shopgoodwill records

[Out of Breath Records]

Has anyone heard of or tried buying records from Goodwill's auction website? I've seen a first press of Descendent's - Milo Goes to College allong with 15 other misc. 80s records go for like 50 bucks, but it always seems that the prices go up ridiculously high too quickly. 

[Twilightcampfighter]

Yep, heard of it. Was in my local goodwill the other day and noticed a huge bin of vinyl just behind the door and I went ahead an asked one of the employees if they would be putting them out soon. She said nope, those are being set aside for the online site, ever hear of it??!! She asked like she was about to blow my mind... I replied, errr unfortunately yeah, I've heard of it. I then asked her if they have someone go through incoming donations and pull out what they think looks good (always been curious of this part) and she said no, they scan everything into a computer and it tells them online or store essentially. Goodwill digging ten years ago, oh how I miss you...

[Shitty Rambo]

"Um, so I guess I'll just give you some money.. and you can give me these shoes and..."

"I know it seems so strange!"

"Yeah, so I'd just rather buy 'em from you straight up."

"Yeah, I know, I wish it could be that easy but uh..."

"I wish too but you're making it extremely difficult for me. I'm just trying to get these shoes back to my house so I can wear them."

[captainaldous]

A+

[stl_ben]

I run the St Louis regions Shopgoodwill sales.  We sell very few records as most of the stores don't know what is what and it is pretty much impossible to train them on vinyl. But we have sold some amazing record players on our site.

[AutumnEmpire]

Yep, heard of it. Was in my local goodwill the other day and noticed a huge bin of vinyl just behind the door and I went ahead an asked one of the employees if they would be putting them out soon. She said nope, those are being set aside for the online site, ever hear of it??!! She asked like she was about to blow my mind... I replied, errr unfortunately yeah, I've heard of it. I then asked her if they have someone go through incoming donations and pull out what they think looks good (always been curious of this part) and she said no, they scan everything into a computer and it tells them online or store essentially. Goodwill digging ten years ago, oh how I miss you...

 

That's how I felt trying to find older video games (Super Nintendo and stuff) at Goodwill around here. Most of it all gets put up online now and people bid way too much on it. Maybe because they think giving money to Goodwill is a good cause for whatever reason.

[stl_ben]

That's how I felt trying to find older video games (Super Nintendo and stuff) at Goodwill around here. Most of it all gets put up online now and people bid way too much on it. Maybe because they think giving money to Goodwill is a good cause for whatever reason.

Yes sometimes people bid more than the normal cost...maybe because the money all goes to a charity organization.....

[paranoidantroyd]

the money all goes to a charity organization.....

That's debatable.

[somethingvinyl]

Yes sometimes people bid more than the normal cost...maybe because the money all goes to a charity organization.....

 

That pays people with developmental and intellectual disabilities sub-minimal wages!

http://www.mintpressnews.com/goodwill-pays-workers-with-disabilities-less-than-minimum-wage/173346/

 

[dack]

One thing I've never understood about Goodwill, and I'm not trying to make any accusations here, but from everything I've researched about them, the one charitable thing they do is to provide employment to those who could otherwise not be employed. They don't help the homeless or give money to those less fortunate or anything like that as far as I know. 

 

So basically, giving them stuff lets them open stores to sell that stuff and lets them employ those who could not be hired elsewhere in their stores. I've been fine with that until they've started opening upscale stores in nicer areas and employing people who obviously are not disabled in anyway, but that's another story. 

 

But what does selling stuff online accomplish? There's no way that's providing much employment and what employment it does provide I would assume would go to skilled workers. So where does that money go to? 

[TFP]

Is there minimal wages to avoid affecting SSI while providing experience?

[Out of Breath Records]

We're getting deep here. I like. 

[nardes]

I purchased Barbra Streisand's Christmas album at Goodwill last month for 35cents 

[stl_ben]

OK, so Ill try to be brief.

Goodwill is a giant umbrella label and unfortunately with so many apples in the barrel there is some bad ones.  Goodwill is ran independently region to region, so my experience/knowledge is only what the STL area does for our community.  We helps thousands of people in our community in a number of areas.  We have housing for battered women, work programs to keep juveniles out of jail and off the streets, and yes our biggest outreach is helping to train and employee people who would not other wise be employed.  This employment is not mainly in our stores but in various environments depending on their work skills/abilities.  We have one workshop where works strip used computers to be recycled, a large crew that cleans offices/factories at night, and teams that repackage "local brand" products for area stores.  Some of the people in these work shops make more than me and yes some of them make less than minimum wage, it is based on what their work output ( basicly a per peace pay and not hourly pay.)  We are non-profit company and every penny we can raise goes into local organizations.

