What is the scam that you see?

I make weekly pilgrimages to four Goodwill stores in my area on senior day. Senior day is 25% off. Today is senior day in my area.

I don't resell the items, but I have over 1000 Blu-rays and DVDs in my collection that I purchased for a couple of bucks each at Goodwill stores over the years. There are plenty of good deals on electronics and tools, as well. I know people who hunt for antiques at Goodwill stores and they sometimes score very nice items.

Buying and reselling Goodwill items is not a scam as long as they are not selling the items as new. Those same sellers probably also hit estate sales and garage sales. I know several eBay sellers who do that. If you are trying to make a living selling on eBay, you have to pick up unique items for very low prices. If you try selling what everyone else is selling, then competition, eBay, and PayPal will take all your profit.

I've always thought the scam was Goodwill itself. The CEO pays himself $600k per year. He pays his employees minimum wage. He has zero cost for inventory, so the selling price is 100% gross profit. The jobs they tout as creating are the minimum wage store personnel. There is no sweeter business model than that.

More power to your sister-in-law if she finds items for $60 that she can sell for $2,000. I don't think that happens very often.

 

Goodwill has its own website and they cherry pick before it gets put on the floor for your SILS ever wonder why there's no camping gear, Coleman stuff,. Decent knives
Check out the website

 

That wouldn't happen near me i stopped donating to goodwill when i found out they were reselling stuff at almost retail prices and workers would have first pick to take stuff home for free. Plus they had a program where companies would send easy work to goodwill that would hire mentally handicapped people with the understanding that they would be paid a certain wage to try and teach them things only to find out they started hiring non handicapped individuals instead at lower wages and kept the rest. Many companies stopped sending them work. I donate to St. Vincent's instead now.

 

That wouldn't happen near me i stopped donating to goodwill when i found out they were reselling stuff at almost retail prices and workers would have first pick to take stuff home for free. Plus they had a program where companies would send easy work to goodwill that would hire mentally handicapped people with the understanding that they would be paid a certain wage to try and teach them things only to find out they started hiring non handicapped individuals instead at lower wages and kept the rest. Many companies stopped sending them work. I donate to St. Vincent's instead now.

It is against Goodwill policy for the employees to buy anything. I talk to people who work for Goodwill. Sometimes I find a very good deal on something and the checkout clerk will comment that they wished they could buy some of the stuff in the store.

Yeah, like I said, if anything is close to a scam it's the Goodwill business model. It's not the resellers who go there to buy cheap and resell the items. People donate to Goodwill so Goodwill can sell the items. Everyone wins.

My wife is looking for more reading material, so I will probably pick up several hardcover books today for about two bucks each. Every bargain hunter out there should be looking at Goodwill stores.

 

There are people that go to the local sorting place everyday. They buy up stuff to re-sell online or at their own yard sales or even shops. One guy I know checks every pocket on packs, luggage, golf bags etc. Money, diamond rings, watches, other jewelry, camera, phones for sixty cents a pound.

 

It's no different then buying something at a garage sale and reselling it.

 

Gotta love the free market system. People aren't happy unless they have something to complain about.

During the "Great .22 Shortage", had a couple people here in AZ-land doing the Walmart Shuffle every day buying up whatever .22 that was available and then reselling at substantial markups. And, naturally of course, guys were complaining about it on the local forums. Even though some of them were stupid enough to admit they had bought some from said resellers.

 

I will never buy or sell anything to goodwill, they don't even pay there employees minimum wage, while the managers rake in profits on donated goods. They are not a charity, but they want you to think they are.

 

I agree with Aer. I know people "work" at Goodwill and they are taken advantage of.

I know a lot of people break into the donation box at Salvation Army, etc, cherry pick "good" items and steal them. So that happens as well.

Hell, when I had movers take my stuff out of a flooded house quite a bit never came back. They stole case of Bibles, a box full of syringes and b-12 for injections, clothes, unopened case of protein shakes, etc. And all my jewelry. I have a titanium ring that was on my finger the day this happened and that is it.

So I can absolutely believe people would raid the donation box as well, even if I HADN'T seen it with my own eyes.

 

The only real scam is that they convince everyone that they are a charity when they donate such a small amount of their sales to charity and take advantage of others.

https://medium.com/@aliceminium/the...nium/the-dark-reality-behind-americas-greatest-thrift-store-empire-183967087a1e

Flipping an item found at a store is not a scam unless an employee who works there priced it low and bought it themselves.

 

As said, people do the same thing at yard sales and such. My daughter volunteered at the Salvation Army store here and on Saturday morning, you better not get in front of the old men rushing in when it opens, You will get trampled. These guys buy all the good tools and such and resell at the flea market or eBay. I did my rounds when I was between jobs and made a few bucks to buy gas to interviews. For the most part in my area Goodwill is full of junk and worn out clothes. Maybe I am not early enough to find the rare gem though. I once had a co-worker tell me she would never give to Goodwill because they cut the clothes that they could not sell up into rags. If they can't sell them, then what is the issue? No one wants a woman's 1980's avacado power suit.

