Goodwill outlets, oh my what a mess!

[inspectorgadget]

I happen to live in a town that has 3 of these .89 cents per pound Goodwill outlet centers & I can't stand them! The only real good deals are gotten by the people who basically live in the store all day long! Most people walk in & grab 4 carts then just start filling them with any & everything as fast as they can. Then these people go to a corner & sit there & look up every single item up on eBay & then they put back what they don't want. It's already bad enough with people going thru those bigass bins like hogs at the feeding trough but I can't stand people putting crap in their carts they wont end up buying & not just a few things more like 3 carts full of stuff they put back! Funny to as I have watched people keep & buy pure garbage & yet put back the good items they had grabbed up. I guess their eBay app lied to them or something?

Also many of the bar code scanner apps are junk! Especially the ones that make a cha ching sound when it's a good item & makes a clunk sound if it's a bad item! I was testing one out that did that & it was dead wrong almost every time! So I guess if ya go by the opposite of what it tells ya it's actually useful! Anyway that was my rant for the day & I was wondering if anyone else dislikes these Goodwill outlet centers like I do?

 

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[releventchair]

I hit one on occasion to look over high carbon knives. I do recall a time Goodwill was much lower traffic. Donations of higher value items seems to have tapered off with economy. Have not been in a while but will watch to see what folks are doing towards research while in the building. Their cloths are up considerably now where visited here a state north of you.

 

[dieselram94]

I almost never go into goodwill. Up here in maine the donations seem to be all garbage people don't want to pay to get rid of at the dump...

sent from a potato...

 

[inspectorgadget]

I almost never go into goodwill. Up here in maine the donations seem to be all garbage people don't want to pay to get rid of at the dump...

sent from a potato...

Most of it is junk here too but I see whats in the carts of the people who have been there all freaking day & they have real nice items in their cart! They just keep waiting on the new bins to come out & are consistently the ones who get first dibs on that stuff. Last time there was a guy pushing around a cart that had several pink depression oil lamps, several vintage if not antique tin type toys and several other items that were all just as good as each other especially at 89 cents a pound! Tho I couldn't find $2 worth of stuff I was willing to buy while I was there!

 

[cazisme]

You want to see something funny try a small gopher snake in the bin LOL they all clear out quickly. For the next few bins they are sorta slow trying to push everyone outa the way

 

[batcap]

I mean this in the most complimentary way: Anyone who would hang out all day at a Goodwill waiting for bin after bin to come out is in their own way as hard-working as the immigrant Mexicans doing concrete labor or picking vegetables, or Asian families that more or less live at their place of business. For those people so broke that they can only make it to the local GW, but so determined that they keep seed money to buy little treasures that they know they can make a buck from; my hat is off to them. If treasure hunting ever gets that bad I'll just move south and die of a bullet wound for stealing an ear of corn or an orange or something.

 

[dieselram94]

Here is one method of dealing with these people at the bins...

 

[Atlanta Mi Dave]

We donate a lot of stuff to GW, But we quit shopping there quite a while back. Once though, we donated something to them and then had a change of heart and went back a few days later and bought it back! A few weeks later we gave it away to my wife's friend. Crazy!!

 

[gino22]

Can you imagine the work that goes into offloading cartloads of that stuff? It is almost impossible for them to be making above minimum wage accounting for their expenses and time, not to mention the fact that anything of real value is immediately snapped up by management and put on eBay (Goodwill's corporate eBay, if management is honest).

 

[inspectorgadget]

Here is one method of dealing with these people at the bins...

Um I don't know what exactly happened in that video? I did notice however that "victim" is wearing an airbrushed hoodie, when was this video shot? Had to be shot in either 1985 or in Florida? LOL! Oh and is that a man or a woman victim in the vid? It also sort of looks like that bin has a $1 sign above it but looks like its filled with electronics of some sort thus I think it's just an illusion.....

EDIT OK I looked up that stuff & now I see, it just stinks really bad! Tho as bad as some of the people smell at the GW outlet no one would prolly notice anything out of the ordinary! Heck I think some people go in there stinking to high heaven on purpose & in reality that actually isn't a bad idea!

 

[inspectorgadget]

Can you imagine the work that goes into offloading cartloads of that stuff? It is almost impossible for them to be making above minimum wage accounting for their expenses and time, not to mention the fact that anything of real value is immediately snapped up by management and put on eBay (Goodwill's corporate eBay, if management is honest).

eBay account? last I checked (& ya it's been a while) but they had their own auction site a while back that the good stuff went on.

