Second hand shops

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Has anything good ever come from them?

To make room for all my new computer stuff on my desk i decided to chuck a handful of old cds in a bag and see what the trade-o-rama or whatever its called would give me...6 lousy bucks for 5 cd's including some Green Day, Eminem and Silverchair. Now thats lousy so i said forget it then had a look at their pathetic cd collection and wondered how they stay in business.

In the window outside they had some filthy old ancient watches worse than my fathers selling for close to $1,000 it's got me really puzzled.

Unless this was just a bad one?

Have seen a few mobile phones in some of the shops as well and am wondering if it would be worth getting one there in fact is anything worth buying there, seemed like garbage to me!

 

[Darky]

Originally posted by Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk
Has anything good ever come from them?

To make room for all my new computer stuff on my desk i decided to chuck a handful of old cds in a bag and see what the trade-o-rama or whatever its called would give me...6 lousy bucks for 5 cd's including some Green Day, Eminem and Silverchair. Now thats lousy so i said forget it then had a look at their pathetic cd collection and wondered how they stay in business.

In the window outside they had some filthy old ancient watches worse than my fathers selling for close to $1,000 it's got me really puzzled.

Unless this was just a bad one?

Have seen a few mobile phones in some of the shops as well and am wondering if it would be worth getting one there in fact is anything worth buying there, seemed like garbage to me!

Now you know why I hoard stuff. No point in trying to sell "valuables" because second hand shops give you nothing.

Basically they have to sell the goods below retail value, and have to buy them off you cheaper than they sell them.

Of course Cash Converters and Trade-o-rama also have to cover costs for their prime main street locations and their radio & TV ads that tell you what great value they are.

As well as that, a lot of their stock is slow moving and sits on shelves for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages meaning their cashflow is not quick, meaning they have to save costs by offering people next to nothing for their goods.

Still, I find it hard to believe they can't offer more than $1 per CD. I had the same experience a couple of years ago when I needed some quick cash. Told them I'd rather starve than sell 30 CDs at $1 each.

 

[Mooster7]

Second hand stores, and pawn shops are great haunting places to find the odd gem, but I never try to sell them anything. I agree with Darky. If you have something that's worth a buck, better to keep it like a pack rat than sell it for a penny.

A friend of mine and I had a great scam going a couple of years ago. Remember these Kramer guitars? :

These things went for a thousand bucks new back in the '80s. Once grunge and alt-rock hit, no one wanted them. Well, me and this other guy went around like madmen buying these things up in pawn shops wherever we could find them. Most of them went for around $100.00 give or take a fifty. Unbelievable.

The strange thing is, you could part them out for hundreds of bucks. Although only the rare collector wanted a real vintage Kramer, everyone wanted the parts. An original 80's Floyd bridge (patent applied for) will sell for close to $200.00. You can get close to a hundred bucks for the humbuckers. Throw in the tuning keys, pots, switches. It was a gold mine. Occasionally you find a collector and sell one outright for $500 or more. Those were sweet times. Now that market has dried up. I still have a couple these very excellent guitars. One, I built from parts and painted as an exact replica of Eddie's (pictured above).

Get a good book on the value of used stuff/antiquies. Haunt around. Often you can find great deals on a lot of things the shop owner doesn't even know about. In those instances, smile big and rip him off like he does you.

Peace,

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Well Darky there is always the rubbish bin but as the man said u may as well just give em to your mates. Definately right about JB being cheaper as u told me one day. Most of their cd's were 12 bucks at this place and jb always has similar ones for either 12 or 14.99.

 

[grayham]

Sell the on ebay. We recently went through our CD collection, and decided 40 CDs were past it. Instead of just throwing them out, we put them on ebay and got $75 for them.

Better than a kick in the head. Some people just like big CD collections, so will buy bulk.

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Originally posted by grayham
Sell the on ebay. We recently went through our CD collection, and decided 40 CDs were past it. Instead of just throwing them out, we put them on ebay and got $75 for them.

Better than a kick in the head. Some people just like big CD collections, so will buy bulk.

have only ever had more trouble than its worth with ebay

 

[crudbucket]

Don't bother with second hand shops, I have a digital watch

 

[Nic]

Ah, thought this was gonna be about op shops. Op shops are tops.

 

[lioness]

Originally posted by Nic
Ah, thought this was gonna be about op shops. Op shops are tops.

I agree, I love op shops.

 

[Tangodown]

A month ago my mate bought an almost brand new Wilson tennis racket from an Op shop in Richmond. 5 bucks!! Took it to get restringed and the guy at the tennis joint had one on the wall to sell for $380 new..

Right place, Right time..

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Originally posted by Tangodown
A month ago my mate bought an almost brand new Wilson tennis racket from an Op shop in Richmond. 5 bucks!! Took it to get restringed and the guy at the tennis joint had one on the wall to sell for $380 new..

Right place, Right time..

hello its not op shops i am talking about or i would have said op shops its actual trade shops where they pay you for goods, op shops rely purely on donated goods