Do you buy second hand?
 

limey's thread about what people buy second-hand made me wonder just how many of us don't shop second hand at all or hardly ever. I'll put the rest of my wonderings in Limey's thread, but as I can't add a poll there, I'm doing it here. If they can be merged and limey doesn't mind... awesome!

Check every category in which you acquire a notable proportion (say at least 20%) of that item second hand (including hand-me-downs)

I almost exclusively buy second hand, for when one has no money one must make due.

you not wait for the poll, young man.... :headshake

otherwise, discussion is already underway here: limey's thread

ooh look, i got furniture in twice! :lol:

FWIW - Furniture is on there twice.

It's a built in lie scale.

hey! FURNITURE IS ON THERE TWICE!!21!!

WTF? Furniture? TWICE?

Does furniture count?

This poll sucks...the main thing I buy second hand is furniture and it's not even a choice!

With cars... is it 20% of the cars you have now, or have ever bought? And what about tables and chairs and that kinda shit... does it count?

no its not, its two choices

Does anyone else buy second hand furniture?

I've bought plenty of it on ebay. It's one item that's usually fairly consistant, and I've never had a problem with the sellers of furniture as opposed to gaming equipment.

I would say in recent history. If out of the past 5 you bought one was used and you'd but used again, then vote yes. howzat?

i voted no on cars because I think i'd do everything possible to avoid buying a used one ever again

oh shit, i think i forgot to include furniture on there

Old furniture is better than most of what you buy today. We have a fair amount of 2nd hand furniture. If it's old enough, it's considered an antique and worth even more.

Most of my tools are 2nd hand. If they are decent tools they can be a hundred years old and just as good or often better than what you can find today. Power tools are a different story.

Lots of kids clothes handed down and from thrift stores.

I've never bought a new car. It's only since I've been with Dazza I've had the luxury of a new car, and that's only because he gets one with his salary package.

Is furniture on the list? And why not lawn & garden equipment?
Did I mention that I have a lawn tractor for sale?

that is the one I missed, damnit, I couldn't work out which one I missed, but i amalgamated DIY and garden as i unexpectedly ran out of options.

nobody buys second hand furniture anyway.

I have a Step2 rollercoaster for sale

I have a spare DVD camcorder for sale, for those of you that buy used electronic gadgets. it's very nice.

Oh no, I buy all my antiques new.

I'm also selling an xoxoxoBruce. Free to good home in fact.

Dammit, I'll pay you, OK....

Merge away, mods, if 'tis possible to avoid confusion (and furniture).

One must strike while the iron is hot .

And I came back for your poll

So you're saying the iron is in full working order? How much do you want for it?

I'm surprised there aren't more responses to "house." Do that many people just buy newly built homes?

and still no takers on the underwear. I bought a second hand swim suit the other week to be an emergency back-up for Hebe, but it turns out it's too small, so I will probably add it to the yard sale -it's a $50 suit new, in decent nick, and I paid 50c for it, so I may even make a profit ;)

Oh, I missed that Juni... we're on our second used (way more than 2nd hand) home, never bought a new one. I worked in real estate for a while, I've seen how the new ones are built. :headshake

Well I have bought it, as I said in the other thread. People buy the wrong size then sell on eBay (because you can't return underwear). Or it's an unwanted present or prize.

But I didn't tick the box - even in my impoverished state most of my underwear is new, rather than just being new to me...

If furniture was a choice, I'd mark that one, but I can't, coz it isn't.

I can't buy used coffins, though. I just keep thinking, "What if someone DIED in there?" and it creeps me out.

I say 200 but for you 35

not clothing, think that's icky, certainly not linens, sheets, or anything I'd actually use like that.

Only things I buy used are collectibles, books, videogames, CDs, etc.

Okay, and I guess vehicles ... I've bought one used, two new, and one dealer demo, which is kind of used ... so 25% of my cars have been used.

How are you at sleeping in a hotel bed?

Not terribly comfortable.

I'd hope that they'd have died first and used it afterwards?

It's illegal to re-use coffins, even if the dead guy only spent a couple hours in it for a showing. At least it is in California. I learned that from Six Feet Under.

Pretty much everything except undergarments and consumables.... Our home is pretty much decorated with Thrift store purchases.

I've never bought a new car (and never will, most likely... what a waste of money) and refuse to buy a new house... if it's less than 70 years old, I don't want to live in it!

Mostly I wear handmade skirts and altered T-shirts, so I don't buy a lot of clothes for myself at thrift stores, but I will buy summer dresses for the girls. I can rarely find anything to fit my little string-bean guy though, so I buy new for him.

