Is Goodwill's Video Game Store a Scam? 

What bothers me is all these thrift stores charging ebay prices but dont have any guarantee that ebay or a used videogame store would have. If you buy from anywhere else and it's sold as tested and working order and if you have any problems you can bring it back. Thrift stores need to be more realistic with their prices on things they got on a DONATION.

If Goodwill was a food bank, they would take donations from the community and sell back the food at retail prices to the community.

What bothers me is they get the stuff for free. Then charge outrageous prices for it. Haven't been to a goodwill in 2 years since I found out they keep most of the money

Goodwill proving yet again why I call them badwill or greedwill. Taking all the good stuff out before it even hits shelves so they can sell it for over market prices on auction sites or stores like this

I don’t think I’ve ever seen something priced at Goodwill and said, “good for them”

I love the fact they charge near at-prices when it comes to ebay. As a collector, not a reseller, this would be heaven for me. Why is that? It takes out the shipping fees completely, as at least half of what I get through reseller sites do charge a shipping fee that can add $4 to $12 on top of that price. If it's marked $2 to $3 or more under retail, that's a win for me and adds to my collection! :D

Keep in mind they get this inventory for free and overcharge you pretending that they're a charity but they are not

All thrift stores been going crazy with prices lately.. I mean c’mon you got this stuff for FREE. Plus it defeats the purpose of thrifting.. prices are at retail+++++

Not "good for them" dude. Screw Goodwill doing this. They get this stuff as donation and then have the nerve to charge market prices for them.

Bro these prices are ridiculous there almost above Amazon for goodwill wtf

Props to Riff for the mild editing that some of us have been asking for! The random bleeps and bloops, Hallelujahs, Mario sounds, good cuts, zooms, etc. Really appreciating the work! Makes Caleb's vids more entertaining without being distracting.

Editor riffs monolgue....just GOLD. The store looks cool for collectors but is there a return policy there? That's the main issue I would have bc regular Goodwills don't as it's all untested. Same with their website. ALSO the layout reminds me Trade It over here in NC.

I think it just makes me mad that they get everything for free. Also, if they're charging so much, they should at least remove all the old stickers.

Even goodwill auctions typically price higher than eBay. Literally goodwill is a ripoff

How much of that stuff actually works? Goodwill making all profit paying no taxes for the less fortunate. Nice

Goodwill has been getting more and more competitive, they let less and less stuff slip these days. My local GWs, I swear they don't let any video games $10+ hit the store floor.

Commercial thrift stores like goodwill are horrible these days. They're charging 5 bucks each for used games that you can buy in an retro video game store for like 3 bucks. The only places you'll find good deals these days are small mom and pop thrift stores.

I worked at a goodwill for about a month and ended up quitting due to the way the managers would treat people. We had a dumpster out back where we would throw away any broken items or clothes with any holes in them that couldnt be sold. We also had to throw away things like used perfumes or deodorants and anything like that because we could not sell them. There was a homeless camp in the woods up the hill behind the goodwill and often some of them would come down to dumpster dive our dumpster to try and find any used toiletries or clothes with minimal damage and especially blankets or towels that were thrown out for stains or holes. My manager would tell us if a homeless person was hanging out around the dumpster to yell and curse at them to try and get them to leave and if they wouldnt then to come get him and he would curse them out or throw things to scare them off. That was the first time I realized that goodwill doesnt actually care about helping people and when I quit because I refused to work making a company money that treated homeless people that way

The problem with Goodwill slapping market value prices on stuff is it sits until 50% or 75% off day because NOONE GOING TO GOODWILL IS LOOKING TO PAY MARKET VALUE! ESPECIALLY FOR STUFF THEY DIDNT PAY A PENNY FOR! THATS THE WHOLE POINT OF GOING TO THRIFT STORES! So they think they're going to make more money for the store but it just sits. I have a love/hate relationship with my GW. They had 6 Burger King glasses for $9 apiece when they couldn't sell them for $3 apiece months ago! And individually prices used POPs...GTFOH! But then I find a Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar and sub combo for $45! Sold it on Facebook for $150 next day.

Yeah goodwill is a joke everything they get is donated so it's pretty much all profit

I’m amazed by their selection! However… this is a touchy subject. Most of what I have seen there is advertised at eBay sold listings or market value. It makes me wonder if they have a national scanning system with games where if some Goodwill in ID gets a good title, it’s flagged to send there to maximum profit. Although I source at Goodwill, I question their ethics in this vs. the pay their execs get. I’ve also noticed 3rd party sellers for some home goods in my local Goodwill. They told me they have contracts with vendors…. Isn’t that more retail store for profit than a donation thrift non profit? I imagine this store is a goldmine for exec bonuses.

