This weekend, I decided to clean out my closet to see if I can earn some extra cash by selling it to one of those commercial thrift stores.

I have done things like this before with Buffalo Exchange and they are, for the most part, generous with their return. They give you the option of getting store credit or getting cash (which is usually 10% less than the store credit).

Most of the time, I am not 100% satisfied with the money I get back, but hey - they helped me clean out my closet and I got a little pocket money for the weekend.

Since I don’t live in one of those swanky Bay Area shopping towns, I was excited to find out that there was this place in the Tri-Valley Area that was like Buffalo Exchange. Since I am about to defame it a little bit, I will call the store, The Philosopher’s Wardrobe.

Anyways…I brought in a Bloomingdale’s Big Brown Bag of clothes. It included everything from ready-to-be-disposed H&M garb to out-of-season (but not too old) Guess slacks to funky vintage store clothes. I thought I was gonna score at least $50 with all the stuff in the bag.

When I got to the store, it was small, quaint and was reminiscent of one of those ’80s mall stores like Miller’s Outpost - except a little hipper.

I got to the counter, gave them my stuff and the employee said that since they were really busy that day, it would take about two hours to sort through the stuff and give me an offer.

I could live with that.

Fast-forward 120 minutes and I came back excited to tickle my palms with some green. The teen employee told me that they could only take two items and offer me $4.40.

My first reaction was, “what the hell?” Then I just brushed it off and declined their offer. I decided to look around the store to see what they had to offer.

The racks were invaded by garb from Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, Hollister, American Eagle - I could see why they didn’t take my stuff. I didn’t have any of these labels.

But I did manage to snag a hidden treasure - a blue long sleeved Ralph Lauren gingham shirt for $14. Not bad.

When I went to pay for my find, I asked to get my bag of “unworthy of resell” clothing. As one of the teen workers went to retrieve it, another emo teen boy scoffed and said, “Oh yeah, he didn’t want the money for his clothes.”

No. I did not want my $4.40.

I was fine with this store until this body double for 30 Seconds To Mars’s Jared Leto said that to me. I guess he was really insulted by me not taking the $4.40 and spending $14 instead. This docked major points on this store’s credibility scorecard.

The moral of this story is: You’re better off reselling your clothes to Buffalo Exchange or donating it to Goodwill than trying to sell it to the angsty emo teens at the “The Philosopher’s Wardrobe”…but you may find something fancy enough to buy.

Psssst…. If you really wanna know the store name, e-mail me and I will tell you!

I am no stranger to the world of protesting. A few years ago, I was this wannabe activist and I jumped on the chance to protest Abercrombie & Fitch’s use of Asian images on graphic tees.

At the time, I thought they used the images of Chinese laundrymats and Buddhas in derogatory ways. Now, I really wouldn’t care.

In one of my many people watching adventures in San Francisco, I caught site of some protestors in front of Macy’s blowing whistles and complaining about unethical employee treatment - something about low pay. Whatever it was, they were just one of many groups picketing in front of their workplace complaining about something. It’s actually become a unique trend in the city.

So as I was watching as a curious fashion writer, I took note of what they were wearing:

The popular misconception of style is that it always has to be “fashion-forward” and suitable for the runway or a fashion mag. For the most part, this is the case with me, but ultimately, what we wear, whether you realize it or not, speaks highly on our personality and how we feel that day. In this case, I saw a lot of these protestors were wearing neutral and drab colors - almost depressing.

So there you have it - the “in” thing for protestors is to not show any color that shows excitement. It’s indifferent. As far as accessories, it also helps if you have a nice sign to hold up and an annoying whistle to blow to get attention. So think of that next time when you want to stage a protest.