I've been buying books secondhand in charity shops for years, but even though I love jigsaw puzzles and find them expensive to buy new, until recently I had never considered buying one secondhand. But it I've been doing some browsing in local charity shops recently and I thought I would give it a go.
I find that prices range from around £3-4 which is a fraction of the cost of a new jigsaw, and when I expect pieces to be missing I'm less worried than when I've paid a lot for a new puzzle.
Here are all the charity shop jigsaws that I've completed so far - and I'm delighted to announce that none of them had a single missing piece! Some of them even had the edge pieces pre-sorted for me!
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| Spring on Park Avenue - Galison |
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| Minifigure Puzzle - Lego |
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| Space Hoppers and Scooters - Gibson |
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| The Artist's Desk - Ravensburger |
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| Shiny Summer - Andrea Tilk |
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| The Fantasy Bookshop - Ravensburger |
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| Cats and Plants - Corner Piece |
There are a few things to be wary of with a secondhand puzzle. I have one jigsaw in my to do pile which has quite a strong smell of smoke. I'm hoping that as I work on it the smell will dissipate, but it is putting me off making a start. Another couple have had a slight smell of perfume, and one had quite a few cat hairs in the box. Not a problem for me as I'm not allergic, but I have to keep hoovering my jigsaw area.
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| World Wonders Panorama - Ravensburger |
My current puzzle is a charity shop find that I was really pleased with. I was looking for some jigsaws with a larger piece count as they can be very expensive to buy new, and I love maps. I found this Ravensburger 2000 piece World Wonders Panorama map jigsaw which I was delighted with - I paid just £4 instead of the £30 or so it would cost new. Ravensburger is my favourite jigsaw puzzle manufacturer as I find that the pieces are sturdy and fit together really well. I've barely started but I'm working on it with the assumption that there will be pieces missing - it will be amazing if it's complete!