 

[Baltimore]

I love the one near me, but I'm mostly a vintage clothing guy which makes it easy to find stuff that has slipped through the fingers of the people who basically live there. The one that I go to actually doesn't have a lot of competition, which is pretty amazing. Theres 2 book and cd guys, a sports equipment guy, and a flock of hatians who only buy athletic shoes and handbags. I once had the sports equipment guy hand me 2 perfect condition GE fans from the 30's because he wasn't interested. no one else had even looked at them. I've gotten some amazing stuff there, but it seems like that is rare after hearing the stories from you guys. It actually costs $1.69 a pound though, so that might be scaring away some of the bottom feeders.

 

[gino22]

eBay account? last I checked (& ya it's been a while) but they had their own auction site a while back that the good stuff went on.

I was actually thinking of Salvation Army, but a lot of the major metro area Goodwills have regional eBay stores that move volume. Not familiar with the other auction site, but I'll look into it, sounds interesting

 

[GibH]

We donate a lot of stuff to GW, But we quit shopping there quite a while back. Once though, we donated something to them and then had a change of heart and went back a few days later and bought it back! A few weeks later we gave it away to my wife's friend. Crazy!!

I you are going to donate, find a real charity to donate to. Goodwill is a racket making a select few a lot of money while skirting minimum wage laws. Yeah they are a non-profit, all the profits go to paying the management and regional CEOs.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I was actually thinking of Salvation Army, but a lot of the major metro area Goodwills have regional eBay stores that move volume. Not familiar with the other auction site, but I'll look into it, sounds interesting

Maybe I was thinking Salvation army? Now I forget which one the site was? hmm, lol.

I you are going to donate, find a real charity to donate to. Goodwill is a racket making a select few a lot of money while skirting minimum wage laws. Yeah they are a non-profit, all the profits go to paying the management and regional CEOs.

Couldn't agree more GibH! You are 100% right!

 

[inspectorgadget]

I love the one near me, but I'm mostly a vintage clothing guy which makes it easy to find stuff that has slipped through the fingers of the people who basically live there. The one that I go to actually doesn't have a lot of competition, which is pretty amazing. Theres 2 book and cd guys, a sports equipment guy, and a flock of hatians who only buy athletic shoes and handbags. I once had the sports equipment guy hand me 2 perfect condition GE fans from the 30's because he wasn't interested. no one else had even looked at them. I've gotten some amazing stuff there, but it seems like that is rare after hearing the stories from you guys. It actually costs $1.69 a pound though, so that might be scaring away some of the bottom feeders.

Actually a couple of my friends do scour the clothes looking for vintage concert shirts & they quite often find them as they do get over looked as does a lot of the clothing! So ya if your looking for clothes then you will have more success than with most other things!

 

[Grundestoun]

We have a by the pound store my area (not GW). It gets crazy on certain days when they roll out the new bins. I have been there when fights have broke out. I have even had people try to start one with me. Not to mention that you never know what you will find in those bins. The workers dump everything in them. There is stuff in them that you don't want to know where it has been or what the horrible smell is on it. I have even seen mice and rats in it. If you want see some of them freak out yell out "there's a rat in there". LOL. Not to mention all the broken glass and dodging things that people throw when their digging for stuff. I did get some cool stuff though. Last time I went was when it wasn't so crazy. I Don't plan on going there a lot anymore. Yard sales and regular thrift stores are safer.

 

[steif]

I have a bit of good luck at these outlet stores. I have found hardback books that were $10-20 sellers, more vintage clothing, sports jerseys, harley shirts, concert shirts...etc. I usually sell the sports jerseys and harley shirts for $5-6 each, and they do sell quick for me. the concert shirts are a different item, some are pretty good. I just sold a 1974 beatles shirt for $250. cost me about 40 cents at the outlet..lol


You guys dont overlook the harley shirts, the ones with the dealers name on them. I bet I have sold a couple hundred for $5 each.. and they are a pretty easy sell around here.

 

[2Minnesota]

Ditto what GibH said. Donate to the Salvation Army or a smaller local TS. Avoid giving donations to GW if possible. The money doesn't go back to the community really. Just my two cents.

 

[diggummup]

They put a stop to the all day lurkers at the Goodwill near me, and it isn't even an outlet store. Unless you are a true hardcore flea market clothing seller, or you export clothes by the container load overseas, then don't waste your time at the "by the pound" Goodwill outlet stores. I will say that I found (reg. Goodwill) a brand new with tags xxl (just my size) Fireball Whiskey Dickies work shirt for $2 last week. Meanwhile, they wanted $6 for a ragged out t-shirt. I asked the cashier why? She said because it is considered a "work shirt". Lol, okay works for me. I could have sold it for $30 or $40, but I kept it to wear myself.