A brand-new shop with an eye for the weird and wonderful has opened up in Reading town centre, much to the delight of all local thrifters. 

Self-acclaimed lover of all of all things weird and wonderful, with a passion for avoiding waste, Trudy recently opened Ted's Curiosities in the Harris Arcade. 

"We are a consignment store, not a charity or vintage shop," said Trudy. "I take people's unwanted and unloved items and I sell them for them.

"It's basically me doing the donkey work instead of them going to Amazon, Ebay, Depop, or Vinted and putting them up themselves to sell."

Ted's Curiosities takes anything from people's clothes, shoes, and bags, to vintage items and antiques. 

They even have some rarities in the store at this point in time that are over one hundred years old. 

"We do a lot of collectibles too," she continued. "We have lots of beanie babies in at the moment, Top Trump cards, we've merchandise from all of the TV shows and movies you could ever think of."

Some of their figurines include characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, and WWE. They also sell a whole range of beloved household items, textiles, and ceramics.

Trudy takes a 30% commission on most of the stuff aside from larger furniture items, where she takes 40%. 

"We have so much stock at the moment, I even have lots more back home that would not fit into this space," Trudy said. 

"Some of the furniture pieces I've got at my house are just stunning. I just don't like things being thrown away really. Charity shops will only take so much.

"Families just don't want old things most of the time, which is sad because antiques are our history."

She went on to say that some of the stories behind the items that she gets are just amazing. 

Trudy gave one example of an elderly German gentleman who recently passed away, and when a representative went to clear his things found lots of treasured curiosities. 

"We've got lots of beautiful vases and military-style clothes that were given to us from the gentleman," she explained.

"All of these are European pieces of ceramics from all of his travels. It's so hard not to want to keep everything as they are all so beautiful."

She also said that they receive a lot of old books that are worth a substantial amount of money.