Is it wrong?

[Matt Deckard]

I just buy the vinyl Records to give away as gifts at parties.... Is it wrong?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"Saturday Night Live" flashback:

"I just waannaa be looooved -- is that sooooo wrrrrrooooonnnngggg?" lol

.

 

[deanglen]

Is it wrong?

No. As one devout capitalist to another; it's business.


dean

 

[Marc Chevalier]

And no one is really getting hurt by it. It's not like we're going to die because we can't find a Borsalino at Goodwill.

Correction: some of us might die, but still ...

.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Dig Lauren Henline's rootin' tootin' avatar! Ride 'em, cowgirl!

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[PrettySquareGal]

To your original question, I think it's right. Their mission is to make money and selling the items to the highest payor is fine.

Goodwill has an ebay store for antiquarian and rare books. I have purchased from them before.

What has always bothered me are the wealthy people who shop at Goodwill and take away the bargains from the people who truly need to shop there. I am thinking of the faux poor kids from college who drove their SUVs but tried to dress down while they toured Phish et al or even (no lie) asked passers by for spare change downtown.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

My income went WAY down when I resigned from two of three beloved jobs to care for my dad, so now I shop for almost everything, including sheets and curtains at the Salvation Army near my house. That's where my donations go, too. Buying records for gifts and parties and gifts is a fun,fine idea: most are so whipped they're unlistenable anyway.

 

[Honey Doll]

I haven't found a decent thing

...in a thrift store in years. Ocassionally I will pop in-- knowing full well I'll come out empty. I don't think I would necessarily have a problem with the charity optomizing their profits by sending out vintage.--it doesn't help me (so selfish motivation might creep in, but if it enhances a charities ability to operate)....really troubled by the suggestion of graft and hording by employees. That is just terrible.

Honey Doll

 

[raiderrescuer]

Sorting...

The big problem I have with "Sorting" is Small Town Goodwill’s usually end up with junk that no one buys.
Goodwill has to lose money paying for its operations in those places...just turn them into Collection Points for Big Cities.
Other local No-Name Donation Centers seem to do much better because what's donated there stays there resulting in people shopping there more often.

 

[BonnieJean]

Goodwill DOES have an auction site

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/

I just went there and typed in "fedora" in the search engine and came up with 3 auctions. I don't know if they are what you guys would be interested in, but apparently, there is some good stuff on their auction site. I haven't purchased anything from their website yet, so I don't have an opinion of their service. I do look around the site occasionally. One thing to note, sometimes their descriptions are lacking in information and also, you have to try several words when searching for items. Some items end up in weird categories.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Here's a link to their ebay store for books:

http://stores.ebay.com/Goodwill-Books

 

[Lauren]

Dig Lauren Henline's rootin' tootin' avatar! Ride 'em, cowgirl!

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Thank you kindly

 

[Michaelson]

Is it wrong?

Define 'wrong'. [huh] They're in the 'business' to raise as much cash for the origanization as possible, NOT to be friends with those of us who don't think it's 'fair'.

Do I like it? Not particularily, but re-read my statement above. What I DO find irritating is their advertisements that they put in our local antique flyers that 'Goodwill is the place for the bargain antique hunter!' It's different from store to store. Our local Goodwill has nothing but plastic junk and old worn out Wal-Mart clothing.

To it's credit, I did have a short dealing with a Goodwill store out of Tampa FLorida that had placed a lot of 4 pocket watch movements on eBay, opening bid $1.00. They took some EXCELLENT photos, and durned if they weren't all original, in the shipper container 18s Rockford high jeweled pocket watches! In the watch collector market, worth BIG BIG bucks! I dropped them a line, alerting them to the fact that they had a HUGE item listed worth a LOT of money, and the lady thanked me VERY much, and said she was thrilled to discover this information. Still, she was more interested in the history, and allowing the general public the chance to obtain items like this. The lot only sold for around $150 or so (one watch would have sold for that, and in bad condition!! These were mint!), and I know for a fact the purchaser resold them individually for several hundred apiece.

So, was the lady at the Tampa Goodwill right, or wrong? She did what we'd like to see done, but she shorted Goodwill out of the opportunity of gaining probably better than a thousand dollars in sales if she had taken my advice.

