Buffalo Exchange

Such a good spot! I always find at least two amazing things.

Don’t expect to go & find a gem every time. It’s very hit or miss, but it’s not the store’s fault — it’s the location/​clientele they serve. However, I have found a few amazing pieces here. Alexander Wang dresses (got 2 of them for under $ 100 total), a Prada clutch, Isabel Marant shoes, & a pair of Loub’s all in great condition for not even ¼ of the retail price. Finds like these are few & far between, but it never hurts to check it out, & to be fair I never go in without finding SOMETHING cool. As far as selling to them goes — you can’t beat them if you’re selling cheaper clothes in good shape, but if you’re trying to sell designer goods — don’t! They do not pay even close to a fair price. Le Frock on Capitol Hill is better, but I’d recommend Tradesy, TheRealReal, or even Ebay if you want to get a fair price for designer items.

I really think that everything here is overpriced. $ 30 for a shirt from J-​Crew is too much. I would prefer to spend the money on a new item. The clothes are in decent condition but they are still used. Unless I found something that I had been searching for for ages I would be unlikely to buy anything here.
The store is big, lots to look at. The staff are friendly and helpful. While I was looking around and had a lot of clothes in my hands a staff member approached me to see if they could start a room for me.
The dressing rooms are really small. It’s hard to try things on and when I tried to take some clothes out of the room they told me I should keep them so the overall number that I brought in wouldn’t change. Gosh, what a pain. Also you can bring in accessories. I had several dresses that I wanted to try on with a belt. They told me I could come out and try the belt on. Honestly, that’s not comfortable for me AT ALL. I need privacy when I’m trying things on. They must have a problem with theft at this location making them strict.
Half way into trying on a second batch of clothing I got frustrated by the prices and since there wasn’t a single item I couldn’t live without I just returned the clothes and left.

ZERO STARS… This place seriously has the most snotty disrespectful staff I ever seen. My daughter went there and sold $ 160 worth of clothes and was facetiming me, when a worker «Abby» found a tag to a necklace and asked her if she seen the necklace… She said no and then Abby said well can you go find it? (In a very rude tone) WHAAATTTT??? WTF was that supposed to mean? So my daughter replied ummmm no I can’t because I never had a necklace. Feeling extremely insulted and embaressed and nearly in tears she walked away and continued to talk to me on FaceTime and sort her clothes. But that wasn’t enough… Even though that was enough to make any potential customer leave and never return… She tried to gather herself and finish sorting her items. She mentioned it to another employee and they said they were sorry but then several of them couldn’t leave well enough alone. They refused to drop it and proceeded to start an argument about something they didn’t even witness. And told my daughter that she clearly wasn’t accusing you of stealing she was just asking could you go find the necklace… WHY ARE YOU CONTINUING TO TALK FOR? First off the proper response is to apologize for any discomfort or misunderstanding and leave it at that. This is not an inexpensive «exchange» store and the customer’s experience should be extremely important. She never had a necklace so HOW DARE anyone ask a customer to go find it implying in front of other customers she’s lying or stole it. Fact is I have never heard any retail employee ask a customer to go find an item even if they just had it an sat it down, let alone when they never had it to begin with. But to top it all off the lady would not shut up… My daughter wasn’t even looking at her or talking to her (sorting her clothes) and she came back and still was putting on a scene being extremely rude making the situation even worse. My daughter said please just let me finish shopping so I can leave and she still kept being a smart ass. I would never go to any of these establishments in the future. Go to crossroads. These ppl act like this isn’t just an expensive thrift store. Save your time and your money. And rule 1: FaceTime when your there so others can witness how horrible they treat you. It was quite disappointing and Abby and the other girls need proper training on what customer service is.

As a buyer, buffalo exchange has many options and a lot of space. Like most thrift shops, it’s a treasure hunt, and their inventory turns over quickly.
As a seller, make sure what you are selling is in season and suits the current trends. The buyers I’ve dealt with here usually are on top of current styles, down to the small details of what they are after. Now, to tell the truth, I haven’t seen that stuff on their racks, so maybe the trendy stuff just sells so fast that I haven’t seen it.
Also be prepared for them to reject many of your items. And be prepared to stand in line! People come in with bags and bags of stuff, so be ready to wait for your turn. The amount they offer you is either store credit or cash, and the cash will be less than the store credit.

