The company that turned your old closet into cash - and made secondhand a national habit.
The buffalo has been tugging that "Buy - Sell - Trade" banner since Kerstin and Spencer Block opened a 400-square-foot shop in Tucson - the whole business model drawn in a single illustration.
In 1974, a Swedish immigrant named Kerstin Block had a simple, slightly radical idea: a secondhand store that was clean, bright and curated - and that paid you for your clothes on the spot. She stocked the first 400-square-foot shop on Tucson's Warren Avenue with garments from her own closet, her husband's, and her friends'. Her husband Spencer built the racks out of water pipes and kept the books.
They called it Buffalo Exchange. Kerstin chose "Buffalo" because it sounded distinctly American to her; Spencer added "Exchange," because that was precisely what they were doing. Five decades later, that name sits on roughly 40 stores across about 15 states, and the company still runs on the same idea it opened with.
Buffalo Exchange is a resale fashion company built on buy-sell-trade. Shoppers bring in gently used, on-trend clothing and accessories; a buyer makes an offer in minutes - cash or store trade - and the best of it goes back out on the floor for the next person. No donation bins, no consignment waiting period, no venture capital. Just a curated rack and an honest offer.
The scale is quiet but large. Buffalo Exchange takes in about 5.5 million pieces of clothing a year and has kept more than 100 million garments in circulation over its lifetime. It is, in the language the industry now loves, "circular fashion" - except it was doing it before anyone had a name for it.
"Respecting people, treating everybody fairly, and listening."
Unlike a thrift store, Buffalo Exchange doesn't wait for donations. Unlike consignment, it doesn't make you wait for a sale. It buys inventory outright from the community and owns what it sells - which is why the racks are full of things people actually want.
Gently used, current, vintage or designer clothing and accessories - no appointment needed.
A trained buyer selects what will resell and offers ~25% in cash or ~50% in store trade, on the spot.
The item goes back on the floor at a fraction of retail, and the cycle - and the garment - keeps going.
Buffalo Exchange serves two customers at once. There's the seller - a student clearing a closet, someone decluttering for a little cash or trade - and the shopper hunting for a vintage jacket, a designer piece, or a good pair of jeans for far less than retail. Often they are the same person on different days.
The problems it solves are as practical as they are environmental. For shoppers, it's affordable style without the fast-fashion price of newness. For sellers, it's instant value for clothes that would otherwise sit in a closet or a landfill. And for a fashion industry drowning in waste, it's a proven way to keep clothing in use - roughly 5.5 million pieces a year that don't need to be made again.
The core service: on-the-spot cash or trade for gently used, hand-selected clothing and accessories.
Clean, bright stores stocked with current trends, vintage, designer and one-of-a-kind pieces.
Skip the plastic bag, drop a 5-cent token in the jar for a local nonprofit. $1M+ raised, 20M+ bags avoided.
Clothing for a dollar, with proceeds donated to environmental nonprofits.
A grant fund with the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona - $100K+ for animal rescue groups.
Community collection drives donating coats and clothing to local shelters and partners.
The resale market is crowded now - donation-based thrift chains like Goodwill and Savers, resale rivals like Crossroads Trading and Plato's Closet, and app-first marketplaces like ThredUp, Poshmark, Depop and The RealReal. Buffalo Exchange sits in a distinct spot: a bricks-and-mortar curator that pays for inventory upfront and puts a human buyer at the counter.
That human judgment is the real product. A buyer deciding in seconds what will sell is what keeps a Buffalo Exchange rack feeling shopped rather than sorted. It's an expertise that predates the resale apps by decades, and one they still struggle to replicate. The company's edge isn't technology - it's fifty years of knowing what people value and what they'll let go of.
Kerstin and Spencer Block open a 400-square-foot buy-sell-trade shop, stocked with clothes from their own closets.
The curated resale concept catches on and Buffalo Exchange opens additional Arizona locations.
Expansion to San Francisco and across California, the Southwest and the Northwest.
A 5-cent charity token replaces the plastic bag, going on to raise over $1 million for local nonprofits.
An animal-welfare grant fund launches with the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.
Buffalo Exchange marks its 50th anniversary with roughly 40 stores across about 15 states.
Kerstin Block passes away; daughter Rebecca Block leads the family-owned company toward a 100-year goal.
Came to Arizona at 18 on an anthropology scholarship, then pioneered resale fashion and led the company for about five decades.
Built the first racks from water pipes, handled the accounting, and named the "Exchange" half of Buffalo Exchange.
Kerstin's daughter, now leading the independent, family-owned company with a stated goal of reaching 100 years in business.
The name is a two-person collaboration. "Buffalo" for its American ring, "Exchange" for what the store actually does.
The first inventory was personal. Kerstin stocked the shop with clothes from her own, her husband's and her friends' closets.
No venture funding, ever. Buffalo Exchange has stayed family-owned and independent since day one.
The racks began as plumbing. Spencer Block built the store's first clothing racks out of water pipes.
A family-owned resale fashion chain founded in 1974 in Tucson, Arizona that buys, sells and trades gently used clothing and accessories through roughly 40 stores across the U.S.
You bring in gently used, on-trend clothing and accessories, and a buyer makes an on-the-spot offer - typically around 25% of resale value in cash or about 50% in store trade. No appointment or consignment wait required.
Unlike donation-based thrift stores, Buffalo Exchange buys its inventory outright from the local community and hand-selects only items it expects to resell - resulting in a curated mix of current, vintage and designer pieces.
Instead of a single-use plastic bag, shoppers can take a 5-cent token and donate it to a rotating local nonprofit. Since 1994 the program has raised over $1 million and kept more than 20 million bags out of the environment.
It remains independent and family-owned. Co-founder Kerstin Block led it for about five decades, and her daughter Rebecca Block now serves as CEO, aiming to reach 100 years in business.