a thrift store mentality and its irony

I am happy. In this small town I can make my choice in thrift / second-hand stores! In the neighbourhood I live in there are two. One of those is an educative project of a (high) school. In the town center there are three shops with (more expensive brands) second-hand clothing and shoes. And in a neighbourhood at the other side there is a real thrift store with volunteers and free coffee ... it's worth riding my bicycle all the way there.
Yesterday I was in the one closest-by. They had a one-day sale: everything 50%! For less than 5 euros I bought some tools, a nice hand-made African shopping bag (I love those bags, use them to put my stuff in, not for shopping) and a few terracotta pots!
About everything we have is bought second-hand: furniture, books, clothes, bric-à-brac

Thrift stores are a good thing, period. They don't generate the waste, they simply are a way to reuse what would otherwise go to the landfill. I'm surprised some big company hasn't rammed through legislation to close them down, thereby forcing us to pay new item prices when we are satisfied with used stuff.

My cousin is married to a divorce lawyer (she's a sweetheart and he's actually an ok guy) who had a client who owned a couple of thrift stores. They were the fake 'charity' thriftstores. They are only required to donate a small percentage of profits to be considered a charity. Anyway the guy seeking a divorce gave my cousin's husband a $200,000 bonus for getting the divorce through quickly. Not wanting to get into the politics of bloodsucking parasite lawyers or the tragedy of divorce or any of that, but I was shocked that there was so much money made by that guys thrift store's.

Come the revolution, when we actually start thinking instead of just letting other people do the thinking for us, thrift stores will become rarer and smaller because we won't waste our money on lots of crap we neither need nor want, and we will know people who have a need for what we can no longer use. (Young people just starting out need to build up their tools, etc. while the old are divesting themselves of things they no longer use).

A more static culture will help. I believe fashion and style are mainly just advertising gimmicks set up to get people to throw out what they have and buy new stuff. I suspect a sari or sarong from 1500 would have been acceptable wear in 1800.

Well, I'm getting into a salvage nursery. Of course, there are ironies in it. For instance, it used to be that broken concrete just went to the landfill. As the landfills filled up, it got more and more expensive to dump, and people were more then willing to dump it for building urbanite walls; I'm currently building handsome ones. However, now there are concrete recycling plants, and developers still have to pay to dump, but less. Same thing with chipped up tree branches; Fort Logan national cemetery now takes lots of green waste, so some tree trimming crews won't bother to dump me any.

On the other hand, gravel and river rock are expensive and damaging to the environment when they are mined. If I can stop a big excavator from grinding it all into the dirt, and salvage and resell it, the environment is helped, nobody is enabled, and I make a little money. Similarly with perfectly good plants; in fact, it may even encourage peopel to keep useful but spreading plants if somebody is around to take the excess. And if I can cut up firewood and maybe even mill lumber in the end from blow-down urban trees, I will help to protect the woodlands.

I've got a thread on my salvage nursery here; let me know what you think! https://permies.com/t/55343/recycling-repurposing/starting-salvage-nursery-advice

Last May we moved to very North central WA State. In our little tiny town there are a couple of thrift shops but not what I was used to in the PNW. I have bought used from the time I married at 18, 45 years ago. If I wanted it, it was going to have to be inexpensive. Well, now, a year into our 'homesteading" my jeans and shoes are wearing out, the local thrift stores are high priced (if they have my size) and I really don't want to have to drive 50 miles one way to Wally World (in another small town) to buy something cheaply made. Sigh. Ok, rant over

local thrift stores are high priced (if they have my size) and I really don't want to have to drive 50 miles one way to Wally World (in another small town) to buy something cheaply made.

Linda, Garage sales!!! You may look at 20 before you find one where they are selling your size, but that one is usually pay dirt. (I know, it's a no-brainer, but some parts of the country do a lot less garage saling that others, and some areas have great garage sales and some bad. I generally look in the richer areas, their :"not good enough to keep" is the same as my "this has lots of wear left in it, and even looks ok".

Len Ovens wrote:Only one comment. My wallet decides... Yes it is good to recycle, but I am not going to pay extra to do so. Make sure you know your prices, the thrift stores are full of good and bad deals. I have found enough items at a lower price new than used to be sure.

I agree, you need to know something about current retail prices. And about quality.