This used to be my favorite place few years back; my friends and i were frequent customers. I tend to go through clothes very fast (would buy something on sale wear it for a short period of time and decide i was over it) so this place was great i could take my clothes in and come out with new ones! After several years of buying and selling i went in one day to sell and the manager told me and my friend we were no longer allowed to sell or be in the store. When we asked why or what we did she wouldn’t give us a strait forward answer except that the clothes we brought in were «too nice». Apparently she thought we stole our clothes and tried to sell them for cash. When in reality we are just a few shopaholics. Very bizarre. Tried to go back a year later, she recognized us and reminded us that we were in fact not allowed inside and needed to leave. Poor customer service for sure

Decided to go here instead of the usual Crossroads. I browsed the store while the woman working there was looking through my items. The selection wasn’t anything great and I didn’t find a single item I wanted to spend my money on. Out of a bag full of nearly brand new clothes which were all still in style the woman assisting me chose 10 pieces and offered me $ 20. I’ve definitely gotten more money for my items at Crossroads and will continue to go there to resell my items. They also have a way better selection of clothes IMO.

Buffalo Exchange is an awesome thrift/​used clothes store chain where you can come in and buy clothes for mostly juniors/​young adults styles and/​or trade in your clothes for cash/​credit.
This location is big with tons of clothes racks, shoes, hats, accessories and more to search through.
You have to try on anything before you buy it since everything is used and what was once a large may now be stretched out to be an extra large or got shrunk in the previous owner’s wash to a medium.
The staff here is outgoing and really helpful.
Any kind of clothing that someone 12 – 25 would want to wear is here, from vintage to 80’s to current, as long as it’s popular for that age group. Keep that in mind if you plan on exchanging clothes.
You get either straight cash when selling clothes or credit which is a larger dollar amount to use in the store.
Parking sucks since this is the U District but the best location is the lot across the street behind the drug store.

Rating through a sellers perspective. I came in today and it is definitely the largest buffalo I have seen so far and I have been to most of the Buffalos In the west cost starting with the ones in Santa Monica. Stormy the manager of the store looked through my clothes and chatted with me throughout the whole process. She was extremely friendly a real gem. She did end up taking varies of my pieces and I got a good amount for them. Overall a great experience.

I really like this location. I live in Ballard just a few blocks from the Buffalo Exchange but I prefer this one. It’s much bigger, better stuff and they usually take more of my items. Everyone that works here is friendly.

The store is HUGE. It’s the largest Buffalo Exchange I’ve been in. I found a hardly worn leopard print coat (everyone needs one) for only $ 30. The staff was really friendly. They also had an extensive jewelry section.

I walked in after browsing the university district street fair. I found that many of the size smalls were not small at all (possibly stretched out from previous use) and that some of the articles of clothing were overpriced compared to other second hand shops. They do have markdowns on some pieces though. I give this place three stars based on the customer service, as there was a friendly, cheerful, cashier working there that day.

I’m a broke twenty-​something and this is my go-​to clothes store.
Disclaimer: I only know the men’s section, but it’s always on point. Your experience will be entirely based on your expectations. For me, I figure that all secondhand stores require some amount of picking through. But if you put in the effort, you can find gems — and there are definitely gems to be found here.
I got some practically new frye boots for $ 60. I know you’re thinking $ 60 is a lot of cash for something secondhand, but I looked these boots up online and they retail for $ 300. If you’re coming in here expecting everything to be goodwill prices, then you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re looking for quality clothes at 50% to 75% off, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Finally, this place clearly caters to cash-​strapped students and twenty-​somethings. If you want a fancy shopping experience, go to Nordstrom.

Silly me for thinking it would be a not so bad idea to try this buffalo exchange once more.
I was looking through some of their shirts when I heard the cashier saying to a customer very loudly that there was «someone with fake hipster glasses over there,» and then continued to say she wished she could wear fake frames too but she would feel «too weird about it.» Since the store was nearly empty and I was the only one with glasses still shopping, I could only assume she meant me.
Hey rude cashier, my «fake hipster glasses» actually have my prescription lenses in them and they help me see better. And the next time you talk crap about your customers, maybe you could lower your voice so they can’t hear you. NEVER wasting my time at this place again.

