Vintage & Designer
The Modern Heirloom, Found Secondhand
This autumn's trend lists want you to buy future heirlooms new, at four figures. The charity shop has been selling the past ones all along. What to feel for on the rail.
Column
Shopping
What to buy secondhand, what to skip, and how not to overpay.
Shopping guides written by people who haggle. Price benchmarks, label checklists, authentication basics and the resale values that decide whether a piece is worth it.
- Stories
- 19
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- 3
- Updated
- 21 Oct
Thrift Finds
What our editors actually bought this week, what it cost, and whether you should go looking for the same thing.
Thrift Finds
Six Thrift Finds Worth Buying and What They Typically Cost
Six secondhand pieces that keep turning up at estate sales and thrift stores, what each typically goes for in October 2026, and…
Vintage & Designer
Dating, authentication and pricing for designer pieces that have already had one life.
Vintage & Designer
The Modern Heirloom, Found Secondhand
This autumn's trend lists want you to buy future heirlooms new, at four figures. The charity shop has been selling the past…
Under $50
Everything in this column costs less than a takeaway dinner for two. Nothing is filler.
Under $50
Secondhand gifts under $50, category by category
Eleven categories where a secondhand present beats a new one at the same price, with a price range for each and the…
All Shopping stories
Thrift Finds
Planning a Toronto Thrift Circuit: Six Stops, Six Roles
How to plan a one-day thrift circuit in Toronto: six kinds of store, what each one is good for, typical prices as…
Vintage & Designer
Authenticating a designer bag: the checks that work
Stitching and hardware are the checks everyone repeats and the ones counterfeiters have beaten. Date codes, construction and material logic are harder…
Thrift Finds
Flea Market Haggling Without Being a Nuisance
Picture a 1960s lounge chair tagged at $450. Here's how a fair negotiation toward $300 typically goes: the sequence, the words that…
Thrift Finds
Under $50 Online, a Fortune in a Shop
Oxford cloth shirts, wool flannel and 1990s leather bags often sell for under $50 on resale platforms and cost several times that…
Thrift Finds
Six Secondhand Finds, Ranked by Cost per Wear
Six common secondhand buys at typical prices and realistic wear counts, ranked from about six cents a wear to over $6. The…
Vintage & Designer
Vintage labels by decade, and what each is worth now
From Norell to Margiela, the names that reliably lift a garment above its fabric value, which decade each belongs to, and the…
Vintage & Designer
Vintage tailoring: judging a jacket and its alterations
Shoulder fit decides whether a jacket is worth buying and canvas construction decides whether it is worth altering. Here is the pinch…
Under $50
Bags under $50: leather, hardware and shapes that date
Glove-tanned Coach and all-weather Dooney often still sell for under $50 used and outlast many pricier new bags. How to grade leather…
Under $50
Shoes under $50: styles that last, repairs that pay
Stitched construction is the only thing that keeps a shoe alive past its first owner. The shapes that hold value, five checks…
Vintage & Designer
Designer resale: what holds value and what doesn't
Retail price momentum, not beauty or craftsmanship, decides what a designer piece resells for. The categories that hold, the ones that collapse…
Under $50
Knitwear under $50: wool, pilling and moths at the rack
The fiber line on the label decides what a sweater is worth, not the brand. How to read wool percentages, tell harmless…
Under $50
Coats under $50: what's realistic and what's a trap
Wool, waxed cotton and surplus canvas often land under $50 secondhand; designer leather and Burberry gabardine usually don't. The realistic price list,…
Vintage & Designer
Vintage jewelry: gold-filled, plated or solid?
The mark inside the band answers most of the question and the wear points answer the rest. A working test sequence for…
Under $50
Fifteen secondhand buys under $50 that look pricier
Fifteen garments and accessories that sell for under $50 used and read as three times the price on the body. What each…