Goodwill and Salvation Army getting picky

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by andy

It's too bad no one at these places knows that people collect vintage electronics. I guess if they knew they were antiques they'd want way too much for them...

Sometimes they do, but the problem is that it's going to be difficult to find someone(s) at these sorts of stores who can consistently price a wide variety of such things fairly (fair both for the store/charity and for the consumer).

I've seen this handled a few different ways. Some stores (especially certain Goodwill stores) sometimes sell suspected "collectibles/antiques" using a silent auction process (which is inconvenient for the buyer, but makes pricing unnecessary). I think some stores even "eBay" stuff nowadays. Some SalArmy districts have/had a designated "antiques/collectibles" area (usually a special room or section within their main store in the district), but the pricing sometimes gets unreasonably high or (less-often) low. High prices would normally tend to take care of themselves thanks to basic capitalism (i.e. if an item sits on the shelf for a long time, that's a pretty good indicator that it's overpriced), but most SalArmy stores don't seem to do automatic time-based discount programs these days for housewares (i.e. color-coded tags, with the "oldest" color having a discount), and almost never for items they put in the "antiques/collectibles" section, so it's probably basically up to the staff to notice what things have been sitting for a long time.

By the way, you can sometimes have a subtle effect on the policies of the store yourself. Even a "fussy" thift store might occasionally "goof up" and take in a vintage electronics item. If it's something you like and it's reasonably priced, buy it-- if you (and other folks like you) keep doing that, you'll be sending a useful message to the store management that "hey, there are people out there actually buying this junk! Maybe we shouldn't turn these sorts of things down after all!"
You might also ask nicely, especially when something like that does turn up. (i.e. "Excuse me, but do you ever get in other items like this..? I'm looking for a (whatever)"). It may not help, but you never know.