this is actually A Thing according to my dedicated thrifter wife
They realized they can make more money by pricing what professional resellers would charge, and have starting sloughing off more high end stuff to sell online, and adjusting pricing to be inline with the rest of the 2nd hand fashion reselling market.
Yeah, everyone has a phone now, including goodwill employees. They aren’t going to put a Northface coat out for $12.99 when it goes for $129 online used.
Our local thrift stores price according to the real world too, and generally, I bet $35 is still a deal for this coat. Its just not the $3.50 that people want to see.
I went to a Savers (local thrift store chain) about a month ago and they had a boxed Wii console in the glass case. It was used, not sealed, and they wanted $350 for it. I asked the guy if that was a mistake and he told me it was indeed the listed price. “I know for a fact this will never sell at this price because it’s been here for over a year.”
Some of these employees are just putting crazy prices.
100% also happening. I bet they found a boxed Wii online listed for $350 and did not check the “sold” prices.
Then again, “vintage” gaming is having a revival right now, so it’s fully possible it sold for $350 online, but the local customers aren’t the same as the global customers.
I found dollarama products listed for $5+ at the local goodwill. Let’s not just make the blanket assumption that exploited goodwill workers are professional appraisers and that the customer is the problem.
Well, they deal with literally any object any store has ever sold in the history of time or space, likely for minimum wage. So yeah, I expect they don’t get them all right. Having to accurately price 1930’s glokenspiels and 2017 high fashion would be challenging for anyone, anywhere.
Still, it makes sense that they have some processes in place to get it right some of the time, and maybe even most of the time.
If you go rural enough and you find the mom and pop Christian own thrift stores you can still get those kind of deals.
Just recently I went to such a place and I got five stainless steel large (4qt) spice jars and a bunch of silverware for like $7 total.same things woulda been like $15 each at goodwill
You mean it’s not the 3.50 that the working mom of 3 needs it to be in order to buy it.
More like its $35 that Goodwill can use to help an actual working mom of 3 when re-sellers pay to get a coat they can sell online for $130.
Retail charities view their store as the source of funds for the charity, not as the charity itself. They also know people are reselling high end items, so they can mark them higher to make more money for the charity.
I wanna say this has been going on for a while, but it really feels like they’ve cranked it up just recently. I was in a goodwill probably just a month or so ago and it felt like everything there was the same price you’d have gotten it new. It’s insane.
Stick to your local thrifters, people, chances are they have better shit anyway.
My friend frequents goodwill and one time, he came home super excited to show me the Husky mini socket set he bought. He excitedly told me “oh it was only $35!”, assuming he had gotten a great deal… that same socket set was also $35 brand new at Home Depot. It’s almost predatory because people just assume goodwill has better prices. That said… my friend should’ve been smart enough to double check that before buying it, lol
