Today i did a lot of vintage shopping; seriously. i used to think vintage things - particularly clothes were gross & unsanitary & that calling something "vintage" was just another way of saying 'old'. & then i kind of reverted back to my nature of not wanting to wear what everyone else was & spending so much money for it. Truly vintage can cost a lot more than what`s in the mall stores, but it doesn`t have to if you know where to look. i guess the stores that were hip & weren`t selling my size finally got to me. "Thrifting did not immediately 'happen' to me. it took awhile before i found the good & bad shops to go to. i found the best shop while out with a friend. We weren`t planning on shopping. & we didn`t know it at the time but we had stumbled into the vintage shopping gold mine. An hour later we each leave the shop with a good ten items. & when that happened i had very few good reasons to shop anywhere else. Yes there are a few things that i have never bought & nobody could pay me to wear from a thrift shop & certain things i don`t even bother looking at. But i think i`ve developed a good balance & i encourage many people to try it. it`s not just the reward of getting so many items for $20 instead of one, it`s walking out of the shop with things you know that nobody else is going to be wearing. if you want you can have the satisfaction of people constantly asking "where did you find that?" you can quickly be known as the best bargain shopper in town or the person with totally unique style.