Since a lot of what homesteading entails isn’t entirely about gardens or livestock, cooking, and food preservation alone - nor about clothing alone - I thought I’d say something about tools. Sure, familiarize yourself with prices at Harbor Freight and/or other big-box stores. But, for instance, I once got a good Stihl chainsaw at a flea market for about 30% of its new price, and it ran and had a future of years of use. I’ve gotten good hand planes and bench vises similarly.

I’ve found basic tools like hammers, handsaws, pairs of plier, combination screwdrivers, carpenter's level, combination square, builder's square, and so on - in decent shape and good prices - at pawn shops. I was able to outfit most of a socket-wrench set (sockets, ratchet handles, etc) from pawn shops. I’m referring to name-brand tools, often made by well-known companies before they marketed cheap & shoddy “home handyman” versions.

Pawn-shop drills, circular saws, jig saws, and recipro saws can be in good working order (check for worn bearings, and look for corded varieties, as cordless ones often have batteries that are shot or nearly so). I got a very good Makita metal-cutting chopsaw (blade included) not long ago from a pawn shop for $80.

I was at our local “transfer station” (dump) last year and found a good quality 12-outlet shop-type power strip (with a functioning “reset”-type circuit breaker), an empty, unrusted 20-gallon steel drum, and a lever-type hand-held sprinkler - all no-charge in the “free” bungalow one day.

An awful lot of things useful to homesteaders can be obtained used and in fine condition. But sometimes you need a particular thing sooner rather than later, so shopping for it from used sources may not work out in certain instances.

Mick Fisch wrote:

.... Garage sales!!!

This is such a lower income area that people really do hang on to anything that is good! There are sales going on and this summer (we were building last summer) I hope to be able to stop at more when I am in town.

Judith Browning wrote:I live out of thrift stores for my clothes (except for some shoes and underwear), for the few small appliances we use,

Yeah me too. I buy shoes & undies there too, hehe ^^

I don't feel guilt. If someone I knew threw a wrapped Clif bar in the trash, I think I'd wait til they left the room then get it out, and save it for a snack. I would not stress about the fact that they put a brand new Clif bar to waste. I'd just take it as it was: a lil gift from the Earth. Haha.

Just found this thread. I have dumpster dived for decades. Even here in the small town I'm in, it can be good pickings if you know where and when to look. Christmas is almost here and the rolloff dumpster the city provides for the big chunks will have a real bounty next week. I will definitely be visiting it to see what gets tossed because it got replaced.... same for a cruise around town and stick my nose in the dumpsters. In a college town, move out week is also a great time. Large urban dumpster diving often yielded some fantastic stuff. And the last place we lived, the thrift stores were well worth browsing. Here we have the thrift store is the county run sheltered workshop, and it varies what you find. Recently though at half price day I scored an old mixmaster that is very close to the one I have. Both have issues and I'll be seeing if I can make one good one from the two... or I could sell it on eBay for far more than the $5 I paid for it.

Also here, we will take wood chips so in spring when the utility companies have to do tree work, rather than pay a fortune and it's hauled 100 miles (I do not kid) we will take it if they will put it where we tell them. Also we take certain leaves and grass clippings from the yard service people, again if they will dump where we want it. Free mulch and compost makings. So yes, we do sample the waste stream, to our advantage and theirs. I have a quarter acre dedicated to this... and quickly find out and find who did it if someone tries to bury stuff in the compost piles.

It's okay, I don't mind the irony. I buy stuff. I donate stuff when I clean the house. It's a good cycle. I have a chat with the volunteers. Find cool and interesting objects. I even have clothing a friend of a relative bought at a thrift store, technically making it fourthhand, which(I think) is pretty cool to think about. Then again, being called a consumer has never bothered me. I have plenty of things to worry about without getting into conundrums like this.

My current career is in thrift retail.  Discounted prices for perfectly good items that people sometimes couldn't otherwise afford is only one piece of the system, but as consumers people tend to think it's the most important piece because it's all about them.

Shocking fact; it isn't.

For my store it has a lot more to do with powering local non-profits that couldn't exist otherwise through direct funding (it's a lot easier for a non-profit to cold-call someone and ask if there's anything in their closet they don't want anymore, VS. "Do you have any money sitting around you're just not using?"), helping with short-term community fund-raisers, and giving local organizations items they need at no cost; people who have had fires, womens shelters who need items for when the women and kids move into their own homes, the humane society and other animal rescue organizations need towels and blankets and pet items, prescription eyeglasses for the Lions Club who send them with optometrists to Africa, boots and other winter wear for shelters and reservations, soccer shoes for at-risk youth to participate in sports, leftover Halloween makeup for facepainting at the fire hall's community outreach BBQ, costume items for local schools to do plays, recently skates for a local group helping new immigrants become social in the community... basically, any legitimate (as in, not turning around and selling it) organization with a need, we do our best to fill it, at NO COST), as well as the massive amount of stuff that is kept out of landfill to have its third or fourth life through re-use and recycling beyond our store.  I love to be able to just GIVE people things that they need.

