Getting harder to find inventory.

[quadcitypickers]

Like many of us, I go to yard sales, estate sales, estate auctions, flea markets, and occasionally second hand stores to source my inventory.

I am in my mid twenties and have been "flipping" since I was 13, taking after my father, who is "old school" and doesn't really do eBay, he sets up at flea markets.

When I first started going to auctions with my father, when I was about 8 or 9, he used to come home with an entire truckfull of stuff, not just junk, good quality stuff he could often double if not triple what he paid for it.

Fast forward a few years later and these TV shows like American Pickers, Pawnstars, Storage wars, etc put a huge wrench into the works.

You had people going out trying to earn a living and had little idea what they were doing. They followed TV, but let's be honest..TV is far from reality.

A lot of people who had been going to auctions beforehand could be narrowed into two groups: antique dealers and part-time eBay sellers. Part-time sellers had regular jobs, so they didn't buy as much stuff, they didn't have as much time to list things. Antique dealers bought well...antiques...so this left a huge list of things to make money on. Computers, electronics, trading cards, etc.

When the economy crashed in 2008, it become worse, because you had people literally trying to earn a living selling on eBay. Now granted, their were "full timers" beforehand, but not nearly as many.

Getting back to a "wrench in the works"...these people were desperate to earn a buck, and soon it became harder to make any money. To them, it was either buy a $100 item for 85 bucks and make $15, or go home broke, so profit margins soon started to evaporate.

That is when I received a huge upper-hand...a smartphone.  I was one of the first people to have one that went to auctions and other events. It was 2010 and I became old enough to start selling on my own. The "low-hanging fruit" things like old toys, antiques, etc always went for more than it was worth messing with. I started looking at the odd and unusual. Stuff I had never seen before. Often, it was as easy as typing model numbers in. I remember buying some kind of computer for a John Deere combine. I got it for $5, I sold it in 3 days for $950. Then a week later, got a $500 widget for $20.

For the next 3 years, I quit working. I could turn more in a week than I could working a crummy dead-end minimum-wage job. I was hooked.

But that ended pretty soon. About 2 years ago. While the smartphone giveth, the smartphone although taketh away. I used to do quite well at estate sales with unusual stuff. If they couldn't find in in 5 minutes on eBay, they used to give up. But now they could just whip out their smartphone and can find it.

Estate sales became an utter joke. They idiotically never realized selling something in front of 100 people is a lot harder than when you have 100 million buyers. People aren't going to stand in line an hour, and give eBay prices or more. Of course...the next day when everything was half off, all the "good stuff" magically  sold. Imagine that. The truth was.. the estate sale companies had their own eBay.

Auctions have become worse too. I live in the Midwest and you have retired farmers, ranch hands, etc with money coming out of their ears. Supposedly  63% of Americans can't come up with $500 in cash if their life depended on it, buy boy..you sure as heck would think otherwise at an auction.

As a matter of fact...of the past 12 auctions I've been too...I could buy stuff on eBay and sell it at an auction and make money, if they didn't charge 35-40% in fees.

The weird thing is....if you ask one of these people who didn't win the bid on something at a local auction if they would like to buy one you have, they won't. You would not believe how many times I've seen two old people run each other up to $100 on something, and I ask the non-winning bidder "Hey, I have one for $50, wanna buy it?" I have had this happen countless times, never had someone take me up on it.

Anyway..times are a changin'. Good quality estate auctions and estate sales that aren't insanely price are getting harder to find. People my age don't really collect stuff, and while I'm sure it's a generational thing, people my age range don't really have the money to collect things, and beyond that, so many people have collected stuff in the 70's and 80's, it will be a long time before that stuff becomes super-valueable. Try getting money out of a 1987 box of baseball cards. 30 years old and worth didly squat.

So in the next 20 years....a lot of people who collect will be dead. Just look at the market on a lot of stuff between the past 20 years. Stuff that was worth $500 in the 90's MIGHT sell for $50 today. Porcelain, glass and china took a huge hit along with other categories.

