123 Times People Couldn’t Believe Their Luck In Thrift Stores, Flea Markets, And Garage Sales (New Pics)

The ‘Weird (and Wonderful) Secondhand Finds That Just Need To Be Shared’ Facebook group was first created as a way for the founders to share wacky secondhand finds with their family and friends. It was first meant to work like a photo archive or “some sort of strange museum.”

However, the community soon took off, and the founders began welcoming more and more members into the group. Everyone’s encouraged to share pics of “odd, unusual, and wonderful pieces” that they come across while “thrifting, visiting yard sales, estate sales, antique stores,” and elsewhere.

The community is incredibly active, and the fun thing is that you don’t actually have to buy the cool or bizarre stuff you found to share a picture of it on the group. If you come across something that you feel will make people’s day, take a snap, and post it! If the moderator and administrator team feels like your pic’s a good match for the community, they’ll approve it.

However, due to the popularity of the group, far from every photo will get the green light. Don’t feel discouraged if your find doesn’t end up getting featured. “Just keep hunting for something new to post in the future,” the team running the community writes.

Because the volume of messages and posts that the team gets is humongous, the mods and admins are no longer informing people about why their posts have been declined. You can read the detailed posting guidelines in detail right over here. The rules are rather lengthy, but they help maintain the quality and digital health of the Facebook group.

Community members are also asked to be polite, courteous, and to keep their comments appropriate. What’s more, they’re asked not to engage with spammers and trolls. Facebook users are expected to understand that this is a place for “lighthearted fun and shenanigans.” If you’re ever in doubt about how (not) to behave, err on the side of kindness.

During a previous interview, Bored Panda learned about the roots of the ‘Weird (and Wonderful) Secondhand Finds That Just Need To Be Shared’ group.

“My family and friends have always had a love and passion for interesting and unusual things, and we had been texting each other photos of items that we saw (and often purchased) in thrift stores and at yard sales for years,” one of the group’s co-founders told us a few years ago.

“My best friend and I were chatting on Christmas Eve one year and it occurred to us that it might be more fun to share our photos in a Facebook group, rather than via text so that it would be easier to go back and see what each of us had found, and to have a record of what we had seen through the years,” the co-founder told us.

“It really all started as a gathering place intended for our friends and family but we left it as an open group purely because it never occurred to us that anyone outside of our circle would share this odd interest we have.”

Eventually, word about the group spread. “I panicked for a moment but then I thought, ‘Heck, it will be intriguing to see what other people have to share. Why not?’ Originally, we expected to have about a dozen members; when strangers started joining, we thought maybe we’d get to a hundred. Now, three years later, we’re approaching the two million-member mark!” they shared with Bored Panda before.

“Who knew that what we all thought was a niche hobby actually has a huge passionate community behind it that just needed a clubhouse to gather in? Witnessing how people connect in this group is what keeps us passionate about running it. I personally put between thirty and forty hours a week into moderating the group but every time I see how much joy it brings people, I’m reminded why it’s worth doing all the work it takes.”

The co-founder of the group praised the community for how supportive the members are of each other. “When someone mentions having a bad day, or being ill, or just needing a bit of a morale boost, the community comes out in droves to offer support. We constantly see members lifting each other up, sending each other gifts, and enthusiastically embracing each other’s quirks on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, another side-effect the community had was that it sparked and renewed an interest in secondhand shopping for quite a few people. “They’re starting to see secondhand stores in a different light. We hear all the time from members who haven’t been thrifting in a long time or have never really been interested in it, and now can’t wait to go out treasure hunting,” the co-founder said. “It’s truly beautiful to see people celebrating their weird with fervor.”

Recently, Bored Panda covered how inflation is changing people’s approach to shopping for clothes. More people are cutting back on costs wherever they can, so naturally, they’re eyeing lower-priced items in places like secondhand stores.

However, secondhand shopping isn’t just great for your wallet. More ecologically-minded shoppers will tell you that it’s a great way to fight for a more sustainable lifestyle. Especially when it comes to clothing.

The fashion industry is responsible for around a tenth of the total carbon emissions on our planet. Moreover, 85% of all textiles are thrown away each year, according to the UNECE’s 2018 report. The global apparel market was worth around 1.5 trillion dollars in 2021, according to Statista. By 2026, it’s predicted to grow to a whopping 2 trillion dollars. With this in mind, secondhand shopping and reselling clothes become vital parts of a more sustainable Earth.