I shop for everything 2nd hand before I buy it new. There are people that pile up books, then sit in a chair searching the ISBN numbers online. I have a gorgeous book of photos, each page has a thin paper between photos....I looked it up....it sold for $220 new....I paid $1.50 used....I'm sure if I wanted to resell it....well... $50? People make a living doing this. Fine by me! A lot of clothes are boxed up and thrown out too. I also purchased my Zojirushi bread machine for $7.50 @ that same store....new...$300!

I admire people who take initiative to make money for themselves. Reselling from thrift stores is a great way to augment one's income. I do it all the time, and make an extra $10,000/year (yes, it's reported to the IRS) on average.

It takes very little time (less than an hour per day, maybe two days per week).

What I know for sure is that charity thrift stores are selling a lot more clothing (and other merchandise) since the advent of online resale sites like Poshmark.

At least the 3 small ones that I am familiar with.

I used to go to yard and estate sales and there were shoppers, usually women, who made a beeline for the clothes closet. They would buy up shoes, coats, clothes in any size to resell. No harm in it. It takes a fair amount of work to photograph, assesss and post each item, not to me tion shipping it. Maybe its easier than I think. Ive never done it.

Years ago I bought a few items from eBay and was mostly disappointed so no more of that.

Those who buy to resell are providing a service. There may be people who do not have time or perhaps transportation to shop resale stores, and even accounting for the higher resold price are generally paying less than new retail if they buy from resellers. The reseller provides pictures and descriptions. Everyone benefits.

In addition, those who are doing this are working and making money for themselves and their families, money which when spent which will help maintain goods/services for the businesses provided for. Everyone benefits.

And of course thrift shops themselves will many times use the money from sales for charitable purposes. Definitely a benefit.

I can't see why anyone would be upset? Silly people. Doesn't really matter if the someone who beat them to a needed/wanted item is "less fortunate" or not. Everyone has equal opportunity. Now, if the store set items aside, held them, etc. that'd be different.

Of course, I don't get people anyhow. I remember when people would be up in arms when someone in public was talking on a cellphone, and I really didn't understand why. People have conversations in public all the time. What does it matter if someone is in person, or someone is over the phone? I never understood that. Though, people have stopped yelling (for the most part) when talking on cellphones, so maybe that was it.

People are crazy

I would disagree on the ethicacy. Most thrift stores are hoping to provide well priced items to people how can't afford more. It enables them some dignity in life vs right out welfare. Buying so you can made an easy buck is tacky and slapping people already experiencing hard times in the face. NOT OK.

"People are crazy."

So true! 😂

I would agree with you HU, except, they're not buying entire racks and keeping them from obtaining anything. I see your point, just don't fully agree

It is driving up the prices in the thrift stores. In some areas prices have doubled as the thrifts try and get more money for what they sell. The last time I was shopping at Goodwill I was astonished at the prices of shirts. That would have been about last December. Men's shirts that were three or four dollars were eight to ten. I hadn't been in in a while. I had heard that was happening though. Maybe it will even out.

I used to feel it was unfair that well-off people bought the best stuff from charity shops, but I kind of calmed down about it, knowing that at least $ was being made to help the charity providing services to lower income or disadvantaged people.
Now I have a new dilemma. We have a huge homeless population here and there are several clothing banks where people can get clothes for free. There is no proof needed that you are low income or homeless in order to get clothing Most of them limit visits to a certain # of times a month and # of items which can be taken. What I've learned is that these re-sellers go to the clothing banks and skim off all the best quality things to re-sell. No one benefits from this but the skimmers. Homeless people are not reselling and I doubt many struggling low-income people are either. Some skimmers may be
"low income" but not poor, if you know what I mean.
So, now, I don't want to give good quality things that will be skimmed, depriving the beneficiaries of the clothing banks quality items. I've started separating out the very best items or anything with tags and giving it to our local Children's Hospital Thrift Shop. I know the resellers will probably end up with the items, but I feel okay about it because they have to pay and the hospital benefits from the $. But it makes me sad that the nicer quality things never get to people who I would want to have them. It's an ethical dilemma for me, especially with children's clothing because I buy nice things for my grandson, they are lightly used and outgrown. I would want poor kids to have them, but I can't figure out a good way.

