Goodwill bins, outlets & as-is auctions

[trdhrdr007]

Hoping someone here can help me out. I've heard about Goodwill outlets and/or distribution centers that sell items out of bins by the pound or auctions off lots. I've googled my butt off & can't seem to find anything like that close to me. I found the thread from last year with the list of bin stores but nothing near me. I'm in east central Alabama looking for anything in Alabama, Georgia or north Florida. Would really like to step up my game.....

 

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[diggummup]

Looks like everything is south and west of you. The closest one I see near you may be the Brewton, Al. location. Located at 1650 Douglas ave. or
7900 Moffett road, Semmes, al. There is another one in Pensacola, Fl. 3351 McLemore dr. Other than that there is a couple in Tallahassee.

 

[trdhrdr007]

I'll look into the Brewton location. Heard there is a distribution center in Atlanta which is about 90 minutes up the road. Seems like there should be an outlet of some sort there.

 

[clovis97]

That place is hit and miss, for the most part, with more misses than hits, IMO.

About a year ago, I found 25 to 30 technical repair manuals for 25 cents each, and flipped them by the piece for about $600 total, and really sold them too cheap.

But, my wife and mom went twice in the past two weeks...total trash. Total waste of time, gas, money, etc. I'd love to have the 110 miles back on my car.

BTW, there are full time resellers there, that go each day. The competition is fierce at times.

YMMV.

 

[NJ Marty]

That place is hit and miss, for the most part, with more misses than hits, IMO.

About a year ago, I found 25 to 30 technical repair manuals for 25 cents each, and flipped them by the piece for about $600 total, and really sold them too cheap.

But, my wife and mom went twice in the past two weeks...total trash. Total waste of time, gas, money, etc. I'd love to have the 110 miles back on my car.

BTW, there are full time resellers there, that go each day. The competition is fierce at times.

YMMV.

I agree. I had one good hit this year, approx. $2000 worth of rare LPs for a $100 investment. Total luck, timing was just right and the Lps were such obscure names they probably didn't do an ebay check on them. Like I said Timing was just right. The goodwills near me in NJ check everything now but you hope for the obscure item they don't think of checking. A few months back I was there, they had a grundig satellit 5000 radio. My dad was big into grundig radios so I know them. This model doesn't look like anything special. I almost fell over, price tag of $40. But I couldn't buy it cause it was for the Saturday window sale, he wouldn't even let me look at it. "come back sat" "come back sat" I was leaving for vaca the Friday before. darn. Like Clovis said, a lot of times are a total waste of gas prob more than 80% of the time

 

[dumpsterdiver]

this is my first time learning of the existence of such a thing. has anyone been to the one in Belmar NJ that I found online? and if so is there a decent percentage of non clothing?? Trying to determine if its worth a drive

 

[NJ Marty]

this is my first time learning of the existence of such a thing. has anyone been to the one in Belmar NJ that I found online? and if so is there a decent percentage of non clothing?? Trying to determine if its worth a drive

Most near me are 50/50 clothing and other items. Key is to be lucky and be there when they bring out carts of new merchandise. Most of the fric frac stuff is total junk and they have such crappy things there like vhs machines from the 90's. BUT sometimes you get lucky. I enjoy estate and garage sales much more.

 

[clovis97]

this is my first time learning of the existence of such a thing. has anyone been to the one in Belmar NJ that I found online? and if so is there a decent percentage of non clothing?? Trying to determine if its worth a drive

Honestly, it is about 50/50 clothes and junk on average.

When their donations are down, the percentage of clothes goes waaaaay up. I have been there 3 weeks in a row, and it was nothing but clothes. The resellers I talked to were not happy!

 

[cherrypicked]

I've heard of them but have never been. A huge amount of what I sell comes from my local Goodwills but I'm very lucky that both are located in extremely wealthy areas so you can almost always find at least one thing but usually a lot more. It seems to me that if I couldn't pick and choose, it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[davinci]

I heard of them. There is a big one in St. Louis. My cousin says it's lots of clothes and not so sanitary. The good stuff gets to stores usually. As for their website it's too competitive to buy there. People pay retail or more.

 

[Nickleanddime]

i think your looking for shopgoodwill.com its their online auction site

 

[davinci]

I've heard of them but have never been. A huge amount of what I sell comes from my local Goodwills but I'm very lucky that both are located in extremely wealthy areas so you can almost always find at least one thing but usually a lot more. It seems to me that if I couldn't pick and choose, it wouldn't be worth it.

Lookin good! if you get any listed art let me know. I'm a big buyer.

 

[clovis97]

BTW, if you are into selling books, it used to be a good place to buy.

Starting about a year ago, they started listing almost every book with an ISBN on ebay. The only books they bring out now are older books, magazines, romance novels, and general trash.

The crazy thing is that they are listing books for 3.99 with free shipping. It is costing them more to ship some books than what they sold them for on ebay. I know for a fact that some books that they sell cost more than $4 to ship, even with media rate.

Before they started selling on ebay, they once sold books by the pound, at 99 cents, IIRC. Then they went to 1.29 per pound.

