Sunday, March 12, 2006

existential thrifting

one of the most intriguing things about thrifting, to me, is knowing that i find one-of-a-kind treasures that existed many times over at some point in time. i often ponder how unique my finds actually are - i cheat and look them up on ebay and find that there are more than one of what i found out there! it truely amazes me that somewhere out there, someone, or possibly more than one, owns a copy of these thrifted finds of mine!

does someone out there have this vintage milk glass spice jar set with cute little pink metal tops that sits in my kitchen, sitting in their kitchen?

milk glass spice jars with pink metal tops

does someone have a yard or two of my most prized vintage fancy chickens fabric that's stashed among other piles of uncut fiber in my sewing room, in a pile in their sewing room?

fancy chickens

and to think that someone else in the world could be looting the same exact thing that i found yesterday in a thrift in philadelphia - it is unbelievably bizarre! what are the chances of that happening? my answer would be slim to none, but a few times in my thrift career i have found something twice!

has this ever happened to you?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've certainly found and have collected duplicates of things like metal tins, but nothing quite so unique as what you've shown here.
One time I was looking through the children's toy catalog, Hearthsong, and saw their wooden knitting mushroom, figuring that someday when our kids were older I'd order one.
The next day at the local thrift store, I found that exact one in the box, marked Hearthsong.
I mentioned this to the woman at the check out and she just simply replied, "Eventually EVERYTHING comes through this place."
Oh, yeah. While thrifting, if I spot two of the same items in different parts of the store/shelves, I've been known to go out of my way to match them up with their mates, leaving them there side by side, together. I can't help myself. As a matter of fact, I just did this the other day when I spotted 3 copies of Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book on different shelves in the kids' book section.

j. vorwaller said...

ohhh i love your things! :)

its strange, ever since i found my aqua typewriter, i keep seeing others in the same exact color and size, everything. i even found its matching twin at a yard sale, here in my neighborhood! so funny! i ended up selling it on ebay eventually :)

lisa solomon said...

i don't have those exact spice jars, but their cousin.... a bit bluer w/ yellow tops no writing on the fronts....

that fabric?? i WISH!!

i did once see a girl in a vintage dress that i also owned... it was really really odd..... but i liked it - that whole idea of thinking at one point there were bunches anc bunches! and it's only happened once....

AMCSviatko said...

That chicken fabric is fabulous.

I once found a hanging light fitting in a stall at an antiques centre. Loved it but I have two lights in my lounge/ dining room so carried it round while I pondered if I could cope with one nice shade and one boring one.

Then, at the very back of the last stall, hidden at the bottom of a shelf was its twin, but without the hanging bit. I decided it was meant to be and they look great...

Anonymous said...

i don´t have those spice jars or the fabric, but you can bet if i ever find them in a thrift shop they will quickly become mine!! :)

Anonymous said...

I have a brushed aluminum spice set my mother thrifted for me several years ago. We moved a few years later and my new neighbor saw it and said she had the exact same set and was no longer using it. She gave it to me, so now they hang side by side in my new kitchen.

Anonymous said...

I have a sibling to your spice rack! Green lids, mine holds 12 jars. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling the jars were bought individually since mine seem to be labeled that way. Maybe the rack came free or something once you bought so many jars? I have seen various configurations/colors on ebay. You can see mine here: http://vaxgirl.blogdrive.com/archive/261.html

On another note, my mother's pyrex bowls absolutely haunt me at thrift stores, flea markets, etc. I inherited her set when she died, and I must buy the "backups" whenever I see them.
http://vaxgirl.blogdrive.com/archive/82.html

Anonymous said...

Check it out!
http://www.griffithlaboratories.com/about_us/History/Spice+Jars/

Sue said...

wow! thanks everyone for sharing your existential thrifting tales and to vaxgirl for the history of my spice rack! thrifting is one of my most favorite things to do ever and i'm happy to know that this satisfaction is held deep in the hearts of all of you!

something else i often wonder about is where did the stuff i dontated through the years end up?

recycling is a beautiful thing!!!

Rebecca said...

I wish I had some of that crazy chicken fabric in my pile!
In the past I had a collection of shirts from the same designer, two in just slightly off colors of green. And I once found, during the same winter, two identical dress coats, one red and one cream, in different sizes. I had to have them both.

The Mysterious Traveler said...

My husband worked in a remote Senegalese village where one man wore a pair of pajama bottoms obtained from an international aid organization. A fire struck the village, and my husband helped bring in building materials, food, and clothing for the families. In the bundles of donated clothing from overseas was...yes, the matching pajama top.

Temeculamom said...

lol! I have often come across the exact same vintage item more than once. I now have two matching hammered aluminum napkin holders. And I saw Chloe Sevigny in a fashion magazine wearing a vintage top I have worn for years! That was fun. I also spot stuff I've donated, since I keep fairly close to home.