In general I have found that customers who complain about prices have either never been into the stores that the items originally came from - the great condition Ralph Lauren sweater in their hand priced at $7 was $90 new at the upscale department store - or they are complaining because they want a better profit margin when they re-sell it online or in their own shop.  We do occasionally have grumps who complain because they believe we get everything for free (in reality, people donate on behalf of a non-profit, and we then purchase everything sight-unseen from that non-profit so they can get funding, even if it's unsellable and we then have to pay to dispose of it!)  Often the loudest opponents of the thrift store on social media have done the least research into their subject, to the point that it's just libelous.  I love explaining to people how it works and seeing the look on their face when they realize someone in their family has been helped by one of the organizations that we fund through our business.  I'm also really touched when we have donors who say how grateful they are to a non profit when they are already aware of the partnerships we have.  

I have been a thrift shopper most of my life, and prefer to shop used for lots of good reasons.  It has been an eye-opening experience working there and I will not say that the system is 100% perfect (there are both negative and positive effects to the third and fourth life of some items, but the problem existed already), but it's better than the alternative cycle of sweat-shop labour, over-consumption of resources, and disgusting waste that happens without it.

Micky Ewing wrote:Tel's quite right.  Furthermore, the market for used goods, free items on Craig's List or Kijiji, dumpster diving and all other forms of diverting the waste stream reduce the cost to the primary consumer of disposing of their so called garbage.  If there's nobody ready and waiting to help you offload your crap, you're going to have to pay someone to haul it away, or you'll have to do it yourself.

...In my experience, the usual way they do this, at least in the Good Ol' U.S.A., is to look for a "no dumping" sign, then bring the garbage to that spot when no one is looking.

One of my ethical quandaries: after a squatter shack has been abandoned, I look for salvageable items left behind in it -- but only after making sure the former occupant will not be coming back. It is always sad for me when someone loses even such a home as that. I hate to see the belongings left to rot (and I have seen sleeping bags so rotten they fell apart when I touched them); but I also hate to think of someone who had nothing losing even what they had to supply me.

Jason Hernandez wrote:

Micky Ewing wrote:Tel's quite right.  Furthermore, the market for used goods, free items on Craig's List or Kijiji, dumpster diving and all other forms of diverting the waste stream reduce the cost to the primary consumer of disposing of their so called garbage.  If there's nobody ready and waiting to help you offload your crap, you're going to have to pay someone to haul it away, or you'll have to do it yourself.

...In my experience, the usual way they do this, at least in the Good Ol' U.S.A., is to look for a "no dumping" sign, then bring the garbage to that spot when no one is looking.

One of my ethical quandaries: after a squatter shack has been abandoned, I look for salvageable items left behind in it -- but only after making sure the former occupant will not be coming back. It is always sad for me when someone loses even such a home as that. I hate to see the belongings left to rot (and I have seen sleeping bags so rotten they fell apart when I touched them); but I also hate to think of someone who had nothing losing even what they had to supply me.

Just to give you some peace of mind... I was homeless for some time, and in my experience a lot of times people abandon their campsites because they've left the area or found a better spot. Sometimes yes they're in jail or worse, but generally speaking we just leave what we don't need/can't carry when we move to a better situation or a different town.

John Polk wrote:If somebody has surplus, and donates it to a charitable organization, that eliminates waste.

This has some good insight into what happens to the donations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30227025

It's a bit like recycling.   It reduces the visible symptoms and helps us feel good without having to deal with the problem directly.

Although chairty shops are also helpful.   It's not a simple situation.

In my lifetime I have found some great buys at thrift stores.

I had been wearing a pair of sweatpants that were a castoff from dear hubby.

I bought him some new sweats and thought I would like a new pair to wear to town so I bought myself a pair.

Usually, I just don't buy clothes as I have a closet full of good clothes.

What many people who support thrift stores don't realize is that in order to buy everything used, other people have to keep buying new clothes.

I'm a thrift store shopper, and a sewing person who also makes their own (often out of fabric from thrift stores) and reworks items of clothing and repairs appliances from thrift stores. I'm also a dumpster diver and have told people many times "In the expression 'Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle' I'm the 'Repair, Reuse' part of the equation."  

