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Shopgoodwill.com discussion

Towmater said:
The era of great deals has pretty-much passed. Shipping usually takes the cost of a five dollar bargain to a twenty dollar not-so-great deal.

Anyways,
https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/59740765
Someone's clever method of pirating PC games?
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I disagree as you can bundle shipping if things are from the same location. And they have some of the most reasonable prices I've ever seen for shipping complete systems or laptops, so more expensive items can end up still being a bargain.

As far as those tapes, that was one way to copy CD games before CD-R. We actually had rebel assault on 5 sq200 syquest cartridges--until we realized doing that cost more than just buying the game, which we did.
 
I agree, I still look from time to time, but they scalp you on everything. I dont think anyone is ever getting a fair or cheap price on vintage hardware. I know I havent.
 
VERAULT said:
I agree, I still look from time to time, but they scalp you on everything. I dont think anyone is ever getting a fair or cheap price on vintage hardware. I know I havent.
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If you're not getting a good deal, you're not looking in the right places. ;)

Yes, the popular stuff is going to be expensive because demand is high right now. But demand always wanes so it's a game of time. I remember when no one cared about IBM Model M keyboards and I picked them up for 50 cents each because I liked them and no one else seemed to care. Now if you're paying less than $50 for one it's a steal.

One of the best places that I've found to find items is craigslist and then you negotiate. Usually, most people will barely have any buyers so their dreams of getting their 'I saw it selling this much on ebay' price is going to be shattered within a week. Another great place to find stuff is storage auctions and garage sales. And of course if you want stuff in great condition, other collectors. The stuff you find on your own tends to need tlc, and sometimes a ton of it.
 
Samir said:
One of the best places that I've found to find items is craigslist and then you negotiate. Usually, most people will barely have any buyers so their dreams of getting their 'I saw it selling this much on ebay' price is going to be shattered within a week.
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I can point you to a number of local craigslist items where people are going on at least a year and haven't came to the realization that they aren't going to get ebay prices locally. :) I actually wish they'd just sell on ebay so they'd stop relisting it every week. In some cases, I even wish those people would look on ebay and realize that they're not going to get $150+ for their untested, no power supply Coco 2's and TI99/4A's...

On the thread topic, I have gotten a couple things cheap on goodwill, but it's always been things that are unpopular but that I was looking for at the time (Epson compatible dot matrix printer, for example). Lately though i've seen some things go for as much, or more, than ebay there. I'm not sure if they're locals just saving shipping that way, or what.
 
Samir said:
If you're not getting a good deal, you're not looking in the right places. ;)

Yes, the popular stuff is going to be expensive because demand is high right now. But demand always wanes so it's a game of time. I remember when no one cared about IBM Model M keyboards and I picked them up for 50 cents each because I liked them and no one else seemed to care. Now if you're paying less than $50 for one it's a steal.

One of the best places that I've found to find items is craigslist and then you negotiate. Usually, most people will barely have any buyers so their dreams of getting their 'I saw it selling this much on ebay' price is going to be shattered within a week. Another great place to find stuff is storage auctions and garage sales. And of course if you want stuff in great condition, other collectors. The stuff you find on your own tends to need tlc, and sometimes a ton of it.
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I was referring to shopgoodwill.com.. not in general.
 
VERAULT said:
I agree, I still look from time to time, but they scalp you on everything. I dont think anyone is ever getting a fair or cheap price on vintage hardware. I know I havent.
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Its good to work for goodwill. Looks at the goodwill in seattle washington, they have alot of the good stuff. Or that was the case when I last look.
 
VERAULT said:
I was referring to shopgoodwill.com.. not in general.
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Sadly computers only show up on the Shopgoodwill.com site, not in the local stores. I do stop at the local goodwill on occasion, but the only useful 'retro pc' stuff you can ever find in store are 4:3 Monitors & TV's, A/V switchers, Disk Boxes (rare) and maybe software (although i don't buy vintage software since I don't see the point).
 
There are no bargains to be had on ShopGoodwill. They only put items on the site when they think it's worth good money. And it's pretty obvious they set their prices according to what the same items have sold for on eBay.
 
vwestlife said:
There are no bargains to be had on ShopGoodwill. They only put items on the site when they think it's worth good money. And it's pretty obvious they set their prices according to what the same items have sold for on eBay.
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They also list the better, more popular stuff on their ebay store. The original purpose of goodwill was two-fold, to get money to help support their community efforts while simultaneously providing discounted merchandise to the less fortunate in the local community. Now their primary goal is the former and not the later. Can't tell you how many times I've seen stuff selling at the goodwill brick-and-mortar that was as much, if not more, than a new item from a major retailer. They're basically taking advantage of folks who go there thinking their getting discount merchandise and don't know that the major chains carry the same items, new, for less.
 
They don't sell 4:3 TV's in our local stores. In fact they have a strict policy against them. StVdP on the other hand (at least the last time I was there) still had them. I can't remember the last time I found something to buy at Goodwill. I almost always leave StVdP with something, and always leave regretting not buying something. They had some mechanical adding machines there for a long time and then one day they were all gone. Same with VCRs.

I've only ever bought things from shopgoodwjll.com that were a really good deal. My most recent purchase was a steal. Granted everything I've bought has been things of no market value; but things which are well worth the price because they don't show up locally.

Incidentally, one of my YouTube subscribers recently bought an Intellivision, in very good condition, complete in box from a Goodwill for $5. He found it in the back of the store, not ready to go on the shelves yet. I never heard of anyone doing that. That price is incredible.
 
KC9UDX said:
They don't sell 4:3 TV's in our local stores. In fact they have a strict policy against them.
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Yeah, they don't seem to be consistent about it. Besides CRT's, we also have a huge abundance of VCR's, yet my friend who lives in Portland says he never sees VCR's at his goodwill. He does see other items that I never run across at mine (for instance, he says they have bins of cables and I never see that at mine).

