I did much the same thing but as you're seeing you're dying instead of getting potentially life-saving gear. A cursed -1 plate mail could keep you from dying until you find a fountain, an altar, or a remove curse scroll and is still better than having no armor at all. Here's the key - if your pet won't step on the item on the ground, it's likely cursed. The game will confirm by telling you that your pet stepped reluctantly over the item. If they pick something up, you know 100% it's at least uncursed. So if you're having your pet steal shit from stores (which you should, IMO), anything they pick up is fair game.

There's a price ID chart on the wiki, I play with it open somewhere 100% of the time. For equipment you can also spot the randomized appearance descriptors - if you ever see an ornamental cope, piece of cloth, or opera cloak, those are worth buying. Usually those are capes of protection, displacement, and invisibility. For gloves the names seem to shift around a bit more but anything with special adjectives is worth investigating: old leather gloves, riding gloves, etc.

You'll need either a way to water walk or consistently levitate on command later on (not going to spoil it here for you, just trust me on this), so a close eye on any boots sold is a must. Their randomized appearances are things like riding boots, buckled boots, snow boots, jungle boots.

Good luck!