Love videos like this one. Can you try to do more yard sales? I love hearing your interactions with people during those

So not completely tone deaf like GameStop, but not really doing the whole "Goodwill" deal anymore. The point of those stores was to sell used things below market value for broke families can afford to buy them... Now you go and they want to charge you $3 for a worn childrens shirt they got in a garbage bag for free. Kind of shitty regarding that. It's just a pawnshop without the pawn now days. I shop at local thrift stores or Salvation Army and tend to avoid Goodwill at all cost. Unless I'm looking for something specific I don't want to spend a bunch on for a new one, I don't even look. Priced like a pawn shop and they don't do deals.

I live about 25 minutes from here, and will never go back. Their prices are generally higher than eBay, as well as the local game shops in the Charlotte area. The best part is when they post something on their Facebook page about something they're putting out, they use the hashtag "thrifting" - lol.

Greedwill

this makes me hate goodwill even more

We have a pretty cool game shop in Bowling Green, Kentucky called the Great Escape. It shares the name with two movie theaters, so you’d have to add that to the search. On Saturday, I got Super Mario World for $8, Borderlands 2 for $2, and a new copy of Fallout 4 for PS4 for $2.40. Definitely worth a look!

Goodwills suck. It's a videos game store that doesn't pay taxes.

Over in Canada thrift stores have become really bad. they resell old shirts that were turned in and sell them like almost brand new market prices even videogames. Nothing seems thrift anymore 😕

What bothers me is that most of these videos the person say they will make a profit after selling the game but you never actually see if they sold the game and made a profit. The concept is great you buy it for a low price and then sell it for a small or great profit. Do a video showing us all the games you bought that day and then listing them on your Amazon seller account. Show us how long it took for someone to buy the game and how much of a true profit you made.

bruh loco roco for psp for 5?! steal that games amazing asf too

Omg this voice over might have been the best one yet!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's nice having this store in the Charlotte area, but it does mean that all the Goodwill's in the surrounding area are sending them all the good stuff. Very hard to find any video game and electronic items at the regular stores in the area. It's not impossible to find this stuff, but I have had employees at the regular stores take things out of my hand that was already on the shelf and say that they are supposed to send those in and it was put out by mistake.

I’ve been wanting to do goodwill and stuff for games and this video helps me a lot with my decisions. Thank you so much!

....and this is why I stopped thrifting, garage sales, etc.

That’s kinda cool, wish there was one near me. But honestly there prices should be at-least 10% lower then market value due to the fact they get these games for free!

I go to this store occasionally, most of the stuff is at ebay pricing but for a collector like me its nice to save on shipping. I was told by the employees that they price like this to avoid resellers buying up all of their stock at once. If they really wanted to sell to collectors like me instead of resellers they would price at about 20-30 percent below online prices, that way it would still feel like a deal for people that actually want to keep this stuff and resellers would not waste time for such a small profit.

Warner brothers did that a lot at the beginning of 2010s. They would put a DVD or Blu-ray combo set with the appropriate game. I know I got the original Mortal Kombat movie on Blu-ray from a trade-in of that bundle on PS3 with MK 9. They were limited to PS3, 360, and Wii games all of them were re-prints around 2010 to 2013.

I frequent that grid location very often, they price their games slightly under ebay used prices so its a good place to find some good priced sealed games there. Next time you're in the area check out 2nd & charles thats only a few minutes away from the grid.

I still don't get the hustle. The profit is assuming the game sells but that's also not factoring in how long it takes the game to sell. What if it never sells?

Now I know where all the madden wall of shames went along with all the good games.

SAME DUDE! I know you don't read comments, ever, but goodwill Suuucks for video games. They have shelves of limited edition DVD sets out in the open, but they've locked FIFA 2008 and 8 copies of Wii Fit for the playstation behind a glass safe!! You should visit Europe dude

There’s something similar to this store near me. They call it goodwill goodbytes. I just got a Wii bundle from there. Didn’t expect much cause it’s a goodwill. However, I was very pleased when I opened the box. It had the console, stand, 2 wii motes, 2 wii motion plus adapters, 4 skins for the motes, 2 nunchucks and Wii sports and Wii sports resort. I got all that for 90 bucks from there. Yeah it’s a lil higher than I wanted for a Wii. But all that stuff. Just the sports games alone are half the money. But as you say, opportunity is everywhere. Love your channel, man!

