You can call them thrift stores on the lower echelon, resale a step up, next I suppose is “vintage”, consignment a notch above that, and finally antique shops if you want to feel you’re on the high end of used things.  Really they’re all a mixed bag and there could be a treasure priceless only to the finder in any of them.  Some places can be funky and some can just smell funky.  Some I find depressing and others I find interesting to check out.  I try to reuse, reduce and recycle so it makes me feel good patronizing them.  Also, I try to shop local and they’re mostly Mom and Pop establishments wherever you go.  One man’s trash really is another man’s treasure.  American designer Kelly Wearstler said that “everything is inspired by history”, so that is why she loves vintage and antiques.  I have always loved history and consider it a passion of mine; not only “great” history, but the “little” histories of things and individuals perhaps forgotten.  About two years ago on bulk trash day I noticed a neighbor down the street had set out a heart shaped wicker chair.  It immediately caught my eye.  So I pulled over and went to inspect it.  It was only a little unraveled mostly on the back leg.  I thought it gave it a bit of character.  So I popped my trunk and squirreled it away, putting it on our front porch as a sign of welcome.  My little girl sat in that chair on her first day of preschool.  She posed next to it her first day of preschool this year as well.  On a whim today I walked into a resale shop not on the fancy end of the spectrum.  As I made my way around glass ashtrays and dressers I discovered the twin to my little white wicker chair!  I could not believe it!  Upon closer inspection I realized it had no arms, but otherwise it is identical and looked so lonely sitting there in between all that heavy furniture.  I knew I had to take it home.  Next Halloween Mr. Bones, our skeleton, can still resume his usual post in the chair with arms, but maybe one of my black cat decorations can claim the other.  For now the Libra in me is content with the symmetry on our front porch.  The romantic in me is happy that two lonely hearts have found their match.  And the treasure hunter in me is content with a priceless find.