It will be interesting to see what the future of flipping holds.

[lindyslucky]

In our area, the opposite appears to happen.

Our fav GW is in upper income end of town.

They have begun special racks & pricing with better merchandise.

These are priced much higher, no prices could be used for resale.

People fight over racks and bins as they are brought out.

We have been to another GW a few miles away where they are packing up lower quality(but high priced ) goods to ship to the upper income GW.

This Higher income area GW just expanded to a building that cost well over a million $$ to buy and renovate.

They have trouble keeping he shelves stocked.

Seems as if they throw massive amounts away, as the compacting dumpster runs constantly.

We don't donate to GW, partially because of their disposal of so much. (Old books, magazines, buttons, thread, all sewing items, tools, vintage clothes with flaws, all go into the dumpster)

As to the seeing your garmet, it happens. There is a great book where the author follows a donated shirt of their own, loses track at one point and finds it in Africa.(well identified).

My mom had a friend who donated a coat, went back a few days later to look, bought a coat, and came home to find out she had purchased her own coat that she had donated!!

Loving this thread, and yes, the change in pricing at the thrift shops is making it much much harder to find items. We used to have so much fun looking.

A lot of people don't like to hear it, but, really, lately, we are finding more to sell that people have thrown away. I walk for exercise and I just run across things.

[quadcitypickers]

I quit shopping at the local salvation army when they pretty much turned themselves into a pawn shop with their pricing.

It got so bad..they were getting stuff for FREE from Target. The Target here would donate their unsold clearence to them.

They were taking the target clearence price tags off and marking the prices up, usually three times.

So just stop and think how greedy this is..stuff they could NOT sell, given for free, and the priced raised three fold.

A manager told one of my friends they have a guy who does nothing but look stuff up on eBay all day and prices for them. Their prices reflected it too.

The Goodwill here, told me anything that "looks valueable" gets put in bins that go to their online auction website. I think Goodwill has an ebay store too, can't remember.

So that is largely what has ruined things for a lot of people. Thrift stores were never meant to be high-priced, but the greed-factor made them realize they should maximize their own profits at the cost of ours.

[rustictrollop]

The thing that bothers me is when I see the original price tag still on the item, and the thrift store has marked the price 2-3 times higher.  Especially items from the dollar stores...as if they think bargain hunters won't notice the bright dollar store price stickers.  Goodwill went out of business in our province, but we still have Value Village, which used to be amazing for bargains on high end items that slipped through the cracks.  How their prices are almost as high as regular retail.  Salvation Army stores in our area are usually pretty disgusting places, but prices and inventory are still decent enough.  The best places for inventory have become the "Bibles for Missions" and other Christian mission stores that are strictly run by volunteers, not "experts".   That is where I donate to now because they do what they do for a good cause, the variety of merchandise is phenomenal, they clean every thing as it comes into their donation areas, and the prices are exceptional.  These folks also run some pretty good silent auctions, and I like to check out the listings to see what items are going for.  Surprisingly high bids in many cases, considering that some of the items aren't worth the bid prices.  Nevertheless, it's good for research.  I wish we had the super huge Goodwill outlets like the U.S. had...I admit to being a bit envious when I hear about the bin deals, despite the alleged creepy crawlers in those bins.  A deal is a deal....lol  Another thing I miss is those good old church lady rummage sales in dusty church basements,  when items went for pennies on the dollar, and collectibles were loaded sky high on the old wood tables.  And there were always homemade butter tarts for sale.  Not many churches in our area, not many church ladies, fewer bargains....

[sodelight]

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@quadcitypickers wrote:

I quit shopping at the local salvation army when they pretty much turned themselves into a pawn shop with their pricing.

It got so bad..they were getting stuff for FREE from Target. The Target here would donate their unsold clearence to them.

They were taking the target clearence price tags off and marking the prices up, usually three times.

