A Boring Dystopia

Is it something you do as a hobby/interest or for a living? Bc that sounds like a lot

Yes to both. I have always been interested in clothes and fashion since childhood (dolls and sewing and crafting etc) and I like getting the most value out of my money, which led me to thrift shops and buying second hand. Thrift shops and the quality of their items are highly variable but for some time I lived in a place that had multiple fantastic shops. I would rotate through them and grab high quality items that were not selling there and sell them online. I moved and don't pick as much to sell anymore, but I still buy for my family and self.

Thrifting is sort of like gambling, except it costs time instead of money to "play". You only pay after you "win" by finding the Awesome Thing. Sometimes you will strike out and not find anything, that's normal. If you only look at one thrift shop once or twice you will likely not find anything, and you usually will find something other than what you were specifically looking for. However when you "win" and find something truly special and exciting, it can keep you going back to the hunt.

Men's clothes are harder to thrift generally, because as a group, men are more careful consumers and will wear their clothes out instead of donating them. However it's still perfectly possible to find good things. You already know to look for natural fibers, but did you know you can dye stained shirts in your washing machine with dye from most grocery stores? If you have a an otherwise good quality plain shirt but it has some discoloration, you can spend $5 on a bottle or box of dye, and either throw it in a big cookpot on the stove or run it through the hot wash cycle with anything else you want to be that color. There are also other places to thrift, like online second hand marketplaces (Ebay, Poshmark, Vinted, Thredup etc), Church fundraiser sales, and of course good old yard sales.