KC9UDX said:
Incidentally, one of my YouTube subscribers recently bought an Intellivision, in very good condition, complete in box from a Goodwill for $5. He found it in the back of the store, not ready to go on the shelves yet. I never heard of anyone doing that. That price is incredible.
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I've seen PS1's and original XBox's all the time for super cheap, which is funny because they sell for more online because of modding or whatever.. I did see a flashback Intellivison for $30 or $40 bucks once at a goodwill... Again, goodwill either taking advantage of folks, or just not knowing that it wasn't a real one and used ebay for pricing.
 
The worst thing is, some fra-gee-lay items they are selling, such as motherboards, hard drives, even optical drives are being shipped either by FedEx or United Parcel Smashers. I'd rather drive to the store and pick up the item in question or have USPS ship to my house than the other guys. In fact, a local thrift store in my area has CRT TV sets, and I thought they didn't accept CRT TVs any longer since 2016. The goodwill that's about 32 klicks away (Military/Officer word for kilometers) or 20 miles US hardly has anything. I was pretty lucky to get my hands on a 486 machine close to 2 years ago for $17 (keyboard, mouse, and tower) and prices for those machines are going for a lot of money. And, vwestlife is right: the listings on the site start at the eBay prices, and there is another thrift store that does the same thing as well (cash only, no checks/cheques or credit cards accepted, or the credit card machine broke 1 year ago and never got fixed).
 
I have been buying from thrift stores for about 20 years now. I can honestly say to coin an outdated phrase "they jumped the shark". There never used to be alot of people in any given store. Now they are packed. I dont know about the rest of the country but the goodwill brand has alot of modernized stores in the new england area and they are swamped with people. I decided to stop into one in an EXTREMELY affluent town and there were at least 40 cars in the parking lot and the place was clogged with shoppers. Prices are getting pretty high too.

Besides electronics I used to buy a lot of dress clothes from the good will, silk ties for a dollar, suit coats for $7 to $15. Wool pants for $6. Ill be damned if Ill pay $275 for a pair of designer pants for work. Anyway now the prices in my opinion are what stores like J C penny used to be. Its a shame.
 
ngtwolf said:
Sadly computers only show up on the Shopgoodwill.com site, not in the local stores. I do stop at the local goodwill on occasion, but the only useful 'retro pc' stuff you can ever find in store are 4:3 Monitors & TV's, A/V switchers, Disk Boxes (rare) and maybe software (although i don't buy vintage software since I don't see the point).
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Most stores have contrasts that prevent them from selling most tech in stores
vwestlife said:
There are no bargains to be had on ShopGoodwill. They only put items on the site when they think it's worth good money. And it's pretty obvious they set their prices according to what the same items have sold for on eBay.
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That is true for a lot of things, but you can find good deals on stuff on ShopGoodwill. I got a few high end 939 and 775 boards for about $20 of ShopGoodwill.com once.

ngtwolf said:
They also list the better, more popular stuff on their ebay store. The original purpose of goodwill was two-fold, to get money to help support their community efforts while simultaneously providing discounted merchandise to the less fortunate in the local community. Now their primary goal is the former and not the later. Can't tell you how many times I've seen stuff selling at the goodwill brick-and-mortar that was as much, if not more, than a new item from a major retailer. They're basically taking advantage of folks who go there thinking their getting discount merchandise and don't know that the major chains carry the same items, new, for less.
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The big thing to point out is that not most of the people working in the stores do not know the value of times brought in. They look it up online and see one for sale for a high price unknowing what its truly worth.
 
retro-pc_user said:
The worst thing is, some fra-gee-lay items they are selling, such as motherboards, hard drives, even optical drives are being shipped either by FedEx or United Parcel Smashers. I'd rather drive to the store and pick up the item in question or have USPS ship to my house than the other guys. In fact, a local thrift store in my area has CRT TV sets, and I thought they didn't accept CRT TVs any longer since 2016.
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So, that's actually funny.. I dropped off a CRT monitor that I didn't want to deal with (VGA wth 9 pin) and they informed me that they don't 'accept' them, but will take it and salvage it for me, or something like that. I didn't understand really, but as long as they took it, that was good enough for me. But, if they don't accept them, how they wind up with them in the store is actually confusing. Oh well.

Mr. Horse said:
The big thing to point out is that not most of the people working in the stores do not know the value of times brought in. They look it up online and see one for sale for a high price unknowing what its truly worth.
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I get that, but I've seen those same items sit on the shelves for a month.. They're like those craigslist or ebay sellers that are just holding out with their overpriced item for a big payday.. Just like those guys, they aren't lowering the price in a few weeks like they should.
 
yeah shopgoodwill.com are actually worse than some of the high pricing ebay sellers... specifically ones in the Massachusetts area. You know the ones I am talking about.
 
Interesting discussion, and thank you for the thread split so we can also post the deals. :)

I didn't know about shopgoodwill.com and I look around almost everywhere for deals just because, and found it to definitely be better than ebay and craigslist on certain items for sure.

Local stores I've found are hit and miss, but I'm very lucky that my local one has so much stuff going through it that they could care less about making sure something was priced right versus just moving it since they have more coming in. I've bought a 2600 flashback? for $3, apple airports for $5 and routers with gigabit switches that I can use as switches for $5. I think my best find was a logitech trackman thumb--the ones I use and love--for just $1. Recently I bought a brand new in bag DVI cable for a friend for 50 cents. That reminds me, I need to get some cat5 cables, which I usually pick up for cheap as well. Other nearby goodwills will charge sometimes 5x for the same amount. I guess it's a net profit thing on a per store basis.
 
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