So just stop and think how greedy this is..stuff they could NOT sell, given for free, and the priced raised three fold.

A manager told one of my friends they have a guy who does nothing but look stuff up on eBay all day and prices for them. Their prices reflected it too.

The Goodwill here, told me anything that "looks valueable" gets put in bins that go to their online auction website. I think Goodwill has an ebay store too, can't remember.

So that is largely what has ruined things for a lot of people. Thrift stores were never meant to be high-priced, but the greed-factor made them realize they should maximize their own profits at the cost of ours.

---

They were also never meant to be wholesale outlets for ebay sellers. Many ebayers are upset the thrift is smart enough to sell items themself to maximize profits and support their cause, the ebayer thinks they should be the one making all the profit! It would be different if those shopping these stores were legit needy persons, but they know it's mainly resellers. Many coming in multiple times a day or week!

It's actually no more greedy than the ebay sellers who won't buy anything unless they can make 10 fold on it. They're not happy buying and doubling down. They expect the person selling it to make peanuts, while they collect all the gravy!

[bubbleman2010]

If you live on the east side of americas sewer line you just go to auction zip type in your zip code set to 100 mile circle of you and more junk auctions than stars in the sky and away you go....

[mistwomandancing]

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bargainsandbaubles wrote:..........It got so bad..they were getting stuff for FREE from Target. The Target here would donate their unsold clearence to them.

They were taking the target clearence price tags off and marking the prices up, usually three times.

So just stop and think how greedy this is..stuff they could NOT sell, given for free, and the priced raised three fold.

Thrift stores were never meant to be high-priced, but the greed-factor made them realize they should maximize their own profits at the cost of ours.

---

I'm all for the charity thrifts getting as much as they can for their merchandise, so whatever they mark stuff up to is fine with me.....  IF it sells for them at that price!!  I'm all for them making MONEY to fund their charitable efforts.

But, if the stuff they're marking up (that they got donated to them For Free) isn't selling at those marked up prices, then I assume they have the "All blue tags are half off today." sales of the day or week to keep money flowing into the till and to keep the inventory moving out the door. 

I don't think thrift stores have ever actually been in the business of attempting to keep their prices real low so that resellers could be the greedy ones to make the profit that was in the items. 

[mistwomandancing]

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rustictrollop wrote:

The thing that bothers me is when I see the original price tag still on the item, and the thrift store has marked the price 2-3 times higher.  Especially items from the dollar stores...as if they think bargain hunters won't notice the bright dollar store price stickers. 

I've seen that occasionally too.  I always just laugh.  Stuff you know was $1.00 at Dollar Tree, now USED and still priced higher at Goodwill. 

[emerald40]

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@sodelight wrote:

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@quadcitypickers wrote:

I quit shopping at the local salvation army when they pretty much turned themselves into a pawn shop with their pricing.

It got so bad..they were getting stuff for FREE from Target. The Target here would donate their unsold clearence to them.

They were taking the target clearence price tags off and marking the prices up, usually three times.

So just stop and think how greedy this is..stuff they could NOT sell, given for free, and the priced raised three fold.

A manager told one of my friends they have a guy who does nothing but look stuff up on eBay all day and prices for them. Their prices reflected it too.

The Goodwill here, told me anything that "looks valueable" gets put in bins that go to their online auction website. I think Goodwill has an ebay store too, can't remember.

So that is largely what has ruined things for a lot of people. Thrift stores were never meant to be high-priced, but the greed-factor made them realize they should maximize their own profits at the cost of ours.

---

They were also never meant to be wholesale outlets for ebay sellers. Many ebayers are upset the thrift is smart enough to sell items themself to maximize profits and support their cause, the ebayer thinks they should be the one making all the profit! It would be different if those shopping these stores were legit needy persons, but they know it's mainly resellers. Many coming in multiple times a day or week!

