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The frugality of some shoppers who are buying second-hand items for holiday gifts this year would probably bring approval from Ebenezer Scrooge — at least before his epiphany.

While hard sales numbers were not available, thrift shop managers said that this holiday shopping season has been good for them, as customers worried about the economy are shopping there in increased numbers.

"People are saying, ‘This will be perfect as a gift for this person,'" said Jeane Lamborghini, manager of the Life4Animals Thrift Shop in Gaithersburg, which raises money for the Washington Animal Rescue League and other animal welfare organizations.

The shop sells everything from high-end designer brand clothing to jewelry to pots and pans — all donated by people wanting to support the animal rescue league, Lamborghini said.

"We get wonderful things because people truly love animals," she said.

The oddest item that came to her three-year-old shop was a set of false teeth. She was about to throw it out when a volunteer told her to put it out on the shelf for sale. A collector of oddities purchased the dentures that day.

But most of the holiday purchases are more conventional, from donated toys to books.

"There's definitely a lot of Christmas buying going on," Lamborghini said.

The trend is not surprising, said Jie Zhang, an associate professor of marketing and the Harvey Sanders fellow of retail management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.

With the economy still down, shoppers are expected to be especially deal-prone this season and retail shops are resorting to deep discounting, she said.

"It appears people are being much more value-conscious than before. Going to a thrift store makes sense," Zhang said. "We have a 10 percent unemployment rate, so it stands to reason more people are shopping at thrift stores. Certainly if you're a careful shopper, you can do very, very well, certainly much better than even a Wal-Mart."

Part of the reason for the increased traffic at thrift stores is that many shoppers have done more of their regular shopping throughout the year at such stores, said David Ziegele, board president of the Montgomery County Thrift Shop in Bethesda, a nonprofit that supports five charitable organizations.

"Our sales numbers are up quite a bit compared to past years," Ziegele said.

Sales for the year through November were up 5 percent over last year, which also was a boom year, and 14 percent over 2007, he said.

High-quality clothing items can often be purchased for as little as $2, he said.

"It's pretty appealing prices during hard times," he said.

The toys and higher-end items have done well among bargain holiday shoppers, he said.

"Some are truly antiques and others are slightly used but very nice things like china and crystal," Ziegele said. "We've also tried to point out to people there are environmental benefits to shopping at a thrift shop and donating to a thrift shop, too. It saves landfill space as well as all the energy to make and ship new items."

Ziegele and Lamborghini said that once the holiday sales rush is over they expect another rush — this time from last-minute donors looking to bring in items for tax deductions.

"As a nonprofit, people can deduct their donations [to the store] from their taxes," Ziegele said.