G'day Nathan,
I don't know whether or not you have Saturday morning garage sales (at people's homes where they sell of stuff they don't want) but I'm an habitué of these where I live in a small coastal village (just over 2,000 inhabitants) on the south coast of NSW.
Well, my Kathmandu pack I used about 75 litre capacity, cost me over $300 at one of their half price sales. I bought another pack subsequently at a garage sale for $15. It's almost the same capacity, of high quality, and has a number of features the Kathmandu pack lacks. This past Saturday morning for $2 I picked up a beautiful well designed and made smaller back pack of around 25 litre capacity. Eat your hearts out those who pay mega bucks for Osprey etc!
Vinnies and the Sals op shops sometimes have stuff. I got a virtually brand new Mountain Designs Goretex rain jacket at Vinnies for $20, but must say this was a very lucky purchase. I don't like Goretex (all my previous ones weren't at all rainproof) but couldn't resist it at the price.
Sometimes the Sunday morning markets have stuff, but often it's stuff with jacked up prices that the regular traders have bought at garage sales the day before.
But don't think that you can find stuff by just turning up one Saturday morning and expecting it to be there. I'm a regular at garage sales but for me it's more of a social outing. I rarely buy very much, if anything at all, and frequently there is nothing there of interest to me.
De Colores
Bogong