Photographs: Ben Norman

“My first big score was at a church thrift store in my hometown on Long Island: I found a mint-condition Pucci purse for $10,” says thrifting junkie Christene Barberich. Her obsession with unearthing incredible finds—anything from dorky-chic corduroy oxfords to a painting of Elvis on velvet—lives on every day in her eBay blog (refinery29.com/ebay_blog), and she’s been known to pepper her “Boutique Beat” column on T Magazine’s blog The Moment with mentions of new vintage stores. But she’s not one to scan the racks, checking tags strictly for designer gear: The more hole-in-the-wall a store is and the fewer designer items it carries, the likelier Barberich is to find amazing (and kooky) vintage goods. “I hate ‘stuff’—the objects that draw me seem as though there was real purpose in their making,” she says. She makes the rounds of her favorite thrift shops a couple of times a month, and calls her habit “a sickness. But I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to.” We followed Barberich around for a day as she sifted through charity thrift shops.

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