If I need something and can find it at a thrift store, that's where I prefer to shop. Older small appliances are better-quality than new ones, anyway... I worked in a kitchenware store 20 years ago and the difference between then and now is absolutely astonishing. The new stuff is total crap! Just TRY finding a new toaster that toasts both sides of the bread evenly! I paid $100 for some higher-end piece of junk and it STILL doesn't toast both sides well. At least it didn't crap out after 3 months like the $20 toaster did.

My washer and dryer were new (eleven years ago) but my stove was a street-corner find - someone was remodeling their kitchen and getting rid of a perfectly good gas stove! We had just bought a house a block away, and it came without a stove - in fact, we were in the process of buying a new one and had a delivery scheduled. Canceled the delivery and saved ourselves $600!

I'd buy more kitchenware secondhand but the thrift stores near me rarely have anything good.

I don't like to buy secondhand shoes because they usually don't seem to fit quite right.

At the 'rents house we have the Kenwood Chef (small) and tumble drier (okay, not small) I grew up with. So both at least 20 years old.

The mixer doesn't need replacing - it's rarely used now. With a family of 5 and no spare money, Mum used to make cakes at least once a week - more if the church or school had a sale. Now it's used ?3 times a year?

The drier really should be replaced - it would be off the charts compared to modern energy efficiency ones. Spend to save is always hard to promote though. I console myself that I am always offering to hang the washing out - dropping in "It's so much cheaper!"
I don't buy shoes from charity shops for this reason - when worn in they don't fit. But I've bought many from eBay as nearly new - they haven't yet been tamed to the previous owner's way of walking. And I think there are so many at bargain prices because they've been an impulse buy and/or because of the ick factor ;)

Oh, Oh....I'll take one of those!!

I'll ship the first piece this afternoon

I almost never buy secondhand. I once bought a loveseat and coffee table at Salvation Army for a total of $25. Both were ugly. Really ugly.

No real trucker has a PINK loveseat in his living room.

Really, they were hideous.

I left them behind when I moved and have yet to have second thoughts.

it's a shame you couldn't vote for furniture on this stupid poll.

I don't get why so many people voted for Furniture yet didn't vote for Furniture. Do people honestly think that buying secondhand furniture is any cleaner or better off than buying secondhand furniture?

I would think if you were willing to buy secondhand furniture you'd be willing to buy secondhand furniture as well.

Obviously, the more astute respondents realized that the second listing of "Furniture" should have been "Military Surplus" (a glaring omission perhaps due to circumstances beyond the pollster's control). ;)

Yeah! I keep meaning to ask that guy on I30 in Texas where he got his hands on an FB-111!

I bought most stuff used when I was just starting out in life. These days we buy quality stuff and keep it going for as long as possible.

Just this winter we had to replace our 1987 Accord. We knew it was coming so we had cash saved to pay for the replacement.

We're not wealthy by any means, but we work hard to not carry any debt besides the mortgage.

Oops. Missed one. I do buy most of my video games used. I don't need to have the latest games.

Can you even by second hand food?

Just got a recliner, a couch and a dresser from garage sale today. Yesterday got a suit for hubby, cashmere sweater, movies, doc marten sandals for step-daughter, clothes for step-daughter, propane grill, picture frames all from garage sales. I think we are done for the weekend. Next weekend we are having ours.

I was especially proud of the doc martens...we paid 50 cents for those.

All my Docs were second hand, including the sandals which my friend thought made her look butch but she loved on me and a knackered old pair I customised and wore behind the bar for years - they were stiff with beer by the time I got rid of them...

Yes, but it tastes like shit.

Jesus H. Christ, Zen... :lol:

oh shit, I forgot religion as a second-hand thing.

for the born-agains......

I have been searching the thrift stores for a hall tree/storage bench for about a year now.....yesterday found EXACTLY what I wanted, and it was 1/2 off for seniors day, so I called my boyfriend's dad, he came and brought the truck - it is now in my entry way! Patience pays off......

I don't normally do second-hand bathing suits, but yesterday I got a virtually new $65 suit for Hebe for $2 -partially because it had a different strap type to her regular ones and she's suffering from suitburn/sunburn issues this week. She loved it and wasn't at all skeeved by the idea of a second hand suit, even though i said it was OK if she was. So, Bargain! It should have been a little too big for her, but wasn't so I think that's maybe how it ended up at the thrift store in such good condition -too small for original purchaser. And I got two great pices of luggage for at total of $8 too - a small case on wheeks and a huge Cabela's kit bag on wheels, both pretty much "as new".

Fixed it for ya!

The thing with buying second hand is that you have to have patience to find the item that is right for you.

My friend Doug gave me some great advice for shopping at The Goodwill and Sallies Army: "Don't go in to those stores looking for anything in particular because you are likely to miss the coolest thing that is exactly what you weren't looking for but want anyway."

Hello Gargantutron, and :welcome: to the cellar.

Thanks for the welcome.