No, of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with buy and reselling. I have done a fair amount of freecycle stuff over the years and I think that I know who is reselling it . But, that is their choice once I give it to them. After a while, you get the same folks who want everything that you offered. You can probaby bet that they are either hoarding or reselling when they take all of the stuff.

As far as someone skimming off the better qualitiy items, you have to remember that anyone can do the very same thing. And, I still see lots of happy shoppers in there finding all manner of stuff that they like. Lots of cute kids clothes. There is more than enough of all the things, more than enough, for everyone! I doubt that anyone person walking out of that store with a few things that make them happy has even the slightest notion that someone came in and got all the good stuff before they got there. There is a constant supply of it!! We wont run out! the check out line is sometimes around the whole store!

I think it is the most fun shopping. You never know what you are going to find.

One lady that I talked to told me that she just loves the hunt and whatever profit comes second.

Thrift stores affiliated with a charitable activity operate to provide money to the charity, not to provide low cost clothing to needy people. They sell used clothing because that's what they get for free, from contributions.

I buy pretty much all my clothing on eBay/ Vestiare, etc. and have enjoyed doing this for a long time. If I’m shopping in a “real” store and find something I love, I’ll always look online for the same item and often find it at a significant discount. I am able to buy what would be very expensive items for ten cents on the dollar- and my small handful of favorite designers are not even sold in many stores in the US. It’s kind of a hobby, this hunt:). I have sold some things through The Real Real- far less work than doing my own listings, but probably less money in my pocket. One of these days I’ll start selling on eBay myself, I’m sure.

I am not a thrift sale shopper. i do know people who can well afford not to shop at thrift shops but just have the mindset of not buying new. Are they taking an item away from someone less fortunate, maybe.

i used to work for a settlement house in NYC. Many very expensive donations. The director was caught taking high end rugs and furniture for hinself!

I am not sure if the staff at the thrift stores get first dibs to put aside things they want to buy?

I’m on the fence about customers using the thrift store as a side line.

In reality, anyone is free to walk in and purchase equally. But, if all the better things are continuosly being plucked, what is left?

Might the charities do a better job of pricing what they sell? Could they refer to a central office to do the look-ups, then price accordingly? I don't donate nice things to charity shops to enrich or entertain re-sellers.

In reality, anyone is free to walk in and purchase equally. But, if all the better things are continuosly being plucked, what is left?

I think the OP's post made your first point, anyone can purchase. But she who plucks first, plucks best. The early bird gets the worm. Knowing this, anyone, reseller or otherwise, is free to show up when the shop first opens.

I think that's a.k.a. an underground economy. People have been doing this for years now - I think as long as eBay's been around. I recall shopping in SA maybe 10 years ago on a sale day and seeing people with carts piled with random stuff, obviously for resale. Ebay, Etsy, Threadup, etc. are filled with things like that. . People also do this at discount retail shops, and it's done with lots of other things, of course.

Yes, it's annoying when somebody is plucking the choicest stuff, but was that something you really wanted to buy, or not?

Thrift stores are awash in used clothing - practically the whole world is. At least they're buying it to resell, rather than stealing and selling things, which has been going on for even longer.

BTW, there's a thrift store in our town that provides clothing and other items free of charge for unhoused people.

Taking clothing from free sources is like taking food from the food bank when you can afford to buy food. Bad.

If you donate to the bigger thrifts like Goodwill or Sallyann they sort what they get and will actually sell to resell shops themselves. They also sell to antique stores to get better prices for antiques. This why you virtually never see really good high end in certain areas. I have never seen a single really good quality kitchen knife nor an All clad or equivalent pan though I occasionally hear people say they have found such things. Clothes are mostly different. Tons of clothes. Still the big problem is that the prices have gone up radically and most are putting it down to the resellers.

" Might the charities do a better job of pricing what they sell?

Not sure what you have in mind, chisue.

My wife volunteered for decades at a clothing thrift store operated to provide funding for a charity. There was a small subcommittee of the volunteer group that met one day a week to price articles for sale. Their objective, according to my wife, was to keep the flow out the door moving as quickly as possible. As she described it, the thinking was more "what price should we set that will have this item gone this week" and not "I wonder how much we can get for this".

