Shopping for clothes, furniture, and housewares can be a challenge on a student budget. Fortunately, Boston-area secondhand stores offer a wide range of goods, from tables and chairs to designer duds and accessories. And purchasing someone else’s castoffs is good for your wallet—and the environment. Trendy clothes sold by Amazon and at Target may be appealingly inexpensive, but this “fast fashion” is on average, worn only 10 times before being tossed in the donation pile or in landfills. 

Whether you’re hitting a thrift, resale, consignment, or vintage store, you’ll find clothes and furniture—spared from the trash—for relatively low prices. There are differences, though: thrift stores sell donated items, resale stores pay sellers for items, and consignment shops accept items from owners, who get a percentage when the items sell. Resale shops tend to sell more current styles, while consignment shops normally sell a mix of vintage (items more than two decades old) and current clothing and accessories.

There is a thrill to unearthing a hidden gem at the bottom of a pile or at the back of a shelf and knowing that it’s worth at least double what it’s marked. So, we’ve put together a list of secondhand stores worth checking out, from a vintage store specializing in retro video games to a consignment store where you can get designer clothes for low prices and support local charities. 

Have a favorite that we’ve failed to include? Add it in the Comment section below.

Have a favorite secondhand shop that’s not on our list? Add it in the Comment section below.