Find your best second hand in Budapest

If you have already visited many of the city's second hand shops and you decided what your favorite ones are, you have a chance to make your shopping easier and faster. There are lot of stores, which offer online shopping, in case you know what kind of clothes you would like to buy, but you do not have enough time or you are not in the mood to go out and travel around the city. Because this blog is mainly made for foreign people, in this post I try to explain how to use Hungarian second hand stores' websites.

yorkmode.hu
This online shop deals with clothes for women, men and children as well. If you look at the left side of it, you can see the label Webáruház (Online Shop). Under this are the genders: női ruhák means women's clothes, gyermek ruhák means clothes for children, and férfi ruhák is men's clothes in Hungarian. Than you click for example on the label for women's clothes and than you can see a variety of clothes. As the layout is different from site to site, I suggest to just go through the labels and see the pictures of clothes so you can find out which is which. I clicked on női rövidnadrágok, which is shorts for women and a lot of pictures of shorts just popped up. If you click on the picture, a new site comes up. There you can see your item's picture on the left, and it's description on the right. Szín is the color, nem means the gender, and méret is the size of the shorts.Under it you can see it's lenght and width in centimetres. You can also check its price; unfortunately it is in HUF. However, Google solves your problem quickly, you just have to type for example 2000 HUF in USD and you can see that it costs 9 US dollars. If you are satisfied with everything regarding your chosen item you can click on kosárba, which means into the cart. Than the page will show you an arrow to the left with a vásárlás folytatása. This means that you can go back and pick other clothes. If you click to the right arrow, which says a vásárlás befejezése than you will finish your shopping. On the upper side you can see the total price of the clothes. First, you have to choose the method of delivery. You can pick it up in the shop, or ask for delivery to your home; pre-paid or cash. Your last thing to do is fill in the gaps with your personal data: first name, last name, phone number, city, street&number of your house. You only have to write in the boxes signed with a star. Than you click on vásárlás befejezése again and this is it.



gyerektrend.hu
This is an onlie shop only for children. I think this is a quite good one, because you can choose by sizes. The only problem is that these sizes are in the European system, but I found a chart in which there are the Europan sizes in the UK and US system. If  you found the best for the appropriate child, then the process is the same that I have written before.The only difference is that you can find the labels under termékeink, which is our products on the left side. Also, on this site, you can only have the clothes delivered, so you have to decide how you will pre-pay: you can transfer money from your credit card, send it by cheque, or pay with PayPal.

Between the Blaha Lujza Square and the Wesselényi Street hidden in the basement of a building we can find this tiny, communist-like shop. Its design is quite harsh, with its lamps looking like an eighties era elemantary school's ones and the plain walls. It is clear that they put the focus rather on the clothes, and not at all on the design of the shop.To be honest, I would expected more effort to create a store that has a nice atmosphere.

The reason of my first disappointment was that I heard a lot of good things about this shop and I went there with great expectations. In fact, if I see the abilities of the shop and compare them to the others, it is a good type of second hands with a large quantity and variety of clothes, on very low prices. The pieces were seperated by genders and types of clothes, so you have to use your treasure hunting abilities, especially in the case of the ones in piles. Although, after a little effort you can find trendy and branded pieces on ridiculously low prices. For example, Mexx top for 900 HUF (4 USD), Marks&Spencer vest for 1400 HUF ( 6 USD), or skirts for 500 HUF ( 2 USD).  The ones in the piles are for 200-500 HUF (1-2 USD). Plus point is that you can find an entire department for children clothes and a huge circlehanger of suit-trousers by the price of 200 HUF (1 USD)!


The changing rooms were a bit "cheap", the curtains were quite transparent, and there were no hangers so I had to put all of the clothes on a little chair. All in all, the atmosphere was a bit strange and controversial, partly because of the 90's music and the assistants who were at ease. But, of course, if you are really looking for good and cheap clothes, these factors do not really matter. The more important thing is that I found some really good and trendy pieces and there are various types for every age.

When people start to think about second hands and hand-me-downs, it's quite rare that baby or children stores pop up in their minds. There is a common misbelief in Hungary that second hands only offer old, out of fashion clothes with poor quality; and because of this, people don't even think about going to these shops and seeing the supply. This week I try to prove that this belief is wrong and played out by introducing some of the best second hands for children in Budapest.

