This weekend, I had the choice between possible cheap vintage buys in Manchester by way of visiting some friends or staying in London for the Jumblist Massive today.  Sadly, illness decided it was going to be the latter for me.  Either option seemed a good one.  However, after tripping it to Brick Lane and being faced with a queue going round the block to enter the jumble sale, the mind veered off into greener pastures aka unpicked vintage stores up north where I would unearth treasures beyond my wildest dreams (that's how exaggerated my mind goes when I'm thinking of greener pastures).  It seems jumble sales need a cool-ish East End venue, a bit of publicity and the promise of accompanying DJ's to entice the young and thrifty because there was an overwhelmingly large turnout.  I arrived at around 1:30-ish and had to occupy myself with a phonecall to shorten queuing time.

By the time I got in, rumours were already floating that there absolutely nothing left and indeed, the long table set up in the centre had an alarming amount of boxer shorts, Topman jeans and granddad shirts.  Primark, Dorothy Perkins, Next and Topshop dominated the table with nothing of older/mintier interest to be found.  Still, I coughed up the £2 entrance, so I might as well have a good old rummage.  I picked through it quite a bit and came away with one thing being an old Topshop spring coat that I vaguely remember back in the days when it was in-store.  At £1 I could not really complain.  Incidentally, I have paired it here with a floral pleated top that I found for £2 at a charity shop yesterday so I'm thinking the moral of the story here is just stick to sane charity shopping where there's no snatching to be seen unless you encounter the mad old lady who has a Safeway bag wrapped around her neck. 

My boyfriend's came away with 'random bits of crap' that he has no idea why he went for them but at a £1 a piece, there is no reason to question the possible crapness of the item there and then when in the throngs of bargain hunting madness.  You just go with it and ponder this question when you get home.  So I took the liberty of pondering his buys and decided that the paisley shirt, yellow and red checked shirt and green gingham plasticky shorts have some life in them yet. 

So the demand is definitely there for jumble saling goodness, so I wonder why these 'trendified' sales are not more of a regular thing, to even out the initial enthusiasm for all things for a quid?  Or better yet, why not go to a local jumble/car boot sale if you didn't already?  I recommend Kilburn and Battersea for varied pickings... 

P.S. Emphasis on the random bits of crap in this post that may not see the light of day...