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I don’t know where you get the idea Goodwill Industries is dropping their ebay and Amazon selling effort. If you see an ebay store of theirs suddenly disappear, it could well be part of their efforts to keep potential donators from knowing they sell the creme of donations online instead of the store, where donators’ intended buyers – economically disadvantaged people – can buy them. Goodwill has been selling online and is undoubtedly getting more sophisticated at evaluating and listing items. Being a huge, nationwide company, they standardize practices for all (with exceptions I’m sure) stores. The have central warehouses where donations go first where I’m sure, there are experienced pricing experts that sift through items before distributing them to stores. This is particularly true of large metropolitan areas like the Los Angeles area.
Second hand stores in general, do not want you to know they pull items out of what you think is “junk” that they sell online for hundreds or thousands of dollars. If the donating public knew this, they would begin researching the items online before donating them. Some donators might still donate valuable items if they know they are going to profit the store (some are charities, some are entirely profit driven). But I’m sure most of the prime items Goodwill has donated to them is donated by unsuspecting people, some of which could use the money from selling them online themselves – something Goodwill does not want them to know.
I’ve had my best luck as Salvation Army and St Vincent De Paul stores in rural areas or smaller towns like in the Midwest.
As one posting has noted, the outlets are often dominated by territorial trolls who shove other buyers aside and scoop out anything of resale value before letting the beta members of the herd to the trough.
I’ve been seeing articles lately about how third world counties no longer want America’s used clothing because new clothes are getting so cheap and the Chinese are creating distribution channels to the most remote areas.
The same is probably true of the USA.
I think the perception of reseller haters is that used items are for the economically disadvantaged. Donators intend that their old winter coat go to keep some poor person who can’t afford to buy new to survive the winter due to that coat. The haters have no idea the profit made by the supposed “charity” they donate to. And most of the items bought to resell are not the kinds of things the poof need – designer clothing (ridiculous styles), text books (what’s the chance a student will find just the book for just the class in just the edition they need at that time?). But resellers, many of whom are their selves impoverished (or next to) are able to extract some income out of selling an item they may have spent hours of searching for.
I don’t now what their business model is. This ‘giveaway’ may be a limited ploy to get word around that they are selling there to gain a following showing up regularly at the same time.
I am scavenging individual items from the bins. It’s pick and pull self serve. $1 each item regardless what it is or weighs.
At the place I’m talking about everything was always $1.
I have found almost all Thrift stores devoid of anything that can be resold for a profit. Especially the big nation-wide chains like Goodwill, Savers, etc. They apparently have policys that are in practice at all locations. Only the donation centers make them money and they only keep the stores open to obfuscate their primary objective – get people to donate items they have no concept of it’s worth on the resell market. If donators knew what the stuff was worth they donated, they’d go back to Goodwill and demand it back. I tried that once when I accidentally donated something that just sold on ebay and the line was “it’s been sent on to our warehouse and there’s no way to find it or return it.”
I’ve found a few Salvation Army and Vincent De Paul stores still selling good, salable stuff. But I have all but given up on Goodwill or Savers. I don’t think they even provide much in the way of charity anymore. Their store clerks seem mostly to be very attractive young women, with the occasional one-per-store developmentally challenged person.
I think what ebay doesn’t like is for someone to use manual cropping to crop photos to different aspect ratios within the same ad. It can make for a messy lineup of photos with a wide one beside a square one then a tall, skinny one. If you crop the photos of an ad all the same aspect – all square or all standard screen, they will line up nicely.
I use the free Google app Picassa to crop photos and it offers an easy way to choose preconfigured aspects.
You can download Picassa free from this link:
Please don’t kill me. I’m only the messenger. This youtuber comments on the dying opportunities to source/pick at thrift stores. I just discovered this youtuber. Not clickbaiting for him. His videos are very helpful. He is honest about having a profit component to his videos, but what he provides free seems very helpful to me. And he is talking about an issue I don’t often see discussed among us online resellers. Thrift stores have all but completely stopped putting anything that can be profited from by selling on ebay or amazon on their store floors. I know there are still a few thrift stores where resell-able items can be found. But nothing like ten or fifteen years ago – and it’s getting worse. Can’t blame the stores. Most have a profit motive veiled behind a veil of helping the disadvantaged. But when they close stores, in many cases it means the loss of those jobs for the handicapped they promote themselves as benefiting. They’ve probably opening more donation centers than opening stores. Here’s the video. I will not post any more from this youtuber. I only post it because I find almost no one else talking about this in forums or youtube.
Major Thrift Store Issue
This guy’s site will never replace scavengerlife. I’ve been a regular listener for five or six hears and really enjoy every episode.
