Good Will/Salvation Army?

Hey guys, I am watching Family Feud and thinking about all the scrap metal im turning in tomorrow. A question I thought of that has been in the back of my head: what do places like Salvation Army/any good-will store do with any donated items that are broken? I have been debating asking my local ones in hopes of boosting my flow of scrap metal.

Anyone have experience with this that could help me out? I would obviously do the removal for free!


Edit: Alright, so I realized after posting this there are various answers to this question already. For those of you who set up this relationship, how did you approach the establishment?

Goodwill has a contract with a company to take their old/outdated electronics.
Salvation Army I'm not so sure, you might check with any private non-profits, you might have better luck.
Some times you might have to offer them a few bucks each for junk/old computers to get the other stuff that does not have as much value.

I have just such an arrangement with a local establishment. The big name guys like Salvation Army & Goodwill would be great whale to land with such a deal, but lots harder to reel in since you'd be hard pressed to actually meet the person who has the authority to make such a deal.

The local place, I had an in... my mother-in-law used to deliver meals-on-wheels, which is run out of the county food pantry, which is supported in part by this resale shop.

Without an in, your best approach would probably be to offer to help them reduce their garbage stream, and dumpster bill, by taking those bulky broken electronics off their hands. Of course, that means YOU have to find a place to dump all that stuff, but such is the life, right?

When I lived in Jersey, I went to the Goodwill near me almost on a daily basis, became real close to the manager and assistant manager. They would give me first dibs on gold and silver, but would not even sell me at a price that I could make any money at anything that was in the dumpster. I asked them to start saving anything that was metal or had an electrical cord on it and I would buy it as scrap. The answer was we cant do that, what happens if you go and sell it for more money. The way I looked at it was that they had to pay to get the dumpster emptied and the less recyclable items in there the more actual junk they could dump in. In my talking to them, it isn't worth their time, you are talking pennies to a multi million dollar a year company. Much better off dealing with a small non profit thrift store.
That is my experience, others may have more positive experiences.

I stopped in at my local Salvation Army to ask them that very question. Don't stop on a weekend! Only the people that don't know anything are available for questions. Need to stop when it is not busy! Have yet to be back through.

One of my scrapper friends that I have known for a few years used to get all the discarded items from salvation army. It was my friend and his two partners and two helpers, they would get so much stuff they couldn't keep up with it. They would just pile it up on the ground behind thiere warehouse till they had a pile about 30' long and about 10' high. About a year and a half ago salvation army started shipping every thing they couldn't sell to Cal. They do have auctions every day on items that they don't have room for in thiere store. I have a thrift store that gives me all thiere scrap items that they can't sell. It started out with just thiere nonworking electronics (they had some one that picked up the metal items) but by me going there every week like clock work they got to know me and when the person picking up the metal Quit going there they told me I could have it. Now I get all kinds of stuff brass,copper,aluminum you name it. I also buy all thiere junk cellphones, they have a collection box in thiere store and about once a month I empty it and pay them 2.00#, they are happy with that and it works great for me. Everybodies HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY!!

here in oregon the yards fight over the GW contract whih avrages around 100 gaylords a week + large appliances. i try to hit up the GW outlet atleast twice a week and even if i don't see anything i almost always atleast say hey to the manager if he is busy, an if he has a few min i'll ask what kind of old systems they have in the back.

What most people do not realize is there are over 125 separate companies that operate Goodwills. That is why you have Goodwill of MD, Goodwill of South FL, etc. Most of them have a contract with Dell called the Dell Reconnect program. Under it, they send all of there electronics to Dell. They even get paid for their TVs. I do not believe that the Dell Program covers appliances, but it does cover computers, laptops, TVs, Monitors, printers.

Amvets and the salvation army dump steel at the yard I use. Chairs, tables, bikes, lamps ect.

Around here they ship the stuff to a central location and auction it off. Hatians take stuff out of bins put them in others, sit on top, and practically run the auction, many times I'm the only white folk there.

The Salvation Army is a church run organization. The Officers are ordained ministers. If a person want's to deal with the Salvation Army they need to find the SA church and talk to the Officer in charge.