Anyone been to Goodwill auctions?

For those of you who aren't aware that Goodwill has auctions, well now you know. They usually have them at their main location in every area of the country. In the Houston area, they have them every Tuesday. They will usually auction off 70-100 pallets of merchandise. It has been my experience that most of the items are really low quality, but if you just need a cheap source of inventory, this may be a viable option.

Basically what they do is stack similar items together on a pallet. For example, they might stack 20 televisions together and sell the entire pallet to the highest bidder. I saw a pallet of tvs go for $55. A pallet of clothing for $20, a pallet of children's toys for $30, etc.

You got the low quality part right.

Salvation Army does this too in my area. I went once 7 years ago and bought one big "basket" about 4 feet square and 5 feet high. Bought it because it had about 5 model boxes in it that looked like they might be complete. 3 of the 5 were sellable. I gave the rest of the basket to a guy I knew there. Since I only paid $10 for the basket, I pretty much came out even or made $10 or so.

The guy I sold to did it for awhile back then, but then started buying the $5 to $25 lkrs which IN MY AREA are the $75 to $125 lkrs now (with some exceptions).  Even he stopped going to the SA auctions, but I think he is going back to them now.

I wonder how much a pallet of costume jewerly would go for at Goodwill. That is my number one seller when I do yard sales, I usually sell it all off, or pretty close. 50 cents to a dollar each/pair.

I imagine that anything semi-valuable never makes it to auction. It's mainly broken items or items that they have too many duplicates of.

Wow and I would imagine they get hoardes of costume jewelry. I would also imagine that they would semi go through it and take out the really good costume jewelry, the ones that came out of the early to mid 1900s. But would also think some of those would fall through the cracks to be put with bulk cheap costume jewelry.  That would of been my thoughts on it, but since I never been to a Goodwill auction, I cant really speak on it.

 Personally We think the Goodwill Auctions go for two much , we also wonder how picked over they are by the employees first .
Bob
  Bulk Costume Jewelry like this ?
  http://www.shopgoodwill.com/listings/listByCat.asp?catID=92&ending=Items

I have found recently that both Goodwill and Salvation Army (in my area) are doing research on the better items that look like they might be worth more...this would be on electronics, etc that I look at.

I found an item at SA that had a printout from the internet fastened to it. Internet price was $1,000. They had it stickered for $300. I went to the furniture section and sat down with my iPad and eBay showed one listed at $500 and it was the 2nd time around as completed showed it had not sold before at $500 and it was the only completed. I passed on that one.

*****
On the other hand at the SA daily auction of as-is items, I found an item which I got for $20 which I think I can sell for $80 or so. It is for owners of those big $250K to $500K motorhomes and sells new for $125 to $150.

I haven't been to one of those SA auctions for about 7 years, but have decided to start going for single items; the 4' square wire bins are of little interest to me.

I think the quality issues of Goodwill auction items is based on who is running the auctions.

My local Goodwill runs an auction every week, typically 150 or so lots, and they put most of the really good items they receive into the auctions. Sure, the lots contain junk, too, but I've had good success, so long as I stick to my bidding strategy.

Last week I got a Coke/Pepsi collectibles lots that had about 35 sellable pieces in it for $30. Included was one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ande-Rooney-Coca-Cola-Coke-Porcelain-Sign-/360413206290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ea4d1712

I'm doing well at Goodwill auctions, but it seems to come down to who is running that locations auctions. The store we go to, they have a staff of about 4 who work the auctions week after week and they love doing the auctions and it shows in the final results.

Most of the bidders are resellers who come week after week. Most of them have their niches of what they like to buy and apparently are doing good enough to keep coming back.

It sucks that most of you have had poor results with them, cause it's been my bread & butter lately.

How did you find out about the Goodwill auctions? I don't think they have them around here, at least not that I have seen.  I did see somewhere that there is like a headquarter store in some states that put everything in those wire bins and its pretty cheap. They sell by the piece or the pound.

Goodwill is bringing in some good stuff for me too. Ours finally has a policy that if something electrical doesn't work you can bring it back.

Our Goodwill has signs in the store advertising the auctions and they preview the auction lots for about 5 days leading up to the auction day, so it was staring us in the face. My wife was shopping there during an auction day and, based on what she saw, encouraged me to go to one. We've gone almost every week since mid-November.

I don't recall any of the locations back home (los angeles) doing these auctions, but I simply may not have been aware of them.

I've done the shopgoodwill.com auctions a few times.  Those prices have gotten up there anymore to just not be worth it.  The local SA does an auction auction the first of every month.  Not checked Goodwill auctions locally however.  Never seen a sign or paper advertisement.  Who knows - could be missing something.

I'm not sure how other areas are run...but in our Goodwills, the employees are not able to buy anything unless its been on a shelf for over a week. That doesn't stop them from having someone come in and buy it for them.  I remember once seeing an employee "hiding" things...couldn't figure out what the hell she was doing. Now I know 

Tried looking up auctions around me, but our Goodwill stores only do the online auction. All the good stuff goes online (depending what you consider the good stuff is) but check this out:  http://www.nbc15.com/newsyoucanuse/headlines/Goodwills_Auction_Site_Tops_1_Million_Mark_In_Sales_138253929.html

I weould be concerned about quality.Most of the items have been on the floor of Goodwill and havn't sold,There was probably a reason.I have shopped Goodwill.com a couple of times but they charge way too much for shipping and handling.

I weould be concerned about quality.Most of the items have been on the floor of Goodwill and havn't sold,There was probably a reason.

Again, this is where my Goodwill location is different. The majority of the auction items never make it to the sales floor. If something cool comes in, they will set it aside for the auction.

Usually, they will bundle items into themed lots, so as pieces come in, they will be added to the "disney" lot or the "sports" lot and so forth.

At our Goodwill, the best stuff is in the auctions.