The best thrift stores on the Main Line, according to an estate sale expert

Helen Romani’s name is secondhand legend in the Philadelphia region, synonymous with estate sales. Her son, John Romani, a retired Philadelphia schoolteacher, took over the business, Sales by Helen, after her death in 2019.

Nowadays, the business primarily focuses on online sales rather than hosting in-home estate sales. Last year Romani, 52, posted a list of his favorite places to find antiques on the Main Line. We talked to him about why they made the list. I gave him a call to find out more about these stores, how he got into the business of reselling, and what it’s like to scour them for treasures.

“It’s my full-time job to go to these secondhand stores. These places are my office!” he said. Sales by Helen sources antiques from vintage pieces from flea markets, secondhand stores, consignments, and auctions, and resells them online with a sharp curatorial eye.

“I’ve been in the business since I was a child. My father and mother were both in it and my mother started the estate sale company in the 1980s. I’ve really trained my eye to know what to look for. I also love to shop so I’ll go to King of Prussia Mall, go into Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Louis Vuitton and look for quality and how to identify it,” said Romani, who is also a certified appraiser.

Here’s where he always stops when he’s on the Main Line:

“I go there every day, maybe twice a day. It’s a bit higher end, and they focus on furniture, artwork, and rugs, but not a lot of smalls,” said Romani. By smalls, Romani means “glassware, bowls, plates, crystal, silver-plated items, jewelry, and collectibles – it’s what we call them in the biz. Small stuff you can hold in your hand.”

📍155 E. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, Pa. 19087, 📞610-995-0300, 🌐 velvetshoestringmainline.com

“Conveniently, right next door to the Velvet Shoestring, is my second favorite shop which is all smalls, and it’s awesome. It’s so cool, it’s nonprofit, and they’re very nice people. They have a basement, an upstairs clothing annex, and around the corner there’s a discount bin called the Alley Door. So it’s three stores in one. There’s some donation and some consignment and you can get some really, really good deals there.”

📍191 Lancaster Ave., Wayne, Pa. 19087, 📞 610-688-0113, 🌐 nlshops.org

“You have rich people donating expensive stuff here. The stuff that I’ve pulled out of this Goodwill is legendary. You’ll find MacKenzie Childs, Simon Pearce — high-end collectibles. The clothing is top shelf, it’s amazing. I got a really expensive painting there one time. I almost felt guilty, or I would have felt guilty, if the CEO of Goodwill wasn’t making a lot of money. It was a Pennsylvania impressionist painting that I sold for $10,000 but I bought for under a hundred dollars.”

📍766 Lancaster Ave., Berwyn, Pa. 19312, 📞610-981-4391, 🌐 www.yourgoodwill.org/

“It’s super cool and has been around forever. It’s in the Ardmore police station parking lot. Also really nice people, and a nonprofit. It’s an ever-changing inventory and you can get things very affordably, even for 25 cents. But they do have nicer handbags and clothing.”

📍 57 Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, Pa. 19003, 📞610-642-7239, 🌐 giving.jefferson.edu

“You’ll find furniture there and the clothing is spectacular. Just like at the Goodwill in Berwyn, people are donating Frye boots, high-end clothing. You can walk in there and get a North Face jacket or Golden Goose sneakers. They also have a really nice selection of art and higher end stuff behind glass like china, porcelain, silver, and collectibles.”

📍804 County Line Road, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010, 📞610-525-4888, 🌐 www.instagram.com/brynmawrthrift

And as for Romani’s most important tips when shopping in secondhand stores?

“The No. 1 thing is to use your phone to look stuff up. Google image is your best friend. In the store, look up the item on eBay. Don’t trust that the store has it priced properly. Like I said, I’ve bought $10,000 items for $100, and I’ve also overpaid for something because I didn’t do my research in the store and overpaid,” Romani lamented.

“No. 2 is look for quality. You can feel it, if it’s solid and luxurious. It’s always going to be the weight of the item, the material, and construction.”

“No. 3 is to be assertive. If you want it, put it in your cart. There are vultures at these places. When a Goodwill opens, there’s a line of people out the door. They are resellers and their sole purpose is to buy and resell for a profit. If you put it down and it’s nice, someone else is going to pick it up.”

See the rest of Romani’s list of great Main Line thrift stores on his original instagram post.