The dirty side of Goodwill

[Owen Lucas]

Nowadays, I believe at least half these people are looking to turn around and sell it themselves. I can only imagine what their hoard stash looks like.

Yes, a lot of eBay flippers in these stores.

I saw one guy with some kind of scanner, reading barcodes in the book section, likely to see how much they are selling for to post on eBay.

Look slike a lot of money upfront and risk to hoard all this stuff hoping it sells one day. The time spent in the store, shipping packaging. Maybe worthwhile sidegig if you know what you are doing.

 

[Adkcedarman]

Yes, a lot of eBay flippers in these stores.

I saw one guy with some kind of scanner, reading barcodes in the book section, likely to see how much they are selling for to post on eBay.

Look slike a lot of money upfront and risk to hoard all this stuff hoping it sells one day. The time spent in the store, shipping packaging. Maybe worthwhile sidegig if you know what you are doing.

It is upsetting that it’s abused but at the same time it’s good that instead of throwing things out, people who don’t want to put in the effort to resell things can “donate” as a thrift store type notion and others who do wish to put in the work to resell, can. Everyone gets some benefit from the process, it’s not all bad.

 

[Zee09]

It seems everything i ever got into in business is a scam if you dig deep enough and get into the back end of it.. It's amazing what you uncover if you dig deep enough.

It sours you in the end

 

[Owen Lucas]

It is upsetting that it’s abused but at the same time it’s good that instead of throwing things out, people who don’t want to put in the effort to resell things can “donate” as a thrift store type notion and others who do wish to put in the work to resell, can. Everyone gets some benefit from the process, it’s not all bad.

I'm wouldn't be surprised if some of the harder to find items I have purchased on eBay, have been from flippers, and I am thankful for that.

To me it's just a lot of work and to find the arbitrage. You have to research the sales potential in the store and then 50x that per store if there's a lot of interesting inventory. Just doesn't seem worth my time.

To each his own, some might like the treasure hunt.

 

[D60]

I stopped donating to national charities years ago but still get tons of mail solicitations. We now give money, time, and goods only to local non-profits such as our food bank, humane society, volunteer fire dept., volunteer first aid dept., local non-profit thrift store, arts center, etc.

This. I volunteer for a local animal rescue. Non-profit, small, grassroots. We tell people "come see what we do." Tours are free and no donations are expected. Our director refuses to send out anything asking for money, although we do post FB thank yous for donations from our Amazon wish list which tends to bring in more donations. People often prefer to donate items from a wish list vs cash, which is completely understandable and everything helps

 

[Hall]

Look slike a lot of money upfront and risk to hoard all this stuff hoping it sells one day. The time spent in the store, shipping packaging. Maybe worthwhile sidegig if you know what you are doing.

I suspect the folks doing this don't see or factor in the big picture. They see an item they get at a thrift shop or a garage sale for $4 and think they can sell it for $20 on eBay or something. They never factor in the time they spend shopping, gas driving to places, sitting on items for weeks or months (or never selling) and just think "I can make $16 profit!".

 

[The_Jeff]

Yes, a lot of eBay flippers in these stores.

I saw one guy with some kind of scanner, reading barcodes in the book section, likely to see how much they are selling for to post on eBay.

Look slike a lot of money upfront and risk to hoard all this stuff hoping it sells one day. The time spent in the store, shipping packaging. Maybe worthwhile sidegig if you know what you are doing.

I suspect Goodwill does this before the stuff hits store shelves. Back in 2005 I had a side hustle reselling books on half.com; there wasn't widespread smart phone availability yet so I went off "vibes". College hard science textbooks were the best, bought one for 50 cents that I sold for $62, but those were from yard sales.

If you read thrifting forums the posters act like they're entitled to that arbitrage, and I don't mind Goodwill squeezing those guys out of the picture.

 

[jeepman3071]

I don't donate to any charities anymore, too many of them are scams and what you donate rarely makes it to the cause you are trying to support. There are plenty of people in my circle that I help instead when I can.

 

[Vil_Riker]

If you are upset with Goodwill, just wait till you learn about Girls Scouts.

 

[Vil_Riker]

I suspect Goodwill does this before the stuff hits store shelves. Back in 2005 I had a side hustle reselling books on half.com; there wasn't widespread smart phone availability yet so I went off "vibes". College hard science textbooks were the best, bought one for 50 cents that I sold for $62, but those were from yard sales.

If you read thrifting forums the posters act like they're entitled to that arbitrage, and I don't mind Goodwill squeezing those guys out of the picture.

The have shopgoodwill.com.

 

[y_p_w]

I don't donate to any charities anymore, too many of them are scams and what you donate rarely makes it to the cause you are trying to support. There are plenty of people in my circle that I help instead when I can.

I suspect most people donate to Goodwill and don’t try to take any tax deduction. Probably just to get rid of old stuff. I’ve seen people coming in, dropping stuff in the bins, and just walking away without a receipt. But then there are the used clothing collectors, where they specifically note they’re not a charity and the drop off isn’t tax deductible.