An Ultimate List of My Greatest Thrift Store Finds

  I frequently shop at thrift stores. Every time I step inside one, it's a whole new adventure. Over the many trips I have made to thrift stores, I have bought some interesting items. I never compiled a list of what were the ultimate finds but, I will try to recall all of my so called greatest finds. This list will mostly consist of various articles of clothing, a ton of hats, Toys, CD's and some oddball items. This list won't be in any particular order of when I found them. I don't remember what I paid for some of the items so I will try to remember what I had paid for them. So hold on to your butts, you are going to be amazed at my ultimate finds.

1. Vietnam War Era, US Army AG-274 Quarpel Raincoat. 
2. Vietnam War Era US Army Gabardine Overcoat.
3. Snap-On Tools RA Winter Jacket
4. Snap-On Tools Hoodie
5. Snap-On Tools Full Foam Hat from the 1980s
6. Snap-On Tools Mesh hat from the 1980s
7. Snap-On Tools Camouflage hat where the pattern consists of all tools.
8. UPS Brown Uniform Mesh Hat
9. UPS Brown  Uniform non-mesh hat 
10. FreshDirect Delivery Driver Uniform tri-season jacket.
11. Texaco Havoline down puffy vest from the 80s
12. Texaco Spring Jacket
13. A Hat autographed by Ed Kinney and the late Bruce Sarver
14. A Tide Racing hat just like the one Travis Kvapil wore
15. Forrest Gump Score Soundtrack by Alan Silvestri
16. The Punisher Score by Carlo Siliotto 
17. B-Day 2 disc deluxe edition
18. Ridge Racer for PS1
19. Hanna Soundtrack
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Cargill hat
21. Jet Moto 2 for PS1
22. A sealed CD copy of Adam Lambert's debut album For Your Entertainment
23. An official Make America Great Again hat
24. Matco Tools Racing hat
25. Crisco Racing hat from the 1980s
26. A vintage US Mail uniform hat
27. 2009 New York Yankees World Series 59Fifty
28. OneMain Financial Racing hat
29. Con-Way Central Express (CCX) Mesh hat
30. Dunbar Armored Uniform Mesh hat
31. International Trucks Eagle hat
32. Wegman's Mesh uniform hat
33. Nine Inch Nails The Slip CD
34. Nine Inch Nails Year Zero Remixed CD
35. Nine Inch Nails Lights In The Sky Tour hat
36. Castrol Edge hat
37. White Castrol GTX Hat like the one John Force used to wear
38. Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barons snapback hat autographed by the mascot The Grump
39. Hummer hat
40. Mr. Peanut Baseball hat
41. Budweiser Football jersey
42. Mazda Polo shirt
43. Call 811 hat
44. Vintage Hot Wheels Stutz Blackhawk blackwall
45. Coach Bylsma Bobblehead
46. Hyundai coffee mug
47. Yuengling Pint Glass
48. 2 Cutty Sark scotch tumblers
49. A Realtor lapel pin
50. Vintage Michelin down winter jacket
51. A stress reliever shaped like a London Taxi
52. A Wells Fargo Stress Reliever shaped like a Stagecoach
53. A Car Fox stuffed animal
54. A Mattress Man stuffed animal
55. Serta Counting Sheep Plush #1
56. Serta Counting Sheep Plush #5
57. Serta Counting Sheep Plush #60
58. Texaco 1919 GMC Tanker chrome edition bank
59. Humble Oil 1925 Kenworth Tanker bank. (This bank started my truck bank collection)
60. A Saturn of Wyoming Valley Coffee Mug

Another Great Vintage Hat Haul

  I had a brief moment to stop in The Salvation Army yesterday. I had low hopes of finding anything good on a Monday. However it was like I died and went to Heaven. You see, I love vintage trucker hats. I love them when they are from the 1980s and early 90s. Yesterday The Salvation Army put out a ton of brand new deadstock trucker hats. If you don't know what deadstock means, I'll explain. Deadstock means it is a vintage new and unworn item of clothing. New Old Stock, you get the picture.

