When I started my “vanlife journey,” I did what a lot of dreamers do. I watched a ton of YouTube videos and purchased all the things those people recommended. Back then it never crossed my mind that most of those people were making money off of my purchases. I didn’t understand that those people had an incentive to get me to buy those things. Don’t get me wrong — I now also share Amazon Affiliate Links to items I’ve bought, used, and recommend and make anywhere from a few cents to a few bucks when people make purchases using my links, but there’s an entire ecosystem that doesn’t account for people’s morals. Everybody has a different moral compass when it comes to hawking a shilling merchandise, and everybody thinks their “line in the sand” is the right one — yours truly, included. One YouTuber I watch has reviewed more than a dozen eBikes on his channel, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, every one that arrives is his favorite. I, on the other hand, once gave a phone charger a lukewarm review and they stopped talking to me. I’ve learned a lot over the past could of years.
Oh, and all those “vanlife” purchases I made before I even owned a van? About a third of them are still sitting in boxes, out in my garage.
I’ve been kicking around the idea for this video for a while now, but kept kicking it down the road because of all the work involved. The idea was to visit a series of second hand shops and see what vanlife/camping items I could find. Making this type of video starts with a bunch of shopping and filming and sorting out all those clips. It also involved spending money on the items I found, then sorting all those things, making another video recapping those things, and then spending a day or two editing all that spaghetti into some sort of comprehensive narrative. To be honest, so many lower-hanging-fruit opportunities have come along that I just haven’t tackled this one… up until now.
My wife and I both love shopping at garage sales, thrift stores, and estate sales. A week or two ago for my birthday, my wife and I took a road trip from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. Along the way, we stopped at a dozen thrift stores and did a ton of shopping. I filmed a ton of (ultimately b-roll) footage, using both my iPhone and my Meta glasses. I took some time to sort and plan everything out, and my wife and I are both pretty busy people so it took a few days to coordinate our schedules, but eventually everything lined up and we were able to film our “reaction” video using my GoPro and DJI microphones. Finding all those related shopping clips was laborious, but I really like how everything turned out. My wife and I have been making each other laugh every day for the past 30 years as you will see in the video.
For the most part I’ll let the video speak for itself. Some of the things were good deals and a couple were things I purchased because I knew I had a video to put together (I’ll let you figure out which are which).
The thing about thrifting (I’m lumping garage sale and estate sales under the same umbrella) is that to find things for sale, you have to get out there and shop. No two garage sales or estate sales are the same, and thrift stores turn over their wares pretty quickly. There really are a lot of good deals out there, but “let the buyer beware” applies.
Here are some Amazon Affiliate Links to most of the things that appear in the video. You’ll pay more than we did, but they won’t come with mold included (as one of the items we purchased did).
Portable Camping Stove (Butane): https://amzn.to/3AR9Zmj
Coleman Triton Camping Stove (Propane): https://amzn.to/4dYftud
Frigidaire Mini Fridge (110/12v): https://amzn.to/4ecu9Wc
Drinking Cup Holder Clips: https://amzn.to/4d8kCik
AstroAI Tire Inflator (12v): https://amzn.to/3ze1fpU
Arctic Air Grip Clip (eh…): https://amzn.to/4d62eGt
And if you happen to find any of these items while out thrifting, you can spend some of that money you saved by visiting my >Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee links. See? You can teach an old dog new tricks!