I'll start with the story.
Christmas of last year we were visiting Stacy's parents in her hometown and being the ever looking buyer that I am we decided to go visit a few of the thrift stores in the immediate area. There happened to be a two within a few miles of the house and they were side by side. So, we parked at the first. It was more of a flea market style store. Several individuals had rented a section of the store out and set up their items on a table and each item was marked with a price. The marked price was usually well over priced which directly led to us departing that store and heading to the next, The Downtown Mission.
The name is rather ironic, because it wasn't downtown and I'm not exactly sure that they had much of a mission. However, they did have some good merchandise. As usual upon entering any thrift store, I headed directly to the sporting goods section. That is usually where most of the decent deals reside. As I turned the corner to that area the rather large collection of Golf Bags caught my eye. There were at least 20-30 of them all stacked up in a giant metal bin. Every bag was filled with 20-30 clubs and they were crammed in tight.
There were no prices around so I went back up to the front (Note to store owner: Put prices on your stuff) and asked the cashier about the golf bags. She said they were selling them for $25 a piece. I was taken back a bit by this price, as I normally pay $4 at Goodwill and up to $10-15 at a yardsale for most any golf bag. I just told her thank you and we left.
Fast forward nearly 6 months.
Those golf bags were still on my mind when we went back to the in-laws for another visit. I told Stacy that we needed to go back by there and see if that lady would negotiate on the price. Normally in a store setting like they have, negotiating isn't done but as the saying goes "You don't get what you don't ask for." So after going into the "Downtown Mission" I headed right around that same corner again to see every single golf bag in the exact same place it was 6months previous. I knew then my negotiation would probably end well.
I found the cashier and proposed that I would pay $10 per bag as long as i bought 5 or more......and....she agreed. You see, they were donated to her store and they had been sitting there for at least 6 months taking up space and not making the "Downtown Mission" any money at all. So an offer from an outsider to get those bags out of her way AND to make some money off of them was very agreeable to her.
I proceeded to sift through the bags and pull out a few good ones. In all I pulled 5 bags. 4 of the 5 bags wound up being sell-able. One of them was in much rougher shape than I saw while at the store. (I have inserted the 4 auctions below). This wound up being the find of the year so far!
Before I go further I want to use this story to illustrate a principle of capitalism.
Many, many time I get this question, "Why do people sell things so cheap to you if they could sell it for more their selves?" or "Aren't you cheating people by paying much less than the item is worth?"
Those are both legitimate questions ans questions worthy of a response. I won't answer them directly in this space but I hope the above story will illustrate the answer to these.
You see, value is relative to each individuals circumstances and skill set.
To that Thrift Store owners who had those bags donated to her shop, the difference in $10 and $25 was negligibile. It was even more negated by the fact that those bags had been in her shop so long with out selling.To me, someone who specializes in Golf Bag Reselling, I know multiple channels to sell those Golf Bags and have networked with specific people that would buy the right bag. So, I can demand a higher price.
Hope that helps.
Bakc to the story. I have listed the 4 golf bags below. Check them out.
The first golf bag i researched was a Polo Ralph Lauren golf bag. I had never seen a Polo RL bag before and honestly didn't even know that made them. I started the bag at $15 and just set back to watch what happened. Within just a few hours I started getting emails about the bag. One of which went on to explain to me that this particular bag was originally sold in a Ralph Lauren Boutique in New York City for $1700. I couldn't believe it!
This particular individual happened to collect these bags and he gave me a ton of information on it. He went onto tell me that he has seen similar bags in slightly better condition go for $500-800 on eBay. He said that these bags rarely show up because there are so few of them our there. Apparently, only 100 are made every 10 years and they are rarely sold to the public in stores.
He estimated my bag to be worth $300-800. He said I should not have a problem getting $300+ on eBay for it. I promptly took the auction down and have since relisted it with a higher starting price and a low reserve.
These types of stories are fun but don't happen often.
We Paid: $10
We Paid: $10
We Paid: $10
We Paid: $10
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