These can be almost as off-putting as charity shops. No, more so. Staff and music tend to be very tedious. Good ones are hard to find in my experience. I'll visit half a dozen on a good day and often come away seething with anger. Most are cheap, though.
In the end, better to save the pennies and talk to the Shamrock or one of the other forum good guys. I hope there'll be a lot more buying, selling, bartering and back-scratching.
'Americana' shops tend to be the worst, the most 'knowing'. The staff, generally unshaven and wearing hideous baggy clothing, think they're ultra-hip. The girlies, though - as I've said to Colin - are often eye-candy.
I remember in Camden Town, or some other Laandan location, stumbling across a vintage shop specialising in seemingly to me 1920's flapper fairy dresses in children's sizes, everything in there was at least two grand GBP plus a pop. I was with one of my ex-girlfriend's on a weekend break, all very strange to me, the ways of the big city. It was vintage alright and 'effing expensive, considering no modern woman could fit into the dresses there were selling. Money laundering? I dunno', but some of these shops can't be legit.
How much??? Blimey - the most I've ever paid for anything in one of these dumps is £50 for the pea coat I was wearing earlier.
Definitely that was the price, I distinctively remember. That was about the year 2000, the sophisticated ways of the metropolitan folk were still new to me then, except for some drag queens, transexuals and rent boys I met back in 1992 at the Fridge.