Charity store bin diving? Am I the only one that suffers this addiction?

GW's in my neck of the woods are pretty slim pickings. Craigslist is where the action is. Fortunately we have a local book store with an impressive selection of $2.00 vinyl.

I have to say Goodwill are probably the last charity shops I will visit anyway.
The pickings are very slim and the CEO awards himself a huge salary, yes very charitable.
Now The Salvation Army is a total different story.
Better goodies and a CEO that takes a nominal small salary.

Yes I am being hypocritical.... Lol.

I have had relatives tell me about nice clothes they found at Goodwill, but I seldom ever went there, and especially not for electronics.  Same with pawn shops.  I assumed that any equipment at such places had lived a hard life.  Now, had I known what to look for and could repair items myself, I probably would have.  But I would think that if the item played in the store, it would shortly breathe its last gasp back at my house.  

More than likely I would be the guy on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” who would approach the appraiser, hopeful for some good news:  “Bob, you say you paid $75 for this artwork?”
”Yessir!”
”Well this signature down here that looks like Van Gogh . . . that is actually “van lines” and this is probably an advertisement for a moving company.  If you like the picture, then you can keep it.  Otherwise, line your bird cage with it”.

But reading the entries here has me thinking I should make the rounds and see what I can find.  The ritzy areas here have Goodwill’s and maybe even a Salvation Army store, but for the church-affiliated thrift stores and the pawn shops, those are in the poorer areas of town and I assumed they wouldn’t have much.  But I can check and see.

Bob
Just my opinion but you should steer well clear of any pawn shops, you are correct that ANYTHING in there is either way over priced or had a very hard life.... or both.

Goodwill tends to have more knowledgeable staff checking through the donations before offered to the public so sometimes you never see "the good stuff" as they take it out and list on ebay themselves.

However I am not saying we should all run along and see what we can get to resell for a profit from the charity shops.

My main aim was to see what others experience in charity /thrift stores was like.

I don’t want to be a human cootie catcher so I’m minimizing time spend in any local thrift stores and washing my hands like crazy when leaving.