Their testing of electronics goes as far as plugging it in seeing no smoke and getting a green light to come on Mostly as is,but usually they will give a day or two for returns at least where I've purchased from.
I used to go to the same goodwill store 3-4 times per week in college looking for records. I can count on one hand the number of times they had something worthwhile. It does happen, but you basically have to go every day or close to it. I think every time I found something good, it was in VG at best condition and it was common classic rock albums. The rest of the time, it’s just Grandpa & Grandma’s junk quite honestly. It may also be because I’m in a small town. Larger more urban goodwill stores are probably a lot better. I have much better luck in record store dollar bins actually. There’s basically no chance of striking gold for $1 that way, you won’t probably find anything super rare, but it’s fairly consistent. The goodwill store near me has their records at $3 nowadays anyway. It’s rare that someone donates something like records nowadays, everybody knows they’re worth more than $1 each.
I disagree -- to the average American -- they will gladly donate a record they inherit from someone. They might keep Sinatra, Beatles, and Led Zeppelin, but the rest either go to the skip or the Salvation Army.
It's not that nobody is donating stuff to salvation army and Goodwill anymore. It's that there are a huge number of people that descend on these stores and buy anything of any value immediately. Plus, the underpaid workers that staff these stores are often in on the deal and get paid a few bucks to give a heads up when anything interesting shows up. Or they take it themselves.
Mostly dross, especially in the vinyl section however over the last couple of years I found a copy of Kate Bush’s Hounds of love and Gary Numan’s Pleasure principle that looked like they came through a time machine from 1985 and 1979 respectively. Both cost just $2. It’s worth looking and hopefully there will be some gold. Two years ago I found allman’s Fillmore, Stone’s yayas and Aftermath, CHANGESONEBOWIE, a Capitol Revolver, Rock and Roll Music, all for $2 each.
It’s never a true thrift store hunt without running into a few Oak Ridge Boys records. They always seem plentiful at antique / thrift stores.
I think they are thinking the CD's must be as valuable as nowadays wanted vinyl LP's because they are greedy and ignorance. My local "Goodwill" started to put absurd prices (7-8€) for common KISS remaster CD's etc. People stopped to buy from them of course. Now they have the CD's sitting on their shelves. Other local thrift stores still keep the reasonable prices 1-2€. The problem is not the people who spent a lot of their time hunting remastered Iron Maiden CD's for 2 bucks, to sell them for 5-6 bucks in Discog, to get the wonderful profit of 1,50-2.00 bucks after the fees, the problem is stupid people who eated the hype of physical music market the last decade and "american pickers" style of programming. How often we heard newbies talking about their vinyls, how "rare" and "valuable" something is... but not a word about the music itself.
I had a good score at Goodwill yesterday, basically picked up the whole X discography and Lou Reeds Coney Island Baby in good shape for $5 each, a few weeks back I picked up The Fugs first two albums, some exotica and Zappas Grand Wazoo album, Left some decent stuff behind also to spread the joy. The trick is the visit often and be prepared to walk out empty handed 9 times out of 10. Im lucky that my Goodwill is next to my gym so I checking every second day or so as it’s not out of way.
A few months ago I reported finding several hundred Doo Wop CDs at my local Goodwill. When I was there last week they were ALL gone. That must have made someone's day.
...But, but... there's a sign on the LP shelves saying "there is more on-line"... Yet you physically got out of your way to donate there... Cherchez l'erreur...
Well I went there to donate some clothes and decided to check out the for sale area, never been to one of these places before
I had the experience a few days ago of going to a thrift and having a guy take a pile of valuable-looking records and sit on a chair looking up the record values on his phone, while his wife sat bored next to him. He let me look at the spines - mostly stuff I have, or didn't need much, but one of them was a Free Design record. Oh well.
I've often heard Goodwill takes all of the rare/good stuff and throws it on ebay instead of putting it with the marred copies of "Whipped Cream and Other Delights"!
Yes, my point was to highlight how unfair it is. When I used to be able to travel easily to Vermont, etc. I would always see on any nice day line-ups of cars unloading tons of stuff directly at the shops in and around Burlington... Then some of these donators would step inside for a look - sometimes perhaps to redeem donation coupons - only to find Nana Mouskouri, Mantovani, etc. in the LP bins and a "More on-line" sign......
That's probably true. My wife once was in Goodwill when she said someone brought in a crate full of Miles Davis records. She said they looked like original pressings. The worker took them to the back and wouldn't let her buy them or even look at them. The next day we went back and they denied that they ever even came in. It was really bizarre.
I think there are plenty of microeconomic and locavore exceptions to the general rule that the good old days of thrift digging are over. And there are also local issues of mortality and actuarial circumstances that pump up the supply chain and provide good hunting. Santa Fe, with its opera and chamber music and retirees, seems to have surfaced a mother lode of fabulous classical vinyl left behind by the dearly departed a few years back, right when my classical listening and vinyl habit were intensifying. I suspect that there’s a looming boomer deathwatch wave a-comin’ in a lot of places that’s going to provide plenty of fun for vinyl vultures looking for abundant dead man’s records.
Goodwill is usually a crapshoot for me (vinyl or CD) but occasionally I find good CDs. Very very occasionally I'll find good records. Flea markets are a little better with records, for me at least, but can be equally a crapshoot sometimes. Usually the CDs at the fleas are a little more expensive ($4 instead of $1), but there are more titles to look through. Flea markets have the advantage of being a bit more out of the way, and I see less people looking at the music. Sometimes stuff at the flea markets are super overpriced, other times I get a bunch of good records for a buck each. You never know. The "vultures" seem to be more at the thrifts than at the flea markets. I must say, thrifts/fleas sometimes are less picked through in lower income areas, because the flippers, at least in my city, are scared of the neighborhoods. I live in kind of a poor area to begin with, so I am not really bothered by it... Let's just say, "I learned to duck"
My buddy was a big thrifter/Ebayer for years. He used to (annoyingly) send me screenshots of his latest and greatest flips (once sold a collection of My Little Pony toys for $1,300.) He said about a year or two ago it got so bad -- too many "vultures" to compete with -- that he gave up. Those days are gone, it seems...
I have given up on goodwill and thrift stores after a decent 12 year run I don’t even think decent LPs make it on the floor anymore ..about a year ago I found a few decent ones and guy working register says “Oh I didn’t see those!!” It’s just not worth it anymore. LPs we’re always harder to score but for a while in the early 2010s I was finding some killer CDs for cheap. Now it’s just garbage and shelves are really bare Unless one’s time is entirely worthless I don’t see the point. And if your life is so worthless that you can dedicate hours to going to thrift stores when little good ever turns up then you need help