[quote name='spmahn']Not sure what anyone else's experiences at the thrift stores and Goodwill have been like lately, but the stops I made today cemented my belief that the days of finding lucrative flips or even reasonably priced games for your personal collection are rapidly coming to a close.
I was in an area today where there were a few Goodwill stores, a Salavation Army, and a Savers Thrift Store. The first Goodwill had little worth noting, mostly the same crap PS2 games you see everywhere, all locked up behind the jewelry counter (I guess they are a favorite of shoplifters?). The one thing that caught my eye however was an original PS2, with a power cord, but no games, controllers, or even an AV cord. Price: $50.
It would be funny, if these outrageous prices weren't becoming more commonplace at these stores. Every time I stop in a Goodwill or other thrift store, there is at least 1 if not more PS1 or PS2 or X-Box or Gamecube, in various states of incompleteness, and always with a price tag of $20 or higher. What's even more astounding is the fact that there items are usually gone by the next time I go there. I truly can't believe however that this overpriced garbage actually sells. I assume at most Goodwills and similar chain thrift stores like Savers, a lot of items, especially consumer electronics, get shuffled around from store to store, or eventually get sold in bulk to third party wholesalers.
Anyways, the second stop was the Salvation Army, which I walked in and out of. This place never has anything worth taking a second glance at, and the shelves look like they were stocked from a garbage dump.
The third stop was Savers, another store filled with overpriced crap, console only Gamecube's and PS1's for $20 and up, toys and games that are missing essential pieces, overpriced, scratched PS2 and X-Box era sports titles, used DVD's that came out of the $5 bin at Wal-Mart but are priced at $7.99, it's a complete joke.
The final stop was another Goodwill, which at first seemed like it was finally worth the stop, but quickly turned out to be another disappointment. Behind their Jewelry counter was some crap N64 games, a copy of Wario Ware for the GBA, and some PS1 games mostly crap, but some stuff worth picking up including Tecmo Super Bowl, Crash Bandicoot 2, and Spyro Year of the Dragon, all of which would have been an easy flip on Amazon for decent money. At first glance, the crap games and Crash 2 were priced at $2.99 each, which isn't bad for Non-Sports titles. Unfortunately upon further inspection, Crash 2 contained the disc for Crash Bash, making it worthless, and Spyro 2 and Tecmo Bowl were priced at $7.99 and $14.99 respectively. When I questioned the employee as to why there was a discrepancy in the prices on these two games, she told me "that must be how much they sell for online, that's what they base the price on". I just looked at the woman like she was insane, said thanks, and left.
Now I'm not anti-capitalism, and I'm all for Goodwill wanting to charge fair market value for their items, but if you are going to price your items in comparison to Amazon or eBay, then why not just sell them on Amazon or eBay. People go to retail outlets like these because they are looking for bargains and deals, not because they want to pay inflated prices.
It's sad, but Goodwill and the thrift store business as a whole have gotten away from catering and marketing to the bargain hunters that they had previously, and are now more interested in the hipster and the upscale, dare I say wealthier, shoppers the same way most antique stores did last decade. And it's ironic too, but I have noticed in a lot of these stores, as the prices go up, the quality of the merchandise has gone way down. It used to be that Goodwill was very picky about what they would accept for donations. Now in any thrift store I go into, I would say a good 60% of the merchandise belongs in the trash, not for sale on any shelf. There simply isn't a market in 2011 for $20 VCR's, $15 cassette decks, and $40 12" SDV's.[/QUOTE]
It depends what state/area u live in. I saw a xbox for $99.
A old flat tube sony tv for $200. I think they price depending on the area and the price they think people will buy it for. There are some people that do buy stuff, but don't know better. Remember, not everyone is bright or have education like u. These are consumers that don't make much and doesn't keep up with technology.
Goodwill is in business to make money. They need to pay for space and the workers. With ebay and other online stores, it's difficult to stay in market.
Just my 2 cents