«

On Fri, 2 Mar 2012 13:20:17 -0500, Michael Black wrote:


> They are leeches.


When our local libraries have their discarded book sales,
there always local book sellers loading up their boxes without
looking too deeply into the books. They then take the boxes
over to a quiet area and filter out what they consider will
be best for them.

Not quite 'leeches' more like shite-hawks.

On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:04:48 -0500, Alan Browne
<> wrote:

>> This is so common that only a fool would be worried that someone would
>> copy them. But they have good reason to worry about Goodwill, since they
>> are explotiting the cheap books and making a profit. Why doesn't
>> Goodwill start doing the exact same thing, and then raise the prices
>> accordingly, or sell them directly to buyers? The problem is, that if
>
>They will catch on at some point. But even then the best profit goes to
>the level above.

I was chatting with a lady in my camera club about this. She grows
plants that she sells at a flea market. She finds unusual containers
for her plants at Goodwill. She knows all the Goodwill and Salvation
Army stores in town.

According to her, each Goodwill is different based on the help. If an
employee (volunteer?) at that store is knowledgeable about a certain
type of item, that item will be priced higher than it might be at
another store. She thinks that certain stores set some things aside
and call certain buyers (like for-profit thrift shops and antique
shops) to give them first crack. She's upset about the practice, but
I think she's more upset because she's not on the list to be called.

There's a whole sub-culture at this level that I never knew existed.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

On 3/2/2012 10:50 AM, Charles E. Hardwidge wrote:
>
> "tony cooper" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> The other day I stopped by a couple of Goodwill stores and noticed an
>> interesting use of a phone camera and maybe an app of some sort.
>>
>> Three guys with phones were going through the books and some other
>> shelves photographing title pages of books, and maybe using an app of
>> some sort, and choosing books to buy based on some return message they
>> received. It looked like they were photographing or scanning the ISBN
>> numbers. (They stopped when I moved closer and kinda concealed what
>> they were doing) They had a shopping cart half full of books.
>>
>> I assume they were looking for books with resale value and were using
>> some distant source to identify such books. Maybe a book search firm.
>> Frankly, they didn't look like they could read, so I doubt if they
>> were building their own library.
>>
>> Not finding all that I wanted at the first Goodwill, I went to another
>> one after stopping for lunch. The same three guys came in and started
>> doing the same thing.
>
> I read about this sort of thing going on in New York the other year and
> heard it has effectively killed good used bookshops. People like that just
> swoop in and take a skim off the resale price. Entrepreneurial maybe but it
> kills everything for everyone else just for a lousy markup. As far as
> I'm concerned people like that are filth like buy-to-let landlords.
>

And just where would most people live if they couldn't lease apartments,
(flats.)

--
Peter

On 3/2/2012 6:32 PM, tony cooper wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:04:48 -0500, Alan Browne
> <> wrote:
>
>>> This is so common that only a fool would be worried that someone would
>>> copy them. But they have good reason to worry about Goodwill, since they
>>> are explotiting the cheap books and making a profit. Why doesn't
>>> Goodwill start doing the exact same thing, and then raise the prices
>>> accordingly, or sell them directly to buyers? The problem is, that if
>>
>> They will catch on at some point. But even then the best profit goes to
>> the level above.
>
> I was chatting with a lady in my camera club about this. She grows
> plants that she sells at a flea market. She finds unusual containers
> for her plants at Goodwill. She knows all the Goodwill and Salvation
> Army stores in town.
>
> According to her, each Goodwill is different based on the help. If an
> employee (volunteer?) at that store is knowledgeable about a certain
> type of item, that item will be priced higher than it might be at
> another store. She thinks that certain stores set some things aside
> and call certain buyers (like for-profit thrift shops and antique
> shops) to give them first crack. She's upset about the practice, but
> I think she's more upset because she's not on the list to be called.
>
> There's a whole sub-culture at this level that I never knew existed.
>
>
Yup!
Last year I brought my daughter's decent quality keyboard to the
Salvation Army. I told the manager what I thought a fair price should
be. They sold it for that price, but it took a few months.