It's actually no more greedy than the ebay sellers who won't buy anything unless they can make 10 fold on it. They're not happy buying and doubling down. They expect the person selling it to make peanuts, while they collect all the gravy!

---

You nailed it.  Agree 1,00,000 per cent.

It is why I stopped donating to good will.  My intention was for it to help the poor not fund someone's ebay business.

So glad to hear they are finally maximizing profit.

[prescott4]

I dont mind thrifts maximizing profits but when a pair of jeans are cheaper new than at the thrift, there's an issue. Our thrifts are overloaded with stuff, but it doesnt sell. Eventually the either run a huge sale or throw it out. More often than not, they just chuck it.

[quadcitypickers]

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@emerald40 wrote:

You nailed it.  Agree 1,00,000 per cent.

It is why I stopped donating to good will.  My intention was for it to help the poor not fund someone's ebay business.

So glad to hear they are finally maximizing profit.

---

Actually if you read into many of these so-called "charities", many of them use a measly 10 cents on every dollar donated for an actual cause.

Also..personally I never went to thrift stores trying to make money on things the poor actually need, like shoes, clothing, etc. I always looked for antiques and collectibles.

[lemarcheaupuces]

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@fiveholergoaler wrote:

Inventory easy to find, people visiting eBay, staying and purchasing is much harder to find.

17 years later, of well over 150 people that I personally know that used eBay in 2000, I am the only one left.  At least half of these folks I know have Amazon Prime accounts and do not bother with eBay nonsense and haven't now for 8-10 years.

They will never shop here again.  Purchasing customers is what is lacking on eBay.

---

you can't buy antiques, collectibles and vintage on Amazon.

many resellers on ebay, expand and sell all sort of things.

check what Poster Rollen (something) from this thread, is selling.

such sellers offer collectibles but also clothing, electronics, small appliances.

most GW has tons of such "buyers" grabbing kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures and anything that is in its original packaging.

these sellers are NO longer just about antiques and collectibles or even jewelry.

i could do the same but selling online (not just ebay) has always been about the thrill and the fun for me.

selling clothing or brand new kitchen appliances wouldn't be.

so i never considered it.

but sellers like "Rollen" something are right.

it is the way to go and along the way selling some antiques, colletibles and junk.

these days that is the where the money is.

in my categories it is NOT about having no buyers.

well in a way it is.

but the real reason these buyers are NO longer interested in the stuff i sold years ago.

unless you have a rare piece, these buyers NO longer want the McCoy, Heager, Fenton, Hull, Roseville etc... and etc...

but the buyers are still there. they have NOT fled.

they just want the rare, the desirable, the cheap, the needed item.

[emerald40]

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@quadcitypickers wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

You nailed it.  Agree 1,00,000 per cent.

It is why I stopped donating to good will.  My intention was for it to help the poor not fund someone's ebay business.

So glad to hear they are finally maximizing profit.

---

Actually if you read into many of these so-called "charities", many of them use a measly 10 cents on every dollar donated for an actual cause.

Also..personally I never went to thrift stores trying to make money on things the poor actually need, like shoes, clothing, etc. I always looked for antiques and collectibles.

---

Yes, but the antiques and collectibles were donated on the premise that the thrift would maximize -profit so that the money could be used to help the poor.

[quadcitypickers]

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@prescott4 wrote:
I dont mind thrifts maximizing profits but when a pair of jeans are cheaper new than at the thrift, there's an issue. Our thrifts are overloaded with stuff, but it doesnt sell. Eventually the either run a huge sale or throw it out. More often than not, they just chuck it.

---

Agreed. When thrift stores charge nearly new prices for used items, they are no longer a thrift store.

Most thrift stores have turned away from selling cheap things to those in need, to expensive things for the middle class. I've been to some with a bunch of high-priced brand named stuff like MK, Louis Vutiton, etc.

So the argument of people making money off thrift stores ceases to exist when they priced things out of the budget of the poor.

