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Video games found at Goodwill with absurd price tags


bluejay

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Sometimes Goodwill thinks, "Oh hey, that a Playstation 2? Since the PS4 sells for $200, we should sell the PS2 for $100! Great deal!"

I have found these happen too many times. One time, I found an XBox 360(the old version) for $70, just for the system only. And a Dreamcast Sports for $60. Although the DC is a pretty good deal compared to eBay prices, I ain't paying $60 at a goodwill. Also, on Goodwill's online auction site, I have found an original Compaq Portable, with a starting bid of $500. The description said something like, "This is an extremely rare FIRST ever portable computer! It is untested, but it is a nice addition to anyone's vintage computer collection!" or something of the sort.

What have you found at goodwill with a ridiculous price tag?

Edited by bluejay
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Luckily the worst thing I’ve seen at my goodwill was just a Wii console only for $40. Not really what the post is asking as well, but I also got kind of disappointed at one point. There was a box for an HTC Vive for $10. Opened the box annnnnd... HP Printer. Disappointing, but obviously I wasn’t expecting much from that box since it was a goodwill. That’s pretty much everything interesting I’ve experienced there though apart from the usual $2 madden games.

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I encountered the opposite.  A while back, after Pentium II was considered obsolete, I had a friend who needed new clips for her PII machine.  Checked Goodwill, which at the time had a pile of random parts in one box.  I found a motherboard with the clips and even a PII still socketed.  Took it up to ask for the price.  "Ummm... $5 I guess?"  Sold!  It was even a slightly faster processor.

 

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Another goodwill rant, fun.  I've seen some dumb stuff, kind of comes in waves since around here they refuse to use the online shop thankfully.  It seems to mix between greedy pricer know-it-all in the back with internet and being bored, to those who just lick it and stick it mentality that price by the grid on their wall/books.  A few years back when the NES started getting really dumb, I saw a beat up but boxed NES power pad set for like $300 or something ridiculous, and it wasn't worth 1/2 that due to complete/condition of it...but hey someone paid for a new like one so yeah go for it.

 

I always do have that screw you mentality with them your post there said about asking what it's worth given it's goodwill, it's donated, and well thrift are supposed to help the thrifty and all that.  But, I do on rare cases bend, when even if the price is sucky horrible for them, it's a notable savings otherwise.  Last year I turned my nose up to my rule twice.  $100 for a sealed Pokemon Red worth around $400-500.  And then $75 for a Virtual Boy with an eye out, but it was minus stand complete, had 3 games, ac adapter on top of battery, and notable each game w/no manual bt with box, and one box was the blockbuster made Mario Tennis one that seems to always fetch $100 minimum online so even if everything had been rotten the box more than paid for it.

 

Normally I just stare, glare, and leave the building as it's not worth getting worked up over since I don't go out of my way anyway as it's on the way to my kids school for the most part when I do it.  And right now I've got plenty of things I can move in my closet so I'm not hurting with lockdown so I'll still avoid their dumb website. ;)

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Sadly, I stopped going because it was obvious that everything was picked through for Goodwill Boutique stores and their online auction site. 

 

The one that I was going to would price all Wii games at $9.99. The games would usually be cheaper in eBay with shipping. GameStop was cheaper too.  

After a while it didn't seem worth my time.  

 

 

Edited by homerhomer
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The employees poach much of the really good stuff (I knew one Ebay reseller who took a job there just to do that), and most of what's left ends up on Shopgoodwill. Multiple employees at different stores in different States have even told me that they have instructions to set aside the nice stuff for the website. What little does make it to store shelves often gets sweeped up by local vultures and flippers. It didn't always used to be this way. Prior to 2008 Goodwill was a great place to find cool stuff and quality items at affordable prices. I used to go twice a month, now it's barely twice per year. Goodwill is just a waste of time nowadays.

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7 minutes ago, Blazing Lazers said:

The employees poach much of the really good stuff (I knew one Ebay reseller who took a job there just to do that), and most of what's left ends up on Shopgoodwill. Multiple employees at different stores in different States have even told me that they have instructions to set aside the nice stuff for the website. What little does make it to store shelves often gets sweeped up by local vultures and flippers. It didn't always used to be this way. Prior to 2008 Goodwill was a great place to find cool stuff and quality items at affordable prices. I used to go twice a month, now it's barely twice per year. Goodwill is just a waste of time nowadays.

Doesn't stop them from trying to guilt you into shopping there because they employ the unfortunate.  I mean, I want everyone to have a job too, but I'm not paying $25 for a disc-only copy of "Tanya Harding and Colin Kappernick's Knee-Off" because of it.

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6 hours ago, Blazing Lazers said:

Goodwill is just a waste of time nowadays.

