I should always mention in my getting things at thrift stores is that I am lucky to live in a rather affluent part of the country, the Seattle area. Not all thrift store shops are equal and the best stuff is typically in the higher priced zip codes. There is a surplus of high quality everything here. I don't buy every piece of fabric I come across, and those I buy are from known brand names. I'm often getting entire collections from someone who bought it new at the LQS and never used it and is now down-sizing or moving or getting out of the hobby. Last year for example, I bought a large bag of someone's batik souvenirs from a trip to Indonesia. Yards and yards of gorgeous high quality heavily gold embellished fabrics perfect for a OBW or many other things for $5.99. You are just not going to be able to find things like that often, even here, much less somewhere else.