The store didn't have room for storage. Items the committee decided might be difficult to sell were reduced to next to nothing and then, if still unsold the next week, were given to a charity that provided free clothing to homeless people. More than half of what was donated went directly to that bin directly - they didn't have time to spend with hard to sell stuff. The objective was to raise money, not process used clothing. Unfortunately these days, too many people think they're being charitable by dropping off what's really junk at charities.

I was volunteering extensively at an organization with a thrift store. I offered to figure out Ebay selling for those things which we knew were of more value than we could get in the store. The Ebay selling was very time consuming and quite a lot of work. I did it for several months, then parted ways with the store. Nobody else was willing to do it, and eventually the board decided to close the account.

We had a few customers who were obviously reselling. One guy came in and bought men's dress shirts. Any size, any color. He would buy 15 or 20 at a time. We didn't care, items were being sold.

chisue, the one buying it to resell is still paying the same price as anyone else, so what does it matter?

Getting in line to get things when they are being given free to those in need is one thing, but buying in the resell/thrift store and paying for them is quite a different matter. The free line is giving directly to people in need and would hard to justify taking from that supply, but the retail is selling for a profit to be used however. It matters not who pays that couple of bucks for a shirt.

Have you seen the massive amount of used clohting that gets brought to their doors on any given day? It is a small mountain . There are plenty of clothes to go around and suit everyones taste and lifestyles. There are lots of happy shoppers. There are even those who find value in the cheap junk that ends up there. Some people like the cheap junky stuff.

If you dont want your items to go down this road, you will have to put some effort in to finding an organization that you think will make better use of it, or find you own recipient for it. Most of us dont want to do that . We want somewhere to take it all and be done with it. Sure that some use the drop off because they cant bear to throw it out themselves. They must fill up those big dumpsters that they keep behind the store!

i feel that the GW store sorts and curates more than the SA. At least, I feel that way at the local ones near me. I see a greater number of items that are stained and dirty at SA than I do at the GW. I feel that SA uses less discretion as to what goes on the racks

I don't really care about that but during the pandemic I made a couple food donations to the local food pantry. There was one in a neighboring town that was on the news. Lines were long and they interviewed one woman who said her and her family were doing fine but others were really struggling. She said they had good jobs, etc...so why were you at a food pantry? I was so annoyed I never gave another donation after that.

Nina stated what I was thinking about. I'm an inveterate Antiques Roadshow viewer, and so many times an item someone found at a garage/estate sale or thrift store turns out to be valued for 1000s of dollars. Some items have been fished out of a dumpster or from a garbage pile on the side of the road. 'One person's trash is another's treasure' couldn't be more true.

Honestly, why begrudge people who are being entrepreneurial? They're not stealing, IMO.

Like Elmer says, the thrift store is trying to make money for the charity, not clothe the poor. As I see it, along the way everyone is making choices and getting what they ask for:

• The donor could be selling a valuable item on their own and then making a higher impact donation, rather than just taking a smaller deduction.
• The charity could be picking out higher value items and selling them on different platforms, if it makes sense for them to do that.
• The end purchaser is getting used clothing at a price that they agree to. Doesn’t matter if it came from someone who originally bought it at full retail or someone who bought it for a buck at SA.

My wife buys a lot off of poshmark. She’s got specific brands that she likes, and sizes that she needs. She’d never have the time to search through thrift stores for stuff she’d like, so if someone else is doing that “for her” then great, she’s paying for that convenience.

One thing though, no, not “anyone” can go do this. I just checked SA’s near me and 10-6 are common hours. So at least during the week this precludes anyone who works regular business hours. My guess, most working poor find their jobs to be more lucrative or offer more reliable income than reselling.

Hunting down things that I think I could resell for a better price somewhere else sounds like a lousy job to me. I bet if someone really put together the time they spent (shopping, buying, prepping, reselling, and shipping) compared to the money they earn, it's probably less than minimum wage.

The only negative I think about people who do this is that they must be either really bored, or have no other marketable skills. I guess there are some people who like doing things like that for very little money, but I don't know any.

" I don't donate nice things to charity shops to enrich or entertain re-sellers. "

Why do you donate nice things to charity shops, then? If it's so that they can make a lot of money on them, you could sell them yourself and donate the money. Otherwise, why are you begrudging them their choice to sell them for what they are willing to get to move the merchandise through? Ultimately, they're getting reused and not tossed in the garbage - isn't that why you donate clothes rather than cash?

