‘There is bounty almost everywhere’: why you’ll all the time discover me within the flea market on my travels | Procuring journeys

Marburg, Germany. It’s a fairytale metropolis, not solely due to the hilltop fortress that overlooks its cobbled streets and half-timbered homes, but additionally as a result of that is the place the Grimm brothers as soon as lived and studied, beginning the gathering of folklore tales that might finally turn into their well-known anthology of fairytales. Throughout the town, sculptures – some perched in inconceivable locations – pay homage to this previous, forming a mile-long route generally known as the Grimm Path. It’s very very like a treasure hunt.

But on my go to to Marburg, I had a totally different kind of treasure hunt in thoughts and, as soon as finished with enchanted mirrors and kissy-lipped frogs, headed straight for the SecondHand by DRK (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz – the German Red Cross) to scout for pre-owned gadgets.

Whereas as soon as there was a stigma to purchasing secondhand, these days it’s on pattern. “Thrifted” has been tagged greater than 7m occasions on Instagram, and accounts corresponding to @charity_shop_life and @my.thrifted.abode have tens of 1000’s of followers. According to Booking.com’s 2025 journey predictions, “Thrift shopping and vintage stores are becoming a core part of the travel experience, with 73% of travellers having already purchased secondhand items while abroad”. Google information additionally exhibits that searches for destination-specific secondhand procuring – “thrifting in Berlin” or “vintage markets in Stockholm”, for instance – have skyrocketed.

Guides and tour operators haven’t been sluggish to leap on board both – for £200, Fashion Tours London will information you across the capital’s secondhand shops for an entire day, whereas Red Shed Vintage Tours and Gold Crest will set you free on quite a lot of French brocantes (flea markets).

But whereas curated excursions go well with some, for me it could dampen the joys of exploring by myself. There is bounty virtually all over the place, in fact, however I’ve discovered France nice for rustic kitchen and homewares, Madrid looking floor for classic designer equipment, whereas in Venice it’s glassware (there’s a tiny charity store hooked up to a church the place I virtually all the time discover real pre-loved Murano glass).

The enchantment of a tour additionally is determined by how you are feeling about rummaging with others in tow. For me, it’s a bit like snowboarding: you don’t wish to cease others from having time, however nor would you like them to have an effect on your good time. Personally, once I’m in treasure-hunting mode, I want being alone, with out somebody sighing at my shoulder. I’ll simply meet you on the bar later and reveal my finds, OK? “You’re a bit like Oscar the Grouch in the Muppets,” noticed one buddy. “Happiest alone in the bin.” Well, fairly.

Whatever your MO, it all the time helps to do a little analysis earlier than you go – get acquainted with the names of the charity retailers at your vacation spot; search for Instagram accounts specialising in classic. Use Google to seek for pop-ups corresponding to kilo gross sales, and in France use brocabrac.fr to search for brocantes calendars within the space you’re visiting – they typically transfer from location to location every weekend. This labored properly for me in the summertime, when the brass swans I’d been eyeing up one Sunday have been nonetheless out there the next week on the identical stall – however within the subsequent city.

Google Lens will be useful, too, in figuring out whether or not the merchandise you’ve discovered is real or well worth the worth being requested. Towns with an ageing inhabitants, corresponding to Kraków and Léon, are likely to have the very best bargains, whereas capital cities and people with a college will in all probability have greater costs, as a result of variety of avid customers. And typically talking, the farther out of city you journey, the higher the bargains will probably be. I additionally wander the streets surrounding weekend markets as residents usually capitalise on the passing footfall to set up their very own little storage gross sales.

I’ve been shopping for secondhand since my early teenagers and it nonetheless offers me a dopamine hit: in Germany I stumbled throughout an ostrich leather-based purse for €2, proper subsequent to an artificial Primark one tagged €3.50; in Romania I unearthed a silk Hermès scarf in a bin filled with polyester ones; and in Greece I sifted by means of cabinets of books to discover a quantity of lovely botanical drawings. An offended rooster jug I picked up for 100 krone (£12) at a market in Copenhagen stays certainly one of my most beloved purchases. Only not too long ago did I uncover he was made in Czechoslovakia within the Nineteen Thirties and that others like him have bought for near £200 on Etsy (though there’s no manner I’m ever promoting mine).

One of the good delights of shopping for secondhand overseas is that you just’ll uncover gadgets not readily discovered at dwelling they usually make the very best souvenirs. The classic stoneware escargot dishes I nabbed in a market close to Biarritz, for instance, that now sit on my dresser holding my rings, remind me of that journey every day. I really like, additionally, the interactions that such purchases spark. People on market stalls or in small retailers are usually way more partaking than employees in massive chains and this usually results in fascinating chats and enjoyable exchanges.

“Non, non, ce n’est pas pour toi!” shrieked a girl, laughingly, at a flea market in Nantes, as I peered carefully (too carefully, on reflection) at a small statue, making an attempt to make sense of it, earlier than realising it graphically depicted a intercourse act. “German,” scoffed the person on the stall in Copenhagen, as I examined a mustard pot within the type of a boy squatting along with his pants down (the mustard was allotted through his backside).

Of course, it’s very straightforward to get carried away, and it is advisable to be conscious of what you may pack and carry. On a women’ weekend in Lisbon a few years in the past, the Humana secondhand shops have been so filled with gems that some critical sitting on suitcases was required for the return journey – however, truthfully, who of their proper thoughts would depart an completely good, €10 camel cashmere coat behind? Or a pair of Italian leather-based boots that truly match?

The actually not possible gadgets – furnishings, enormous mirrors and ornate frames – make me unhappy as a result of even I should admit there’s no manner that chaise longue or vintage dressing desk will be squeezed into my bag (and the place delivery is offered, it tends to be from slicker operations with consequently greater costs). It could be time for a driving vacation – in a lorry. And I doubt I’m the one one with such concepts: on a current keep at a campsite in France, the noticeboard listed per week’s price of native brocantes and vides-greniers (“empty attics” or automotive boot gross sales).

As for the DRK in Marburg? Well, I didn’t strike gold by myself behalf – however I did for another person. A number of years in the past, whereas travelling, I met an Australian girl as eager on secondhand procuring as I’m. We’ve stayed in contact and he or she talked about not too long ago how a lot she likes Boden prints. Guess what was hiding on the rails? A shirt in a vibrant inexperienced sample, tick; silk, tick; measurement, tick; one parcel winging its strategy to Oz, tick. Proof that thrifting isn’t simply good for the planet and addictively enjoyable – it’s a nice strategy to make associates, too.