12 March 2009

Tour de op shop

Mum and I had a great time on the op shop tour :) A bus took forty-five of us around to nine op shops in four hours. With a bus full of eager op shoppers (all ladies besides the driver, Bruce) Mum and I had to hone our bargain-hunting skills and put our elbows up. Our tour guide, Joanne, told us no one had ever gone home from an op shop tour without buying anything and we couldn't break the record now. Doesn't she know op shoppers don't operate well under pressure?! At the first three op shops ladies were buying bag fulls of clothing and other items, but neither Mum or I had found anything! I feared we had lost our op shopping mojo but Mum assured me not to despair...

I think it was in about our third stop where I found a gorgeous dress at the Unley Salvos. It's made of a silvery, sparkly kind of chiffon material and has a satin bow which ties around the back. I was surprised that the brand was Valley Girl because it's actually quite good quality and the last few times I've visited the shop I haven't felt very inspired by the clothing. It cost $13 and I almost didn't buy it because I'm used to the ridiculously cheap clothing at our local op shops. Mum (bascially) told me not to be so stingy and that was the end of that. I'm going to wear this to my cousin's wedding in October :) Sorry about the glaring light. Try not to look directly at it or it might temporarily blind you.

Our second to last stop was a Vinnies store which was our favourite op shop on the tour. Mum and I would have liked more time to look around, but we were on a tight schedule and it was kind of crowded. They were busy before we got there so an extra forty-five bargain hungry ladies didn't really help the claustrophobia factor. Mum ended up finding two necklaces - a silver Avon rose necklace for $4 which was for me, and a gold necklace, which we think has little bits of opal in it, for $2. I wasn't too sure about this one so Mum kept it for herself. I also got a little blue leaf-shaped dish for $1 that says "Fine China Made in Japan" on the back.


Even though some ladies were buying bag fulls of stuff, we didn't want to buy things just for the sake of it or come home with a whole lot of junk which is what I think some people did. Overall we had a really good time on the tour; it was good getting to visit op shops in areas we wouldn't normally get to, although because we had such a tight schedule we didn't get time to have a really good rummage. Some of the op shops were quite expensive; I have a thing for glomesh bags and they wanted $20 - $25 for the ones we saw! Made us appreciate the cheapness of our local op shops :)

2 comments:

  1. Did you think the tour was worth $25? I'm considering going on one but I don't see why I shouldn't just drive myself...?

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  2. Hey Coco, to be honest I probably wouldn't go on one again. There weren't any games or 'giveaways' like it said on the ticket, and there were so many people it was hard to have a good rummage. There wasn't really enough time at each op shop either. The good thing was that we got to go to op shops we wouldn't normally go to, but we found the ones around our area are better and less expensive anyway. Driving's definitely the way to go I'd say =)

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