I was at SA with a friend. She bought a men's jacket for $15 and sold it the next day on eBay for $250. It was from the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, 2005. She is 70 years old and supplements her income doing that. She said she tries to make about a thousand a month, doing it in her spare time.

Goodwill has raised prices, but resellers aren't going to pay $8 for a shirt unless it is pretty special, because there is no profit in that. There might be literally thousands of that same shirt already listed. It takes a fair amount of knowledge to know what has a good sell through rate, and what doesn't.

The items that Goodwill doesn't sell, usually end up at what the resellers call "The Bins", where stuff is sold by the pound. I don't know what happens to the stuff that doesn't sell there.... The hard goods probably go to the dump. The clothes may go to recycle or sent overseas. I haven't been to the bins... I am basically not very aggressive, and I hear it gets crazy.

I buy all my clothes second hand. I probably haven't bought a new pair of jeans since the 1970's. I buy my shoes on eBay.

Since moving here, and wanting to downsize the amount of stuff I have... I should be selling on eBay. All of it originally bought used. Well, I did buy an air fryer new... but I think that is the only thing. Oh, and Jody bought me a new KitchenAid mixer. Everything else I own was bought used.

Lots of people sell secondhand items to help make ends meet.

In case anyone isn't aware, some people may not have an opportunity to use their marketable skills in the region where they live. Some people are disabled - and you cannot tell that from their appearance, of course. Many people are underemployed - meaning there may be lots of available jobs that just don't pay very well. 'Right to work' laws and laws that allow employers to discriminate, or lack of enforcement against those who do so illegally, are factors, for sure - so a good number of people with prison records have very limited options.

It sounds like some of the larger charities do set aside any more valuable donations to be considered for higher priced locations. That's what I meant by trying to let the charity make the higher profit.

I understand that it's unreasonable to expect a group of volunteer 'processors' to do more than keep the deluge moving!

We donate only items we would consider buying. We also donate some nice chunks of money to only three vetted charities that serve people of different ages.

My views are mostly consistent with what Toronto V said just above.

I also think her "really bored" comment might also apply to some who have concern or curiosity about what subsequently happens to physical items people have decided to donate or discard. Honestly people, who cares?

The only negative I think about people who do this is that they must be either really bored, or have no other marketable skills.

i find that comment very offensive. i worked full time as a legal secretary. gary had his own home improvement/vinyl siding business for decades and his skills were very much in demand. our forays out to the antique shops and auctions were either on weekends, evenings, or rainy days when a siding job prevented him from working that day. your assumption couldn't be further from the truth. 🙄

The surge in reselling has change the dynamic of both buying (in the stores and on websites like eBay or Poshmark) and selling online. It's harder to find nice things at Salvation Army these days because usually the resellers got their first. And when I do, the ticketed prices are much higher than they used to be.

EBay prices are also much higher than they used to be. I've been a casual eBay seller for over 20 years, and it sure has changed. If you type men's flannel shirt into the search field, you get over 180,000 results. I use that as an example because years ago I would pick up wool flannel shirts for rug hooking and cotton flannel or chamois shirts for my husband to wear. The thrift shops always had a large selection. Today I like to wear flannel shirts myself, but they've disappeared from the shops. Apparently they're all on eBay. If you filter those results by Sold listings and by price, high to low, you'll see some insane dollar amounts. Did someone actually pay $19,799.00 for a pre-owned 1980s Ralph Lauren red plaid flannel shirt? Well, at least it had free shipping. lol

I used to hunt for books to resell at a profit, and that was fun for awhile. I also enjoyed hunting for used woolen clothing for my hooking, so I guess I just enjoy the hunt. I think a lot of today's resellers enjoy the hunt too.

I definitely did not enjoy selling clothing, however. The few times I tried it, I was put off by how labor-intensive it is. All the measuring, for one thing. And the difficulty in photographing it. And on eBay, all the Item Specifics you have to fill in.

Yesterday I snagged a really nice article of clothing at "the Sally." It had a label I never heard of (Hänsa-Bränta by Stearns). It's a men's pullover winter jacket, beautifully made in the USA and richly insulated with goose down. I think it must be a vintage brand, as all the comps I found online were decades old. But this jacket looks like it's never been worn. I suspect a reseller would get quite excited over it. So will my grandson.

