On Sunday, I headed to a couple of my favorite thrift stores. I was looking for a carpet steamer, which I didn’t find (there’s always next time – I know I’ll find one soon). But I did find one of these. For six dollars. We had been on the lookout for a new keyboard for our son, although I had never seen anything quite like this one. I didn’t know what the pipes sticking up the back were, and the whole thing looks like it’s made of PVC pipes (turns out that’s a bit part of the Blue Man Group’s show, which I didn’t know until my husband showed me YouTube videos of them performing). In the store, I didn’t know if it was broken or if the batteries were dead, but I figured for six dollars it was worth a chance.
As soon as we replaced the batteries, it came to life. And it is an amazing toy. Those pipes sticking up behind the keyboard are sensors, and all you have to do is wave your hand over them and they play amazing music – about 100 different kinds of music, depending on what setting you have it on. You can make fantastic combinations of sounds, just by waving your hands in a certain order. There’s even a place to plug an MP3 player into the keyboard.
Just another example of how you never know what you’ll find when you step into a thrift store. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I stumbled across an amazing keyboard, and it was a fraction of what it would have cost new.
In other great thrift store news, my mother found a Rainbow vacuum last month for $20. It works perfectly, and she loves it. That is definitely up there in the top thrift store finds of all time!
And now that spring is coming to the northern hemisphere, yard sale season is on its way. I’m planning to shop at yard sales this year for clothes for our son. The thrift stores where I shop sell baby clothes for 99 cents, but they increase the price into the $2 – $4 range for clothes in toddler and kid sizes, and I know I can get better deals at yard sales. Looking forward to some good scavenger hunt Saturday mornings!
nopinkhere says
Do your thrift stores do specials depending on the color of tag? Some of the ones I go to have a color of the day and anything with that color tag is half off. I try not to even look at clothes unless they have the right color tags. That’s helped a lot since my boy has gotten into bigger sizes.
Simple in France says
I love thrift store shopping. You can find some great deals there. We’ve had used vacuums each time we lived in the States and then resold them when we left . . .it worked very well for us.
I’m a little sad that in France the thrift store set up does not seem to be as alive and well as in the US. . .I guess the clothes you donate go only to the really poor??? But the yard sale is alive and well!
Random Thoughts of a Jersey Mom says
That’s very interesting. I’ve never seen a keyboard like that. Do you bring a shopping list with you when you go to yard sales?
Wow! $2 to $4 for a piece of kids’ clothes? That’s good!
Kristia@Family Balance Sheet says
I am so excited for yard sale season that I can hardly contain myself. It has been a loooong winter in the northeast and I am looking forward to some Sat. morning fun and scavenging.
Alissa says
That keyboard looks really neat! I sure wish our thrift stores were as great as yours! We just have a Value Village, which I find over-priced, and never seem to find anything cool. :) I will keep trying, though!
Sam says
My son got that keyboard a couple years ago for Christmas (from a relative) and it is very cool.
You can hook an MP3 player up in the little drawer underneath & play along to MP3 music too.
That toy while a pretty penny, has kept my son & his friends busy many times.
Kay says
Awesome! That’s so neat about your mom finding a rainbow vaccum.
Frugal Trenches says
What a great find!!