I’ve always been frustrated in trying to find good books for resale at Goodwill and other thrift stores. Too often, the selection is terrible — although I’ve heard sellers in other areas say they get plenty nice books at thrift stores.
Goodwill already runs a used book Web site. Now there’s another reason why it will be hard to find good buys locally: Goodwill is diverting many of its best books to new book-only stores, where they’ll be sold for about $3 to $8 apiece.
Here’s a local TV news report on California’s first Goodwill bookstore opening this week in San Diego:
12 Comments
Twin Cities area Goodwills have been selling its best books online for a while. I’d even be happy to find books in the $3 to $8 range at local Goodwills. The stores around here, especially at Roseville (a suburb), charge upwards of $15 for common books. The only place I’ve seen higher priced thrift store prices is in Palm Beach, FL at a Goodwill, get this, Boutique!! where prices were basically the same as cover price and the counter lady could not have been more stuffy!!.
I think many other cities find this happening as well. I was in Miami in December 2006 looking for books and found several at the Goodwills, then upon another trip in April found just about nothing. A lady at one store said a recent news report did an investigative report that showed all the good stuff never made it to the shelves (and not just books).
I’ve seen this as a trend, locally, over the last couple of years. I really think thrift stores will dry up as a source for good books – but I hope not.
Peter
Minneapolis
thrift stores now have insiders who comb through the books before they are ever shelved. they probably sell them for their own profit with the stores never the wiser.
The Goodwill thing has baffed me for awhile. The organization has clearly decided that it can generate more income by placing ads on tv and elsewhere targeted to those in higher income brackets looking for a “bargain”. My sssumptions about this come from trying to track the market who watch the tv shows linked to Goodwill advertising and they are middle to upper class, not poor, people.
While Goodwill used to be a viable source of books for sellers,I wonder if this move will not only hurt booksellers but also the population Goodwill was originally designed to serve? Or wil the proceed filter down to them? Poor people like to read too and not all have access to libraries or library cards. Many shun the “system” or anything that leaves a paper trail behind.
Due to loud Scouters, and loud sellers in general – some libraries have become stores. I have long ago abandoned tham as a source
Goodwill is not a single entity. There is a national organization to which they all belong, but every regional area has its own board of directors, its own philosophy, its own business plan and its own way of doing business.
I know this because I worked at one. My regional area has about 7 or 8 stores, and its “reason for being” is to create jobs among and for under-employed people.
All profits for this regional organization go toward job training and creating employment opportunities. Sometimes members of the general public would become furious because they thought Goodwill’s purpose is to help people with handicaps. Maybe that’s some regional Goodwills’ purpose, but it wasn’t ours, except when people with handicaps wanted to improve their job skills or employment history.
At my area Goodwill, all donations are processed through a large hands-on facility, in which only clothing that looks new is directed to local stores. It is then put through a steam sterilizer. Imperfect clothing is sorted by degree of damage and is auctioned by grade to private buyers who usually send it to Europe or to recyclers as rags.
This Goodwill does online sales and also has a large bookstore area at the main store that looks almost as good a B&N; or Borders. The smaller stores in our region get books only after they’ve been checked for online value and for whether they will sell better at the main store’s book area.
All the Goodwill stores in this region look like small upscale department stores, all are well staffed, and the prices are higher than what many people expect of a Goodwill.
But the philosophy of this regional organization is that the more people they have sorting and grading donations and working in the stores, the more jobs they have created. Likewise, the higher their prices, the more money they have to devote to job-training classes.
So the Goodwill organization Steve is talking about is not the first Goodwill to create an Amazon or eBay store, and whatever policies it announces have no effect on Goodwills in other regions.
That’s all just fyi, because so many people get confused when they think a Goodwill policy is national. It’s especially confusing for people who travel or move from one area to another, and see bedrock policies from one Goodwill being ignored or violated by a Goodwill in a different city.
I’ve seen a big change in the thrift stores in the last couple of years, since I’ve been selling books fulltime. The trend is higher prices, which is not justified in many cases. But, thinking like a manager, they probably still make more money selling a few hardbacks at $2.95, than they did selling all at $1. I like that many stores have become cleaner and more organized. It’s all for a good cause, so I cannot complain.
The most upscale Goodwill I’ve been in was in Bend Oregon. Wheww…some books were way more than $2.95. But, I was still able to get some good quality books at a fair price. Obviously, somebody knew what they were doing.
The fear is, of course, of more and more sources of good used books drying up. If we cannot find good used books at a good prices, we won’t be able to make a living. But hey, things in business always change…think of the poor souls who own/owned video stores.
I moved from a very urban area to a very rural area, and I’ve noticed people here aren’t as savvy. However, the selection is a lot smaller. I have to spend more time finding my stock now. I’m planning on starting up an eBay consignment business, I think around here I’d get a lot of clients.
Thanks to the poster for all the inside info about the Goodwill.
All of the ‘goodwill/thrift store’ ideology is good in theory, but the reality is that their government benefits create an unfair advantage toward true secondary market retail. Back in the early twentieth century there was US labor policy with an even playing field in mind for business. In essence, as far as I can see, having the ability to have free labor, free inventory, tax write-offs for building/training/and utilities, sort of makes the charity have the ability to drive taxPAYING business out of the region.
