Goodwill Clearance Center?

[phreakindee]

Why are you posting here? You should be making more videos, goddamnit. Seriously, though. I really like the material you've been putting out on youtube. I love the bored personality schtick and the dry humor.

Haha, thank you - just finished the newest one actually, it's up Saturday.

Oh, and the bored personality is kind of it goes all the time... at work I'm constantly told to cheer up and well, that is cheery!

[RASK1904]

I have talked about this in another thread. But yes there is one of these south of San Diego. Yes south! It is also by the pound and opens closes and opens also. I went with my girlfriend and our friend and her kid. The kid loved it climbing on any thing and everything. It was very much like Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. Two man enter one man leave. The girls bought a bunch of clothes. I got a SSB box. Thats it. If you want to have a crazy time go check one out. Definitly wear good shoes and take no prisoners! I'll stick to my spots closer to my house though. My girlfriend is always wanting to go back for some reason.

Over here GW and Sali workers can not buy at the store they work at. It's the littler ones where the workers can.

[MachineGex]

Great post Pantechnicon. I have seen a few places that are simular but nothing as ghetto-fabulous. I did get a great picture in my head from reading your post. Too funny, too real!

Also, Rask's comment had me rollin':
"It was very much like Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. Two man enter one man leave."

I have been to places like this and it's a great comparison.

[Steve W]

Ya know, it annoys me too, but if you step back and think about it... what other perk do you get working at the freakin' goodwill? That would be my only reason for working at one. I mean, they're probably making minimum wage. let them have their cherry picking. they're earning it.

An old coworker of mine is now an assistant manager at a Goodwill by my brother's house, and he told me that the employees there can be terminated if they buy something without it being put out on the sales floor for a couple weeks.

Another coworker of mine used to work at a thrift store part-time, but it was some kind of 'community service' type of assignment because of his parole. Apparently, that's where some little independent thrifts get their employees at.

[Porksta]

An old coworker of mine is now an assistant manager at a Goodwill by my brother's house, and he told me that the employees there can be terminated if they buy something without it being put out on the sales floor for a couple weeks.

Another coworker of mine used to work at a thrift store part-time, but it was some kind of 'community service' type of assignment because of his parole. Apparently, that's where some little independent thrifts get their employees at.

The thrift store where I work it has to be on the floor for ten minutes or so, longer if it is on sale. Nobody really follows that rule though. You just aren't allowed to price anything you want to buy, and a manager has to be present when you buy things.

Yes, we get a large majority of community service folks. We probably average around six or so a day. I like to learn their names and check the city's arrest records to see what they did. Usually it is something drug or alcohol related, but occcasionally there is somebody with GTA or the like. I think one person was doing community service for manslaughter.

[Ed Oscuro]

Baseball cards have been crap lately, if you're looking to get any value out of them (and you're only likely to get absolute poop like 89 Donruss or 87 Topps anyway).

Also, $1/pound for ADB mice? Erm, no thanks. The rest sound alright though.

[phreakindee]

Baseball cards have been crap lately, if you're looking to get any value out of them (and you're only likely to get absolute poop like 89 Donruss or 87 Topps anyway).

Also, $1/pound for ADB mice? Erm, no thanks. The rest sound alright though.

Considering those go for over $10 each on eBay, I was happy to get a few for less than a dollar...

[Atarileaf]

Haha, thank you - just finished the newest one actually, it's up Saturday.

Oh, and the bored personality is kind of it goes all the time... at work I'm constantly told to cheer up and well, that is cheery!

Actually I'd like you to take a camera to one of these Goodwill monstrosities and film everything you've described. That would be hilarious. Of course the downside is some Mexican might grab your camera and try to buy it from Goodwill for 50 cents.

[phreakindee]

Actually I'd like you to take a camera to one of these Goodwill monstrosities and film everything you've described. That would be hilarious. Of course the downside is some Mexican might grab your camera and try to buy it from Goodwill for 50 cents.

Ha, well I got my camera from Goodwill so it would only be appropriate. I thought about it as it would be entertaining, so we will see!

[Ye0ldmario]

Seems like a gold mine for ebay re-sellers.

It seems like over here, goodwill and SA, all they ever put out are sports games. Doesn't matter what system it is, it's gonna be a football game no matter what. The people who go through this stuff take any game that isn't sports. Only stuff you will 100% find at good prices is, Vinyl records, and VHS. Don't expect to find any beatles albums though, the entire collection is picked through weekly.

[darkslime]

Seems like a gold mine for ebay re-sellers.

