Second hand shops

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acsi
Posts: 69
Joined: 16 May 2019 08:49

Second hand shops

Post by acsi »

Hi

I'm going to be in Edinburgh and then London for a few days can anyone recommend any locations for second hand shops which could be interesting?

Doesn't have to be MTX or even Computer related as the missus would also like to look through some while we are there?

Thanks in advance

Mike
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gunrock
Posts: 245
Joined: 28 Oct 2020 21:17

Re: Second hand shops

Post by gunrock »

Can't speak for Edinburgh but in London and the South East, it can be difficult to find stuff reasonably. Since ordinary folks got net-savvy, people started to use Ebay as a source for prices and the mantra tends to be "it's retro, ergo it equals dough!" :roll:

There is a chain of shops called CEX (Computer Exchange) and they still exist but often have ridiculous prices for old retro hardware and software - mostly consoles but occasionally retro computing. Sometimes you can still find a reasonable deal.

There are lots of charity shops - British Heart Foundation, Scope, Oxfam plus others and they can often be found on high-streets. They tend to have all sorts of bric-a-brac; clothes, glassware, ornaments, DVDs/BRs, boardgames, jigsaws, videogames, books and in some larger British Heart Foundations stores: bookcases, sofas, beds, DVD players, VHS machines, etc. In these larger stores things can sometimes go into Ebay territory, but often they are reasonably priced. Occasionally, you can find a bargain in a smaller independent charity shop.

I'd avoid a chain of stores called "Cash Converters", they tend to have a lot of overpriced stuff (hifi's TVs, musical instruments and game consoles) and most of it supplied from burglaries by junkies or by unfortunate people, who live a bit hand-to-mouth, so sell the kids Xbox games and controllers for pitiful prices so they can feed the meter (speaking from experience of where I grew up). The stores are run by unpleasant types and feed off of the misery of desperate folks, IMO.

There are often bootfairs (not sure where you are from, but they are like flea-markets or swap-meets but without the "swap" part - hard cash only), but it's the wrong time of year for those. There might be some indoor ones, but it's a dice-roll as to whether there's anything you want at one and I'd hesitate to send non-locals into a bootfair in SE London without a "local guide"!

Hope this helps.
Steve G
Danish Memotech MTX 512, MFX and loving it
acsi
Posts: 69
Joined: 16 May 2019 08:49

Re: Second hand shops

Post by acsi »

Thanks,

I'm from New Zealand and our second hand stores started disappearing after the government brought in laws around the sale of second hand goods which made it difficult to transact.

We occasionally get car boot sales but they are very rare maybe 1-2 years apart. TradeMe (our local version of eBay. eBay hates NZ BTW and shut down the NZ page) has taken all that business.

Thanks for the info.
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