I'm Banned From a Local Thrift Store

[Gorn Captain]

You can never fight re-selling, and you just shouldn't even try. It just happens, and everyone needs to make some money. The guy at the store bought if from someone else first, right? So he's re-selling as well.

Sometimes, it does go wrong. Thrift stores here are raising their prices to fend off re-sellers. Which means that I, an ordinary customer, now have to pay much more for the same thing. What happens then? I stay away, because I feel it's overpriced. Everybody loses this way.

[Den82]

One man's junk is another Jawas treasure

I call the Scrap Metal guys around here Jawas. There is a few people that picked from the garbage then sell it at yard sales. Hey, if it's good and useable, why not. The only one that bugs me is the guy who raids the Salvation Army boxes near his house and sells the goods.

[toys2cool]

The lady that lives down the street picks our discards, she's having a yard sale today.
We put anything structurally questionable to the curb, particle board wasn't meant to be moved and doesn't like humidity. We have regulars that'll take the stuff home, I refer to them lovingly as Jawas.

One man's junk is another Jawas treasure

[Bill]

The only reason I can think why a thrift store might not want to sell to someone who is going to resell it is if they are attempting offer lower prices to those who can't afford to buy new items.

My church runs a clothing room on Thursdays. All items are free, but we do limit each person to 2 of any type of item. If we don't people will come in and take all the best items and sell the at garage sales, and we are unable to serve the people who really need help as well as we could otherwise.

I know it's a bit different, but the charity aspect may be part of the owner/operator's reasoning for banning resellers.

The lady that lives down the street picks our discards, she's having a yard sale today.
We put anything structurally questionable to the curb, particle board wasn't meant to be moved and doesn't like humidity. We have regulars that'll take the stuff home, I refer to them lovingly as Jawas.

[Mawni]

When somebody buys something from me for resell I DO NOT CARE. All I care is that I get the price that I want. What does it frickin' matter? What you quickly realize in this business if you've been at it awhile is that these things have RELATIVE value. There is no EXACT value on an item. The same item in two different dealers hands can be WORTH different amounts. Certain dealers can get more for the same item than you can. When I'm selling, all I want is the money I think I can get out of an item. If somebody thinks they can get more GOOD FOR THEM.

People need to relax and just sell their stupid stuff and move on to the next.......

THIS^^^

[toys2cool]

Don't sweat it, if the place is as bad you say then it's no biggie

[Den82]

The only reason I can think why a thrift store might not want to sell to someone who is going to resell it is if they are attempting offer lower prices to those who can't afford to buy new items.

Certainly not the case with him....lol.

[madmarva]

The only reason I can think why a thrift store might not want to sell to someone who is going to resell it is if they are attempting offer lower prices to those who can't afford to buy new items.

My church runs a clothing room on Thursdays. All items are free, but we do limit each person to 2 of any type of item. If we don't people will come in and take all the best items and sell the at garage sales, and we are unable to serve the people who really need help as well as we could otherwise.

I know it's a bit different, but the charity aspect may be part of the owner/operator's reasoning for banning resellers.

[Bill]

I can kinda see the guys point, where he gave you an answer and then it would appear your dad went behind his back, but so what? It was out for sale and it sold, and you'd be back again to spend more money with him if he'd have just eaten it and went on.

[Toyman_Chris]

If dangling a $20 game in your face is his version of being a " hotshot", I really feel bad for him.

[Den82]

That's what I mean. He TOOK me to his car, opened the truck and showed me the games. Then after I get excited (he had good sellers like Metroid which I now get $20 for in my shop), he tells me most are "Amazon", but if I were interested in anyone, he'd "look them up" and "might" sell them.

That is BULL. When I had my yard sales to blow stuff out, people would ask if I had any of ___ or more of ___ and I told them no, even though I did.

My gut feeling is he has a problem with me being a reseller, thus just wanted to come off like a hot shot and dangle them in my face. But that's OK. Keep your good stuff in your trunk and just show it to people who want to buy it. In the meantime, keep trying to sell old cable boxes from the 1980's with wood panel on them and bins of dirty Christmas decorations to try and pay your rent. Don't cry and blame me and other dealers when 6 months from now you are at yet another new location because you got kicked out of the last.

[megocrazy]

Would he actually get those prices????

I get 12 - 15 with no problem for SM2 and SM3 in my booth.

First of all the guy stating "I need to look them up" means you should have never even seen those items. See it all the time. If those games were on the sales floor for the girl to sell to you, it was his fault not yours.

[Splitty]

That's just absolutely ridiculous. He should have managed his stuff better and not had pre-sale stuff available to sell. He's acting like such a sore loser.
As far as Den's concerened, it totally wasn't worth throwing away future business over such small priced items. Now that dude has lost all of Den's future business, on stuff nobody else may ever buy from him. Sucks to be him.

On a side note, as a seller, it's your responsibility to research the price of an item, and put it out for what you feel comfortable with. Who cares what whoever buys it is going to do with it. You already decided the price you want for it. If it wasn't for re-salers, used stores wouldn't get half the business...or some such percentage.
Money's money, no matter who it comes from.

[MIB41]

^^^ Your right. He threw away a good resource over what amounts to a few bucks in the grand scheme of things. Sad. Not much of a savvy business man.

[Den82]

It's not really a matter of me giving him his asking price and then telling me not to come back because I sell them. They were not for sale yet, as he didn't know his asking price yet. He's mad because we bought them from his niece before he was able to research a price.

But it's true he lost a good customer. Some people know how to deal with others and some do not. His old business partners had the "you make some money, I make some money" attitude and there was no bull with them. No call me next week, let me research them, let me ask my wife stuff.

I could of loaded him up with donations to sell too, as I am always getting stuff in lots that are good and useable things, but not vintage, so no good for my store.