It seems like over here, goodwill and SA, all they ever put out are sports games. Doesn't matter what system it is, it's gonna be a football game no matter what. The people who go through this stuff take any game that isn't sports. Only stuff you will 100% find at good prices is, Vinyl records, and VHS. Don't expect to find any beatles albums though, the entire collection is picked through weekly.

I think you've said this about 100 times here and on CAG. We get it.

[retrocollectorguy]

The local Goodwill Clearance Center (GCC) is completely dominated by three classes of people: Mexicans who drive van convoys up from Chihuahua to cheaply buy American detritus in bulk to sell it to their countrymen in the Juarez mercados; Jerry Springer-type welfare layabouts who are going to resell whatever they buy at the weekend flea market at obscene markups, and lastly are the old ladies dressed like all their clothes come straight out of the gift shop at Cracker Barrel who are hoping for some sort of serendipitous find that will fund what remains of their golden years and maybe get them a spot at the next local taping of Antiques Roadshow. Of the three, it’s the Mexicans I find the least offensive.

The GCC opens at 10:00am and people are lined up at least an hour before that. When the doors open there’s no stopping the stampede. The Mexicans attack the clearance bins with the coordinated precision of a Delta Force unit; sending wives and cousins scurrying ahead of the slower lemmings to stand guard in front of choice looking bins which were scoped in advance through the windows while everyone was waiting for the doors to open. The flea market racketeers run for anything that looks automotive or stereophonic. Finally the Senile Brigade makes its way in, picking up and slowly scrutinizing through their bifocals anything made of colored glass or bound between two covers.

The feeding frenzy starts to slow after the first 30 to 45 minutes, by which time the Mexicans are paid out and loading up their vans with bicycles, coffee makers, microwaves, etc for transport back south. The flea market guys all stand in queue with dollar signs in their feverish eyes, clutching their rusty gold and exchanging vapid sentiments about how much money they’re going to make because “Dat’s what it’s goin’ fer on Eeebay!” Then come the old folks bringing up the rear with some knick-knack or three, convinced they’ve found something immeasurably valuable, yet still prepared to argue with the cashier over so much as a 25 cents in difference on price.

If you weren’t part of the initial stampede, you won’t find much left after that first hour, but don’t worry: The GCC closes at 1:00pm, restocks, opens at 3:00pm and the madness starts again until closing time at 5:00pm.

Sadly, it didn’t used to be this way. In fact, from 1995-1997 I used to live next right next door to the GCC when they (locally) called it the “U-Fix-It Corral” and the crowds were nowhere near as large or crazy. The place was tremendously instrumental in my early videogame collecting days, and some of the finds I had there would make you weep. Of course, that was all (if I can paraphrase Obi-Wan) “before the dark times….before the Ebay.”

So in summation, nowadays I wouldn’t go into my local Goodwill Clearance Center unless I had police-issued riot armor and a current vaccination against tetanus.

what an excellent post! I really enjoyed reading this and cracking up at the same time

[Damaniel]

We have one of these here in Portland (or at least *had* -- I haven't been in years, and they've moved the location since then). I've gone a couple times because I had a friend who went all the time, and she managed to convince me. Most of what's there consists of giant bins full of clothes, books and parts of appliances. Every couple hours they'd bring out a bunch more stuff, and there'd be a mad dash to the bins that the new things were piled into. Not everything was $1 a pound (the clothes were) -- books were a quarter, and other things were equally cheap.

I never did buy much there, and definitely nothing game related, but I did manage to get a complete boxed copy of the Microsoft Macro Assembler, which I happened to be looking for at the time. The friend who took me there once managed to snag nearly a complete set of first and second edition AD&D rulebooks and supplements. Overall, I didn't really care for it -- too much junk to wade through, and too many *really* pushy people hoping to get lucky.

[Nesmaster]

Sounds like a garbage buffet! :P

[PentiumMMX]

This sounds worse than Day After Thanksgiving at Wal-Mart...I'd probably go if I could find one close to me, but that's just because I'm crazy like that.

[leicamaster]

Do you know the address for this goodwill, Asheville is only about 1 hour and 30 min from my house

[phreakindee]

Yep, it is

1616 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28806


They've remodeled recently and revamped their computer area, they now have an unofficial Computerworks. It's pretty nice, found lots of great stuff there and I visit quite often! Great for finding review material

[portnoyd]

i would camp out in the bushes everynight just to be the first guy there.

Seriously. Sounds like it would be a good time. However, I wonder how much salvageable stuff ends up there with shopgoodwill.com taking all the good stuff.

And Pantechicon, holy shit, amazing post.