I am a big fan of thrift stores. I love having a mooch through the rails to try and find that one…read moreoff or hidden treasure. Thrift is a new addition to the Birmingham scene and they have really excelled with this new shop. Oldschool decoration and vintage furniture sit alongside both branded and unbranded pieces of vintage from the 70s,80s and 90s. From the minute we walked in the people working were so friendly and happy to help, they explained that they have only been here a couple of weeks so if you are in the area go and have a look for yourself, get involved and possibly meet that one off special item you didn't even know you were looking for.

Harborne is one of those areas that is blessed with both a large number of charity shops and a…read morereasonably well-to-do and educated local community. This makes for occasional rich pickings along the main high street, which has 7 or 8 charity outlets of various denominations. Depending on which end of the High Street you start at, Oxfam will either be the first or last you visit as it is situated at the south end, just opposite the Waitrose supermarket (Harborne has a Waitrose as it's main supermarket - that ought to tell you everything you need to know about the demographics at work here) The outlet is a fairly standard Oxfam layout and it a mixture of clothes, books and bric-a-brac that the public have donated and a selection of the stock which appears in all Oxfam shops; fair trade coffee, Guatemalan Worry People - you know the type of thing. As there is an Oxfam bookshop at the other end of the High Street, the records and books available here tend to be those that didn't make the cut, but that's not to say you won't find a gem if you're lucky. The same, of course, goes for the clothes and other stock. For the clothes there is a changing cubicle, so you don't have to perform guesswork regarding sizes.

Not to be confused with Oxfam bookshop a little further down the High Street, this is a long…read moreestablished charity shop that is worthy of note for its rather fab window displays which has featured vintage clad mannequins in shopping trolleys (a nod to the students who sometimes come in here to buy fancy dress perhaps?!) amongst other things. Inside you'll find a variety of nice things - including high-end labels (in sadly, often teensy sizes), a decent vinyl selection and a good range of nonfiction and fiction books. Their cards are good and I've bought some unusual pieces of jewellery from here over the years - although compared to other charity shops in the village they are a bit pricier than you'd expect. Ethical detergents, washing powders etc and fair trade chocolate and notebooks are also available and whilst staff seem to change on a regular basis - I guess they get a lot of requests from volunteers - the people who work here always seem very jolly.

I'll tell you now, this is some mad little charity shop that the Air Ambulance have got going on…read morehere. At first glance, it's the usual kind of low-budget charity shop with a few boxes and rails of stuff outside. When you walk in what hits you is that all the clothes which line the side walls of the shop are arranged according to colour. If you think about it, this makes a kind of sense, but when applied in a retail situation has an incredibly disarming effect. It's like wondering into some bizarre colour co-ordinated tunnel with a bold red section bleeding through pink into white and green melting into blue through a mix of chiffon, silk and polyester. I picked up a handful of obscure 70s soul records (the kind that sound like funky porn soundtracks) and took them to the counter at the back of the shop. I think it took the two ladies sat having a brew and a chat a minute to realise I wanted to buy something because they just sort of looked at me for a sec. I'll definitely be visiting this wonderful little aladdin's cave again.

Oh my gosh, I love rummaging through this charity shop! It doesn't sell much in the way of…read moreclothing, more furniture, ornaments, crockery and glassware. They have big furniture items like wardrobes, beds and dressing tables - all at ridiculously low prices. I saw a fabulous 1950s dressing table in there a couple of months back and they wanted £25.00 for it. I love looking at the glassware - I've picked up some very cool Babycham glasses from there (£3 each) as well as some pretty pressed glass serving bowls and vases. They must get a lot of stock from house clearances - there are complete dinner services and tea sets to be snapped up. There is a glass cabinet by the till containing jewellery and more collectable items, though even these items are still really cheap. I love going in around Christmas time, as it makes a great place to pick up "vintage" style stocking fillers without breaking the bank.

In a sector increasingly presenting itself with laminate flooring, proper shelves and own-brand…read morehousehold items, the Care & Share charity shop is a breath of old-school second-hand air. Sitting unopposed by competition in a row of shops near the Queen's Head pub, this little treasure trove is a reminder to those of us who've long scoured these places just how charity shops used to be. Near the door there's a massive pile of 10p records from labels like MfP and Hallmark and which mostly have titles like 'The Tijuana Sound of Lennon & McCartney', 'Beginner's Guide to Practical French' or 'By Request...Your 100 Favourite Tunes'... but there's always that elusive bargain that might be lurking... The shop as a whole is a well-organised, familiar kind of place where the women who volunteer there are usually sat round having a brew and a chat when you walk in, which is great for them and absolutely fine by me. The world needs more charity shops like this (albeit with better music and books) not less!

