The Hunt

A message I received on Facebook a few months ago from a friend's dad, who scored a pair of brand new Adistars for next to nothing while thrift shopping.

Ones man's trash is another man's treasure.  We have all heard the saying before and it applies to just about everything.  I love thrift shopping, garage sales, craigslisting, and basically anything that I can find something cool for a cheap price.  These third-party sites have led me to find great deals on wrestling shoes as well.  To make money in the shoe business, one must constantly find new and unique ways to find rare shoes.  After the market catches on to your unique buying methods, there is little money to be made, so you have to stay one step ahead of the game.

The list of shoes I have bought off of unconventional sites and apps such as Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Mercari is actually quite extensive.  I have picked up Blue Kolats, Footsweeps, Original Inflicts, Dan Gable Ultraflexes, Chinese Combat Speeds, Lyteflexes, Ultra Combatants, and Elite Internationals for next to nothing through these mediums.

When I was in high school, a local sports shop had a sale on old shoes they had stored away in inventory for over a decade.  I picked up five pairs of retro Nike wrestling shoes, which included two pairs of 1996 Takedown Supremes.  The deals are out there, you just have to find them.

Basically why I'm writing this, isn't to give away my secrets, but to encourage all of the shoe addicts reading this to always be on the hunt.  I always make time to stop at the garage sale I pass by, or swing by the local Goodwill to see if anything is hiding in their shoe section.  Nothing makes my day quite like picking up a pair of rare shoes for cheap.  After all, the hunt is what makes collecting fun.