. Thanks for the ones I got to watch.
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Dan M on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I would add small town, rural pawn shops. As long as it's not Leica, Nikon or Canon, old film cameras are just that, old cameras. I've scored in small town pawn shops many time.

Two things I would mention when visiting pawn shops:
1. Bring cash. Cash talks, BS walks
2. The tagged price is never the sale price. ALWAYS negotiate!
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Jay Dann Walker replied:

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Well said! Here in Australia, the biggest problem with garage/yard sales is there will always be some superannuated duffer (don't criticize me for using this term, I'm a duffer too, and I know it when I see one!) who is convinced that his non-working 1980 Shitflex is worth a few hundred dollars, and won't budge on the price. But then as I've always thought, who wants the damn thing anyway? Even for a few bucks... I do like your comment 1. Bring cash. Cash talks. BS walks. A brilliant line, and it will be mine in the morning! Elsewhere in the comments here, when I have more time up my sleeve (a few garage sales to go to today, and I want to plan and polish my attack strategy for those) I will be posting my own thoughts about this article, which I consider one of the best, and most direct if at times brutal, I've read in a long time on 35mmc. My ongratulations on it to both the author and the publisher. Best from DANN

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Eric N on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Great tips, but I would add a couple more:

1) Estate sales in my area (Northern California) have become a much better place to find cameras. At an estate sale, typically everything in the house from hammers to household cleaners are for sale, as opposed to garage sales, where people are putting out just a portion of what they own.

2) If you go to an estate sale, look for the "man cave"--the place where the man of the house kept his gadgety stuff. Bypass the kitchen and living room and the room chockfull of Christmas decorations. If you can't find a man cave, it's likely that the last resident was a woman, who would have been much less likely to own camera gear.

3) Garage sales typically take place on Saturdays or Saturday/Sunday. Go on Saturday--in my area, they're pretty picked-over by Sunday. Estate sales, on the other hand, generally start on Friday and I some cases start on Thursday. Go on opening day to snag the good camera gear.

4) Many garage sales are run by commercial enterprises who operate the sale and take a cut of the proceeds. As a result, prices are generally higher than at sales run by the family. If you can, head for family-run sales.

5) Finally, check online for local listings. Estatesales.net has nationwide listings with photographs of everything at every sale and a searchable listing of items as listed. Look for "camera" and tell it where to look, and the site will bring up a listing of all of the local sales with cameras. You can then look at the photos and decide if it's worthwhile going to the sale. It's a huge time-saver for me.

Finally, your tip about asking for cameras is spot on. Some of my best finds have resulted from asking. A few weeks ago, I did just that, and the homeowner brought out a box that included a near-perfect Yashica T4 Super D. I bought it and sold it a few days later for a very nice profit.

Happ[y hunting!
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Gary Smith on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Long ago I used these techniques looking for the proverbial 1956 Stratocaster that was only played in church on Sundays. I have to say that I'm happy that I don't have any room for old cameras or I'd likely be on the hunt. Last week I "found" a "parts only" Leica 1e in good enough shape that it would probably clean up but then I looked at eBay and decided that the price wasn't really >that< good.
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Christopher Welch on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

I didn't see you mention another aspect of price hikes- Sheer availability of reliable, mechanical cameras. Old cameras that work are getting parted out to make other cameras work. And due to the reputation of certain reliable brands- Pentax K1000 for instance, that drives up prices too. I absolutely resent paying inflated prices because a celebrity or hiptser suddenly thinks film photography is cool. Thank goodness Kylie Jenner didn't discover Polaroid One Steps or we'd all be paying $1,000 for used ones.
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CP93 on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 23/08/2024

Amazing content, thanks so much for writing this!
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Marcus Gunaratnam on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 24/08/2024

word of mouth seeking is another way of making sure that what you are looking for is not missed,I happen to have an avid 'garage sale' nut among my acquaintences and he was told that I was on the hunt for a Bosch router and that he should be on the look out for one, sure enough he after a a few weeks of search came across one in good nick with all accesories for what I considered was a reasonable price and managed to hold sale for a nomnal deposit, while I 'googled'the model(POF50) for details it was worth the trouble and I bought it for song.It came with a wide selection of router bits I had already boned up on use of routers via "Routers methods of work", so I got ample use of it.So the lesson is make your friends do some searching.
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Paul Trantow on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 25/08/2024

Hello. Please disclose when using AI-generated images. These obviously are, but you gotta say so.
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Daniel Castelli on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 25/08/2024

This happened to me today (8/24). I was with my wife and we stopped in a small antique shop/thrift shop in a small town in Connecticut. Nothing. On the way out I spotted a Nikon F3. It was bolted onto a ginormous tripod with a beater zoom lens. “How much?” The clerk said $65 dollars. “The camera is busted, but the tripod is good. We can’t get the camera off the tripod.” I talked her down to $50.00. “I’ve got tools at home…cash?” The deal was done. The F3 needed new batteries. The tripod needed a screwdriver to release the quick mount plate. $50 for a working F3. I’m a Leica guy, but I just bought a Ai 50mm Nikkor off eBay. I’ll film test it. Never made a deal like this ever. I don’t know if I’ll keep it or sell it. It needs a CLA & light seals replaced, but hey…
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Marco Giai-Coletti on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 25/08/2024

Good info, thanks. I agree with you about the disposable. After many years of digital, I got myself a Reto Ultra Wide and Slim (not disposable but along the same lines) and it was such fun and produced some really cool pics.
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Jeffery Luhn on Maximizing Garage Sale And Thrift Store Finds

Comment posted: 25/08/2024

I have visited all the thrift stores in my area and left a card with my phone number stating "Cameras or musical instruments? Call me for a free evaluation." This has helped the operators of the store. In many cases I just ask questions over the phone, but in five instances in the last year I've gotten great deals: A great playing Epiphone archtop, a Princeton tube amp, a TLR Rolleicord, a Novatron flash kit with two powerpacks and 6 heads, and last week a near mint Nikon F. All at less than half of the eBay price. I don't have to lie to store operators. They can do the online search just like me. I bring cash and they get the sale quickly. I don't need to spend days driving. If I find stuff that I don't want, but my college students can use, I'll tell them about it at my next class. Of course I've bought loads of stuff on eBay and Reverb.com, but the approach of making sure thrift stores have my card taped up in their back room has been very good.
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