23 best secondhand and thrift stores in New York

If you’re looking for Manhattan thrift stores in New York, East Village is definitely one of the go-to areas. East Village thrift stores include a variety of selection from Japanese luxury to 70’s vintage. Just pick whatever is your thing!

208 E 6th St

This is one of the loveliest small boutiques in New York featuring pre-loved and vintage fashion. It is tiny in size compared to the chains, but super charming and kind of calming as s shopping second hand in NYC can overall be quite overwhelming. The handpicked selection features quality items from top designers as well as vintage from more accessible price points. I found a pair of wool checkered trousers and paired with a vintage 70’s Comme des Garçons sleeveless top. Absolutely stunning!

83 E 7th St

Tokio7 is your go-to secondhand store if you’re after luxury vintage and designer Items, mostly from Japanese brands or aesthetics. Located in East Village of Manhattan, you can’t really tell from the outside that it’s that cool. But inside, it is all about style and premium brands. From Acne to Comme des Garçons, Lemaire and Martin Margiela to Junya Watanabe, Joji Yamamoto and Jil Sander. Tokio7 is the perfect place to source your pre-loved designer investment pieces.

91 3rd Ave

Cure thrift Shop is a beautifully laid out second hand store, where you’ll find both clothes as well as furniture and homeware. It is a fairly large shop, but the selection of pre-loved clothes is easy to navigate, as clothes are curated by colour and type. What’s especially interesting about Cure Thrift Shop – it is a non-profit, and you couldn’t even tell! It is modern, bright and stylish.

122 2nd Ave

Crossroads Trading is one of my favourite chains for thrift shopping in New York. They do feature mostly high-street brands, but their selection is nicely organised by colours and styles. To my surprise, this is the store where I found a Dolce & Gabbana Jeans skirt for a mere $30. So I must say I did love this store for that! They also had a really lovel and attentive service by the dressing rooms. And when you scroll to where I describe the Crossroads Trading in Greenwich Village, you’ll understand that somehow – this chain was the one where I found most of the gems.

186 2nd Ave

This is not your usual curated neat second hand store. It is rather messy and lively. But it is also an excellent shop for finding some gems. Mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the store is relatively small, meaning it is not overwhelming to dig through the selection. Secondly, they are maybe the most affordable thrift shop in New York. East Village Thrift Shop’s pricing is around the same for all items. So if you’re looking for a puffy jacket for a cold New York winter for a really good price, this might be the place to find one! It’s mainly high-street clothes, but you do get an occasional mid-high street brand in the selection. That’s why it’s perfect for possibly scoring some real bargains for great items.

204 1st Ave

L Train Vintage is definitely the place for the cool kids. That’s the shop for sourcing your vintage Levi’s jeans or a classic Adidas 90s windbreaker or maybe some 70’s vintage clothing. L Train Vintage is neatly laid out, features quite a lot of menswear and is easy to navigate. The selection is brilliantly curated by style and type of garments. The Levi’s selection is rather extensive, possibly one of the best in NYC.

208 E 6th St

Buffalo Exchange is fairly similar in all of its locations. Also, similarly to L Train Vintage, it is a place for finding some real vintage gems. From vintage jeans to jackets and 90s windbreakers, you won’t be disappointed if that’s your jazz.

Lower East Side, located in downtown of New York is an area packed with thrift stores. It is really an area where you’ll find shops from vintage to premium luxury consignments. If you’re heading downtown, make sure to discover Lower East Side as it will not disappoint.

180 Orchard St Retail C

2nd STREET Lower East Side is this in-your-face designer everything. It is absolutely brutaly fabulous. However, what I loved most about this 2nd STREET is that it is not overly curated in terms of the overall feeling. And they also had a great playlist on that matched the store brilliantly. This 2nd STREET is also possibly the largest New York stores featuring premium brands and designer pre-loved goods (especially Japanese!). Each of the rails is marked with the designer’s name. So, unlike most stores, a large part of the shop is organised by brands, rather than styles only. This is really helpful if you’re a fan of a specific brand, And most likely you will not disappoint. They feature most of the premium Japanese brands, such as Yoji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons, but also many others, such as Maison Margiela, Balenciaga, YSL Rick Owens and more.

