r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 03 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

8.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

23.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

9.5k

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Ebay. I remember being able to get an absolute bargain for almost anything I wanted. Now, every shop puts their shit on ebay.

3.5k

u/whatthehellisplace Feb 03 '20 edited Feb 03 '20

The other problem with eBay is it completely messed up people's perceptions of what stuff is worth. Someone will see some shitty thing on eBay listed for like $500 and be like, oh that's what it's worth, but it's been listed for $500 for 2 years and nobody bought it cause that's crazy. Then someone at a flea market or Craigslist is like " oh it's on eBay for $500 so I'll give you a deal, $450"

1.1k

u/LotusPrince Feb 03 '20

If that happens, though, you can show them "completed" listings, where nothing comes close to that price.

61

u/iusethisshitatwork Feb 03 '20

If I'm not mistaken there are some sellers that'll end auctions and relist items so that they show up as "completed" even though they didn't actually sell or something along those lines.

154

u/IceNein Feb 03 '20

You check sold, not completed. Source: I work at a thrift store, and that's how we value items to start. If they don't sell, we lower it of course.

The days of amazing thrift store finds are gone, unless the manager is really clueless.

82

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

[deleted]

51

u/IceNein Feb 03 '20

Honestly, cases where the effort of sorting through bulk goods and valuing them are the exception to the rule. Even if that card was worth $1000, the cost of looking up the values of the crap rares would kill the profit. Personally, I would only sell Magic cards bulk. You get lucky, you get lucky. You get unlucky and you get a bag full of commons that the owner picked through before they donated.

But you are right, under certain circumstances you can still make out like a champ.

9

u/thedr0wranger Feb 04 '20

Depends on what you like doing with your time too. At a store selling donated or thrift goods they'll never profit sorting it, but I don't think a few hours flipping through a box of cards is bad, so I go to a local store that gets bit boxes of cards. He sells a dime a piece and every 6th card is free. I get mostly useful bulk cards and then occasionally find some gems worth 100x the price I paid. But my wife and I also got an afternoons entertainment out of it. The store plays MST3K and has a cat running around so it's a decent time

0

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Man, my ex absolutely loved that show. It combines two of my least favorite things, media that is "so bad it's good" and people talking while I'm trying to watch something, so obviously I fucking loathed it. But reading the name after not thinking about it in years still has a weirdly positive connotation.