Yep. Stopped going altogether, after they raised the prices of their CD's to something like $1.99+, DVD's to $2.99+, etc. Cassette tapes are non-existent as are video games, besides the occasional PS2 sports title. Not only that, but the stores I used to frequent, cut their media and electronics section to half or less of what they used to be - and made more room for clothes and dingy overpriced housewares. Yuck.  :mad:

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I picked up some sweet finds at Goodwill years ago, like a VCR that I used as intermediary between 2600 RF and HDTV using Composite. $5 or $ 10 bucks and the VCR worked great.  I used to find plenty of Sega  and Atari games, but those days are over now.  The last couple of times I visited, there was nothing in the store that I'd buy. Lots of clothes and housewares.  A couple SNES and PSX games behind glass. 

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Different store but I had found a boxed Sound Blaster 16 at Salvation Army once but when I opened the box it had a networking card inside it instead so I took it to the register saying that it was in a way false advertising selling it that way (the box was taped shut). I'm sure they just put it back on the shelf. Kinda shady. 

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In my experience, prices are not too outrageous, but rather that much of the hardware I see is non-functional:

 

Some months ago, I found a Slim PS 2 in decent condition. It was "tested and working" (despite being sold without a power supply). It booted-up, but it could not read disks. 

 

I once found an older laptop, again sans power supply. I did inquire, and the staff told me that the power supply may not have actually been donated with the computer.  

 

I have seen many other pieces of gaming (and other) hardware that was very obviously damaged and/or missing key components. There is a reason that none of this stuff can be returned. I am very reluctant to pay more than about $5 for something on the chance that it may be working. 

 

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On 3/27/2020 at 6:42 PM, Magmavision2000 said:

I've had the reverse problem, I found an Apple //e once at a thrift store and it didn't have a price tag, so I couldn't get it since the store has a "no tag no sale" policy.

The No Tag No Sale policy must be because people might remove tags bc it might be more than what they might pay? Why couldn't they just print a new tag for it?

3 hours ago, jhd said:

Some months ago, I found a Slim PS 2 in decent condition. It was "tested and working" (despite being sold without a power supply). It booted-up, but it could not read disks. 

 

There is a reason that none of this stuff can be returned.

I once found an untested PS2 slim with a missing CD door, no accessories for $50.

But then again, I've found 3 Genesis model 2s for $5 each pretty recently, so if you get lucky, you get good prices.

I thought Goodwill gave a 7 day warranty for electronics. Or is that just Southern California?

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21 hours ago, bluejay said:

The No Tag No Sale policy must be because people might remove tags bc it might be more than what they might pay? Why couldn't they just print a new tag for it?

Because thrift store pricing is INCREDIBLY arbitrary. One person's 'rare collectible' is another's '$1 junk disc'. As a result, only people that actually get some training on pricing are usually allowed to do it (or at least have to look things over for a final OK.) If that pricer isn't available, the cashier isn't supposed to fill in just in case someone intentionally popped a tag off to get a better deal- or worse, is having their friends do it so they have an excuse to mark down merch for them. My sister-in-law used to be a backroom manager at a thrift, so all the sorting/pricing stuff was in her wheelhouse. Honestly? Knowing what goes on behind the scenes, it's a miracle thrift stores can run even remotely smoothly!

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2 hours ago, HoshiChiri said:

Because thrift store pricing is INCREDIBLY arbitrary. One person's 'rare collectible' is another's '$1 junk disc'. As a result, only people that actually get some training on pricing are usually allowed to do it (or at least have to look things over for a final OK.) If that pricer isn't available, the cashier isn't supposed to fill in just in case someone intentionally popped a tag off to get a better deal- or worse, is having their friends do it so they have an excuse to mark down merch for them. My sister-in-law used to be a backroom manager at a thrift, so all the sorting/pricing stuff was in her wheelhouse. Honestly? Knowing what goes on behind the scenes, it's a miracle thrift stores can run even remotely smoothly!

I really think thrift store shouldn't charge anything more than $50 for something, no matter how valuable it might be, as they are just selling donated stuff, and it's all 100% profit except for the rent, some maintenance, and other housekeeping stuff. It's really not fair for the buyers when Goodwill decides to put a $600 price tag for a PC 5150 because it's what it goes for on eBay. It's damn thrift shop! It's supposed to be cheap!

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10 hours ago, bluejay said:

I really think thrift store shouldn't charge anything more than $50 for something, no matter how valuable it might be, as they are just selling donated stuff, and it's all 100% profit except for the rent, some maintenance, and other housekeeping stuff. It's really not fair for the buyers when Goodwill decides to put a $600 price tag for a PC 5150 because it's what it goes for on eBay. It's damn thrift shop! It's supposed to be cheap!

I don't know about a $50 limit, but I agree it should be under Ebay value. The odds that the store took the time to properly test an item is unlikely, assuming there's even someone with the knowledge to do that in the building. Plus, Ebay has a better return policy.

 

But, that's on them- either someone's willing to pay it or they get no money at all. If they wanna gamble on a big payout they can.

8 hours ago, homerhomer said:

Goodwill is all about making as much money on donated items to train unfortunate individuals work skills. This is good for the community but not for finding a good deal. Sort of sucks seeing Goodwill's everywhere because they mostly work the same way.

