Second Chance is a Charity shop or Thrift Store on the Ladypool Rd,…read moretied into the Church there. Formerly a butchers the shop still has the railes going around the ceiling where the meat was hung which now make convenient hangers for clothings. If you're into digging through Charity shops to find those rare collectors items or iems of vintage clothing, Second Chance might be one that you're not so familair with. I tend to go into Charity shops with three things in mind; clothes, books and the chance that I find something out of the ordinary that catches my eye. In Second Chance I have found some great books and a few decent items of clothing, but as is ever the way, you never know what you're going to find! If you're passing the Ladypool Rd or are a commited Charity shopper intent on routing out that bargain item, Second Chance offers a new opportunity to find that lucky find!

There's not many charity shops in this part of Birmingham, but Second Chance has more to mark it…read moreout as unusual than that. In an era when many charity shops have become, for want of a better word, modernised, Second Chance seems to be stuck in a much earlier decade, possibly sometime in the early eighties. This applies to the look of the place, the products on sale, and the pricing. You get the feeling that Second Chance don't really price their products by referencing internet sites like Ebay as some seem to. Rather what seems to happen is items are priced via a price it cheap and sell it quick ethos. Unlike some of the charity shops in other areas such as Moseley where you might see designer products from time to time, the products could best be described as "curios". If your passing and the above appeals then it's probably worth a look for no other reason than novelty value, and charity shop addicts might want to make a special trip for a dose of genuine character.

Challenging Save The Children's long dominance of the top-end-of-Sutton charity shop circuit comes…read morethe Salvation Army charity shop. The cheeky buggers even moved in next door! This shop has been open for a couple of years now and makes it gentle presence felt with an inviting little shop packed with clothes, vintage accessories, a good stack of books and a very good selection of CDs; I've picked up albums by Portishead, Nirvana, The Prodigy and The Specials from here. Opening a charity shop in Sutton isn't a guarantee of success, although that said I've never known any that have shut down. However, the town is awash with the places, both in the centre and out in parts such as Boldmere and Mere Green. Great for bargain hunters and maniacal vinyl obsessives like myself; bad news for the snobs who write in to the local papers bemoaning the cheapening of the royal town.

One of two newer players in Sutton Coldfield's vibrant charity shop scene is the Walsall Hospice…read moreshop. This shop has been in open for something like two or three years now, so it's well established. It sits just off the end of the Parade, near the big roundabout. It has everything a charity shop needs really, there's a decent selection of books which cost around about the £1 mark (give or take a few pence either way), some clothes, old tables and chairs and the odd CD. It has nothing outstanding to set it out from the rest, it's just another stop on the charity shop crawl that Sutton has (from the Salvation Army shop near the top of While Road, down to the British Heart Foundation in the Red Rose Centre). The shop generally seems to be staffed by young volunteers, which makes a refreshing change and is always good to see.

I must admit that until I moved over West Bromwich way, I'd never heard of Betel. Having swung by…read morethis shop a few times, I was very interested to learn that it deals mostly in furniture restored by people taken in by the Betel charity and taught, among other things, how to restore furniture. The amount of stuff in the shop on West Bromwich High Street is staggering. There are tables, bookcases, chairs, stools, footrests, wardrobes, chests of drawers, the lot. The prices of a lot of the stuff are quite high - we're talking £150 for a restored bookcase. Generally this is because it's proper old-school hand-carved stuff and not horrific 1970s cast-offs which line their aisles. Most of it's not particularly my taste (or in my price range) but the quality is fantastic and probably far better than you'd find in a lot of antique shops.

Harborne is one of those areas that is blessed with both a large number of charity shops and a…read morereasonably well-to-do and educated local community. This makes for occasional rich pickings along the main high street, which has 7 or 8 charity outlets of various denominations. Depending on which end of the High Street you start at, Oxfam will either be the first or last you visit as it is situated at the south end, just opposite the Waitrose supermarket (Harborne has a Waitrose as it's main supermarket - that ought to tell you everything you need to know about the demographics at work here) The outlet is a fairly standard Oxfam layout and it a mixture of clothes, books and bric-a-brac that the public have donated and a selection of the stock which appears in all Oxfam shops; fair trade coffee, Guatemalan Worry People - you know the type of thing. As there is an Oxfam bookshop at the other end of the High Street, the records and books available here tend to be those that didn't make the cut, but that's not to say you won't find a gem if you're lucky. The same, of course, goes for the clothes and other stock. For the clothes there is a changing cubicle, so you don't have to perform guesswork regarding sizes.

Not to be confused with Oxfam bookshop a little further down the High Street, this is a long…read moreestablished charity shop that is worthy of note for its rather fab window displays which has featured vintage clad mannequins in shopping trolleys (a nod to the students who sometimes come in here to buy fancy dress perhaps?!) amongst other things. Inside you'll find a variety of nice things - including high-end labels (in sadly, often teensy sizes), a decent vinyl selection and a good range of nonfiction and fiction books. Their cards are good and I've bought some unusual pieces of jewellery from here over the years - although compared to other charity shops in the village they are a bit pricier than you'd expect. Ethical detergents, washing powders etc and fair trade chocolate and notebooks are also available and whilst staff seem to change on a regular basis - I guess they get a lot of requests from volunteers - the people who work here always seem very jolly.

Another greater Oxfam in the area! Two reasons to visit this one: bags and bags. Seriously, someone…read morewas really generous to donate some fine bags to this shop and I bought some for less than 10 quid. I mean some! The average price of each one of them is £ 3 and I don't think you can make better deal even in the usual ( and popular) department stores. It's just a tiny shop located in the Scott Arms Shopping Centre but only two minutes inside it and I already enough to have a good laugh with the customers and the lady who works there. As I like keeping my puzzle colletion, I was pretty glad to find plenty of options there and the prices vary from £99p to £2. Really cheap even for a charity shop! The usual also is find there: DVDs, Cd's and books and if you have a kid (and a VCR player) there are some VCR tapes for children that can be a good option to make them happier when the English summer weather doesn't help!

This is pretty decent charity shop in a location I pass quite often as I'm on my way to visit…read morefamily. As usual with charity shops the stock changes from one week to the next, but there is the usual selection of books, clothes, records, CDs, furniture and bric-a-brac. This outlet is part of an inter-connected chain of 10 or 12 Walsall Hospice shops, so there is a fair chance that if you don't find what you are looking for in this branch then another may have it. The staff (all volunteers, of course) are happy to help and put you in touch with the other shops. All in all this is a charity shop for a local, North Birmingham area cause, so it's worth a visit.