I've noticed that goodwill has started to do their research on stuff over the years. I used to be able to go in and snag High end Clothing, furniture, electronics, and shoes for next to nothing. Now everything is priced around what it's worth on the second hand market. 😕

This makes me like GW even less. I’m guessing this is why GWs in my area no longer sell video games. Gone are the days of finding games dirt cheap. It was cool while it lasted, I used to find pretty decent stuff at GW.

The way you just put your games all the way at the end of the rack where someone could just walk by and scoop them up without you noticing just gives me anxiety 😅😂. I keep my finds with me and will not put them down in thrift stores ,but that is just me haha. Really cool video, I have never seen one of those GRID Goodwill stores before. Also, fun fact that Bratz game on PS2 and maybe other systems came with a Bratz doll outfit. I know this ,because I have a copy of it on PS2 with the little doll outfit.

I’m not anti reseller, but to all the comments complaining about them charging the prices they are charging despite getting their stuff for free/cheap, unfortunately they are not selling only to low income people, resellers are one of the people that come through and it puts some responsibility on them to raise their prices as well and be profitable. They are no longer only selling to low income consumers but to anyone who may come through and that changes the value of what they have.

“Ohhh jeeze somebody lost their life over there ! “ lol lol lol

The store is gonna see this video and make sure they never underprice sealed games ever again haha. I bet the pricers might even get in trouble because of this 🤣😂

Riff LMAO carrying every video with the editing

i was in a goodwill 3 or 4 years ago here in canada. they always have a case with anything worth more than 20 bucks where you can bid on the item. my buddy bid 120 dollars on a wii u in the display that had 12 games with it. he won the auction, got the call, went to get the system....... all of the games were just empty cases. the store clerk demanded that he pay, in full for the auction. after about 20 mins of arguing with the clerk and the manager. that nowhere did the listing say cases only. how could anyone have known other than the goodwill that the cases were empty? i argued that the listing said it was fully tested. that had to have meant the games at least looked in decent shape. finally i said "lets just leave, what are they going to do"? so we talked out. it was a very bizarre experience. first it was ebay that ruined chances of getting a good deal at a thrift shop or value village. pricecharting sealed the fate of getting a good deal. once an employee finds price charting....that is all she wrote. value village used to sell all games for 5 dollars just a few years ago. now i see pricing in a case of above retail. the only games on the shelf there for 5 dollars are games worth less than 5 dollars.

Short story: yes Long story :yes because all inventory is donations based and no proceeds go to any foundation or donated in any shape way or form just used to pocket owner wallet

good to see charlotte, nc getting some love i been going to this store for a few years now i gotta find another store reseller have breached the wall 😂

Noooo way this is the first store that I ever went and got a GameCube there that’s so crazy

This grid game atore might be why I rarely ever see games in my goodwills and them resellers too

8:27 "Someone just lost their life over there." (Goes back to flipping games)

there goes Goodwill making me nauseous again. Free inventory. Ebay prices. GTFO

I thought the reason the local Goodwill was to put them on the auction site (for the crazy delivery prices). Would not mind finding one of these nearby.

Where I live in NH they have EVERY game in store labeled at $15 no matter what

When are you gonna get a barcode scanner and start using database mode? You could scan every barcode on those two shelves in well under an hour

I have been to at least 8 thriftstores in the last year and I have never seen 1 video game being sold.

Resellers = Goodwill Salespeople No Resellers = No Goodwill Salespeople In other words, is it better to have 1 Retail Store or 1000s of Wholesalers. Poor math for Goodwill.

Now I know where all the video games in my Goodwills end up…

People donate their games to goodwill?

They clearly got their gaming specialists hired there so the slippage rate for pricing is probably very low.

This world sucks just a good will that looks up eBay price’s like everyone now and more people trying to make money.

8:28 hahaha I say the same thing when I hear loud sounds like that 😆

Yeah you don't want to shop at that Goodwill store with video games only. All the Goodwill stores in the state send all their video games there, then they look on the internet and jack their price up to match pretty close. There is no video games at my local one at all cuz they send them to the middle of Oregon somewhere. In the city where people got more money and they can make more money. But I'm wondering who's getting the money?

7:42 that was me!

Those grid video game stores have more video games that you would want as opposed to a vanilla good will. The good will in my city has shovelware games and nothing worth buying.