This is a well-kept and well-stocked charity shop on Cradley Heath High Street. I like it because…read morethey clearly take a lot of pride in their work and always make their window displays look smart. Cradley Heath's charity shop stock tends to be of the fairly low-end high street variety (Primark, George at Asda etc.). But Sense seems to attract some more quality labels - were not talking Gucci here, more M&S or Laura Ashley! They have a big menswear section, with a ready supply of budget tailoring. The whole shop is clean and tidy, with the rails well organised. The staff are super-smiley and helpful.

This is the most spotless shop in Cradley, that's a feat in its self because some of the people in…read morecradley are dirty as muck. Touching up all the railings getting all the clothes damp. But this place feels like a hospital how clean it is. I brought a DVD player here a few months ago to smash up and use the parts from it to build a machine to send a man back into his own mind, and i got a really nice price for it. The staff were nice and they had alot of good stock well positioned in the store. The clothes are abit drab but good items never last long in Cradley as there are no clothes shops other than Charity shops and that bit of Tesco that sells badly made pyjamas.

I like that Halesowen - deliberately or otherwise - has managed to force each of the myriad charity…read moreshops to offer something a little bit different to one another. So that is what I'll attempt to convey as I meander through the high street reviewing what I spot. In this instance, I was particularly impressed with their range of books. The usual Catherine Cooksons and Jamie Oliver cookbooks were present, but one shelf was almost entirely full of very reasonably priced OLD books which all seemed to be on the subject of OSCILLOSCOPES. Niche? Yes. Curious? Very. Possible future art project? You've guessed it.

I want to save the children, but do i have to buy another copy of Titanic to do it?…read more These guys sometimes has some good clothes in but they are not treated well or presented in a way that would make you want to buy them. Just feels like a jumble sale at times. I've picked up some cool retro cameras here before, none in working order but its hard to find out if these things work til you've wasted a roll of film in them. What i will say though is that for volunteers, these guys are really helpful and pleasant to be around. I've chatted to a few of them on a few occasions and they will take the time to point out any steals that are going in store.

Great little vintage shop hidden away in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. This one's a little…read morebit out of the way and there are no other shops like this in the area so I don't find myself here too often, however there is a great selection of vintage on offer and I always end up leaving with something when I do make a visit. Everything is pretty reasonably priced and always in excellent condition. The staff seem to know what they have in stock are happy to find pieces that they think you will like. If vintage is your thing this is well worth a visit, it is not very well by vintage lovers in Brum and it really should be!

Cute little shop next to The Eight Foot Grocer on Caroline Street, just off St Pauls square. Mostly…read morethey sell shirts and tshirts, I would say mostly more for men than women, but they do have a large table at the back where they seem to do alterations, so I guess you can have it made to fit:) they also have some cool jewellery made from old buttons and beads and old vintage brick a brac-reminds me of home;)

This is a strange little place, but it's worth popping your head around the door to have a look…read more Essentially it's a dress repair and alterations business, as the window display and name of the shop would suggest. You can see a seamstress or two working away at the back of the shop. I've never had a dress altered there since I don't own or wear dresses, but what makes this shop interesting to visit is that recently it has started doubling up as an self-titled 'Indoor Car Boot Sale'. There is a baffling array of bric-a-brac, toys, books and clothes for sale that make it look like the store room of a charity shop. You'll need to dig amongst the organised chaos to find anything, but it's a nice place to go hunting for an oddity. My son likes to mooch about in here and often finds a small toy or some other thing that he likes the look of, and these can be picked up for a few pence.

At first glance the dress shop is exactly what you would expect, a shop which deals with the…read moreselling of and alteration of beautiful women's dresses. However, on closer inspection of this Raddlebarn road business there is far more than meets the eye. Inside there are all sorts of strange knick knacks which appear to be the kind of things more akin to a charity shop or perhaps some sort of bric a brac sale. If you look hard enough there's always something pleasing and the novelty of the whole experience makes a visit to the dress shop quite unforgettable. There can't be too many stores around doubling up in this manner so for that reason alone this place is worth a look.