Second hand shopping is quite respectable here, and the thrift stores are very nice. Which is good, because retail prices are insane. I buy almost nothing except food here at retail prices, and even some of that I order online! But I enjoy browsing the thrift stores and flea markets for treasures.
Austrian household goods are frankly kitschy. I can’t imagine my whole house decorated in the style, but a few things here and there are fun. I know I’m going to use and love my thrift store finds for a long time. They are great souvenirs of my time here (and I seriously do NOT need any more useless ethnoplunder knick-knacks!)
I buy what I like, but I have noticed that there are some very good deals here as well. For example, Riess enamelware is quite expensive in the States. I looked up the large bowl below that I bought for 5 Euros and was startled to see that it sells for $60 at home. Wow.
Antique books are also relatively inexpensive. Vintage linens (often hand-embroidered) are downright cheap. And I really like the practically indestructible tempered glass canning jars that sell for one Euro each. I keep beans, nuts and spices in them. I don’t know what they would cost in the States, but they are cheaper than Ikea glass canisters, so I’d call that a good deal.
I would not buy items just for resale purposes, but on the other hand, I don’t worry about accumulating too much of it either. It doesn’t weigh much for shipment, and if I unpack my stuff in a couple of years and find I don’t have space for it all, I can always sell some of it on eBay : )
Please note: for some reason my photo captions do not show up in Google Reader. So, if you are viewing this post in Reader, click the post title, above, to open the full version and then you can see the captions.
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- A big Riess bowl, and some vintage stuff I bought just for decoration. (I have an idea that sturdy grater would make a neat wall lamp for my future screen porch…)
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- Rese canning jars. Super handy!
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- A hand-embroidered table runner.
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- I love these funky old kitchen cloths. They are nice, soft linen, too.
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- More pretty kitchen linens.
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- Great kitschy tablecloth. Really brightens up the kitchen!
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- Vintage checked tablecloth and a traditional-style table runner like the ones sold in gift shops here. Except mine cost 5 Euros instead of 35 Euros :)
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- I like to rescue unfinished craft projects from thrift stores. This is someone’s crewelwork. I might make a pillow or a tote bag out of it.
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- I always browse through the ugly art at the thrift store. My husband hates these little hand-painted pictures, but I think they are cute. And anyway, we have a LOT of white wall in this apartment that needs color.
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- One of my husband’s finds: a beautifully illustrated coffee table book about Austria (at that time an Empire) with an inscription from 1912 on the flyleaf.
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- The book has lots of these color illustrations of traditional Austrian dress from the time. It’s really cool.
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- One my recent scores: a well-made Austrian dirndl that isn’t too tacky. I look more like an Irish pirate wench than an Austrian when I wear it, but that’s OK! ARRHHH!
Hi Kelly! I, too, like to troll the second hand stores here. One man’s junk…
Not too long ago I picked up a set of Schramberg teacups dating from the early 20th century (at least according to The Google); and recently I added six Ditmar-Urbach salad/snack plates to my collection that date to before Nazi Occupation times. We should go second-hand shopping together some time!
That would be fun! I love Googling my finds afterwards