I'd REALLY rather people  were NOT buying so much, and tossing it to either trash or thrift stores, but I can't stop them, no matter how much I have tried over the years, and oh my, have I tried to teach people. The sheer amount of waste HORRIFIES ME! So, since I can't stop it, as long as they are tossing stuff I will harvest the waste stream for my own purposes.

To me, NOT shopping at thrift stores and checking trash is being complicit in the sheer amount of waste that goes on. Ignoring it only sends more stuff to the landfill, and I find that extremely inappropriate. Like I said, I can't stop them, but I can at least mitigate the damage a small amount. To me, it's what I can do to help the mess, and I consider doing anything to stop it a moral imperative. So I'm opposite of the people who feel guilty if they are getting used stuff, I feel guilty if I ignore something that I could have done something useful with.

I'd still rather figure out how to keep other people from being so wasteful, but I haven't managed it yet. It horrifies and sickens me, it really does. The best thing I have found is to teach people how to repair, modify, and reuse things, and how to see what something is good for.  I get into a lot of discussions in thrift stores about how to make something do what the potential buyer wants it to, how to resize it, or fix it, or modify it. And then that's one more item out of the waste stream!

Anne Miller wrote:

What many people who support thrift stores don't realize is that in order to buy everything used, other people have to keep buying new clothes.

Oh my!
I hope my thrift store habit doesn't cause anyone to feel like they need to buy new things to support it?

Pearl Sutton wrote:
I'd still rather figure out how to keep other people from being so wasteful, but I haven't managed it yet.

I sometimes forget, looking from my perch far away, how loud the pro-consumer noise is in the US. Even here in the developing world, it is loud, but there it is deafening for the average person who hasn't decided to opt out and do differently.
In the time I spend up there every year, after about a week I inevitably find myself wanting to close myself off from pretty much everything, because the messages to BUY-BUY-BUY!!! are EVERYWHERE. My mother doesn't even hear it (and she's no dummy, and probably more thrifty than the average bear, but still very heavily motivated by these messages. Gotta buy gifts, gotta stop at this sale, gotta buy this XX because the points will expire, etc.). Hunting for and buying new things is such an important part of many people's lives. It's interesting to observe.

Pearl Sutton wrote:The sheer amount of waste HORRIFIES ME! So, since I can't stop it, as long as they are tossing stuff I will harvest the waste stream for my own purposes.

... To me, it's what I can do to help the mess, and I consider doing anything to stop it a moral imperative.

What Pearl said! ^

Pearl Sutton wrote: I can't stop them, no matter how much I have tried over the years, and oh my, have I tried to teach people.

I can remember you telling a story about corrupting a neighbor, but I think she got YOU to do the actual dumpster-diving! It still kept parts of a bed-frame out of the dump!

My family has been working hard to corrupt #2 Son's girlfriend. We're not as far as we'd like - yet... However, a key thing was that she needed to understand that just because she could afford to buy new, she wasn't taking an opportunity away from someone poorer, but if she choose her thrift shop well, was genuinely supporting them.

My favorite one is run mostly by volunteers. I stopped in recently to grab a shirt I'd seen, but wasn't sure would do what I wanted it to do, and it was very quiet. I said to the elderly lady at the till that I really appreciated that she choose to use her time to help make the world a better place for my son to grow old in. She'd obviously never thought of it that way. She thought for a moment and said, "yes, what I'm doing will help my grandchildren - that's a good way to think of it."

So yes, I do see the irony in the situation, and like Pearl and others, I sooo... wish fewer people bought in to the fashion fads and colour fads and the "I can't use something someone else already used" crap. But until all those people figure it out, I will buy what little I do buy, at thrift shops if I see something I need, but at least around here, I've noticed a distinct drop in quality in the last 15 years. I fear that's going to be even harder to fix! I have kitchen knives I bought 30 years ago still in daily use. That company now has them produced off-shore using a stamped rather than forged process and we wouldn't buy their "modern" ones.

several of the local thrift stores overprice. terra cotta pots that are 2.50 a piece at the local feed store, I saw them at the thrift store marked 4.99

this is the case in all but one of the stores here. they had an old crank run hand grinder, which would be great to have, but it was marked at 29.99? Lehman's had a similar one with no rust on it for 35 shipped. they had a pair of Carhartt stretch overalls marked at 45 dollars. they're what, 60 new? these had a hole in the inseam and needed new knee patches (they weren't the canvas duck ones, they were the thin material)

then there's resellers all in there, angry pushing people out the way to get through every aisle. scanning tags in clothing mostly.

there's one thrift shop in town that behaves like a proper thrift store, it's the only one I go to anymore. I hope they stay the way they are as I'm able to reuse a lot of things I find there.