--
Peter

In article <>, tony cooper
<> wrote:

> I was chatting with a lady in my camera club about this. She grows
> plants that she sells at a flea market. She finds unusual containers
> for her plants at Goodwill. She knows all the Goodwill and Salvation
> Army stores in town.
>
> According to her, each Goodwill is different based on the help. If an
> employee (volunteer?) at that store is knowledgeable about a certain
> type of item, that item will be priced higher than it might be at
> another store. She thinks that certain stores set some things aside
> and call certain buyers (like for-profit thrift shops and antique
> shops) to give them first crack. She's upset about the practice, but
> I think she's more upset because she's not on the list to be called.

not only that, but some workers 'buy' it for themselves.

> There's a whole sub-culture at this level that I never knew existed.

apparently you don't go to swap meets either.

when sellers are setting up and well before any buyers are let in, some
sellers walk around and look for items priced too low. they buy them
and resell the same items on their tables for a more typical price. on
occasion, they keep it for themselves.

On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:01:29 -0800, nospam <>
wrote:

>In article <>, tony cooper
><> wrote:
>
>> I was chatting with a lady in my camera club about this. She grows
>> plants that she sells at a flea market. She finds unusual containers
>> for her plants at Goodwill. She knows all the Goodwill and Salvation
>> Army stores in town.
>>
>> According to her, each Goodwill is different based on the help. If an
>> employee (volunteer?) at that store is knowledgeable about a certain
>> type of item, that item will be priced higher than it might be at
>> another store. She thinks that certain stores set some things aside
>> and call certain buyers (like for-profit thrift shops and antique
>> shops) to give them first crack. She's upset about the practice, but
>> I think she's more upset because she's not on the list to be called.
>
>not only that, but some workers 'buy' it for themselves.
>
>> There's a whole sub-culture at this level that I never knew existed.
>
>apparently you don't go to swap meets either.
>
>when sellers are setting up and well before any buyers are let in, some
>sellers walk around and look for items priced too low. they buy them
>and resell the same items on their tables for a more typical price. on
>occasion, they keep it for themselves.

I go to swap meets, but to photograph the people who frequent them. I
don't really know what goes on between vendors.

The next swap meet I have on my ca lander to attend is this one:
http://vintagemotorcyclealliance.com/ I'll look for people and bikes
as subjects.

I used to go to the "Turkey Trot" swap meet in November at the race
track in Daytona. That one's great for vintage cars, car parts, and
vehicle-related items. It's too crowded now, though, and parking is
impossible. Last time I went it took me almost an hour to get out of
the infield parking area, and the 45 minutes to get home.



--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

On 3/3/2012 2:12 PM, tony cooper wrote:


>
> The next swap meet I have on my ca lander to attend is this one:
> http://vintagemotorcyclealliance.com/ I'll look for people and bikes
> as subjects.

Is that a stripped down version of the moon lander?

--
Peter

On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:38:08 -0500, PeterN wrote:

> On 3/3/2012 2:12 PM, tony cooper wrote:
>
>
>>
>> The next swap meet I have on my ca lander to attend is this one:
>> http://vintagemotorcyclealliance.com/ I'll look for people and bikes
>> as subjects.
>
> Is that a stripped down version of the moon lander?

No, the Canaduan version.

On 3/3/2012 11:02 PM, Paul Furman wrote:
> I was chased out of a small fish market once with my camera - presumably
> on suspicion of scouting their prices for the competition...
>


I don't like eating small fish, except sardines.


--
Peter

On 3/3/2012 5:53 PM, Irwell wrote:
> On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:38:08 -0500, PeterN wrote:
>
>> On 3/3/2012 2:12 PM, tony cooper wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> The next swap meet I have on my ca lander to attend is this one:
>>> http://vintagemotorcyclealliance.com/ I'll look for people and bikes
>>> as subjects.
>>
>> Is that a stripped down version of the moon lander?
>
> No, the Canaduan version.

California style?

--
Peter