Goodwill price differences.

[heartofmine]

It just amazes me the difference in prices from one Goodwill store to another. I read here how some of you find things for 75 cents and I'm shocked. I've been to 3 in 2 different towns and I don't ever see that good of a buy. One I go to has sale days like on Wednesday certain tags are 99 cents but that is stuff that is already picked over. Jeans there are priced $7.99 a pair and they are not even good ones. Blouses are $4.29 each. The other 2 I mentioned are in the same town and the price difference there is way different too. One has jeans for $3.00 a pair while the other is over $6.00 a pair. They are about 2 miles from each other too. I guess I don't get how they come up with their prices.

I've also noticed how high the prices are getting and they just keep going up. I can get new stuff in stores on clearance or on sale cheaper.

I often see Dollar Tree and Dollar General items priced higher than originally priced new in the stores. Do they think just because its for a charity people will pay that??? Like I said...I just don't get it.

[Judi Dial]

I've found that this changes a lot depending on the manager for the store or district. I've lived in So. Cal. at the beach, in the desert, GA, FL, and New England and even within a region or state the prices can vary a lot.

There are thrift shops here I cannot afford. One of my favorites for some reason goes through a new manager every 3 or so years. When the manager's new, the prices go way up. Eventually, I guess they learn that people want bargains or they won't buy it and the prices come down again.

There's a Goodwill here that seems to have mostly high-priced junk and I'm always excited when I go in and disappointed by the time I leave.

FYI, if you're looking for thrift shops, do you know about the directories? Look here:

http://www.thethriftshopper.com/
A pretty comprehensive list and nicely interactive

http://thrift-shop-directory.com/
Address listings, not that carefully maintained. One of my local stores moved about 1 year ago and they still have the old address, but a much more complete list to look at in one go than above!

http://www.thriftyplanet.com/dir/
Only lists 4 consignment shops for my state. This seems to be a paid directory for used stuff stores, so that may be why? But it's the ONLY list I know of, outside of the phone book, for ocnsignment shops.

IHTH!

Judi

This last one includes Canadian locations and consignment shops!
http://www.bestconsignmentshopsoftwa...ores-index.htm

[FrugalMomof3]

I have found that as well, but I haven't been to one in a while since I can never find anything I can use or even think I can use in the future.

[heartofmine]

Thanks Judi for the info. I'll check that out.

[MommyBliss]

The Goodwill in the town next to me is good on prices, but the one in another town is really high.

[HandyMom]

I noticed that since they opened a new Goodwill not far from the others, the offerings are pretty slim at the other two and the toys and kids books have disappeared. If you want those things I guess you should plan on hitting the yard sales.

[thefrug]

Here where I'm at, the goodwill has ladies shirts that start at $3 and go up. The jeans for everyone cept the kids are $6 and up. Tshirts vary from .99-$4. sweaters start at $3 and go up. housewares start at .29 for pieces of silverware and go up to $1.59 or more for other things like plates, mixing bowls, pots and pans.

If you go 30mins north of here, their goodwill thinks it's a retail store and have really high prices for stuff IMO. and yesterday I saw where they were taking really nice clothes and stuff and loading them in a truck. and I saw one of the racks had a sign on it for Salisbury,Md. thats about 3 hours east of there towards the shore. that store really didn't have too much to choose from either.

I guess it all depends on the state you live in, the managers who want to look good to the main office so they jack the prices, and how many donations they get.

[Gibs]

The goodwill that I go to most got a price list on the wall for items....it goes something like this:

Mens and womens pants and jeans :2.00
Womens capris : 1.50
Kids pants: 1.00
Kids shirts: .75 cents
Kids skirts .75 cents
Woments coats: 7.00

And so on...I cant remember all the prices...kids books I think are .25 or .50 depending. Adult books are .50.

[heartofmine]

The goodwill that I go to most got a price list on the wall for items....it goes something like this:

Mens and womens pants and jeans :2.00
Womens capris : 1.50
Kids pants: 1.00
Kids shirts: .75 cents
Kids skirts .75 cents
Woments coats: 7.00

And so on...I cant remember all the prices...kids books I think are .25 or .50 depending. Adult books are .50.

Wow! Now those are some decent prices. Coats at the Goodwill in the next town over are $20.00 and up. I've seen them priced as much as $50.00 for a used coat. Don't see them selling many of them either. The kids clothes are just as high as the adults.

They have 99 cents each on glasses and cups which is crazy. Plates $1.00 to $3.00 each.

It just seems to me they would realize if they lowered the prices they would sell a whole lot more. I mean this is a huge huge Goodwill. I only ever buy anything if its on sale or if I know its a good price on it.

I have still gotten some good buys though. I bought red Noritake glasses for $3.00 each that are worth $25.00 each. That was probably my best buy. Oh and actually I did do a bit better than that on them. My kids are in college and they get an automatic 10% discount in there and we have a Smart Card which gave another 20% that day. You pay $15.00 for the card and its good for a year. We've more than gotten our money's worth in discounts.

[Gibs]

I cant imagine plates and cups for 1 and 3 dollars, u can get them at the dollar store cheaper...might not be as good quality, but they would be new, and probably 3/1.00