Yeah... here's the thing- those 'unfortunate individuals'? Usually less unfortunate & more complete jerks. Think of it this way- a lot of people who end up in a thrift, are people who can't handle working at McDonald's, & only company policy prevents them from getting fired. Things I have heard about include:

 

-employees in donations taking stuff they want home before pricing the rest 

-people taking 1 hour breaks, 3 hour lunches, or just leaving mid-shift

-refusing to work on anything a manager asks becuase they're female and/or poc

-refusing to do anything at all becuase they haven't been promoted (usually within a week of starting)

-actively arguing with a customer & accusing them of lying/stealing becuase they found a double charge on their receipt 

 

And so on. This is ignoring the managers who tried to frame my sister for their embezzlement years ago, I imagine that one was an outlier.

 

Not saying they're aren't genuinely hard workers in these places- usually people who are disabled, still learning English, or just had something put a gap in their work history that needs to be filled. But I'd wager about half of these employees are people who are literally too selfish to hold a job.

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13 hours ago, bluejay said:

I really think thrift store shouldn't charge anything more than $50 for something, no matter how valuable it might be, as they are just selling donated stuff, and it's all 100% profit except for the rent, some maintenance, and other housekeeping stuff. It's really not fair for the buyers when Goodwill decides to put a $600 price tag for a PC 5150 because it's what it goes for on eBay. It's damn thrift shop! It's supposed to be cheap!

I dunno who thrift store works in the US, unless you meant "Goodwill" but not all of them get free items.. In fact most of them buy stuff. Sre they buy it low, but they do buy.

 

Goodwill, to my understanding, is a charity type of store? It's meant to both help people that can't get a job and also to help poor people getting the bare necessities.

I don't feel it's fair to complain about it. A Pokemon Game Boy game is not a bare necessity. A Megadrive isn't either.

 

If they were upturning basic furniture too it would be a problem, but really what are they doing now?

They sell valuable items that aren't basic necessities to people who can afford them and do a gesture. For them it's kind of a donation, and for the buyer, they get a desired item and they can say they did a good gesture, that they wouldn't have done otherwise (making a donation).

 

I can say I feel the same with our local network of "Goodwill" (Emmaüs in France) but I accept it.

Because not only sometime, a rare item will escape the attention of the Emmaüs workers, but also because they still have lots of low priced items on the side; where else can I get books for 50 cents, a microwave oven for 20€ and a kitchen table and cupboard for 50€?

 

Edited by CatPix
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12 minutes ago, CatPix said:

I dunno who thrift store works in the US, unless you meant "Goodwill" but not all of them get free items.. In fact most of them buy stuff. Sre they buy it low, but they do buy.

 

Goodwill never buys. They always have these giant bins and warehouses where people can leavre their unwanted stuff. All donations.

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The reality is the Goodwill price checks their inventory now like everyone else. I blame cell phones. Finding cheap games has mostly sailed.  You can still find cool things like, camping kitchen utensils, back packs, old boardgames (secrets out) 4:3 monitors and so on.  But just knowing that they've probably filtered out video games for auction kills my desire to go in.

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I still find a lot of PS2/Xbox-PS3-360 era games there...

8 hours ago, homerhomer said:

The reality is the Goodwill price checks their inventory now like everyone else. I blame cell phones. Finding cheap games has mostly sailed.  You can still find cool things like, camping kitchen utensils, back packs, old boardgames (secrets out) 4:3 monitors and so on.  But just knowing that they've probably filtered out video games for auction kills my desire to go in.

 

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2 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said:

Goodwill is a rip; i never even bother with videogames there.  It's better for electronics (AV) where there more often don't know what they have.

 

Everything they sell there for videogames, overpriced, poor condition, or worse it's both! 

Hmm, it seems to be the opposite for me. Goodwill SoCal charges anywhere between $25-50 for stereo audio equipment(tuners, cassette decks, etc.) most of the time, but games are all $2.99 to $5.99, and sometimes more or less than that for cartridges. It is true that they charge $15 for some generic SNES football cart, but it's also true that I bought a Sega Genesis for $4.99.

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I've had fairly decent luck finding PS1 and Wii games along with the others people said just in the posts above at goodwill, standard pricing too thrown in with the CDs and DVDs as they really just don't care.  But again, my district doesn't use the trashy website thankfully.  IF a game has value they'll get a bit less friendly about it at times, or they hold stuff and pop it into a bed comforter bag with a console for a reasonable rate.

 

That's how I got the 25th anniversary red Wii some months ago.  $30 for the entire setup though one of the top doors had a bunged hinge I had to replace, spare chuk too, black classic controller pro, mario galaxy, cod3, new smb, wii sports, and around 10 crappy kids/kids sports/toys to life things with 2 pads.  So it really just depends.  I say don't give up, but don't put a big effort into it.  2 of them are on the way to my kids school so I just hit them on the way and whatever happens does, no loss of wear n' tear or gas so it's no biggie.

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