If you look at eBay you will also see lots of Goodwill location accounts that sell cherry picked stuff. I have bought several books that way. They like selling books because media mail shipping is cheap. So this way they can make a bit more on some of the stuff. That is why businesses operate, to make money. Now what non-profits do with that money is a whole other story.

I would say that the SIL is bragging about her top day. She could have easily spent $60 and not had anything sell. I bought a vintage pair of overalls at a yard sale and they never sold. Ones of the same brand/vintage and in worse condition sold for more while mine just set there. eBay is a weird market. Sometimes you see something worn out sell for $1000, but the EXACT same item in like new condition sells for $50 in the same week. It is all a gamble.

 

Some here say that it's no different than buying something at a garage sale, and then reselling it.

I think there IS a difference. Goodwill proudly proclaims it is a charity. A garage sale is not necessarily a charity. (Unless, perhaps, they are holding a sale that is dedicated to something like medical expenses).

They also enjoy tax-free status.

 

Goodwill IS NOT a charity. It doesnt matter what they states. Even if they are, what is the difference? Would Goodwill have gotten more money if the people didnt resell the item? I dont understand your argument.

 

March Of Dimes donates 10 cents out of every dollar to their charity, and spend the rest on themselves. "Management"

 

Flipping items you purchased is not a scam.

I just recently flipped two properties, sans scam.

 

I think you are missing the entire point of Goodwill, I also think if you want to see a scam look at Goodwill's entire business plan.

If I understand it correctly, Goodwill "hires" people who can't get jobs through gov't programs, Goodwill pays them maybe $2 an hour and the gov't pays the rest pays the rest to cover up to minimum wage. That is what they call "job training" Once the people quit and get a better job they call it "job placement" The crap they can not sell in their stores they compact into giant bails and send it to third world countries, which prevents any chance of those countries being self sufficient. As I understand it that is the limit of their charity. All the money goes to the owners.

 

Yeah ... when they stopped being a charity and became a "for profit" organization I stopped donating to them.

 

According to Forbes Magazine and Charity Watch (an independent charity watchdog organization) Goodwill is a non-profit organization.

 

Goodwill is NOT a charity. They have to sell stuff this cheaply due to the shear volume they receive. I used to go to a Goodwill auction. Pretty easy to make $3000 a month on ebay and Craigslist reselling before 2015. Now? Not so easy. Goodwill runs their own ebay site and the own online auction as well. The woman who ran the auction jacks all the jewelery for herself. And yes, employees are not allowed to buy, but I have bought for many of the employees. It's all a scam, but as I stated, shear volume is why they have to sell things readily and relatively cheaply.

 

It's not what you do with the money you make by reselling the merchandise you buy from GW that determines their status as a charitable organization, it's what GW does with the money you pay them for the merchandize.

 

I stopped donating and shopping at GW when they started selling worn out flip flops for $10 and couches that you could smell all over the store for $400. They priced themselves out of business and have closed all but one of their stores in Tulsa.
The one and only time I visited there, the merchandise was piled into a heap in the middle of a warehouse guarded by a man who bore a striking resemblance to a young Charles Manson and as I crossed the door, roaches (plural) ran across my boots.
My donations go exclusively to the AMVETS.

As far as buying and reselling - I do that from garage sales. I can buy trashy pieces of jewelry and cannibalize the parts for a fraction of what I would pay at a bead store. I make them into something new and resell them. No garage sales for a while so that allowed me to start working on a 5lb box I bid on at an auction. I've already got wayyy more than my $10.

 

I stopped donating and shopping at GW when they started selling worn out flip flops for $10 and couches that you could smell all over the store for $400. They priced themselves out of business and have closed all but one of their stores in Tulsa.

Prices sometimes vary greatly from one store to another. I primarily collect movies. Other than garage sales, there is no better place to find Blu-rays and DVDs than Goodwill. When I do a 4-store run, I may search through 2,000 to 4,000 movies.

A season of the Sopranos may be priced at $9.95 at one Goodwill store, and $3.26 at another. There has never been any clear methodology to their pricing. Pricing has nothing to do with condition. I only buy movies in pristine condition because some day I may decide to sell them. Right now the crappy movies that would be difficult to sell are donated back to Goodwill.

I find the same inconsistent pricing scheme with books. You have to hunt multiple stores to find the best bargains.

FYI. A couple of weeks ago I turned in a stack of empty Blu-ray cases to the cashier. Someone had stolen the movies. He said movies were the #1 item stolen at the stores. Shoes were #2. People come in and exchange a worn-out pair of shoes for a good pair. If you don't see a Goodwill sticker in the shoes, they were probably trade-ins. :

 

I dont have an issue with resellers picking up items for cheap and flipping them for a profit, but the scalpers are pretty much the scum of the earth.

 

No scam at all. We do the exact thing your SIL does. Its a win-win for evrybody involved. Folks donate stuff that they no longer need and it keeps it out of landfills. (win-win)

Goodwill hires people to sort thru, price, stock and sell stuff (win). These people are often not employable at other places due to mental inabilities or physical inabilities.

