Featured Common Items Seen At Thrift Stores That Will Never Sell

Thought this would be a fun thread! Please add your thoughts about the common items you see often on the shelves of your local thrift store but will likely never sell to paying customers. Dead stock is a huge problem at several of the thrifts in my area and there are some items I know have been there for at least several years.

1. Yesterday's "Political Bestsellers": In 2020 nobody wants a copy of Sarah Palin's "Going Rouge" despite the fact that the thrift store has several of them in hardback in almost new condition. I think it is likely these are new old stock that got dumped at the thrift store due to the number and condition of them scattered through the thrifts bookshelves and this is just the tip of the iceberg with dozens of political books from both political persuasions lining the shelves. Authors like Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, Sarah Palin, Al Gore, and the Clintons dot the shelves but never seem to leave except in mass cleanouts/reorganizations.

2. Common games like Monopoly and Trivia Pursuit: newer games seem to have a following and the less common board games seem to get scooped fast as well but the handful or so copies of Monopoly and a few others never seem to get sold. The game area of the local thrifts also often have stacks of puzzles that never sell.

3. Microwave Cookbooks: Cookbooks in general at the local thrift stores seem to be popular but there are certain niches of them that don't seem to have much allure to buyers including anything with Microwave in the title along with a good number of the dieting, low fat, or quick meals cookbooks.

4. Coffee Mugs: If you are frugal never buy a coffee mug for "retail" since the local thrift store will almost always have one to meet your requirements and they seem to be slow sellers. I don't understand why they don't dumpsterize some of the advertising/corporate ones to begin with since who wants to pay for a mug that was given away 20 years ago by the local radio station.

Please add your examples and your thoughts on this topic.

 

I don't understand why they put out so much used plastic junk that looks like it was ran over a few times. Like used cups with built-in straws, ewww! They give me the heebie-jeebies

Why on earth do they put out the stuff that they have chipped to Hades and back?

Sticky or cruddy plush, bleh! I actually found one with a lollipop in it's fibers. I was just hoping that some kid had done it after they put it out, I guess...

I'm guessing the shelf stockers could really care less.

Hope this is not off topic

 

Anything by Dan Brown. Also, Fifty Shades of grey.

 

Used to be lots of Sharon Osborne and Jordan aka Katie Price books. Maybe the CShops threw them out eventually.
Not seeing so many brass nick nacks recently, maybe they have cottoned on and take them in bulk to the scrapyard now.

 

Laughing... Microwave cookbooks! An oxymoron.

Debora

 

OMG, don't get me started.

But sounds like a fun opportunity to complain.

A company will donate a crate of 50 unused poor quality coffee mugs from some promotion that didn't take off, like the name of a law firm. Those will fill a shelf untouched.

The ubiquitous cooking pots without matching lids.

A personalized wedding gift with the couple's name on it.

Used Ball jelly canning jars. No problem re-using those, but not long ago a set of 12 came in and they were trying to get $1.99 a pop -- which of course is double retail for new.

Infinity scarves.

But with everything closed I'd take the Goodwill good/and the Goodwill bad now with open arms. If only things were back to normal!!

 

Dolls ! those cheap porcelain ones from the 80s-90s sold at wally world by the boat load . Every thrift I go into has dozens,if not 100s , and nobody wants them ! It annoys me theyll take up valuable display space with them yet theyll have the fragile crystal and porcelain items crammed onto a few shelves . Im with Gauntlett about chipped cracked and broken crap ! One thrift I go to is notorious for placing tags over the defects,and that really irks me . If you peel it to look they get all pissy with you at the register . I care not,I peel away .

 

Some brass still sells!

 

Love the Wedding gift thingy!

 

I jus' love my local thriftshop! That is MY designer and housewares go-to before I drive anywhere else (used to, anyway, like fleas, yardsales in the good ol' days).
Re Coffee Mugs: I once bought 4 Lenox White Linen Damasse mugs there. Priced at a whole buck each the sweet volunteer cashier apologized to me that they weren't priced at $0.10 as usual. I avowed to her that my purse probably could manage the huge markup.

I have since tried for over 6 years to find more of them. Natch. N/A. Had one almost happening at an online auction once (not eBoo) but when it came time to ship the item "couldn't be found". No amount of begging them to look harder had any effect. I'm sure someone withdrew them fast, they are that rare apparently.

One vintage replac. site did at one time, a long time ago, feature them at $39.95. Each. I passed then but have been unable to find any since.

These cups are for me/us. We have our morning java in them every day, in bed. It's a tradition that wouldn't be the same without this lovely mug.

Should any of you good ol' pals happen to want to part with any, do let me know? Am not ready to spend 40 bucks each though, have a heart.

