for your bundle-browsing

browse - patience - risky
Tips, see Thursday 005 & misc list 026

As much as I love going to bundles and browse around now, I wish I was a little more educated the first few times I stepped into the stores just like how I am now. Here is a couple (or three) that I wish I could've tell my younger self:

#010: do browse around

I wish I knew to browse around between the number of thrift and/or bundle stores scattered around the places before finalizing my decision to buy any piece of clothing. I didn't know how many shops were out there before so I decided to go to just this one local establishment over and over again but when I did went out to venture to other places, it opened my eyes to other possibilities, hundreds of wardrobe to choose from instead of dozens. Since every shop have a different setup and different source of bundled clothes, I know now where to find the best quality ones or where to go to find the most varied. There are other places that I haven't been yet since they are so far away outside of my usual circle but I'll reach them eventually, and I might find something new yet again.

#011: patience is a virtue

Going around the mall by myself and browse around according to my own time without taking into consideration another person's sensibilities, I am perfectly fine living in my own world, listening to music and podcasts when I look through the racks. The same principle applies when I browse through the bundle clothes but learning from experience, I want to reiterate and push the fact that patience is virtue and you won't be rewarded if you do not put the effort in. I admit that when I saw the clothes being randomly stacked together without any theme or cohesion whatsoever i.e. sports clothes being put together with long sleeved shirts and sweaters, my drive to go through them lessen compared to neatly organized racks but in recent times I found that the laziness of the bundle owner to sift through them and separate them resulted in a number of treasures being buried among them but you had to go through them to find it. No pain, no gain. No pain on your shoulders from holding your hands up too long, no gaining shirts that strike your fancy.

#012: risky venture

When I do came across these shops, it is rare to find them full of customers just like a normal shop selling new clothes. It might be the smell or it might be the effort need to be put in to find the one piece of clothing that deter them from actively going from one thrift store to another. To me, I want to highlight that buying things that used to be owned by someone else brings with it a number of risks that you had to take into account and be aware of. For the caps, that creases on the front would not go away as fast as I wanted and sometimes that stains that you think you can remove back at home might not be so after all. The clothes would also have that irremovable stains, that personal name-marking of ownership, a hidden tear or 'weakness' that escape your observation last time or maybe even clashing with your existing wardrobe. I know I'm the rare few who care of this particular aspect. Last but not least, there is always a chance that anything that you test-wear in the shop might not look as enticing when you finally wear it at home or when you are out. That 'new clothes' sheen could disappear and you are left with subpar product in your hands that you put too much value in the first place.

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Well, that's all folks! Thank you for your time and please do come back for my future posts! :-)