Thrift Trader

Very happy to see the HIllcrest location was forced to shut down! It was a disgusting place and the owners allowed a homeless camp to be set up in the back parking lot. Drugs, piss, human excrement everywhere in the ally. They never bothered to keep their store front clean and was basically a hang out for druggies and homeless. The city finally kicked them out and the entire neighborhood has been cheering! GOOD RIDDANCE.

This location is huge (2 stories) and there’s so much stuff to sift through. Right now they’re moving so to say it’s a hot mess is an understatement.
Since the prices have gone down, the good stuff has pretty much gone too. It’ll take some patience to score something decent, but today I walked away with 4 skirts, a dress, and a shirt for like 15 bucks. Hey, I’m not complaining! Time is money. There are also tons of records kept nice and neat downstairs but I didn’t have the energy to search through them after the racks and racks of clothing.
++ Right now everything inside is 60% off (I believe all items are $ 5.99 pre-​discount).
++ Everything outside in the «yard sale» is just a buck.
++ They take card as well as cash.

Cool place with lots of great finds. They’re moving locations which means everything is even cheaper than normal. They’ve somehow seemed to keep an order to the chaos of it all, which is highly commendable! I’m looking forward to checking this gem out in there new location!

Great deals in CDs, DVD’s and Yes VHS (if you have still have a vhs player) Huge selection of Records (LPS). I looked around the Men section for a bit but i could not see anything that interested me but there was a huge selection of clothes. Pretty cool Vintage Electronics, from Stereos, cassette players among other electronics. This is a Store definitely to check out if you like good deals and specially if you like collectibles.

This place is dishonest, the owner has no integrity or scruples, lying and cheating is a way of life, there are labor laws being broken, in fact the owner has broken nearly all of the labor laws and shouldn’t even be allowed to have employees, some of the employees only get paid 6.00 an hour! As for the employees themselves, if they don’t like you they will not give you a fair trade, they don’t really value any of the customers except the ones that they like! They tell you that they donate the stuff that you leave behind what they don’t say is that later all the donations are gone through and they take anything that they deem worth selling and sell it online, stuff they wouldn’t give you a trade for! Most people don’t seem to care about integrity I have noticed, as long as they can buy stuff cheap, the owner counts on this, because for him cash is always the bottom line.

If you can handle the bad parking, mothballs, and how atrociously hot this place gets — you are bound to find something rad for $ 5. You will spend a lot of time digging through a graveyard of 90’s garb — but it’s worth it when you find something rad.
Great place to sell off your old clothes too!

This place is way cool! And huge! Great prices, great selection, kid and dog friendly. I could spend hours and hours in this place! Thrift store/​vintage!

Love to go here and get awesome music cds for a buck. It doesn’t get better than that :)

Tons and tons of vinyl records upstairs… oh wait… downstairs! oh nevermind the place is red tagged, condemed, and closed for now, guess thats what happens when you horde to many Herb Albert, Mario Lanza, and 101 Strings albums. They’re lucky nobody was crushed to death by 37 scratched Liberace albums. Time to build more condos.

There’s no getting around it.
Thrift Trader is slightly (very) gross and dirty.
Nothing is where it’s supposed to be.
It pays homage to literally the tackiest and most undesirable aspects of the nineties.
The clientele throws me into a clinical depression every time I’ve been into the place.
Everyone who works here is slightly gutter punky (in the nicest way).
This location is not nearly as good as the original.
But…
This place still manages to remain the most epic dig spot to vinyl collectors in San Diego.
And for that, Thrift Trader, you get a good review.
Four stars.
Here’s a warning: If you’re a vinyl diva (hello!) this isn’t the place for you. Sashay off the runway right now or you’ll immediately be traumatized! Hello!
A lot of the stuff is in real shoddy shape and there is the disturbing amount of Loverboy/​Tijuana Brass you’ll need to sift through to get anything good.
However, unlike most places that houses such an unruly amount of undesirable amount of vinyl, this place actually has some pretty good stuff– as long as you’re willing to dig… and dig.
Honestly though, it’s unlikely you’ll get through everything this place has. The amount of Vinyl inventory Thrift Trader has is just absurd.
and if you’re willing to dig, you’ll come up with some really good stuff. On my most recent this past week, I found Patti Smith, Springsteen, Paul Simon and the Stones. In the past, I recall spotting some Lennon as well.
Prices are great– as long as you find good stuff. Albums are five dollars unless otherwise marked in the downstairs area. I’ve only ever spotted one or two items otherwise marked. If you go upstairs, there is more vinyl for a buck.
Regarding everything else in the store…
Thrift Trader wheels and deals in other stuff besides records too (clothing, electronics, weird things) but it’s gross and tacky and don’t waste your time with it okay. The store will have the occasional record player but I have yet to see one in working condition or even good condition. Just don’t.

Wow !! This place is Awesome. If your into digging around for hidden treasures. Then this is your place, I’m a local musician who of course loves vinyl and I just can’t help digging through rows and rows of Albums. The bins are not quite in order, but that’s most of the fun digging around. When I say they have a ton of music it’s in the literal sence TONS !! And they have a in house vinyl junkie Sergio, he knows his vinyl. Upstairs more albums for $ 1 yes a buck. I spent a few hours here today and left with a nice stack of vinyl. I will be back.

New place is cool! They have a billion records! Make sure you check the second floor it’s insane!
I found some amazing shoes and cool shirts on the first floor.
Also the employees are super nice and friendly and are always very welcoming and helpful! Keep it up guys :)

Great to see the Thrift trader open in Hillcrest! Checked out the new store the other day and they have millions of vinyl records plus clothes etc. It’s all cheap as chips!