Brooklyn thrift stores: 16 shops by what you pay
You pay for Brooklyn thrift in time or in money: dig in Bushwick, trade your closet in Greenpoint, or pay for someone else's eye on Grand Street.
These 16 Brooklyn thrift stores are sorted by what you pay, and the cheaper the rack, the more picking you do.
In 1997 Carrie Peterson maxed out her credit cards to rent a storefront on Bedford Avenue at North 11th Street. Some thought it too far out for foot traffic; she lived in the back, Beacon's Closet's history page says.
Her first stock came from her own closet, her friends' closets and thrifting. Her second employee, Sam Fogarino, later left to drum for Interpol.
Quick facts
- Shops: 16 thrift, trade and vintage shops at 22 Brooklyn addresses
- Selling: 25% to 40% cash or 45% to 50% credit, at 3 counters
- Prices: a 1990s slip dress sold for $42 at Unearth; the median of 633 pieces for sale on Amarcord's site is $695
- Bushwick: 6 shops on a 0.7 mile walk from the Morgan Avenue L stop, about 15 minutes
- Sunday: the one day all 16 are open
- Read: each shop's own site, 29 September 2026
For the lowest price, dig
L Train Vintage says Urban Jungle, at 118 Knickerbocker Avenue, "might be the biggest thrift store in New York" (the might is theirs). It opens at noon daily.
Its owners restock 8 Brooklyn shops at least three times a week. The one at 1 Saint Nicholas Avenue, a block from the Jefferson Street L stop, is a bit over 10,000 square feet, open noon to 7 pm.
Around the corner, Le Point Value, 1081 Flushing Avenue, sells used clothes for the whole family. It opens at 10 am daily, the only shop here before 11. Go first: it closes at 5:40 pm.
To sell first, then shop
Beacon's Closet pays 30% of its price in cash or 50% in store credit, on the spot. Its own example: boots priced at $49.95 earn $14.99 in cash or $24.98 in credit.
Bring up to 50 items and photo ID; sellers must be 18. Come early: at busy times the queue fills by afternoon. Unclaimed bags go to charity that night.
Its Brooklyn stores, open to 8 pm daily, are at 74 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint, 23 Bogart Street in Bushwick and 92 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
Kerstin Block and her husband, Spencer, opened Buffalo Exchange in 400 square feet in Tucson in 1974, stocked from her own closet. She guessed other thrift addicts "didn't want to sort through as much stuff," the company quotes her. Carrie Peterson came to Williamsburg from Tucson too, in 1996.
Buffalo Exchange pays 25% in cash or 50% in trade, and the trade card never expires. Its counters, 504 Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg and 109 Boerum Place, buy from 11 am to 8 pm (7 pm on Sunday).
Crossroads, 135 North 7th Street, pays 25% to 40% in cash or 45% in trade, and consigns designer pieces for up to 70%. It opens 11 am to 8 pm daily, and takes drop offs.
Take the credit if you will shop there again: it pays up to double the cash.
For a good cause
Housing Works says every purchase helps pay for housing, healthcare and advocacy for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. Its shops at 266 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and 150 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights open noon to 7 pm (5 pm on Sunday).
Plymouth Church, 75 Hicks Street, says people escaping slavery passed through its basement on the Underground Railroad. Its Underground Thrift Store opens on Sunday afternoons and gives 25% of its proceeds to groups fighting human trafficking.
For someone else's eye
Picked vintage costs more because somebody already sorted it.
At 159 Smith Street, Unearth Vintage opens noon to 7 pm daily. Its site sold a 1990s Coogi sweater for $199.
Patti Bordoni and Marco Liotta, a tailor's son, opened Amarcord Vintage Fashion on Bedford Avenue in 2002, and still buy in their native Italy. The shop at 223 Bedford opens noon to 7 pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Online, a Yves Saint Laurent rhinestone choker is $1,385.
Malin Landaeus came to New York from Sweden in 1987 with a tailoring degree. Her shop at 157 North 6th Street opens at 11 am daily; she opened it on 6 June 2007, after two years at a flea market.
Antoinette, 119 Grand Street, opens at noon. Lexi named it for her mother, who worked for the French milliner Lilly Daché, and whose finds from the 1950s to the 1990s inspired the shop in 2011.
At number 203, more than 36 vendors share the racks of Seven Wonders Collective, open to 8 pm Friday to Sunday. An in house stylist picks for you by appointment.
Natalie spent many years in Wyoming, and Sagebrush Collective, her shop at 96 Knickerbocker Avenue, opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm. The western vintage includes a 1970s tan leather jacket, $150 on her site.
In Greenpoint, Tired Thrift, 10 Bedford Avenue, opens daily at 11 am. Every sale is final. Lediona and Elona, two New York natives, stock it with the 1990s and 2000s that today's trends borrow from.
Where to go, by neighborhood
Start in Bushwick, where Urban Jungle, Sagebrush, L Train Vintage and 28 Scott Vintage, open noon to 8 pm daily, cluster at Knickerbocker Avenue and Thames Street. Then walk Greenpoint's two and Williamsburg's six: 1.4 miles, about 31 minutes, from Guernsey Street to Grand Street.
Park Slope has Beacon's Closet and Housing Works on Fifth Avenue. In Bed-Stuy, L Train Vintage is at 1325 Broadway, steps from the J train's Gates Avenue stop.
Kerstin Block stocked her first shop from her own closet in 1974; Carrie Peterson did much the same in 1997. Every rack on this list began in somebody's closet.
Common questions
Which thrift stores in Brooklyn buy clothes?
Beacon's Closet, Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads buy every day, with no appointment, from sellers with photo ID. Manhattan's buying counters are in our NYC thrift stores guide.
Where are the thrift stores in Williamsburg, Brooklyn?
Two are near the Bedford Avenue L stop: Buffalo Exchange, 504 Driggs Avenue, and Crossroads, 135 North 7th Street. For vintage, walk south to Malin Landaeus, Amarcord, Seven Wonders and Antoinette, or see our Williamsburg shopping guide.
Are there thrift stores in Brooklyn Heights?
Yes, two: Housing Works at 150 Montague Street, and the Underground Thrift Store at Plymouth Church, open Sunday afternoons.