Salvation Army is Getting Ridiculous Here

[NHBandit]

You got an oz of Silver for 6 bucks but the teapot is severely overpriced. All it proves is that the folks doing the pricing are clueless. Don't know about your area but when I lived in NH several of Salvation Army "employees" were convicted druggies working there to complete their community service requirement.

 

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[vwayne1]

No offense to other posters, but saying that the Internet ruined the thrift stores is completely wrong. The Internet, and specifically ebay, have enabled people to buy .50 and dollar items and sell them for $100 or more. People are doing this for a living. I did it for a year while laid off. Btw, saying that an item is worthless because it's plated instead of silver is ignorant. Many plated items have far more value than the equivalent .925 piece. That's a fact.

 

[vwayne1]

Wow, just re-read my post. It came off kind of harsh. It wasn't intended that way. Just hate to see people not going the extra mile to learn, and then complaining about the result. Oops, there it is again.

 

[diggummup]

No offense to other posters, but saying that the Internet ruined the thrift stores is completely wrong. The Internet, and specifically ebay, have enabled people to buy .50 and dollar items and sell them for $100 or more. People are doing this for a living. I did it for a year while laid off.

None taken and your reasoning in itself is the reason why. "Ruined" may not have been the best word, but "increasingly difficult" fits the bill perfectly.

As I stated... "There are good finds still to be had. They are fewer and farther between and the competition is fierce."

My opinion-

Because of the internet (and certain tv shows), everyone is a "professional picker" nowadays. No experience necessary, all you need is a smart phone. The amount of people searching thrift stores has increased 10 fold minimum in the last 20 years. This is why TS finds are harder to come by nowadays, competition. Not to mention, the really great items you and I never see that don't make it to the shelves because of the internet. I have been going to thrift stores all my life. I was raised around people that made (and still make) their living picking thrift stores before the invention of the internet. People that don't have to resort to their smartphone to know if something has value. There's nothing wrong with that because it's the norm nowadays, for the most part. However, the number of good thrift store finds today cannot compete to the amount found 20 years ago, because of the sheer volume of people out searching for "treasures".

 

[JimDon]

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. It only takes a couple of bad picks to turn off the newbies.

 

[casarachi]

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. It only takes a couple of bad picks to turn off the newbies.

I have a house full! But just a few of the good finds probably paid for them all. And they are all still worth at least what I paid. lol

 

[diggummup]

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. It only takes a couple of bad picks to turn off the newbies.

A couple of bad picks from the thrift store doesn't amount to much, money wise. I think anyone with half a brain, if they applied themselves, could make decent side money picking TS's. You have to remember though, I live in a major metropolitan area with no shortage of TS's to search and a consistent inventory turnaround. Move me to a small town and I'd have a hard way to go.

 

[FloridaHunter]

My experience with SA has been very positive. I have found most of their prices actually reasonable. Some are high on occasion, but overall they are pretty fair in this area. Goodwill on the other hand has become utterly ridiculous and greedy. I rarely go there. Why pay 4.99 for a dollar tree item when I can go to the dollar tree and pay 1.00?

 

[deserdog]

I find good stuff at thrift stores all the time. Just recently I bought 12 or 14 books and a mug for $6.20. One of the books starts at $148.00 at used book sellers sites, not Ebay. Lots of good stuff still to be had, just have to look for items that most would overlook.

 

[vwayne1]

Bam, deserdog, my point exactly. Well said.

 

[Garrett424]

They're getting bad in my area too. I only go in for my books these days.

Seems like the help (or somebody??) gets all the good stuff before it ever hits the floor too.

 

[Drmad7]

Salvation Army in my area is pretty decent, but the Goodwills are where I spend all of my days. And GW has fired entire store employee teams for changing prices for friends/family and things like that. Goodwill employees cannot buy anything from the store where they work(they can shop at other stores) and cannot have anyone purchase goods for them either. They also cannot have cell phones on the sales floor. So if they see something they like, they will have to call from the back office in front of all the other employees and a manager. So that keeps competition from employees down! I have done pretty good this year. Now I just need to sell this stuff!