I have had this feeling for a long time, but it seems that our generousity (a mentality that US must GIVE more than it receives to everyone everywhere, every time because we are known as a nation of giving) makes it an extremely unpopular stance to question this loophole in government taxation policy.
So, if you believe, as I do that charities (and many other government policies) are making it near to impossible to do business in the US, please contact your elected officials about the unfairness of charities setting up individual stores (such as the one in FLA for upscale items like antiques jewelry, and now you say books!).
Debbie K.
The article states that some Goodwills have terrible offerings while others are selling via upsale locations and pricing their books accordingly. You might be interesed in the Danville, Va Goodwill Bookstore which incorporates the best of all worlds in books.
To give you an idea of what we offer in a core City of 46,000 is a Boostore located in a “normal” Goodwill Store that has approximately 35,000 books divided into 75 categories in about 1800 sq ft.
Many of these categories are alphabetized by author. Our book donations AVERAGE over 4,000 books per week. (about 40% usable). We SELL approximately 10,000 books MONTHLY. We are reportedly the largest Goodwill Bookstore in the United States.
We have maintained a separate functioning Bookstore for over 15 years, including a prior location inside a Mall for 4 1/2 years. We do NOT sell over internet, nor utilize http://www.shopgoodwill.com, or have an internet site. We do have an average of about 2500 PAYING customers each month including many collectors, internet sellers and just plain ole readers. Many of our customers travel substantial distances. We do have a “Rare Book” Section and house there maybe around 40 books. Our most rare book to date is one copyrighted 1581.
If you would like more info, my email address appears below… Thought I would share with about our most successful Goodwill Bookstore which is a booklovers paradise!
Dick Pretty,
Vice-President for Public Relations
Danville, Va Goodwill
papadik@mindspring.com
EarthLink Revolves Around You.
I have to agree with the posters who say prices are rising..I live near the Palm Beach County Goodwill that is called “The Goodwill Boutique.” Their regular book prices have been changed in the last 9 months to price per book rather than by type …an average book can be anywhere up to $20. They have a section behind the counter that houses ‘collectible books’ that are in the hundreds of dollars! I guess they don’t care how long they sit there. The type of books they used to get are long gone..syphoned off to some other Goodwill in a less affluent area. Boutique has become ‘beaucoup bucks!’
sheila
In SW Ontario the book picking varies. The stores supposedly operate by the rule that before any staff member can purchase an item, it has to be offered on the floor to the public for one business day. I think this is most rigorously applied on “quality” items, not on the run of mill items, jeans,shirts, etc.
They date stamp all their books on the price tag and stock that doesn’t move gets trashed, so any dogs eventually goes out the door one way or another.
Their perception of quality and mine are often at odds, and therefore I find some nice books at nominal prices, but yes the base price has moved up over time, but then I remember when the world was shocked when NAL published a mass market paperback for $1.25! Previously the price barrier was 95 cents. When a common best selling paperback is selling around $8.00 or more, is it surprising that GW expects to get$1.00 to $3.00 to carry on their programs? What ever the traffic will bear.
They also have an online auction site shopgoodwill.com and a set rpice book site: http://www.goodwillbooks.com/
My understanding is that the Goodwill stores are run under various local/regional auspices, for varying public service groups, and depending on who is directing a particular area’s stores you may get different approaches to marketing.
And different areas have different shoppers. By the way the stores were originally designed to do two functions, train people to take on jobs, and sell donations to raise money to carry on this and other projects.
So if you r aim is to scoop a bunch of books and get them at a huge discount from the cover price, so you can sell them for a discount from the cover (usual practice in retail used book trade), you may be out of luck. If you can winnow the wheat from the chaff, you might very well recognize a collectible modern first and pick it up and be happy to pay the price set, typically in this area $2.99 to $4.99 for nice looking hardcovers with DJ. And that price is typically the same for any edition, whether first or book club.
To me this isn’t much different than scouting through antique stores and flea markets, where appearance tends to take precedence over content.
I don’t find anyone is willing to pay me to show up and look through their stock. And if you think back some of your best finds may have been made in a used book store. I once worked in such a store, and the owner was an aggressively irreligious “free thinker”. He habitually under priced religious books, and since his attitude was widely known, didn’t attract many of the people who would but these titles. But other book sellers who were more “open” to this market, would periodically drop through and strip these sections, often with big discounts from the low marked prices, because the store owner was tired of looking at these “dogs”.
Keep a smile on your face and happy hunting.
Blenheimbard
I’ve been in several Goodwills recently where I have overheard people saying that the prices were too high, and they were leaving.
And for more and more things they are way over priced. Goodwill by me charges more for clothes that you can buy on the sale rack at Macys for less. Their furniture–if they still carry it– is outrageously priced, and I’m not talking antuques. They price IKEA funriture higher than if one just went and bought it from IKEA brand new.
And I have watched the same books marked for $9.99 sit on the shelves for 6 months now.
I think Goodwill selling books online and in their own book store is highly unethical. When people donate their used items to Goodwill, they are hoping for their items to make it to needy people who can’t afford to pay full market value for an item. Goodwill is taking advantage of the generosity of their donations to get maximum profit! Since when was Goodwill more about profit than helping people? It’s a shame!