Buffalo Exchange in
Seattle Hill (WA)

The Portlandia of Seattle always waiting to happen. Met and the whole crew here are so awesome and helpful, it always makes me happy to shop here and I ALSO always find something I Love so much ?

Cool items, but their quality control needs to improve

SCAMMERS AND LIARS!!! DO NOT SELL HERE!! When I sold clothes here a couple months ago I was indecisive about taking cash or a gift card. I was directly told by the checkout person that if I chose a gift card I could cash it out later. Today I went to change to cash and they told me no, couldn’t be done. 110$ of gift card wasted due to untrained unprofessional employees. Also, they don’t understand clothing and the city they are in. More recently (fall) I brought in clothes to sell. They passed up four medium Big Bud Press pants (like new) and vegan Dr Marten boots, size 7.5. Did you not know you’re a buyer for queer vegan Seattle and this is literally the average sized persons shoe/pant???? Avoid at all costs!!!!

Attentive & honorable staff. Ryan wont waste ur time or lowball you on high end pieces

Sold here a couple of times. One time I brought in lots of stuff similar to what they had on their shelves. The girl didn’t even look at my stuff just handed me back my bags after 2 min I’m not even joking. 2nd time I joined the waitlist it said 70-90 min and when my turn came up they were closed and said even though I was on the list and got called I need to come back the following day. I spent 30 min driving there got a ticket and then got turned away because they were closed even though I was on a waitlist the computer shouldn’t have allowed that too happen. That’s my 2 experiences my boyfriend has better luck it seems like but he lost his ID in our house fire so I was trying to sell some clothes for him. I feel like the employees are just judgmental and look at me like I am a drug addict and I stole everything when I do not steal things too make money. We make all our money legally. Don’t go in there looking like a drug addict with track marks and maybe you will do ok. Thing with these places is they are all inconsistent and employees choose things based on their personal style it seems like. Good luck and they close at 7 on Sunday 8 weekday and if waitlist says a hr wait before closing don’t waste your time

back in 2022 or 2023 i exchanged a few pants and long sleeves great service, bought the pants at wal mart for $8 bucks and got way more bang for my buck. tremendous service and great hospitality. will i visit again? LORD KNOWS like the tupac song.

Drove 1 hour to drop off “name brand” and “in style” jeans for them to tell me they aren’t the style they’re looking for. Brand new lulus skirt and a pair of brand new ray bans sunglasses. They took nothing. But asked if I wanted to donate the items for free.

I’m a really big fan of this Buffalo exchange! I’m a frequent shopper and really prefer this to a popular consignment/resale store on Capitol Hill. Inclusivity is so important and Buffalo exchange shows that they care about that!! I’m always really excited by the amount of cute options they have for a standard size L. I feel seen and really appreciate their staff- I’ve always had great experiences with them. The selling experience is also really painless and easy. Shop here!! The prices are pretty good for a resell store- it’s a tiny store with tons of great options!

TWO hours on the seller waitlist and just kept being told I was sixth in line after getting remove twice from their waitlist. Biggest waste of time, and not that impressed with selection either.

I've purchased a number of really good pieces here over the last few years. I've managed to sell a good number of items too. You just have to be choosey about what you bring to sell & make sure it's in season or on trend. Different buyers will buy different things, so if you really think it's a good item for resale then hold onto it & try selling again another time. They tend to take more unique pieces here. If you have a really basics forward closet, you're probably better off trying to sell at crossroads in cap hill or u district. My biggest issue is with the fact that they put new fast fashion items on the rack. Then turn away clothes from sellers because the racks are full. This isn't isolated to this store, it's a company wide issue. It's dishonest to operate a consignment store & stock new cheaply made items, while many people choose to shop here to avoid supporting the fast fashion industry. If you shop here, do everyone a favor & only buy the clothing marked *used*. If you want *new* clothes, go to the mall or any of the dozens of boutiques in the area.

I really love Buffalo Exchange and have been trading here since the 90's. I'm glad they were able to keep the store in Seattle. Friendly staff and wonderful opportunity to dress fashionable without spending a fortune.

Brought 4 bags of high quality clothing, mostly torrid. They spent a long time going through it and only took 5 items, citing that the things I brought in weren't "in demand" which frankly I took as blatant fatphobia. If you're not a size large or smaller don't bother bringing your clothes into buffalo exchange! They only cater to smaller sizes and it made me feel like crap even just shopping in their store.