There are a few book deals in the bins these days to be found, but it is very rare.

Someone at GW is really, really, really bad with math.

 

[cherrypicked]

Lookin good! if you get any listed art let me know. I'm a big buyer.

I have a few pieces. Mostly generic street scenes of Paris, NYC and boats but by fairly well known painters. I stopped buying them unless I found something really special because even some that go at auction for a few hundred dollars never seem to sell online for me.

 

[vwayne1]

Those places are pretty unsanitary as someone else said. Everything in bins. It is basically the stuff that should go to the dump but goes there instead. When you see the employees culling down the racks and shelves at goodwill, they are taking away the broken, missing parts, and generally unsellable stuff and trucking them to these bin outlets. I've found a couple prizes but pretty obscure items that most wouldn't think to check out. It is kind of fun watching the frenzy when the new bins come out of the back. We have 2 within 100 miles. I only go if I happen to be going by.

 

[diggummup]

They just opened a new one about 4 miles from me. I haven't checked it out yet though.

 

[palidin20603]

They just opened a new one about 4 miles from me. I haven't checked it out yet though.

Dude! I would put my gloves on and start digging through the bins! GW is uppity these days, there is a long haired hippie at the one by my house who is always looking every item up on ebay and pricing it based on that. They price high and wait weeks or months for some things to sell. They have a bag of 800 silver spoons for 2x melt at $50! The worst.

 

[Baltimore]

I went to one in Richmond, VA that was pretty lousy, broken glass in the clothing bins and whatnot. However, There is one about 4 miles from where I am, and it is actually pretty fantastic. You have to go there with an open mind, and you may not find that one big score, but it is an easy spend $20-$50 and make $200+ every time I go. I found a couple 30's GE fans for $3 and $5, some super awesome vintage jansport frame backpacks, a 48 star american flag, tons of high dollar vintage clothing, hats, and shoes, and tons of "spend $1-5 and make $20-$40" items. Its not glamorous at all, it can get a little gross at times, but it's good money if you know what to look for. I think this place is a rose among thorns because it processes overflow donations. There are literally huge boxes of raw, untouched, never before searched donations getting pulled out of trucks with a forklift and being dumped directly in the back lot every 15 minutes for us to look through. There are a bunch of Haitians that hang out there all day and cherry pick, but they seem to buy athletic shoes and handbags pretty exclusively, so it is quite easy to find things that they overlook.

There's another handful of guys who basically live there, a couple reside in the book bins, another guy only buys sports equipment. They're honest guys like us though, and very "if you scratch my back I'll scratch yours". I gave the sporting goods guy an old hockey helmet once, and he gave me anything he found that looked antique-ish (some pretty good stuff), I gave the book guys a garbage bag of CDs I found in a box and they gave me a huge pile of hats from one of the boxes near them. Its actually quite nice, there isn't much toe-stepping and everyone is pretty friendly. The Haitians get a little worked up when a new shoe box gets dropped and the elbows can start to fly, but I just step away and let the feeding frenzy go.

I once went there when I had some spare cash and spent $60 on two huge duffel bags full of merch. I got a bunch of vintage stuff that would be very hard to sell online because it looked cool but was not name brand and took it to a local and pretty hipstery consignment place that pays cash on the spot. I sold them about 1/3 of my haul for a cool $108. Best of all, I had saved most of the better stuff, like a brand new pair of L.L. bean Boots, to sell myself on ebay. I've probably sold another $50 in random jeans and stuff from that haul, and I still have most of it left. So yea, if you can go in with no expectations, it can be great. If you go in hoping for a gold mine, you'll probably be disappointed.

 

[Nickleanddime]

The one in my town is very over priced and the goods are usually broken or junk. And its all because of jerks who post stuff online to high with no idea what it is, or just throwing a hail mary looking for a sucker. Then they get on there looking for a price they see the highest price first and then thats the price forever lol sorry GW makes me mad. I wait for the half price color days at mine anymore. Yesterday I wish i would have had a extra $25 bucks, they had a ps2 with 2 controllers and game for
$20 and a game cube in carrying case and controllers and games for $30. Plus a extra controller on the shelf in the junk area for $4. I could have stuck that on the fb penny auctions and doubled my money easily. They go nuts for older systems for some reason I think its because the games are cheap and the kids are entertained. Anyways im rambling again, GW can be a ok place to buy if you use the stamp cards, hit them on 1/2 color days, and have a coupon for 15% off you can buy alot of merch for 1.00 if you play your cards right. The bigger city ones are the best they get so much stuff daily they price it to go. Buit here in ohio our district HQ is here in ohio so they "set" the prices to look good to the boss. And i heard that straight from the best pricer they have mouth. Good luck everyone.

 

[Beans]

I have a few pieces. Mostly generic street scenes of Paris, NYC and boats but by fairly well known painters. I stopped buying them unless I found something really special because even some that go at auction for a few hundred dollars never seem to sell online for me.

Paintings, prints etc are hard to sell on line. Before GW started doing the ebay check, I got into the Art stuff and have a lot just waiting for the right time to sell which is ?