If you’ve spent enough time shopping at Goodwill, you’ve probably come across something that seemed surprisingly underpriced. Maybe it was a vintage jacket, a recognizable designer label, a collectible, or something you later discovered was selling online for considerably more.
For resellers, finding those overlooked items can be the difference between leaving empty-handed and making a decent profit. But Goodwill is becoming much better at recognizing what some of those donations are worth before they ever reach shoppers.
A recent behind-the-scenes report from Business Insider looked at how Goodwill handles the enormous amount of merchandise donated to its stores and what happens when workers come across something that may be worth more than the average donation.
Goodwill Is Getting Better at Recognizing What It Has
Goodwill processes more than 4.4 billion pounds of donated goods each year, according to Business Insider. With that much merchandise coming through donation centers, it’s easy to understand how valuable items have historically ended up mixed in with everything else.
But Goodwill has become more sophisticated about sorting those donations.
Business Insider found that Goodwill uses technology, including AI-powered tools, to identify and list potentially valuable merchandise online. Instead of automatically putting everything out at a local store, certain items can be directed to online sales, where they may reach a much larger group of buyers.
That Could Make Things Harder for Resellers
Resellers have long made money by recognizing items that were priced for much less than their actual resale value. Someone who knows vintage clothing, sneakers, handbags, collectibles, or certain brands can spot something for $10 that another buyer might pay considerably more for online.
Goodwill now has more ways to recognize some of that value itself.
That doesn’t mean Goodwill is specifically trying to stop people from reselling its merchandise. In fact, Business Insider has separately reported that Goodwill recognizes resellers as customers who contribute to store sales.
What’s changing is that Goodwill no longer has to leave all the work of identifying valuable merchandise to shoppers.
Related: Goodwill Used to Be Cheap—Shoppers Say These Prices Tell a Different Story
Some of the Best Donations May Never Reach the Store
That’s probably the most interesting takeaway for anyone who shops Goodwill regularly.
If an employee or Goodwill’s technology recognizes that a donation has significant value, selling it online can bring in more money than placing it on a rack at a local store and hoping someone recognizes it.
There are still plenty of good finds making their way into stores and Goodwill Outlets. Business Insider even followed resellers who continue to make money buying secondhand merchandise from Goodwill.
But resellers aren’t the only ones getting better at figuring out what donated items are worth. Goodwill is learning to do the same thing.
And that could make those dramatically underpriced designer, vintage, and collectible finds a little harder to come across than they once were.