[mistwomandancing]

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fiveholergoaler wrote:

Inventory easy to find, people visiting eBay, staying and purchasing is much harder to find.

17 years later, of well over 150 people that I personally know that used eBay in 2000, I am the only one left.  At least half of these folks I know have Amazon Prime accounts and do not bother with eBay nonsense and haven't now for 8-10 years.

They will never shop here again.  Purchasing customers is what is lacking on eBay.

---

The *where you choose to shop first* often depends on what you're shopping for.  There is so much that can't be found on Amazon, so that site is nearly worthless to me as a buyer.

But lots of online sites to sell on, and I know a lot of eBay sellers also have selling accounts several places out there in the great online world of e-commerce.    As these last few years have come and gone, there have been more sites spring up where sellers can offer their finds, some of them very upscale! 

[lemarcheaupuces]

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@sodelight wrote:

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@quadcitypickers wrote:

I quit shopping at the local salvation army when they pretty much turned themselves into a pawn shop with their pricing.

It got so bad..they were getting stuff for FREE from Target. The Target here would donate their unsold clearence to them.

They were taking the target clearence price tags off and marking the prices up, usually three times.

So just stop and think how greedy this is..stuff they could NOT sell, given for free, and the priced raised three fold.

A manager told one of my friends they have a guy who does nothing but look stuff up on eBay all day and prices for them. Their prices reflected it too.

The Goodwill here, told me anything that "looks valueable" gets put in bins that go to their online auction website. I think Goodwill has an ebay store too, can't remember.

So that is largely what has ruined things for a lot of people. Thrift stores were never meant to be high-priced, but the greed-factor made them realize they should maximize their own profits at the cost of ours.

---

They were also never meant to be wholesale outlets for ebay sellers. Many ebayers are upset the thrift is smart enough to sell items themself to maximize profits and support their cause, the ebayer thinks they should be the one making all the profit! It would be different if those shopping these stores were legit needy persons, but they know it's mainly resellers. Many coming in multiple times a day or week!

It's actually no more greedy than the ebay sellers who won't buy anything unless they can make 10 fold on it. They're not happy buying and doubling down. They expect the person selling it to make peanuts, while they collect all the gravy!

---

here we are again...

well...

if re-sellers wouldn't be able to find merchandise cheap enough to re-sell where would sites like;

Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, Ruby Lane... BE...???

I can assure you that 50% of the good stuff donated at thrifts shops is being stolen by employees.

last city i lived full time in Florida?

on 3 occasions the whole staff was fired for stealing (5/6 years time period).

the best yardsales i have been to were run by thrift shops managers.

what a coincidence.

you know this is not just about antiques and collectibles and stuff to re-sell.

the dollar tree store has jewelry boxes with cotton, 3 sizes in a pack for $1 per pack.

Savers was trying to sell them for $2.99 each pack.

on several occasions the GW was selling Priority mail boxes (so much for getting smarter as you say).

why would i want to buy "used" jeans at thrift shops for $10 and higher?

when i can buy a brand new pair of Faded Glory at walmart for under $10.

the only jeans cheaper than $5 at a thrift have holes and are filthy.

why would i want to buy used cds at a thrift when Target has some on sale again brand new for $3.99?

it is sad.

but you won't see me buy much clothing and needed items at thrift shops.

the reason retail shops are cheaper or just a few more $ for brand new products.

this is not about resellers being greedy. well some are.

but the fact Thrift shops are overpriced, most managers are Antiques dealer wannabes.

they have no clue about the value of things.

they have not gotten smarter.

they feel something would be worth that much and that is what they price it out.

heard a manager bragging about Avon milk glass and milk glass in general yesterday.

i guess i must be missing something...

1 of my thrift has a tiny sterling basket... really cute...$35... it's been there for 3 weeks...

i sold a similar one on ebay about a year ago, even cuter...

i could barely get $24.95 including shipping and fees.

for sure thrift shops are getting so much smarter.

the only way to make it these days is to buy whole estates.