The 2 Snap-on Hats pictured with a Snap-on truck bank

  I didn't have a lot of time to look around the whole store. I just managed to check out all of the vintage hats. There were 3 different Marlboro hats. They were $1.99 each. There was one Marlboro Team Penske IndyCar hat that was really dusty but still new. There was a few hats that were a bit dusty. It wasn't worth going home and trying to brush off the hats. However most of the hats were $0.99 each so that was great. So as I rummaged through the hats, I found 3 that really interested me. 2 of the hats were Snap-on Tools hats probably from the 1980s. Judging by the Snap-on logo on the 2 hats was a dead giveaway that they were from the late 80s. I love Snap-on tools. I love collecting anything associated with them. Finding 2 unworn Snap-on hats from the 80s for $0.99 each made me really happy.
  One Snap-on hat was a mesh hat. The second hat was a full foam hat with a patch that said America's Best Snap-on. I was amazed at the condition of the 2 Snap-on hats. Since they both had foam crowns, and given their age, none of the foam was falling out of the hats. You have to watch out when you buy vintage hats with foam crowns that the foam isn't rotting out of it. I once bought a mesh hat where that happened. If they weren't stored properly you are going to have a major problem.
  The third and final hat was a brand new unworn AutoZone trucker hat. It still had the barcode under the brim! I used to have that same AutoZone hat when I was a little boy. I can't recall what exactly happened to it. I was glad to see one again so i had to have it for nostalgic purposes. I could have gone overboard buying up all of the vintage hats but I showed some restraint and only spent $2.97 total.

The Best $6 Hot Wheels Haul

 I was lucky enough to be able to get to the local weekly farmers market today. I rarely get a chance to go up there because of how hectic our schedule is. I usually allocate $10 to spend on cars. So today I only spent $6. There is one particular seller that I always buy from. Today I bought a lot of loose cars from him. He gave me a deal at $0.50 each for the loose cars. Two of those loose cars were ex-Corgi castings. As I posted before, I love ex-Corgi castings. I'm on a mission to track them all down. Finding 2 Fire Eater II and Flame Stopper II was a shock. I've been looking for those 2 fire trucks for years. Now I have them to add to my ex-Corgi castings collection. Buying Flame Stopper II and Fire Eater II brought my ex-Corgi collection up to 16 cars. The hunt will still ensure for a good while.
  In addition to the 2 ex-Corgi cars, I bought a 1977 Blackwall Letter Getter. I already had a Letter Getter in my collection but it is in really rough shape. The fact that I found one that was in near perfect condition for $0.50 was a steal. I bought another blackwall Pontiac J2000, a Pontiac Fiero 2M4, a 1995 Model Series Dodge Ram 1500. I also bought a third blackwall, Minitrek from 1981. I bought that one because it is allegedly based on a Toyota Chinook camper but it is an unlicensed casting.
  Now out of the whole batch of cars that I had purchased, only 2 of them were MOC. Back in 2012, I bought the First Edition Bentley Continental Supersports. However the one that I originally bought was severely defective. It had very poor quality control where the windshield was loose and you could push it down. The car had black streaks on the white paint. The car looked like it scraped the wall at Daytona. I don't know why I never bothered to get it replaced right away in 2012. I guess it wasn't really necessary. So when I was at the Farmers Market, I immediately spotted the First Edition Bentley that I needed to replace. So all of those cars came to $5 from my favorite seller.
  The final $1 that I spent on car was a 1996 First Editions Ford Mustang GT. I already have this car in my collection but it was the blue one that came with the McDonald's playset. I try to collect all of the licensed First Editions cars if I can find them. Hot Wheels had retired this Mustang GT in the Final Run Series back in 2003 so it's a shame they no longer make this car. In the long run this $6 may be the best $6 that I have ever spent on Hot Wheels cars.