74 Orchard St

LAAMS only has a small section of vintage clothes on their 3^rd floor, but it’s rather fantastic! And it is an amazing store in general as well! On other floors, you’ll find art, records as well as books. The whole store is a fabulous vibe built by NYC’s creative community and worth checking out. At the vintage thrift section on 3^rd floor I spotted a fabulous Balenciaga blazer.

70 Orchard St

Pilgrim New York is a relatively small beautifully curated premium secondhand store. What especially caught my eye is that most of their selection focuses on clothes in black colour. As I tend to gravitate towards colourful maximalist style, it was not fully for me. However, I did appreciate the level of curation and thought they have put into their concept. It is definitely a concept store type of second-hand boutique and the perfect place for sourcing wardrobe staples. Next to this one, you’ll find another similar designer consignment store Lara Koleji, where the selection is slightly more colourful, but the price point is similarly premium.

69 Orchard St

The Vintage Twin is one of the well-lit, well-curated thrift stores in New York City. What I love most about the Vintage Twin is that it is rather spacious and not cramped with clothes. You have enough space to move around to browse through the selection. “Spacious” is not really a phrase you can use for a lot of the stores in the secondhand scene, even when it comes to stores featuring luxury. The Vintage Twin is focused on streetwear, the pricing is mid-range and the curation is absolutely excellent. What I also noticed is that they had some pieces nicely styles. For example, in the section of red colour they had a shirt, jumper and a red denim jacket beautifully put together, which helps anyone to see how one can style items found pre-loved!

If you are into Y2K style (and listening to Britney Spears while you shop), Lower East Side as well as East Village are the areas to go for! Some of the stores to check out are Tired Thrift, Rogue and Thiteen Crosby.

Thrifting in Brooklyn is a must if you’re visiting New York City. Or let’s be honest, visiting Brooklyn in general is a must! My favourite thrift stores in Brooklyn are the ones that are slightly premium. So, here’s my list of the best vintage stores in Brooklyn!

163 Court St, Brooklyn

This is the neatest luxury consignment store you can find in New York City. It might be worth checking out The RealReal boutiques in Manhattan as well, but the Brooklyn one, based on my visit, was well worth the visit. The RealReal is also one of the most established online consignment shops. But it is especially sweet to touch and try on the beautiful pieces in person in the store!

371 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Consignment is a wonderfully curated secondhand consignment boutique that is just about the right size. It is not too big, so not overwhelming, but still has a fairly large selection. The price point is on the higher side, as they do feature premium brands and designer items, but you will find lower-end price points picked into the selection. The store is well lit, well laid out and definitely worth a visit. It’s also one of those stores that doesn’t scream thrift or secondhand. If you wouldn’t read the name or the description of the store, you might think that it’s a regular store at first.

Storefront, 159 Smith St, Brooklyn

Unearth Vintage mostly gives a classy vintage vibe in its selection, but it does have quite a bit of modern selection as well. I absolutely loved the shop’s sweet style, but based on my personal preference, I actually found a beautiful one-shoulder J. Crew summer dress. The store is well priced for a variety of price points. Definitely a must for vintage thrift store for the vintage lovers!

Williamsburg is all about vintage shops and one of the most packed areas when it comes to the density of second hand stores in NYC. It is also a fabulous area in general. It means that once you’ve had enough of vintage it’s easy to continue with coffee, cocktails or a dinner.

66 N 7th St, Brooklyn

This might be the coolest vintage and second-hand consignment store in NYC. What makes it especially great, is that you can feel the sellers style in the selection of each rail. Unlike most consignment shops and thrift stores in New York, this one is not curated by colour and style as a whole – each seller has their own rail. But it is mostly about unique styles and fashion, so definitely worth a visit. There is also a small artists market next to it, which is fun to discover as an extra.

135 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn

Chickee’s Vintage is a small curated luxury consignment boutique. It has an excellently curated selection of clothes perfectly organised based on style and colour. Chickee’s Vintage also has an extensive selection of vintage graphic T-shirts, Levi’s jeans and other designer pieces. It is easy to navigate the selection, therefore an absolute pleasure to browse! They also have a separate menswear store just around the corner.

500 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn

Monk Vintage, located in Williamsburg on a basement floor, is large slightly messy thrift store that any vintage lover will love. It is kind of a badass store that has an edge. It might be not for you if you’re after curated designer pieces but it is definitely for those looking for vintage bomber jackets or graphic Tees. Monk’s extensive selection includes also some pieces from high-street brands.