 

The ever popular collector plates!!!!!!!!!

 

OOOPS! This thread is supposed to be about stuff that never sells! Sorry, I got carried away with personal WTB
What I have found does not sell at my local thrift are much the same items already named but I'll add these:

Vintage audio tapes, VHS tapes, and CDs with esoteric titles, like "Hindu in 10 easy lessons", and the like. Religious theme books, recordings, etc. have a slim market around here, and this is a church thrift shop, go figure...
Re Dan Brown: I have bought all he wrote at either that thrift shop or at the local library's semi-annual book sales. $1.00 each hardback, $0.25 paperback, can't be beat.
Some hardbacks are 1st editions. Ha! I won't live long enough for those to become "valuable" but bought them to read and to pass on to family and friends who want to take them off my hands when done with.

 

BEANIE BABIES everywhere. I do believe they have had a collector market but..... CRAZY how many there are out there. Just do not get it!! But others may not like the items I collect LOL

 

@lizjewel - Do not worry about that at all. As you well know threads here on the forum take left turns, right turns, U-turns & sometimes go ass over apple cart along the way.

 

My father was the proverbial absent minded professor - he would wander out with his coffee cup and come back without it. (After all - it was empty - i.e. no good anymore - Right?) At school his lab assistants were trained to track them down and retrieve them, but at home my mother refused to - since our house was in the middle of 2 acres of plants for him to putter around in, finding them wasn't always easy. One day she went to goodwill and bought a box full of those unwanted cups. She put them on a convenient shelf and put her matching sets in a closed cabinet. After that, whenever the supply got low, she picked up another box full of 25cent mugs and peace reigned - on that subject at least.

 

Cheap belts. The "vegan", i.e. plastic, ones hang around forever. Size XS clothes, including designer ones at some thrifts. Small shoes. (Size 10-12 women's in good shape vanish as soon as they show up.) Mardi Gras beads and other el-cheapo jewelry. Someone might buy it for a kid's dress-up box but otherwise they pretty much have to give it away. Hand made pottery, or anything home made that's not done well. Overpriced florist vases. It all shows up at local thrifts and sits there. Chipped anything. T-shirts with random family reunion slogans on them.

4. Coffee Mugs: If you are frugal never buy a coffee mug for "retail" since the local thrift store will almost always have one to meet your requirements and they seem to be slow sellers. I don't understand why they don't dumpsterize some of the advertising/corporate ones to begin with since who wants to pay for a mug that was given away 20 years ago by the local radio station.

I've bought a few of those mugs. Sometimes a local nonprofit's stuff shows up and I know people who work there or for whom it's a favorite. I bought one from the town library for my mom. If they're out of market, might as well send them straight to the dumpster, but if they're local you never know.

 

@elarnia Goes to show: There is at least ONE customer for every thriftshop coffee mug!

To compare: My dear (now, late) husband always grew impatient with finding things when needed. Also walking-impaired in his late years, he had no patience to search for them. Instead he'd immediatelty drive to the nearest store to buy what he needed, be it a kitchen knife, a pair of scissors, a can-opener, a roll of tape. These were always in the same drawers in the kitchen but somehow he forgot to check there.

Which is why I sometimes would drive to the nearest general store or thriftshop and purchase a few of each of these items. I placed them in open convenient areas where he could see them and thus avoid going out himself to buy.

Of course there were several dozen of each when I packed up to move some years after his passing. Most were donated to the thriftshop where I had bought them.

 

Amen Lucille, the idea of going to a thrift store whatever junk or treasures they might have is only a dream now.

One microwave cookbook that can sell is the one from Tupperware. It tells folks how to use their tupperware stackable microwave cookware by providing recipes that work with those models. Otherwise I agree microwave cookbooks are DOA.

I think some brass still sells, but certainly not like before.

Most depression glass unless it is specific colors, or patterns is not worth the headache. And it has to be in perfect shape which is rare these days.

Most Fiesta ware...

I can't think of more right now, but I am positive the list is long.
Edited to add, oh no I thought I was going to make a million dollars with my 50 shades of gray triology. LOL

 

About 5 years ago I would have said VHS tapes but in recent years many of the local thrifts don't stock them anymore except for some of the Disney stuff. The one thrift that does have a decent selection of VHS sometimes sells their overflow for $0.10 each which is hard to pass up for a decent title in playable condition.

Can't wait until stuff finally re-opens, despite not having great luck at our local thrifts I always enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

 

I always see so many VHS tapes for sale. I don't think I would even try selling them since I have no idea if they are still good and working. That is despite the fact that I do have a VHS player here, but it is not in working order.