I went to one of my local Salvation Army stores today, and they have recently taken all of the items that could possibly be deemed "collectible" and put them in a glass case. Then, they slapped and "opening bid" price on the items, and a sort of permanent silent auction has been established. Auctions last for a couple of weeks, and the high bidder gets it. The lady there told me they plan to do this indefinetly.
The reason I bring this up is that in the case was a small lot of NES games! The opening bid price works out to their typical price for games ($2-3 each), but the prospect that it will most likely go higher bothers me. I mean, the whole POINT of going to these kind of places (for me, anyways) is to search for cheap games, and pay LESS than ebay and/or the video game store prices. I don't fault the Salvation Army for trying to make the most money they can from their donations, but it seems like the "word is out" on older video games.
I haven't seen any of the other Salvation Armies or other thrift stores around here doing this, but have any of you seen this going on? I'm hoping this isn't a trend.