504 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn

Williamsburg’s Buffalo Exchange is located right next to Monk. It is also filled with a proper selection of vintage goods, but I kind of felt that the 2 stores next to each other were a bit too overwhelming. Maybe that’s because I was on a journey of discovering second hand shops in NYC for 10 days! You will love it though, if you love digging in an extensive selection of vintage. This Buffalo Exchange is rather cramped, busy and packed with clothes. But that’s kind of okay as this seems to be one of the usual ways of NYC vintage stores.

Greenwich Village area is not the most thrift store heavy compared to some other areas. However, as you can read from my description, surprisingly I found these to be most fruitful when it comes to bargains.

10 W 13th St

Beacon’s Closet has a vibe that’s somewhere between cool and sweet. I instantly loved the store as they had a great playlist on! Like I mentioned in my article about branding a second hand store, music is an excellent influencer when you’re trying to create a specific mood for the shoppers. Anyway, Beacon’s closet therefore was an absolute pleasure to visit. What’s even better, I found an absolute treasure – 100% silk vintage shirt by DKNY for about $20. I am always so positively surprised what prices you can find for silk in secondhand.

47 W 13th St

I might be biased based on the fact that this is a store where I found 2 of my favourite dresses in my journey of NYC secondhand shopping. A Miaou dress and an Elliott dress, that in RRP would have been $500+, and I paid $45 together. These are the moments that make secondhand shopping especially sweet. I don’t live an “only secondhand” lifestyle simply because of the lower prices and bargains but I’m not going to lie – it is a nice perk! So this Crossroads Trading is definitely a store that is super curated, and at first I wasn’t really a fan of the lighting they had in the store. But! With the 2 dresses I walked out with, I must admit I had a change of heart. It turned out to be a fabulous shop.

Chelsea stretches across quite a large area in Lower Manhattan, but there is one specific area that has 3 thrift stores packed next to each other. If you’re in the area, I would recommend to check these out. All of these stores are chains, so you’ll never really know what you might find from there.

142 W 26th St

2nd STREET Chelsea is slightly less premium compared to the one in Lower East Side (read above!). Therefore, it is also in a more budget-friendly price point in its selection. 2nd STREET Chelsea features quite a large selection of high-street fast fashion brands, but you do get a small section of designer pieces at the front of the store as well. So if you’re in the area, I would say it is worth the visit!

24 W 26th St

I didn’t have a lot of time to discover the Crossroads Trading store in Chelsea, but if you read the descriptions above about this chain’s other stores in East Village and Greenwich Village, you’ll understand I was rather excited about this! From my short discovery, I did notice that this particular location seemed to be quite fast-fashion-heavy. However, I think, like the other locations it is very likely you can find some hidden gems there. The price-point of Crossroads Trading is generally budget-friendly.

114 W 26th St

In my experience, this Buffalo Exchange is slightly different from the other stores of this chain. I noticed that in this particular location, you’ll find quite a lot of high-street items. But they do also carry vintage and menswear similarly to other Buffalo Exchange stores.

There are quite a few nice markets around New York, most of them located in the areas mentioned above. The thrift markets usually take place either on the weekend or run from Wednesday til the end of week. And they are wonderful when you mix them into your schedule between the thrift stores in New York. Some of the flea markets also have street food stalls, which makes visiting them extra fun!

1. Grand Bazaar NYC

Grand Bazaar NYC is a rather busy and messy market, but it has a really great variety of stalls. They also offer street food, art and more.

1. Chelsea Flea

Hidden between the streets in Chelsea, this market is not massive, but still fun to check out. There are also a few secondhand stores in the area to check out while you’re there.

1. Ludlow Flea

Ludlow Flea is a tiny market in Lower East Side. They carry multiple stalls by different sellers. Expect graphic Tees, jeans and streetwear. You’ll find multiple thrift stores in the area.

1. Brooklyn Flea

Located by the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Flea is one of the largest and busiest street markets.

1. Wonders of Walter

This is a small super-vintage and super-funky market located in Williamsburg. Also surrounded by many other thrift stores!

To find all these stores (and some more that are not on the list) you can follow my  New York Secondhands Google Maps. If you like what you read, keep in touch and follow my secondhand lifestyle on Instagram.