It's a toss of the coin, and all depends on which side of the coin fall you're standing.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Haversack]

I've found over the years that there are other thrift venues than just the Sally Ann, Goodwill, and StVdP. Two in particular I've noted which tend to have a higher level of quality are the stores run by the Junior League, and the annual rummage sales which many churches put on. Both tend to collect goods from well established and well-to-do people and this is reflected in what they have for sale.

Haversack.

 

[Michaelson]

The problem I see with the rummage sales at church is the blessing and curse of the collector...the program 'Antique Roadshow'. Where you used to find TONS of jewels in the clutter, EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone is keeping the wheat and selling the chaff at these functions. I haven't found anything worth a plug nickel at a church rummage sale in the past 5 years.

I DO have occasional luck at yard sales, but even those pickings are getting slim these days.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the problem to some extent is simply chronological -- we're far enough removed now from the Golden Era that undisturbed hoards of clothing, furniture, doodads and doohickeys are simply harder and harder to come by. Most of that material got donated, dispersed and otherwise disposed of during the 70s and 80s, when its original owners reached retirement age or passed away, and it's since been gobbled up by collectors who aren't likely to put it back on the market for anything other than top dollar.

As someone who's been actively collecting this stuff since the mid-70s, I can attest that the environment now is very very different from what it was then -- back in those days, every yard sale I went to was as likely as not to include piles of 30s-40s stuff, but nowadays it's just not there anymore.

There's still occasional original hoards to be found -- but they're going to vanish entirely over the next few years, and the only place anyone's going to find this material will be on the secondary collectors' market.

Of course, when I die in thirty years or so, someone down at the Goodwill's gonna have a field day...

 

[Michaelson]

True, but when the 'information age' took hold, I still believe more folks are knowing (or THINKING they know) the value of what was once thought of as 'old junk'.

I've been collecting stuff since the mid 60's, and as more and more information came out and was available to anyone, they got more and more particular to what was put out for sale, and what was horded for a possible 'killing' in sales.

With the advent of eBay, that's been the biggest killer. My wife and I spotted a Hall teapot at a local fleamarket, and when we asked price, we were quoted one WAY above catalog, but given an eBay auction as a reference point.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Elaina]

Is it right? Depends. I personally am a bit of a seperatist, and I think that the "deals" should be available locally before getting shipped off. (I don't care if it's Japan, USA or Mars. I think the natives should get the first dibs.)

I've found the best vintage is in independent guys in a poorer area, and in my expirence they usually have a ton of old stuff lying around. I also am not a fan of GW, I went in recently and asked if they had any sewing machines/patterns. I was told "We don't carry, collect or sell any of that s--t, this is a clothing store. All of our crap has to be newer and higher end." And that did it for me. May be different in your area, but GW here caters to upper middle class folks so they can buy cheap children's clothing.

Elaina

 

[BonnieJean]

With the advent of eBay, that's been the biggest killer. My wife and I spotted a Hall teapot at a local fleamarket, and when we asked price, we were quoted one WAY above catalog, but given an eBay auction as a reference point.

I was told by an antique dealer recently that most dealers use eBay to determine an item's value. It certainly is a different world these days.

Elaina, I am not a fan of GW too. Unless you're a ladies size 2 or a super duper plus size, there aren't a lot of good clothing in the local GW store here. They've recently moved to a larger location and I believe they've increased the clothing space (mostly modern "junky" clothing), but decreased everything else. Its getting more and more like finding a needle in a haystack. I've heard for years rumors how employees of thrift stores "cherry pick" the items donated. I don't know if they're true or not, but the "good stuff" is few and far between. I noticed this downward trend over 5 years ago when I could easily purchase vintage suitcases for a dollar, now they're commanding upwards to $20 a piece and are rarely seen at thrift stores. The higher prices are seen in antique stores.

Maybe LizzieMaine is correct, we're simply too many years removed from that great Golden Era and the stuff is either gone or hoarded away. Maybe the best thing is to befriend a local antique dealer and try to get a good deal from him.

 

[carebear]

I think you've got it nailed down. There isn't as much good old stuff undiscovered and with the internet more folks have the ability to tell the real worth of something.

There can't be too many cherry cars under moldering tarps in old barns anymore and I know the days of real steals on older guns are mostly done.

Less stuff and more info, the bane of the collector who got their knowledge the hard way.