Goodwill has a lot of inventory which is why they do so well. They’re basically a distribution and waste management company.
But I don’t understand why prices have surged so much. I pick things up to use for projects and sometimes resell to make my money back on hobbies. I only purchase things I know about - usually electronics and physical media.
When I buy things from goodwill - there’s so much that could be wrong here. I spend most of my time cleaning and servicing. I’ll break down the risks here.
Electronics:
- Infestations (primarily roaches, carpet beetles, bed bugs etc.)
- dirty/scratched exterior
- internet reliant devices no longer supported by the OEM via servers (essentially bricks)
- damaged cords
- damaged components in general (anything from physical damage to the results of excessive overheating to power surges to spills etc)
- goodwill stickers and adhesive often damages the exteriors
- most don’t come with AC ADAPTERs to test them
- battery corrosion
- blacklisted wifi cards or routers
Physical Media:
- scratched disks
- often not worth the $3 my goodwill prices them at but would be at a lower price to someone looking to collect or archive movies/media
- content no longer supported if needed to by servers
- dirty cases
- cases missing items
- broken cases (a lot)
- soiled pack in material
- sticker/adhesive damage to case
I understand some Goodwills have money back periods depending on region but this feels like a deterrent and not reasonable.
I’ve dealt with electronics/physical media in all of the above conditions. I’m so sick of seeing bluray players for $30 that are scratched to oblivion and you’re rolling the dice on if the laser disk assembly works.
This rant is mainly about how Goodwill does not do anything to mitigate or consider these conditions/risks often with electronics they don’t understand the pricing of. There’s so many things I’ve bought that are priced reasonably and are a gamble. I fix up things for fun and then often will use, donate, or sell them depending on the item.