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Is there money to be made at thrift stores?

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  1. #1
    Bamcis is offline Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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    I haven't spent much time checking out thrift stores yet. I did go to the local Goodwill once, but their prices were way too high to make a profit through scrapping, and I didn't see anything priced low enough to attempt resale either. I've read other posts about how Goodwill can be a good place to get rid of old CRTs (They mark those up high too, they want 20 dollars for a 19 inch!), but I haven't seen anything posted about them being a good source for scrap. Has anyone here had a similar experience with Goodwill?

    The one thing Goodwill is good for is makeshift Halloween costumes. Why pay 20-30 bucks for some crappy costume at Wal-Mart when you can spend a few bucks at Goodwill and come up with something far more creative.... Which reminds me, I did have one successful re-sale experience from a Goodwill. A buddy and I were looking for halloween costume stuff at a Goodwill years ago. I was scrounging through one box, and lo and behold, I found a military issue Kevlar helmet with a sticker pricing it at 9 dollars. I found one of the store employees (an overweight guy dressed up like Ric Flair and wearing an aluminum foil championship belt) and asked him about the validity of the price. He walked to the back with it, and a minute later brought it back with a new sticker pricing it at 2 dollars. Of course I stopped asking questions at that point and bought the thing. It turns out, one of my fellow Marines who had misplaced her issued helmet heard about my story and asked if she could buy it from me. I ended up trading it to her for a bottle of high quality tequila.

    Last edited by Bamcis; 10-27-2012 at 07:11 PM.

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    auminer's Avatar
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    Man, there's a resale shop here that keeps me BUSY with non-working, non-selling electronics. They used to didn't take computer stuff, now they give it all to me. They give me some crap... speakers, ugh... but I take it with a smile because sometimes they come up with a gem:








    Pitch your partnership as you helping them keep stuff out of their dumpster... which you are.
    Out of clutter, find simplicity. --Albert Einstein

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