Goodwill Salvage

[gorgias]

Hi, Everyone,

I don't know if they do this in all Goodwills, but in New Mexico Target salvages their merchandise--floor models, returns, etc--to Goodwill. The merchandise then sells for approximately 75% off.

So far, we've bought:

a sony flatscreen tv for $ 600 - http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BRAVIA-KDL-46V5100-46-Inch-1080p/dp/B001T9N0EO

a delonghi panini maker for $15 (I cook dinner on it every night) - http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-Retr...8&s=home-garden&qid=1278722148&sr=8-2-catcorr

a delonghi coffee pot for $25 or $20. It has an "aroma" button - http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-DCF2...2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1278722242&sr=1-2

A Sony handycam for $70 (no accessories but cheap from Hong Kong on ebay) -
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DCR-SR47...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1278722402&sr=1-14

I also bought some very classy salvaged lamps and end tables there.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/183-8533835-8449264?asin=B002RTWG3G&AFID=Froogle_df&LNM=|B002RTWG3G&CPNG=home%20decor&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

Every decent piece of furniture I have has a green salvage label on it.

Also for every $200 you spend (in $20 increments), gets you $20 store credit. So, with the $600 tv, we also got $60 in store credit.

Gorgias

 

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[savant365]

My girlfriend just started a job with goodwill. She helps sort through the donations and whatever they don't want to take to the store the employee's can buy for a nickle. She bought a small box of mixed up tangled costume jewelry and said here they didn't want this see if any of it is any good. I don't have a scale but there were 4 pieces of 14K in it.

HH Charlie

 

[gorgias]

I know guys that work there. Some of them told me they were tempted to steal, especially since the stuff was donated and employees aren't allowed to buy stuff for a certain period of time. I don't think anyone has.

For a nickel, get your gf to buy anything with ponetial to be valuable, like costume jewelry, etc. I will ask if this is available for customers.

I've seen 2-3 people here buy china thinking it might be worth something, but I wouldn't know how to begin finidng out. I tried the guy's trick of buying a silver tray, priced as a tray, but I couldn't find any.

Gorgias

 

[Shortstack]

While I was driving a truck for J.B. Hunt in 1990-1995, I found out that Wal-Mart owned a string of discount stores "up north" where the company would sell all of their own returned / broken items. I'd never heard about that until I delivered a load to one of the stores in a strip mall in, I think, Ohio. I don't remember the name of the stores, but I DO remember it was a silly little name and there was nothing in it's signage that connected it to Wal-Mart. The manager of that store is who told me of Wally's ownership. I picked up that load from a large Wal-Mart Distribution Center in South Carolina and delivered it to that little store.

 

[savant365]

I know guys that work there. Some of them told me they were tempted to steal, especially since the stuff was donated and employees aren't allowed to buy stuff for a certain period of time. I don't think anyone has.

For a nickel, get your gf to buy anything with ponetial to be valuable, like costume jewelry, etc. I will ask if this is available for customers.

I've seen 2-3 people here buy china thinking it might be worth something, but I wouldn't know how to begin finidng out. I tried the guy's trick of buying a silver tray, priced as a tray, but I couldn't find any.

Gorgias

The place she works isn't actually "goodwill" or "salvation army" so they may have different policies. It's a local non profit that puts mentally challenged folks to work. They build pallets and recycle stuff from some of the local factories. When I was a kid that was where we took our aluminum cans to sell. They started taking donations and opened up 2 thirft stores and a dollar store here in town. They have a seperate store for clothes and one for everything from books to furniture that has been donated. It's sad but people use their donation drop to discard items that don't want to pay to take to the landfill. They get more junk then usable items and they just don't have the man power to research every little item that comes in. Her and 2 or 3 others sort through the stuff and basically pick out the items that they know will sell quickly and just throw the rest out. If there is something that they are gonna toss the employees can buy it for .05c. I'm not sure but I think the whole "buying it for a nickle" policy is for legal reasons. That way no one gets accused of stealing donations and everything that they buy has to be approved by a supervisor. I told her if they were throwing away something she thought might have some value to it bring it home and I would do the research. It's not that hard to do a quick ebay or google search and find out. I had to get the magnifying glass to find the 14K on a couple of pieces but it would have ended up in the dump if she hadn't rescued it.

HH Charlie

 

[spartacus53]

You did well on the Sony products. Too bad that TV wasn't a plasma set, that would have been even a bigger score, but LCD is good too and the price unbeatable.

 

[gorgias]

LOL. I'm still in grad school, though my wife is graduated. You should've seen my last tv set.

I'm happy to get a bigscreen.

Gorgias