Went in to sell my things and was told I was free to look around while they went through my clothing. When I came back, they offered a very low price — like absurdly low for the quality/quantity of things I'd brought in. I didn't argue, just asked my clothes back. They had lost track of all my things and were scrambling to put everything back in my bag. Someone told me next time to wait at the counter while they did their appraisal. It came off as really condescending when I was told I was free to walk around. Customer service was awful and I felt super embarrassed being talked to like that in front of a bunch of people. Also not sure why they put my stuff everywhere when I hadn't even expressed I wanted to finalize, just wanted the appraisal.

Edit: came back to the store after writing this review, soon as I walk in one of the managers is whispering and laughing to a coworker. Wow. I'll never come back. The employees never smile, except a couple. Also, the managers here seem to have attitude problems. They're power tripping off of telling you no to a sale. Hear me out though, since I've already made at least $120 at the Ballard location. Tonight's experience was not about good customer service. Its honestly disappointing when you bring in new things with tags on them, and they tell you they don't want to buy them, because they "already have too much in stock". But, it's the attitude of the employees here that leads to them losing me as a customer. I've been shopping here since 2016, but what's the point if the prices aren't competitive with places like Ross or Goodwill? I can go back to shopping and selling my items online. I didn't need the money when I came here to sell items. I just have a lot more clothes than I can deal with. I'm trying to get some of the money back for what I paid, rather than donating them all. To Tyler, thank you for being such an awesome person, but also making me feel seen as a customer. Even when the policies are tough to work around, you have given me a smile, which is honestly all anyone asks for. To the other nice employees here, there's about 2- THANK YOU. There was a young man working at the door who seemed pretty nice and kind, thought he was cool. He made me feel like maybe I can apply to Buffalo Exchange for a part time job, while I finish school, because I honestly didn't think they hired black people, but upon returning to the store today- he refused to talk to me. He barely looked at me the last time I came, so I assumed maybe I was being too talkative with him. Maybe I came on too strong? But, I'm not the problem. I don't deserve that kind of treatment, and I don't think any black person shopping or selling here needs to feel exiled from the store, because the employees don't know how to make people actually feel welcome.

Overall, this is really decent thrift store! I love buying men's flannels here and they always have a ton. From a seller's perspective, it was a pinch frustrating that they weren't interested in my torrid denim. A brand new pair of torrid jeans would cost you about $70 because it is plus sized (ugh). So it is unfortunate that they wouldn't accept my plus sized clothing as it wasn't stiff denim, I feel like if anything that would increase your customer base. They were gently used and denim is all year. I also had a ton of Lee work pants. Work pants are not seasonal guys, plus size people work too ?

Unless if you have high end fashion DO NOT SELL HERE. Everyone was nice don’t get me wrong but they rejected everything of mine which is pretty upsetting considering on their website they tell me to bring anything and inside looks like your regular 9-5 job. And don’t get me wrong I get I’m more from Lacey and this is Seattle and it’s more business wear like down there but really? I mean out of all my boyfriend’s clothes you didn’t want a nice pair of sweats? And this all would have been fine if you had it in the website that apparently Pajamas aren’t allowed…but we ended up having to drive 2 hours from Lacey to pay 1 toll and a parking ticket for 30 mins when we weren’t even in there for like 10 mins.

Been here three times bc I understand sometimes you come and it's an off day. But each and every time - barely any plus size clothes, lots of fast fashion, crappy attitude from staffers, and honestly? It's a garage sale branding itself as a consignment shop. You'd have better luck at the Capitol Hill consignments and thrift stores if you need cute, affordable, and diverse sizes.

A complete waste of time bringing my clothes here. I brought a garbage bag of clothing that was brand new with tags or very lightly worn, and they took nothing. They didn’t look at the tags and barely took the time to look at the clothes. They said they chose items based on organic materials like cotton, yet tons of clothes made of synthetic fibers were sold in the store. I do not recommend coming here to sell your clothes. I also believe that you will get different results based on who is assessing your items.

Store! is definitely racist and will not except anything from people of color.. they treated me as if my clothes were stolen and like a criminal…Also was asking me personal questions about where do I live? Where am I from? What’s my background and the most upsetting one; Why am I in Washington .. all of those questions just to tell me that they will not except my clothes.. let it be noted that all of my items were jeans ,about eight pair, they are all in immaculate condition because I take my clothes to the cleaners... There was no reason at all to deny my items, BUTaccording to the sales lady, (that was over 60 years old) my clothes was out of style and too URBAN.. .. If u are a person of color and experience the same treatment, Reach out to me . I am starting a class action suit against this place (if I can’t ) . People of color , please beware..