What’s the hype? Sure, a lot of the stuff seems trendy but at the same time a lot of the stuff doesn’t make sense or seem cohesive. I can tell you I may find a piece here once or twice a year that I can apply to my day to day repertoire but it’s never anything to write home about.
For a second hand, used apparel store-​the staff seems pretentious and snotty. You’re better than no one and you need to get the stick out of your rectum. Now that would make me feel like I was getting a better bang for my buck!

Pros: Large floor with lots of merchandise to sort through, enough fitting rooms that you rarely have to wait to try stuff on, some interesting variety, generally what I’d consider to be fair prices.
Cons: FORGET TRYING TO SELL HERE UNLESS YOUR CLOTHING COST HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS IN THE FIRST PLACE. Even then, you get back a tiny fraction of what you originally spent. The buyers pick apart and tell you every reason behind why they won’t accept any of your clothing which is humiliating and not that helpful. The buyers do not even understand the purpose OF a thrift shop, they wouldn’t take some of my clothing because it looked «too professional, it’s not like anybody would come here to buy clothes for a job interview» (actual quote!)

I don’t sell here too often anymore, because these girls are so picky. Even though I see the same exact thing I have on their selection.
I choose Crossroads over them, because Crossroads is a smaller shop, but has better variety and actually prices accurate for their sales and can we talk about service?
Most the times I go here, I swear they are pretty fake… «oh this is cute, BUT» yeah, yeah.
When you walk through their shoe selection, goodness, it smells gross… They talk about buying things that aren’t worn out, but go and smell the shoe section and look at how dirty the sweaters look, then we can talk about buying things that aren’t so «worn out».

Meh, big store, crappy selection. Check out the Goodwill next door instead!
Don’t even bother trying to sell anything here, all they buy is hipster crap (they wouldn’t take new Hudson jeans but did take a weird robber style neon green/​pink winter hat, wtf?) & they only give you pennies on the dollar for store credit/​cash. Buyers are rude (ramble a lot about «quality» & once told me that something I brought in clearly had «wear issues» despite having tags on it). Cashiers are nice enough/​chatty. Every once in a great while I find something I like in here…

I always have mixed feelings about Buffalo Exchange. I am not too into the vintage clothes either but every once in a while I find a gem of a shirt. Buffalo Exchange is often overpriced compared to many other vintage and consignment stores so I am often not a regular at all. I would have bypassed this location but Steve wanted to go in which I was ok with. Nothing seemed to grab me as far as clothes go but they had a very impressive array of shoes, both mens and womens which were really cool! They had really cool high heels for ladies with bright, criss crossing designs which made me do a double take. None were my size and it is a good thing I never got into wearing highs. SERIOUSLY, I don’t need to be buying more stuff with a specific vice.

For the most part, I like Buffalo Exchange.
The selection is impressive. They have a wide variety of vintage and name-​brand shirts, jackets, pants, and shorts. I have found numerous pieces I love, and they have been in really fabulous condition. The best part is the discounts you get. I’m not sure why other reviewers expect to get like-​new clothes for 90% off. I think half off or better is quite acceptable. Ultimately, I’m willing to pay $ 12 to $ 18 for a pair of practically-​new jeans that look good, when I could easily spend $ 40 elsewhere. They have a high standard for the clothes they accept, which serves shoppers well. I understand how frustrating that must be for people selling their clothes, though. I haven’t gone down that route at all personally.
The service has been friendly and helpful, from my experience. Again, I’m not sure what other Unilocalers are talking about when they refer to snobby, poser-​hipster salespeople. The people at the dressing counter were prompt and conversational, while the clerks were quite friendly. Now, mind you, I did hear some of the staff complaining about their lives or whatnot, but they were never rude to me.
I took off one star for their greedy and draconian return policy. You have just five days to return something, and you only get store credit. Seriously? That’s how you treat customers looking for bargains? If you’re going to buy anything here, make up your mind right away. Good luck.