Your best thift shop/yard sale finds?

[douglasdc6]

I remember those porta cool window units,

Don`t know when general electric introduced them but remember seeing alot of them as early as 1974 1975

 

[douglasdc6]

Forgot to mention the main reason the G-E porta cools lasted so long was the compressor had its own small seperate coil for oil cooling - Also the older rotory compressors didn`t run as hot as the new one`s Hence oil cooling.

 

[panthera]

Goodwill need not mean "Good Will"

The enormous difference in pricing and attitude between the Goodwill Store in Cheyenne and the ones in Fort Collins, Loveland, Greely, Boulder and Denver and Larimie led me to write to Goodwill industries.

They wrote back that each district is independent and both the pricing and focus is set at that level. They certainly have overall service goals, but it is quite possible for some managers to be rigid (their words) and others to be flexible.

At this point, I will not donate anything to Goodwill in Cheyenne, but will go out of my way to give things to the stores in Laramie, Fort Collins, Loveland and Denver.

I am well aware that the stores have to cover their costs, but when the stores in Denver and Loveland are selling basic clothes for less than $2.00 and the store in Cheyenne is charging more than the local Wal-mart, sorry.

Anyway, my best find - at a Goodwill in Loveland, was a TOL Miele with both powerheads and all the parts. For $17.95. Since I get the bags here in Germany at 1/5 the cost in the US, this was a real bargain.

The birds are coming home to roost these days - the decision of the Americans to gut social services at all levels during the economic good times was meant to punish the poor dark-skinned people. Now, many erstwhile Republicans are suffering the consequences.

 

[jeffg]

Keven, the bottom line is that a lot of people mistakenly believe Goodwill sells, or is supposed to sell, their donated items on an ability-to-pay basis. That's simply not the case. Try walking into ten Walmarts (or ten stores of any other retail chain) and ask them to randomly knock $10 off the price of an item, and you'll get the exact same range of responses you would at ten different Goodwill stores.

Goodwill is supposed to sell their merchandise for as much money as they can get, to people who can afford to pay at least what the stuff is worth, and they use the money to fund job training and placement for people who can't afford these particular services.

 

[toggleswitch2]

There are huge differeces in what Goodwill tags/prices items even on a day-to-day basis.

I can tell when the store is loaded to the gills that the one who sees dollars signs has been overworking their pricing gun.

From what I can tell, the cusotmers simply wait unitl their item is eleigible for half-price day, based on the color of the pricing tag/ticket/sticker.

 

[panthera]

Jeff,

I get that - but there is a serious disconnect at many Goodwills across the US between what the market will bear and what they want to charge. When Walmart is cheaper or the Goodwill 30 minutes down the road by a factor of four then something is not quite right. I do haggle with the folks at all thrift stores, by the by as well as at Walmart. Often get discounts, but am not upset when I don't.

 

[kenmoreforever]

Toggle, my wife loves the paint roller perch in your bird cage. She will have me mounting one tommorow I'm sure of this.

 

[j2400]

"They wrote back that each district is independent and both the pricing and focus is set at that level. They certainly have overall service goals, but it is quite possible for some managers to be rigid (their words) and others to be flexible"

This is true. I knew someone who worked for one Goodwill "system" who told me this. As a result of her experience working for her Goodwill, she refuses to donate to that particular system. She has even given me things, with the demand that if I donate them, I donate them to someone OTHER THAN the Goodwill system that employed her. Meanwhile, she still shops (and sometimes donates to) a different Goodwill system. (She lives in between two systems. Half an hour one way, she can shop one. Half an hour the other, she could shop the one in the system she no longer supports.)

"I get that - but there is a serious disconnect at many Goodwills across the US between what the market will bear and what they want to charge."

I see this happen regularly in the Goodwill where I regularly shop. Sometimes, I see really strange pricing. Recently, I bought a soup bowl. I had a couple of choices: a bowl that's not good enough for the Dollar Store priced at $2.99. Meanwhile, nearby, a quality, made in US bowl priced at the base price of (if I recall right) 69 cents. Guess which I bought?

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Toggle, my wife loves the paint roller perch in your bird cage. She will have me mounting one tommorow I'm sure of this.

They are pretty durable.
What you see is a pink/red "D" shaped food cup mounted to the inside of the cage.
Then perch itself is like this one...

The irregular shape is supposed to be good for the little beasties.

Thanks for the shout-out!

 

[toggleswitch2]

Ten dollah make you hollah!

Another tag sale-ing find from this weekend.

Brand new MIB, never used. Complete with remnants of wrapping paper.

 

[toggleswitch2]

I'm a sucker for stainless-steel, and toys that plug-in.

 

[toggleswitch2]

See? Still encased in plastic. Just as it was made in Korea.

Fully imnmersible. DW safe.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Naked and photographed.

 

[toggleswitch2]

My teflon-coated one gets to go live with GadgetGary.



YAY fits on the designated shelf.

 

[twintubdexter]

lucky you

I want one of those Rival electric stock pots. Very nice. It almost looks like one of those pricy All-Clad electrics.

Thought I would just throw this in here. On sale today in the PS Craigslist, but it's in Phoenix, O'Keefe & Merritt (sometimes refered to as All Grief & No Merit) Contempo range @ $250.

 

[twintubdexter]

dumb dumb dumb

It's spelled referred huh?