11 Best Thrift Stores in San Diego for Secondhand Scores

Need to express your inner hunter gatherer?

With vintage, new, and upcycled clothing, accessories, art, and more, Hunt & Gather allows you to do just that.

Perfect for festival fashion and statement pieces, their one-of-a-kind stock is ready for those looking to showcase a lil’ San Diego style.

Price Range: $–$$

Can you think of a better location for a thrift store than a refurbished vintage home?

And that just so happens to be the home of Home Start Thrift Boutique.

The nonprofit thrift store with quality secondhand and vintage clothing, household goods, and furniture.

Purchases help to support life-changing programs like the Maternity Housing Program and Community Services for Families.

As a social enterprise, they employ Home Start clients, providing them with a supportive employment opportunity where they can access on-the-job training while learning valuable skills.

Price Range: $–$$$

Founded to help those living with HIV/AIDS, while also serving low-income people and the homeless, Auntie Helen’s is one of the best thrift stores in San Diego for clothes.

With a selection so big it spills onto the sidewalk, you’ll find oh-so-many clothes, shoes, household goods, furniture, and collectibles.

Your purchases allow them to provide emergency clothing and complimentary food, hygiene kits, and wellness classes.

They also partner with local medical clinics to provide free testing, preventative care, and educational resources.

Price Range: $–$$

Looking at doing a little remodeling in your home? Consignment Classics is a good thrift store in San Diego for exactly that purpose.

They have three massive showrooms with overstock new and gently used furniture and home décor.

In addition to selling one-of-a-kind vintage pieces, they also offer restoration and repair services.

Price Range: $–$$$

Buffalo Exchange is state wide. With more than 40 locations around the US and two thrift stores in downtown San Diego.

Driven by the dual-mission of social responsibility and creating a fun place for people to buy, sell, and trade new and recycled clothing; you can find all manner of designer, name brand, and no-name apparel, shoes, and accessories for men and women.

Through their Tokens for Bags program, if you refuse a bag at checkout you can instead pick a charity to donate 5¢ to. Female founders come change-makers, Kerstin and Rebecca Block transformed their entrepreneurial experience into a book, The Way of the Buffalo.

Price Range: $–$$

One of the best for animal lovers, the Rancho Coastal Humane Society Thrift Shop is located just a few miles from the animal shelter it supports.

For more than 60 years, bargain hunters have found treasures in the gently used merchandise that’s restocked every day—knowing each purchase helps connect abandoned animals with new homes.

100% of proceeds support programs like the animal safehouse, pet food bank, pet-assisted therapy, and pet loss support program.

Price Range: $–$$

If you’re after one of the biggest thrift stores in San Diego, then this one’s a must-see.

With locations all around the country, AMVETS Thrift Stores provides a steady source of revenue for veteran support programs.

They sell a massive variety of quality merchandise at a steal.

You can expect to find clothes, household goods, furniture, toys, and lots of other miscellaneous goodies.

Price Range: $–$$

Buying and selling used and new fitness and sports gear, Play it Again Sports are arguably the best thrift store in San Diego for sports enthusiasts.

You or your kids can find all the essentials for nearly any sport, as well as harder-to-find items like figure skates, kneeboards, snowshoes, skis, and badminton gear. Did we mention their fitness equipment like treadmills, ellipticals, and free weights?

And if you’re no longer interested in kayaking or have no use for that old lacrosse stick, you can sell your used gear for cash upfront.

Price Range: $–$$$

Buying, trading, and selling pieces from the likes of Chanel, Hermes, Dior, Versace, and Gucci, Luigi Vera should be fashionably first for San Diegans who want high street fashion at not so high prices.

For high end thrifting it doesn’t get better than this.

Between bags, jewelry, apparel, and accessories at unreal steals, this designer thrift shop proves you don’t need to be a star to look like one—or be one to the planet.

Price Range: $$–$$$

The Assistance League of Greater San Diego Thrift Shop was ranked by a Union-Tribune Readers Poll as a favorite!

If you’re looking for gently-used men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, accessories, jewelry, household goods, shoes, artworks, books, and more, don’t skip out on a visit here.

The thrift shop funds programs like Operation School Bell, which provides essentials to elementary school children.

Other programs support high school-age kids, community college students, or children affected by hearing loss or traumatic circumstances.

Price Range: $–$$

Day to Day is a good place for clothes from all styles and decades— everything from retro graphic tees and Levi’s everyday wear to Wranglers and Carhartt workwear to Patagonia.

They’re a well-loved shop for meticulously selected consignment goods, memorabilia, and men’s and women’s vintage clothes ranging from the 1940s to the 2000s.

Considered one of the best consignment stores San Diego has to offer, everything is clean and well-sorted, and a knowledgeable team can help shoppers find exactly what they want.

Price Range: $–$$