Founded in 1902, Goodwill Industries International is, in fact, a nonprofit organization, and the money its thrift stores make goes towards community programs like job training, placement services, and classes for people who have disabilities or are otherwise challenged in finding traditional employment.

Did anyone else notice that Matrix game was signed by someone?

Those profits he’s mentioning - it doesn’t seem to account for shipping costs , does it ? He mentions profit numbers after eBay fees. Won’t every game sold cost him at least $5 to ship? This video was interesting in that I now can see why there are never any video games at any goodwill any more . This Grid store, and eBay auctions online suck them all up.

Stop calling it a thrift store....When you are charging retail you aren't a thrift store. You'd think people by now would stop donating to goodwill when they will take your donation's then overcharge people.

goodwill went downhill over the years unless you live near the goodwill outlets where you can buy thing according to the weight of it and not what the item is.. too bad i live pretty good ways away from one or thats where i would be... their small stores are ripoffs though because like everyone says they get everything free and charge next to retail prices for everything.

I have noticed in the last year that goodwill prices have sky rocket since they have gotten hip to the reseller side of things and this is no dis to resellers I am a fellow reseller my self I sell used bikes in my area that is how I figured this out I often stop by my local goodwill to see what kind of bike stuff they may have and this year often if they have any thing decent they typically have it Priced for more than I could get out of it as a reseller crazy over priced lately

As a goodwill employee how did I not know about this place? It’s beuatiful.

In Charlotte huh? It was a concept started in Charlotte but never took off. Next to the bins used to be by UNC Charlotte

And thats why there is nothing but scratched to hell and back, ripped up, stained copies of commonist of the common games

I have NEVER seen a goodwill with a gaming selection like that!?!? What part of the country is this? Lol 😂 is GRID only based in certain parts of the country?

Goodwill should be lower but it's a game store you have to pay employees that makes the price go up as well that's like complaining that a restaurant charges too much your paying more because of employee cost

The GRID gets games for free and they charge between 20-30% above eBay prices. If you complain to them, they'll just respond that it is for job training, as justification for ripping you off. I don't bother with the grid.

Idk how good will is but sometimes. Value Village has games but not all, The only issue is they sometimes price it at market value so for an example metal gear solid twin snake game cube was selling there for $100…

There is a store owned by goodwill near me just like this except its called goodbytes by goodwill. Pretty much the same as this store. Found this video interesting. Thanks for the video super informative.

well now we know the age of finding anything at a goodwill in the wild is truly over. between resellers (not knocking what ya do just stating how hard it is to find games in the wild for the average joe) Goodwill selling at these stores and online and competition from other collectors.

Goodwill is no longer Goodwill its We own your will. They are not as bad as half priced books. They legit price higher than market and 0 wiggle room.

The one thing I hate about goodwill games and movies is when someone takes the disk out and hides it underneath another disk to get it free because they never look inside items that they are checking out so they live the empty case on the shelves

Yeah I went back i forgot to check amibos and got 65$ last last last last gen game GameStop said no one buys old crapped 😂😂😂

I call goodwill (the Michigan ones at least) goodgreif. They get stuff for free...say even a stephen king book that's readily available for 4$ online and they charge 5.99 for that particular book and want 2.99 for Harry Potter 1. While local salvation army sells books 1$ for hardcover and .50 for a paper back. I wont even get started on video games.

0:00 how does a good will have more game stock than a GameStop

As a European, I had no idea the non PAL versions of GameCube games had the logo on the bottom lol

I actually hate this I don’t hate the video, but the fact that Goodwill gets free donations and sells it for EBay prices 🥲 This is how it’s going in the Vintage community as well since they’ve been pulling donations to put onto their Online store too

that store is terrible

That's definitely not the only one in the country. I have 2 grid stores within 30 mins of each other. Also they have been here for like 2 years.

Next time you're in Charlotte make sure to check out the 2nd & Charles locations

at 14:40 those skylanders 3 of them are caled eons elites they have higher stats and a golden base they are actualy pretty wanted

Thrift stores are no longer thrift stores. It's just by name and nothing else

This is the video I have been waiting to see! Love your videos and all the info :)

Makes me sick seeing Goodwill take advantage of the Goodwill of others.

from all the videos ive seen from goodwills id never buy anything from there, the way its all chucked on the shelf, apparently no returns/no testing etc. Granted this is a bit more high class but i bet a lot of those problems still exist