Like many of the other reviewers have said, the staff here are smarmy tools. Unless you’re a gen Z hipster, they treat you like some kind of vagrant. Came in to sell some stuff and it was busy— no big deal. I would’ve gladly shopped and spent some money if I hadn’t been told to sit down and wait my turn. Have we ever heard of setting things aside and being allowed to browse while we wait? I guess not. The person doing the buying was taking her sweet time as well. I won’t be returning.

The clothes are cute and trendy, but the young staff who work there have proven themselves to be unprofessional in the last few times I went to shop and trade clothes. BIPOC folks and diverse bodies are rarely seen shopping in the store, and now I fully understand why. Unless a white-friendly face greets staff at the door, staff are tight-lipped and suddenly rude when shifting from socializing to service. Petite, young staff seem to be judging whether the customers are worth the service.

One of my favorite thrift shops in the city but not my favorite location. It can get quite stuffy inside if there are more than 5 people shopping, not a lot of room to begin with but with people around it is hard to browse. Interesting patterns are the most expensive.

For selling clothes this is a pretty tough spot, usually my last resort for selling. They typically offer the least and their stuff is typically priced pretty high. They also could give less of an explanation when they want to pass on items. I’ve been in line and heard the girls in a polite voice say some pretty rude stuff about people clothes. Just say “we are going to pass” and move on. My go too has been Crossroads in Capitol Hill. Seems to be a better overall experience.

To the store manager and staff working behind the clothes resale/donation counter on 12/16/2023: It is not acceptable to audibly give any shade towards another customer’s items or clothing donations—especially IN FRONT of that customer, and audible to other customers. Even if you thought your comments were not being heard by store goers, please do know that they were. “People over 30 shouldn’t be allowed to donate their clothes,” said by the store manager at this location - is unnecessarily rude and mean. It is unfathomable that you’d think this behavior is acceptable. Moreover, why are you shaming someone for trying to recycle their clothes? Because I overheard these discussions and comments from, yes, again, this location’s store manager, while going through another customer’s donations, in front of them - I will not ever be coming here again. There’s enough hatred, mean, and negativity in the world as is, and there’s absolutely no need to hear it from store staff here. Please keep your person-shaming, unkind thoughts to yourself. I sincerely hope your staff reflect and learn and grow from this feedback. Peace.

The employees greeted every person coming in through the door after me, while I stood in front of the evaluating/clothing selection employee for 15 minutes. The selection employee was looking through bags of clothes from one person before me. She only selected 4 items from 4 bags stuffed with clothes. There were some NICE clothes in the bags. At one point I considered telling the lady who brought them in, I'll take some if they don't. Meanwhile, all of the employees avoided looking at me, not even once, to acknowledge that I was standing there. I hope this is by chance that everyone else they greeted were not poc's. I also agree with some of the previous reviews that there were clothes in very poor conditions being sold. Prices were also steep, not matching the quality at all. Meanwhile, I took in sweaters that were only worn once. None of them were taken. The clothing selection process as well as the customer service should be heavily evaluated and improved.

I went in with my boyfriend today so we could sell our clothes. We had no problem with the waiting. However, as we watched the buyer interact with other people, we quickly discovered this was probably going to be a waste of time. This buyer, who had short brown curly hair, was wearing a yellow t shirt with a shrimp on it and black skirt, clearly had no idea what they were doing. One person brought in a suitcase full of very nice jeans. They were in great condition, had no holes or anything, and the buyer didn't buy a single one. Most of the people we saw had loads of great things and only ended up with 3 or 4 items getting bought. Somebody had brought in a Starbucks large cup of water and left it on the ground. I accidentally knocked it over with my foot when taking a step forward in the line. I immediately went and got an employee who was available and alerted them to it. They were very nice and immediately came to start cleaning it up. I have severe ocd. Wet paper towels are one of my biggest triggers (yes weird I know, I'm working on it). I feel bad that I couldn't help but I knew it would make me have a severe panic attack. The buyer sees all this and comes over, and in the nastiest tone I've ever heard says "do you know who's this was? Who did this?" I immediately spoke up to which she tried to hand a paper towel roll by shoving it towards me and rudely saying "can you at least clean it up, it was your fault." My boyfriend came to my aid and helped cleaned it up, and as soon as the employee who was cleaning it up saw that he joined in, she got up and left for him to clean up the rest. That's when my boyfriend and I decided to leave. We had sat there for an hour watching this clueless buyer turn down dozens of great clothing items, only to be berated by them for something that was purely an accident. The level of attitude and disrespect this person had thrown at us was horrible, and I left the store shaking.

Good shop, you can take your clothes and exchange for some money. You will find second-hand clothes, shoes, costumes and accessories.