Goodwill/SA/Thrift Store Discussions & Finds

Found two cd players today. A rotel cd changer for a fiver and a sony single disc es series for twenty. At a gw I found a hendrix poster priced $30 A search online and I found a poster shop selling the same thing for $7.99 So I asked the manager about it and how they priced it. Comes back 15min later with a printout of a ebay listing that says buy it now $100. Tells me if I want to come back in a couple of weeks it will be cheaper because of the 50% off sale. I did pass on it. Found the whole experience phunny. :D
 
Phunny Indeed

Two things come to mind:

1) Thrift shop pricing seems, sadly, to have followed the <<insert negative adjective here>> trend of using eBay as a pricing guide. Unfortunately, people who use eBay for "research" fail to take into consideration the one thing that makes eBay both brilliant and diabolical at the same time: competitive nature.

You can literally find ANYTHING on eBay. So when, for example, when any seller provides an item where demand exceeds supply the result is inflated prices. But eBay adds another dimension in which certain persons' blind desire to "WIN" creates a frenzy not unlike the sensation of gambling that inflates prices even further.

2) Pricing, especially at my local GW, seems to vary greatly depending on who actually prices the item in question. Case in point: a kids bike in great condition priced reasonably sold in a day, whereas a similar but rusty and tired kids bike priced at twice the other (and with different handwriting on the tag) sat forever until it was marked down.

People seem to forget the old adage that something is worth only what someone else will pay you for it.
 
funny thing. I was just reading about this company two days ago and bing bing, one shows up at the thrift, L and G R3800. super clean. no noisy pots. possibly one burnt bulb. rocks the headphones!

Im supposed to be getting rid of stuff...
 
This is not a complaint about pricing, just an observation:
Even among the same store in the same town, you can get weird pricing variations. We have three DAV stores, in the past week I picked up a pair of Klipsch KG2s for $20 and a nice audio rack for $5 at one of them. The one closer to my house has a Pioneer SA-9800 right now...kinda dirty, missing three knobs, speaker selector shaft busted off. $299.98. :yikes: In the condition it's in, I would have been somewhat hesitant at $29.98. I'm all for charities getting as much as they can for donations, but it doesn't do them any good to overprice stuff so that it sits around, getting more beat up, having some asshat steal knobs off of it, etc.
 
I know what you mean Sam. I went to the SA near me today and saw a Technics SA-300 for $69.99. That's not really a bad price I guess for one in good condition, but I am sure it was there a month ago. And now it is missing at least 3 knobs. :(
 
People seem to forget the old adage that something is worth only what someone else will pay you for it.[/QUOTE]

thats why ebay is good at pricing - search completed or sold items.

sansuigirl
 
My best finds:

Yamaha PF-800 turntable with Empire cartridge: $15 at a flea market.

EPI-100s, $8/pair, same flea market, different day.

Denon AVR-3801, $15 at Goodwill (over $1,000 new!) It's now in my system. Turntable is surprisingly sweet thru the phono stage.

NAD 7130, $10 at Goodwill.

Large Advents, $8/pair at Goodwill (used them till the foam gave out...future project)

Mitsubishi DA-A30, $25 at a garage sale.

Pilot 602 tube receiver, $5 at a garage sale.

Various Minimus 7s, cheap...
 
People seem to forget the old adage that something is worth only what someone else will pay you for it.

thats why ebay is good at pricing - search completed or sold items.

sansuigirl[/QUOTE]
I am always skeptical about eBay "Buy It Now" listings as price references, because people more than often set ridiculous prices and have their stuff on sale for months. If you buy something at a thrift store based on eBay Buy-It-Now, you may be in for a big surprise when you are ready to flip that thing.

Unfortunately, more and more thrifts use eBay pages as a pricing Bible, and I doubt they have enough time to thoroughly research every item's price. And, the more time items spend on shelves, the more likely they are to get damaged and eventually trashed, or reduced to some low amount.
 
If you do not buy it at those prices they come back to Earth after a bit. The Savers where I live has recently started pricing cassette decks and cd players at $29.99. They have been sitting there for weeks now.
 
Stumbled across a new thrift store in town and found this multiple cassette tape copying machine,Sony CCP-1310F.

If it works it's worth about $100.I think it's a pretty cool component - and hey,I could start selling my Get Rich Selling Real Estate tapes!!
 

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If you do not buy it at those prices they come back to Earth after a bit. The Savers where I live has recently started pricing cassette decks and cd players at $29.99. They have been sitting there for weeks now.

I've seen that trend as well.
I used to see decks and cd/dvd players from $4.99 to $14.99 but nowadays, they have gone to $29.99 and up.
It's also different in different stores of the same chain. :scratch2:
 
If you do not buy it at those prices they come back to Earth after a bit. The Savers where I live has recently started pricing cassette decks and cd players at $29.99. They have been sitting there for weeks now.

My favorite purchase at a thrift recently involved this dialogue for a pair of advent/1's:

Me: "those advents don't have a price. How much?"
Guy: "HEY BILLY! how much for those speakers"
Billy: "ehhhhhhhh 10 bucks.
Me: "A piece?"
Billy: "Naw for the pair."
Me: "well no arguing with that"

In the short time I've been playing this game I've found its totally up to the guy pricing. The savers by me is reasonable.
 
My favorite purchase at a thrift recently involved this dialogue for a pair of advent/1's:

Me: "those advents don't have a price. How much?"
Guy: "HEY BILLY! how much for those speakers"
Billy: "ehhhhhhhh 10 bucks.
Me: "A piece?"
Billy: "Naw for the pair."
Me: "well no arguing with that"

In the short time I've been playing this game I've found its totally up to the guy pricing. The savers by me is reasonable.

I think this is actually one of the problems with the GW store here;the new manager either doesn't know how to price things or she is too lazy to put the effort into pricing.Consequently the trucks coming in are bringing mostly clothes which have a set price,just date tag them and put them out.

Managers put in requests for the type of product they want.Our former manager put in requests for electronics and such and we had a good selection to choose from.Apparently this manager is requesting clothes and what little "wares" come in are bottom of the barrel rejects being shuffled from one store to the next..
 
It really is random on the pricing by me even at stores in the same chain. 2 examples:

I bought a vintage Hitachi receiver for $6 at one store and the next day the Hitchi one step down from the one I bought was $40 at a different store.

Today I found half a dozen UK pressings of rare free-jazz for $.99 each (worth $10-$30 each easy), but they had Sgt. Peppers for $8.

Also they tried raising prices for a while at GW in Phoenix. Had thoroughly common nothing special titkes at $2.99. Now they are generally back to $.99 after a couple months.
 
Stumbled across a new thrift store in town and found this multiple cassette tape copying machine,Sony CCP-1310F.

If it works it's worth about $100.I think it's a pretty cool component - and hey,I could start selling my Get Rich Selling Real Estate tapes!!

The monaural ones are not in much demand. The stereo ones are still occasionally sought out by the hipster crowd to make demo tapes.
 
I think this is actually one of the problems with the GW store here;the new manager either doesn't know how to price things or she is too lazy to put the effort into pricing.

Those are the best ones. The day I bought my ADS L710 pair for $20, there was also a set of Technics craptastic rack system speakers also for $20. $20 is what they charge for speakers.
 
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