 

That being said our reasoning for online sales is we want to make as much money as we can to help as many people as we can.  We sell items in stores at reasonable prices most of the time, but yes some items have a high value.  The average customer we get into a store does not look to spend hundreds of dollars on their visit for a diamond ring or top of the line record player so we sell them online to broaden our customer base.  Once again I can not speak for every areas sales goal online, but only what I do locally.  Yes some of the stuff we sell goes for more than it's worth, but a lot of it sells for way less.  I would say about 75% of what we sell goes to resellers who buy from us to make a profit themselves.  I have 0 problem with what ever people do with an item after they buy it from us, but in my opinion I want to try as hard as I can to get as much money as I can to our organization and not let people buy stuff cheap from us just to make their own profit.

 

On that note...I should get back to work.  Check out what we have for sale because you never know what you will find at Goodwill!

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/search/SearchKey.asp?itemTitle=&catid=0&sellerID=140&closed=no&minPrice=&maxPrice=&sortBy=itemEndTime&SortOrder=a&showthumbs=on

[WereAllDudesHey]

I don't like how they pay their regional CEOs very high six figure salaries(or even higher in some instances) while they pay sub-minimum wage to many workers. Especially for being a charitable organization. But that's the way it is, I guess. They all can't be as generous as CostCo's CEO when it comes to wages he pays out and the salary he takes, I suppose. Oh well. They just don't get any of my business.

[isavedlatin54]

Is there minimal wages to avoid affecting SSI while providing experience?

Yes. Not sure if the numbers but you'd have to make a lot to not be able to receive ssi

[stl_ben]

Once again there is some bad spots on the organization.  Unfortunately news/media like to shine on those few down notes more than the hundreds of thousands of people helped.

I have no idea how much my CEO makes but if he is making close to a million dollars year (extremely unlikely) I need to work my way up that ladder.  As a regional DM I'm making WAY less than that. 

[agua]

at least he doesnt work for wal-mart!

[ChardeeMacDennis]

Stl Ben wasn't very charitable with his ty death by audio record

[stl_ben]

Stl Ben wasn't very charitable with his ty death by audio record

What?! My record I still own?  Am I suppose to give it away?....anyways that is a completely different topic all together and you are welcome to discuss it in said topic or through PM. 

 

On an other awesome note.  I love the -1s I have got for mentioning where I work?! 

[Out of Breath Records]

I purchased Barbra Streisand's Christmas album at Goodwill last month for 35cents 

This is gold. 

[Shitty Rambo]

What?! My record I still own? Am I suppose to give it away?....anyways that is a completely different topic all together and you are welcome to discuss it in said topic or through PM.

On an other awesome note. I love the -1s I have got for mentioning where I work?!

I find these downvotes very odd as well, you haven't been rude whatsoever.

Christmas is over, everyone's back to hating everything again.

[somethingvinyl]

Here is what I know: 

I work for Arc of Greater New Orleans (http://arcgno.org/), a charter of the national Arc, a 501©3 non-profit that provides services to people with developmental disabilities. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who is employed by us makes at least minimum wage. We used to do the piece-rate work too, but our executive director realized about 10 years ago that if our population didn't exist, we would have to pay Mr. everyday joe off the street minimum wage to work for us. WE provide mobile crew jobs (janitorial, landscape, vending, lawn, etc) to people who otherwise couldn't be employed. Paying people with disabilities sub-minimal wages is taking advantage of them. It's like paying a woman or a black person less because of some made up criteria that they're not as good of worker as a white man.

And to the person who asked when working interferes with SSI disability. Most of our participants who work get Medicaid and SSI too and they work about 20 hours a week and still get full benefits they're entitled to because of their disability. 

[tooclosetosee]

Get stuff for free, pay people minimum wage, sell stuff for profit. Laugh all the way to the bank. Since finding out about this I either throw stuff away, give it away to friends and family, or sell it on craigslist. The way I see it is that goodwill is just a bunch of craigslist flippers but has the people trained to bring in the stuff for them.  

 

http://watchdog.org/56129/fl-florida-goodwill-six-figures-for-ceos-less-than-minimum-wage-for-some-employees/

 

I am also not a fan of the salvation army due to their religious beliefs and anti-gay sentiment. 

 

I donate to the united way in our area which is just an umbrella for other local charities in the area and has a reported 90% efficiency rating. Still not 100% though.

[stl_ben]

 

Get stuff for free, pay people minimum wage, sell stuff for profit. Laugh all the way to the bank. Since finding out about this I either throw stuff away, give it away to friends and family, or sell it on craigslist. The way I see it is that goodwill is just a bunch of craigslist flippers but has the people trained to bring in the stuff for them.  

http://watchdog.org/56129/fl-florida-goodwill-six-figures-for-ceos-less-than-minimum-wage-for-some-employees/

Do you live in FL?  If so yeah I would recommend finding a different group than goodwill to donate to, however...

if you live some where else, then look into your local goodwill.  Every region is completely different.  Most of our workers make above minimum wage (however I am interested to see how this goes now that minimum wage is going up again.)

Please don't throw stuff away that could easily be donated to help out your community.