My opinion changes a little when I realize the OP is talking about a clearance sale at the charity. If they couldn't move this stuff earlier, it evidently was priced over the market at that location, and least it now will turn a profit, regardless of who buys it.

Thrifting is generally about the thrill of the hunt. I have personal rules of course but they are mine. I am just validating the idea that resellers could be pushing up prices for people who like me stretch their budgets and keep their footprint as small as possible by buying used. I buy all my DH's shirts at the thrifts. I generally find unworn shirts. Men get them for Christmas and never wear them. I used to buy old 100% wool blankets and strip them up for weaving. I also bought cotton flannel duvet covers which no one wanted because they went out of style plus chenille bedspreads. I was doing experimental fat weaves to make wool rugs and flannel throws playing with widths and colors. With those lumpy bedspreads you can do fun things with the bumps. I made an overshot weave bath matt out of one. Not vintage quality spreads of course though I dont suppose anyone wanted them either. I did in fact have an inflationary affect on the prices of flannel duvets at the Goodwills by buying so many.

If you donate to the big thrifts they rough sort and load into simi trailers which get taken to sorting centers. You can see them doing it. The quality and type of thing sold in their various stores varies. Seattle has better stuff plus super cheap bins we do not have for instance. It is like a Costco where they pay attention to the local cliental.

" ur forays out to the antique shops and auctions were either on weekends, evenings, or rainy days when a siding job prevented him from working that day. your assumption couldn't be further from the truth. "

As I said, I'm sure there are some people who enjoy doing that for very little money. It's an odd hobby to me, but so are lots of other hobbies. It it's as Patriciae says, "the thrill of the hunt" - it's is a weird idea to me, but have at it!

I let people's words tell the story.

Someone who says "We spent the day three Saturdays ago going to yard sales and thrift shops. We had a lot of fun and found a few things we could sell" - sees the search as entertainment. That's not something I would find enjoyable or worth spending time doing but that's fine.

On the other hand, someone who says "We spent the day.........yard sales and thrift shops.......and found a few things we were able to sell for a $50 profit"...... is saying something different.

I see nothing wrong with this practice. The items are sold as used. It doesn't matter WHO used them first.

I do not buy used clothes. I buy new, inexpensive things and wear them to death, then they are shop rags for SO. But I do buy from obvious resellers on eBay. Mostly new pink kitchen items. A lot of the time the price is ridiculously inflated. But it is my choice to pay the price they ask if they have something I want but cant find it. I bought a set of mixing bowls that were pink on the inside and had hearts on the outside. I paid something like 35 dollars for them. Plus shipping. They arrived with the original price tag still on. She bought them at Ross, for 9.99. Was I mad? No. I had just been to Ross and those bowls were not there. And I wanted them.

The thrill of the hunt was my reason for going to country auctions weekly for 40 years. Sadly I didn't sell but kept. But I love every purchase I made in those years because antiques never go out of style. As for thrift shops...I need to go next week. Before Covid, I went to the gym every day across from our great local thrift shop. ALL proceeds stay here. I especially liked Tuesday when it was senior's 1/2 price day for anyone over 55. I've purchased a lot of clothing there because I like classic labels and 100% cotton items which are hard to find. I do go through drawers and contribute clothes. I am so clueless because every week when I'd go I'd see this same woman with her cart piled thinking what a large family she must have when she's no doubt selling online.

I used to have a yard sale buddy and we had the best time! It was so much fun! When the season changed we would do the rounds of the GW and SA instead. What fun!

I am seeking simplicity now and really dont buy much of anything from anywhere. I took to crusing the loca SA on half price day and have picked up a few nice tops and the occassional garment to harvest the fabric, trim or buttons from.

One thing that you do not see in this store are hats, gloves, scarfs, and not a lot of printed media .Used to be most thrift shops had a bin of sewing patterns, but no more. And, come to think of it, I see no handbags, either. Not that I would want them, but it just occurred to me that there are none in the store and you would think taht they get a lot of them. Mostly it is clothes, shoes, dishes and furniture and some books.