People buy stuff and resell it making a profit (Capitalism, win.) Its honest work, as there is a lot of work in buying used items, cleaning them, fixing them, and then listing them on Ebay. Then you must box and ship and track the items.

To suggest that people doing this are committing a scam is offensive.

Goodwill, and thrift stores are well aware of whats going on. We know people there on a first-name basis. They often even point out stuff in our preferred product areas for us to look at.

 

I bought a set of Pink Irons in a Ping bag for $15 at the local Goodwill.

 

When I was a little kid we raided trash cans on collection day for treasures even dad enjoied the search. Long as you did not make a mess no one cared.
If you are donating something you would other wise throw away don't complain about how it is handlled.
Some tings are acquired for a particular part and the rest is thrown away , that is just how it is.
We go to scrap yards and junk yards and recycle yards and do the same things . what was another man's trash is another man's treasure.
So what ?
Applaud those industreious enough to see the market of things they can make a living on other people have missed.
If you resent the fact people are finding a way to survive off your cast offs you have a personal problem.

 

Oh yes, the Free Enterprise system that has made America great for all these years, Don't you just love it???? Seems like someone's butthurt because they didn't think of it first!!

 

Never fall into begrudgery. If someone can add value to the unwanted all the power to them. It’s also better to keep donated items moving quickly from shelf to basket rather than being priced to where the buyer prevaricates and item gather dust.

 

Brian if you ask the disability communities, those who can speak for themselves, they hate Goodwill. It is a scam to make management money. They claim most of the "hires" are incapable and pay very low wages, far less than minimum wage.

Then the "employee" takes paratransit back to the group home they share with 5 other head-bangers and do it all again the next day.

ALL of the "workshops helping disabled" are scams designed to milk the system and the "employee". Designed to make people feel good about "supporting" them even though they rape the disabled.

I am disabled, my husband is disabled, I have been in the community for over 30 years and the agencies "helping" the disabled, the workshops, the day-habs, etc. are all just scams to make management money. I do find it funny now with COVID the group homes are actually stuck with their residents. They don't get to ship them off every day like they used to.

 

That is sad when it happens like that. I know some disabled people here, as well and its been a mixed report on our local Goodwill stores. Some describe what you mention and others love it. Its the same in most big businesses. I worked for the big brown turd shipping company and a lot of our people were not particularly bright. The way management (and even the union) took advantage of them was disgraceful.

We prefer to go to the Goodwill Outlet store. Its where everything oddball that they can't sell in normal stores goes. It is in these big bins and you buy items by the pound. Anything over 7lbs is a flat $5 and everything else is $1.45 a lb.

We donate a lot of stuff too. I prefer to donate to this mom and pop thrift store that sells everything for $1 and 25 cents on friday. They are trying to eek out a living, and help the community by providing items at really good prices.

 

Personally, I believe it is unethical to buy something meant to help the needy and make a profit from it, but I know nothing can be done about it. I also know that karma is real and it will most likely come around and give those people their just rewards.

That said, several years back I had a '36 Plymouth that I was considering selling and let a few people know about it. I had some friend of someone I had mentioned it to come by and take some pictures of it. A couple of days later, it was on Craig'slist for sale for twice what I was asking for it! The guy called and said he wanted it and would come over and pay for it. I told him I had changed my mind and he was livid!

Apparently he had sold the car to someone else even though it never was his.

 

Personally, I believe it is unethical to buy something meant to help the needy and make a profit from it, but I know nothing can be done about it. I also know that karma is real and it will most likely come around and give those people their just rewards.

I may be missing something here, but what is unethical about selling anything that you buy from Goodwill? Goodwill still gets the money whether you keep it, sell it, or burn it, or use it for ritual sacrifice. From their perspective, there is no difference. Their goal is to sell donated items to you so they can raise money. That's no different than a church rummage sale.

Goodwill does not donate anything to the needy. That's not what they do. They claim they use the proceeds to create jobs for the poor and handicapped.

If anything is unethical, it's the salaries paid to some of the execs who run the charities.

 

My family had a big reunion back in 2009. Fancy dinner every night (cruise). So I hit the thrift shops there is a local chain (?) that had a lot of formal, plus sized clothes I would want to be seen in public. I spent more on dry cleaning than I did on the outfits. That was a huge benefit to me as my family doesn't think highly and I had attractive, form fitting clothes that showed off my curves. I also went there for a dress for a unrelated family wedding. They were great.

They hire people of dubious immigration status I think, not the slow, and as I went in over the years they didn't have anything in my size anymore. It has been hard for me to find anything over a 20 (I am a 22) at the thrift shops.

 

We do buy and resell Goodwill stuff all the time. Weekly in fact.
I don't see the problem. Goodwill sets a price for what they want. How is that cheating them? I'm not lowballing them. I pay what they are asking. Matter of fact, around here Goodwill is probably one of the more pricey stores.
We also bid on their online site. Again, they set the opening bid and many things go up hundreds of dollars. They are getting what people are willing to pay.

We also browse thrift stores. Is that any different than Goodwill?

What is your solution? Did you think the items that are donated were given to the needy for free?

Spend $60 and make 2K...yeah..we've done that too.