I worked at a thrift store maybe 27 years ago and it was pure profit for the owner. they did not donate much to anything! they got donations for free and just sold them. pure profit. it was wild to see it. it wasn't a bad job but they had so, so much money, the owners.

It is true that just because someone calls the store a thrift store doesn’t mean it is.    I have found incredible bargains in some stores and found others horribly overpriced.   I found one in TN that would give clothes away for free if asked….and there were posted signs saying so.  Of course, “the hunt” is part of the fun.

I'm of mixed opinions about Thrift Shops.  It's nice to divert the waste streams for a while, but most of the clothes that get donated, don't make it to the shop floor.  It's kind of disheartening to see the guys toss your donations in the trash as you drive away, so I stopped and talked to them about it.  About 50% of what they get at that one location goes in the trash as it's broken, soiled, or otherwise inappropriate.  Even a layer of dust is enough to get it tossed out. Of the clothing, maybe 10% make it to the shelves of the shops and the rest either gets tossed or if it's a natural fibre, gets bailed up and sold overseas to what used to be called a shoddy mill.  Usually in Africa.  


On the other hand, locally we differentiate between a Charity Shop and a Thrift Shop.  A Thrift Shop is purely for profit.  A Charity Shop is run by a charity, the biggest in this town would be The Salvation Army, but there are loads from Women in Need to services that provide in-home care for seniors.  All sorts.  

Here's something I wrote a while back about the positive impact of donating to Charity Shops.  The person was upset that the stuff that was donated would just be sold in the shop.  So I said this:

Most charities (including the salvation army) sort through the donations, use what they need, and then sell the rest to fund the stuff that people don't donate.

The salvation army also gives out clothing to people who need it. For example, someone down and out trying to make a better life might get a set of clothes for a job interview or the clothing vouchers they provide for people on disability assistance. Both of which the person chooses from the shop floor.

And then there are people like me who often can't afford to buy new clothing or kitchen tools who also use these shops.

And the charities also interact. One might get an excess of donations of one kind, and the other needs it, so they help each other out. Or at least they did back when I was affluent enough to be a volunteer.

Just because it's being sold again, doesn't mean it's not going to good use. (but not all second-hand shops are for charity. Value village, for example, is for profit). Just pick a charity that matches your values and has a dropoff that is convenient for your lifestyle.

So yeh, there are a lot of different angles to view second-hand shopping.  Some are very good for this world, and others are basically an excuse many people use to keep on doing the actions that cause some of the most harm.  

Much depends on the store. I have seen the sights, and fiscal books, behind the curtains of a large number of thrift stores.  In general, if you want to donate your great grandmothers treasured coat so it will keep someone warm …I would not donate it to a larger thrift store in a big city.  The standard triage goes like this…for clothing ….

The item enters the back of the store (or in some cases a special building) and is examined.

First, pockets are checked for valuables.

If there are rips, broken zippers, missing buttons ….it goes to recycling.

If there is a button hanging by a thread, it will probably be sewed back on.

If it looks like it won’t sell …it goes to recycling.

The good items go to the store where it is stays until it is sold . In some stores the item is washed first.

If the item is not sold in a set number of days, it goes to recycling.

Recycled clothing goes into a baler where is us compressed. Many hundreds of large bales can be generated in a week.

For a larger thrift store in a larger community, the money is in the recycling of clothing.  The stores are a front to get the donations.   I have seen dozens of semis lined up at the loading docks in the small hours of the morning picking up recycling.

Oddly, the bigger stores tend to have the lowest clothing prices …. The stores are their advertising for volume donations.  

Many smaller thrift shops are not aware of the recycling angle.  Often they will donate unsold items to shelters.

Small not for profits seem to be more socially minded, but I have seen excellent practices in for profit organizations as well. And, I have encounter notable exceptions to all of the above.

I am concerned when people are upset that the prices at charity shops are "too high".  Lots of times when there are new items at the same price or lower it is because the quality is vastly different. Buying a used thing that will last many times as long as a low quality (cheap) new one will save money, not to mention minimize waste. I want charity shop items to reflect their market value: the money is going to causes I care to support. This is not because I have money I don't need for basics; it's because I want those who have even less to get the support they need, too.