I had friends in San Francisco in the 1970s who were antique dealers, and they would go to certain thrift stores on donation days at 6 AM to get first pick at what had been donated. This was how they got inventory for their businesses, and yes they did get the most valuable items that had been donated (not clothes) at low prices, especially at the "As Is" shop in SF. It is true that anyone else was unlikely to find these items later at the store, but anyone was able to go to the store at 6 AM to do the same thing that the dealers were doing.

I did not consider what the antique dealers were doing as unethical - they were just exercising their skills at picking and then reselling. Of course this was long before any online reselling, and so this practice has been going on probably as long as there have been thrift stores. San Francisco had a lot of antique dealers in the 1970s, but the demand for antiques today is probably a lot lower than what it was back then.

I do not donate anything that I believe has a high resale value and that I think I can sell myself. When we donate things (especially furniture) that we believe has a high resale value, we get receipts and use the donations as tax deductions. We donated a slightly wrecked car to PBS, and got a receipt for several times the value that we could have sold it for.

Selling used items is a lot of work, and anyone who wants to supplement their income doing this is earning the money they make from doing it.

If you want to beat the dealers at the thrift stores, find out when they put out new items and get to the stores at that time. You might find it not worth the effort.

We live in a small rural town with a thrift shop operated by a Christian women’s group. It’s highly successful and I know personally that donations from this shop are given to needy college students as tuition support.

BUT, I was listening to one of the ladies last week (an integral coordinator of this shop) who said, ”I get all my clothes from the thrift shop,” and it got me wondering if she’s cherry-picking the best pieces as they come in. That never occurred to me and I’ve known her for years. I guess as she’s a volunteer, she might feel entitled. And she probably paid what they would have charged for the clothes.

I don’t know. It just makes me look at her with new eyes. I donate a lot there, some quality items, with the idea that persons of lower income might be able to dress a little better.

Then there was the kava bowl from Fiji. It was too big to fit in our suitcases, DH told me DO NOT BUY THAT.....we can't get it home. I found one in a thrift store here in the US, $15. Everyone was asking me what it was....I set it down, a guy asked me..."You don't want it?" No....I don't need it. I looked it up online when I got home, one like it was listed on Charish...for $1200. I see it now sold. Link

I'm pretty sure a "poor" person would not have known what it was...or had a place to store it until it sold. Right?! Thrifting for resale is a business that takes a LOT of time and knowledge.

Littlebug, I certainly get what you're saying, and some of the clientele at my local thrift shops do appear to be needy--even though I know appearances can be deceiving. But our Salvation Army has a parking lot, and I'm a person who notices cars. I do see some old beaters, but I can also count on seeing some beauties. I can also count on seeing some of my more affluent friends and acquaintances inside. Like me, they enjoy the hunt. We all donate a lot too, and sometimes my purchases get donated back immediately as I'm no longer comfortable trying things on in the store. If they don't fit when I get home, back they go. Yes, it makes them less of a bargain, but it all works out.

I've known plenty of people who do not have a lot of money and drive nice cars. Sometimes, it's only for awhile. You really cannot judge everybody's wealth by their outward trappings.

" I've known plenty of people who do not have a lot of money and drive nice cars. Sometimes, it's only for awhile. You really cannot judge everybody's wealth by their outward trappings. "

Absolutely. It's also unknown whether that car (or phone, or outfit) is paid for, or if it was borrowed or a gift.

TV's comment just reminded me of a coworker who lost everything in a house fire some months back - I mean EVERYTHING - they all escaped with just the clothes on their backs - which were pajamas, since it happened in the middle of the night. Their family was provided with a new SUV, and a year's rent-free stay at an Air BnB by local charities, along with other necessities for their family of 5.

Not to worry, everyone; I'm not that dense. It was just an example. I'm aware that Sam Walton drove an old pickup truck. I might add that I live in an area that's financially depressed, relatively speaking. It's unusual to see luxury cars here.

There is no means testing required to shop at the thrift store. Anyone can go in anytime and buy anything that they want to buy.

It matters not what outward signs of wealth you display. All that matters is that you have two bucks to buy that shirt on half price day. It does not matter if you were driven there in a Mercedes with a chauffaur and took your two bucks out of a Gucci wallet and had your valet carry it out to the car for you. All that matters is that you had the two bucks.

It matters not to the objective of the store .

They are not giving this stuff away.