Lurkó-Szerkó
This cute shop is located in the heart of the city, near to Rákóczi út.It is a little store but as soon as you enter it, you will be enchanted for sure. The walls are painted as it was a babyroom by calm yellow and green colors and little figures like duck or chicken. There is a huge variety of qualitative clothes for infants, toddlers and small children as well. The pieces are ordered by genders and sizes, you can find dozens of coats, shirts, trousers and shoes, baby-grows, and playsuits. I was quite surprised how fashionable these clothes are, the majority of them are Baby Gap, Ralph Lauren, Hello Kitty or Monsoon.

Throughout the week, I kept hearing that Háda is the best second hand. I told my acquaintances about my blog and they began to talk about Háda. Most of them weren't even there, but they insisted on that I should go back and try it at a time, when there's no crowd around. So I chose the store in the Sugár shopping centre, which is far from the heart of the city, this way a bit calmer. I went there with the intention to create a whole new and absolutely positive opinion about this company. I didn't succeed for the second time either. But lets just start from the beginning.

This week I managed  to find an ideal shop for those who want qualitative clothes for low prices. This store is really cheap! And the best about it is that the shop is located in the heart of the city, only 2 minutes from Blaha Lujza square (on foot). It has shiny boards which advertise the clothes and that it offers English clothes. As the weeks past and I go from shop to shop, I started to realize that English colthes whose brands almost always unknown for me, often have better quality then the more popular ones, and they are much cheaper as well. This week's second hand represents this phenomena perfectly.

The store itself is a bit small for me, although it has two floors. Maybe it is because there are dozens of clothes on every hanger. The good point is that they are ordered by colours and types. Jeans, trousers, shirts, elegant clothes are all divided. There are even bras in every type. What suprised me a bit that there are two lines of different skirts; many jeans and mini skirts. The brands, as I mentioned, are mostly English ones, but I found some H&M or Debenhams shirts. They are all under 1500 HUF (6,5 USD). Skirts and trousers are also at the same price.Atmosphere coats are approximately 2500 HUF (11 USD).If someone thinks that the pricez are still high, there is a big sign at the entrance of the changing rooms that on the second floor everything is 350 HUF (1,5 USD) !  I found every sizes, mostly big ones, unfortunately.
The atmosphere was freindly, the music was modern and youthful. My only problem was with the assistants. They weren't really keen on doing their jobs, so we haven't talked a single world with each other during the half hour I spent in the store.

I've heard so much about Háda stores around the whole country that I had no other choice: I had to visit one of them. The one on Rákóczi street has been recently renewed, so I decided to visit it. Well, it was a bittersweet experience.

Let's start with the good side, the supply. It is a typical second hand, so there are hundreds of different clothes, from every kind, like bluses, jeans, shirts, suits, clothes for children and pregnant women as well. What surpried me was the huge amount of shoes on the shelves and the toys for children. Of course, you have to look for extensively, but this is just the way second hands work. The prices are quite low, shirts are maximum 1500 HUF (6,5 USD), jeans for 2000 HUF (9 USD), children clothes between 500-100 HUF (2-4,5 USD). The brands are mostly English ones, which I didn't really recognize, but there were some Zara, Tally Weijl and S. Oliver ones. With this part, I was quite satisfied.

This week I was going to visit a second hand near the Western Railway Station, but it was closed. Fortunately, because this way I managed to find a real treasure chest on my way back to the Railway Station. It is called Dorothy&Aby and if you walk past the store it is impossible that you don't pick up on it. In the middle of the grey "concrete jungle" shows up a colorful, pink and white shop with huge sheets, advertising the most popular Hungarian brands and a sophisticated black and white picture, explaining the feminnity of the store.

The inside of the store is spacious and as feminin as the outside. Clothes from the coolest brands like Zara, Bershka, Tally Weijl or Pimkie are separated under their brand labels and the quality of the clothes refers to the time and effort put into selecting each piece. There are no faulty or torn ones, these clothes are cheap, because they are from previous collections. The prices are different, shirts and dresses like Zara, Tally Weijl or Bershka are from 2000-4000 HUF (9-18 USD). Brand like S. Oliver, Vero Moda or Olsen are more expensive, but I didn't find any dress over 10000 HUF (45 USD). A big pleasure was that all kind of sizes can be found from XS to XXL, in every type of clothing.

The furnishment and the layout are cozy and friendly, there are two huge parts for the tons of clothes, and another quite large one for the changing rooms. The dressing rooms are spacious, there is enough place for your clothes and for you to try on every kind of dress. What was the most positive of all for me is that a young woman stood in front of the changing rooms and told me what dress was fitting and what was a disaster honestly. It kind of felt like I was with some of my friends.
This week I took an adventage of the rich assortment and chose some elegant pieces: