A vintage Pendleton wool blanket for $5. A vintage Cranston pillow panel for 50 cents. And one thrift store that wanted $3,000 for a cabinet. Those are the three price tags at the heart of a recent haul from thrifter Home Made Vintage, who spent a day searching Goodwill and a local shop for vintage and antique pieces and came home with a car full of stories.

She started at Goodwill, where she spotted a laundry hamper that she says people use to hide their kitchen trash cans. She put it back, and a shopper immediately dropped it in a cart, which she figured would happen. A hand-painted table caught her eye next, with a large signed flower on top. At 40 dollars for something that unique, she called it a really good deal.

She was less sold on a piece done in the stone concrete paint look that spread across DIY videos a year or two ago. It is not her cup of tea, she says, and she thinks you either love it or hate it.

The Store With the $3,000 Cabinet

Then she turned to what she calls a pessimistic moment. A local thrift store used to be her favorite in the area, and now she says she dreads going because the prices make no sense. A gorgeous vintage cabinet there was marked $3,000. She says it is a lovely piece, but she does not think it would cost that much even at an antique store near her.

She says the prices are random across the shop, and a lot of what she sees has been on the shelves for months and months. Maybe, she jokes, they just do not need the money. She also noticed that many items seem to carry a base price of six or seven dollars, as if somebody picked that number and applied it to almost everything.

Some viewers will say she should just stay away. She admits she has a hard time doing that, because there is always a chance she will find something good at a decent price. That chance is what keeps her coming back.

On this trip, it paid off. The store has a set price for blankets and linens, which she believes is $5, and she found a vintage wool Pendleton blanket. She calls it a good thing to find at that price. She also admired a red organizer she wished she had a desk for, a vintage tin, a weathered piece she pictured displayed at Christmas, and a small transferware plate with a little crack for two dollars. The back says J and G Meakin, and she plans to hang it with her brown transfer collection.

The Bargains at Home

Back home she showed how the finds fit into her rooms. An eastlake chair with dark wood, moody fabric and casters on the front came from her mom, who got it from friends for $20. She thinks it is worth much more than that, and plans to swap it into the bedroom for a Chip and Dale style chair she has there now.

In the guest room she hung an oil painting from Goodwill. It shows somebody’s dog, was painted in 2012, and was not vintage, but it was unframed. She had a frame with a mirror in it that fit perfectly, and she thinks it looks beautiful now. Next to it she placed the piece she first mistook for a tray at Goodwill, a work of art in a deep cranberry color.

The lampshades were a highlight. She paid about two dollars for a stained one that she plans to cover. Then she found a scalloped, hand-painted vintage shade with flowers that cost four or five dollars, and said she is obsessed. The lamp base is too small for it, so she wants to thrift a bulkier, rounded base to match.

She also picked up a wood frame with hand-painted folk art around the edge and a Foley’s fabric box she plans to dress with vintage ribbon and tuck under the Christmas tree.

The 50-Cent Cranston Panel

Her favorite small find came from the side of a road on the way home. It was the end of a sale, there was not much left, but she found a pheasant pillow panel, already cut out, in vintage Cranston fabric. All you have to do is add batting and put it together. The price was 50 cents.

She is not sure she has the guts to sew it without directions, since you have to flip the pieces inside out, but she called it a fun find. It is exactly the kind of cheap surprise that keeps thrifters shopping.

What the Haul Teaches

There are a few lessons in her trip. First, know the going rate. A Pendleton blanket at $5 is a steal, while a cabinet at $3,000 may sit for months if it is far above what local antique stores charge. Second, look past the original purpose. A mirror frame fit a Goodwill painting, and a plain lampshade can be covered. Third, check roadside and yard sales on the way home, because the end of the day can bring the lowest prices.

She is also looking ahead. Her mom is moving, so her videos may be sporadic this month, and she and her mom have been searching a storage unit for a moving Santa Claus from 1993 that sits at a workbench and hammers toys. November is when her Christmas content begins, and she is already humming carols and scrolling her saved Pinterest pins.

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