It's so important to know your prices when shopping second hand.  Our hardware section of my favourite charity shop is just as likely to price it at 4 or 5 times what the thing costs new because it looks destressed and antique from use.  

Whereas they are just as likely to under price tools they don't understand like the hemmer marker (it's a sewing thing) I got for a dollar (usually $20+ used) because it was in the kitchen section labelled as a cooking tool.

A lot of pickers take their phone with them to the thrift shop and I see they look up the price on etsy, ebay, or amazon to see if it's worth getting.  I like this because they often miss some amazing deals because they are so busy using their phone for a brain instead of knowing the market.  (like the picker taking all the sewing supplies and missing the hemmer marker).

If I'm looking for something specific, I'll often look it up on amazon before I leave home so I can get an idea of what it would cost to buy it new. (no phone, plus I hate the idea of blocking the aisles like the pickers do)

r ranson wrote:

John Polk wrote:If somebody has surplus, and donates it to a charitable organization, that eliminates waste.

This has some good insight into what happens to the donations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30227025

It's a bit like recycling.   It reduces the visible symptoms and helps us feel good without having to deal with the problem directly.

Although charity shops are also helpful.   It's not a simple situation.

I live in southern Mexico and today, like almost every day, my jeans and blouse were bought at "Ropa Americana" weekly market where about 10 semi trucks pull in packed with used clothes--most sorted but some not--that just get dumped on tables.  They are in our town every Wednesday and then off to another town each day of the week.
The dollar table, the five-dollar table etc. The newest things go on the "prices" table. I usually steer clear of those tables because you hold up an item and some guy looks at you and the item and quotes some price. Since I'm white I feel like the price is higher for me, but also I've done this with a designer Merino wool sweater and a polyester sweater with Walmart store brand tags and been told the same price. I have snatched a few bargains with way, but I've also been told prices I feel are exactly what I Walmart would have retailed the item for.

So generally, my strategy is to look for colors and fabrics that look promising and pull the garment out of the pile to see what it is. I've done this for over 20 years, and I know I've pulled several things out of those piles over and over again. Mostly because they are extremely large. And I wonder--how many years have these size 46 extralong dickies been travelling around southern Mexico?
One of my daughters learned to sew so she has now bought some of those extremely too large for anyone within 1000s of Km and refashioned that higher quality fabric into something else.

Barbara Kochan wrote:I am concerned when people are upset that the prices at charity shops are "too high".  Lots of times when there are new items at the same price or lower it is because the quality is vastly different. Buying a used thing that will last many times as long as a low quality (cheap) new one will save money, not to mention minimize waste. I want charity shop items to reflect their market value: the money is going to causes I care to support. This is not because I have money I don't need for basics; it's because I want those who have even less to get the support they need, too.

While my first and foremost motivation for buying used clothes is to not buy new when there are perfectly good used things, I have to say this is totally true. While buying my kids clothes used (even shoes) I was able to buy them much nicer higher-quality clothes. We were given "new" clothes from in-laws and fell apart long before they were outgrown. Whereas I was able to pass on their used clothes to my sister-in-law in great condition. I think this is also very true for furniture. I would pay more used instead of low-quality new furniture.

Leila Rich wrote:Actually, I have a kitchen gear addiction that makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite sometimes!
But, I just scored a  beautiful stainless-steel pressure cooker with Bakelite handles...

I was just perusing this thread again and read what Leila wrote. I can relate to being partial to bakelite, because I detest modern kitchen spatulas or any other cooking tool with the frequent cheap plastic handles... if they get next to serious heat, they melt into ugly, uncomfortable-to-the-hand shapes.

Both my wife & I have looked for well-formed cooking tools with bakelite handles. I've also acquired second-hand ones with dense-hardwood handles. I spend a fair amount of time maintaining or repairing our buildings, motorized cultivation equipment, etc, but I'm also a guy who makes & repairs gadgets. Not long ago I got a great frying spatula, but it had only a long metal sort of handle, nothing comfortable. So I found another (but useless) cooking tool with a good hardwood handle, removed the handle, cut the spatula's long metal 'tine' shorter, and fitted it into the wooden handle with some epoxy. Now it's a great tool we use often.

The way I see it you're taking something that no longer has value and would end up sitting on a pile in a landfil somewhere, and adding new value and use to it.

Basically it's a start of a new cycle, and if you can do it for fraction of the price all the better.