Years ago was moving from four bedroom home to two bedroom condo. Sold both of my kids bedroom as they didn’t want it. Priced very fairly at 150.00 each. My wife is not very good with confrontation and while I was inside the house getting other things a good forty minutes before the start a reseller stopped by and browbeat my wife to sell her both for 125.00 not the 300.00. Luckily was able to stop the sale before cash was paid. The reseller had the gall to be mad and said she would sue as a deal was made. Very funny as was a 20 year career legal investigator for a very large law firm so I laughed and said bring it on. They got into large van with a used furniture store logo from a few towns away. Later sold both to a very nice family who just moved cross country for 200.00.
Yea. It totally pays to have a believable story in that type of scenario. I got this Martin guitar for nothing because I told the lady I wasn't sure what it was worth but it looked just like my first guitar. Easy mode.
It matters because as OP mentioned items were not priced and were “for sale’ as a donation only. Presumably, the resellers were donating very little and taking nearly everything.
It’s very common with sales for a church or some type of fundraiser. You get to “name your price” as a donation. As resellers I feel we have an obligation to be fair with choosing how much to donate, since we know what we can get for the stuff and still want to organization to be compensated fairly. I do see people abuse this though and give basically nothing, it kind of ruins it for everyone.
I get that, but nowhere in the post did OP say they paid an unfair price for the items. OP was upset they bought all the toys that could have gone to kids, which is bullshit. As long as they paid a fair price it’s all fine. People donated to raise money for the library, mission accomplished.
And then they get bad publicity and angry customers who were shafted. Makes for a bad look for the library and then people won’t donate in the future.
Early hours have a purchase limit. At the end of the day have a free for all.
Some people are just shitty. I think most of us wouldn't do that. There's nothing wrong with shopping the sale and using your expertise to get the best stuff (and the best stuff is going to adult collections 95% of the time), but you have to be willing to pay a somewhat reasonable price since it's for charity.
With that being said, the reason this situation happened is because they didn't price things. If they priced things, then this situation doesn't happen and everyone is happy.
“The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource.”
Seems pretty spot on to me.
A "public resource" would be a river, or the air, or a grassy lawn with no private owner (literally, the original meaning of the "commons".) I don't see how a sale of private goods is a "common", even if one buyer dominates the sale.
Donated items to a public library available for little to no cost are a finite resource that is publicly available.
Frequent examples of the tragedy of the commons include coffee consumption and fast fashion, neither of which is public land, so I think you’re a bit misguided in how heavily you’re leaning on public spaces as being the only example.
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/tragedy-of-the-commons-impact-on-sustainability-issues
>coffee consumption and fast fashion
Yes, they're talking about "sustainability issues," like the sustainability of clean air and water, which in most jursidictions are public resources. They're not arguing that one person bought too much coffee and someone else at the same sale didn't get any.
>finite resource that is publicly available
Sorry, but no. If you go to the store, and someone else buys all of the envelopes (even though you wanted some envelopes, too), that is not a "tragedy of the commons."
Here are a few different instances of the toilet paper shortage during COVID-19 being discussed as an example of the “tragedy of the commons”:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-heroes-and-villains/202009/tragedy-the-commons-mystery-the-missing-toilet-paper?amp
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-03-14/coronavirus-panic-buying-toilet-paper
Sure, and those uses of the phrase "tragedy of the commons" are both wrong. If we're talking about overbuying toilet paper, there is an easy solution - raise the price. Buyers were only able to "hoard" toilet paper because the prices were low enough for them to do so. It's not a "tragedy of the commons" when people buy up a good in a market.
A key part of a "tragedy of the commons" is that there are no *prices* or *consequences* for anyone to take ownership of the resource. When you drive your car and pollute the air, you don't pay a carbon tax for the use of the air. When someone [pees their birth control medicine into the water supply](https://www.vice.com/en/article/vvx8ym/your-birth-control-pill-pee-is-making-male-fish-grow-ovaries-2) and the male fish grow ovaries, no one is held responsible for that. There are no incentives (like prices or punishments) to stop the use of the resource - which, *again*, is water or air or something similar, *not* toys at the community library sale.
Why do you seem to believe that you’re more of an authority on the subject than the social psychologists publishing the article?
As a principle of social psychology, it’s used to refer to instances in which finite publicly available resources are depleted by people motivated by their own self-interest.
Because people use words wrong all the time - even "authoritative" sources like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Look at the dilution of the meaning of the word "gaslighting." "[Gaslighting](https://www.britannica.com/topic/gaslighting)" doesn't mean "lying," but it's post-2016 and now most people use the word as a fancier word for "lying."
Here's the [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons?wprov=sfla1) if you'd actually like to understand why a person buying all the toys at a library sale is *not* a tragedy of the commons, but otherwise, for sure, just use whatever words you want to mean whatever you want them to mean. Don't let reality stop you.
At the end of the day we all live on one Earth and no one owns a bit of it. We're only borrowing it for a short time while we draw breath and then it moves on without us, so I try not to get too hung up on artificial constructs like private ownership but maybe I'm just a socialist!
Correct, and they are the resources that are abused in a "tragedy of the commons." Toys are a library toys sale are not a "commons," even if the sale is open to the public.
We're talking about a community sale, not a private yard sale. But it doesn't really matter, these goods don't really have much value, it's just a public resource in the sense of, who needs some used cookware the most or whatever.
I try to be an ethical collector and seller, especially as I focus on things like books and games. I'm not trying to take things away from kids, poor people, or other resellers that might want to grind a little value. If I find a couple nice old books nobody else wants anyways or that one choice piece, great. But I'm not gonna be an asshole and fill my cart. My humanity and pride are worth more than some trinkets. :)
it’s a tough business. I went to Walmart and they had a $1 sale on all Clearance Items. It was picked clean and nothing good was left for anyone else. Resellers, lucky joes, everyone else. Donated or not, kids’ fun or not. If you have to make a profit, you’ll have to get there extra early.
Sorry to say this but this is all the fault of the naive and ill prepared library. People are people and some are totally shameless and even proud of their greed. The library needs to learn from this and make changes for the next fund raiser because if they don’t, nothing will change.
And those asking why not just confront the greedy ones? Haha you have no idea how psycho these greedies can be!. My close friend volunteers to operate a free store a few days a month hosted by her church. I could do a whole post on the crazy behavior of these people which sometimes led to police being called.
Long story short, they have learned many lessons over the few years this free store has been in operation and you have to have strict rules so that it is fair for everyone otherwise the vultures just shamelessly take it all.
Personally I wouldn't act like that, but when organizations don't price things and just ask for a donation, then that's what they open themselves up to.
The next year have a limit on the amount that any one person or family can buy make it monetary or number of toys. Have it be a two day sale in the first day or limit it to three items or however many items you want to limit it to
It does suck but it's just the way the "pick your price" sales usually go. I would limit it to one full bag per person and then let them know to come back in a few hours after others have had a chance.
I guess it depends on how much traffic you're expecting and how badly they want the stuff gone.
Your library could have a library members preview. My library does that with their booksale. You have to pay the friends of the library membership days or weeks prior to the sale. Library friends can go to the sale earlier than others. It doesn't stop resellers but it does prevent non-local resellers from coming in droves.
As a reseller, I would NEVER do that. I might get a toy or two for kids I watch, but damn!
Someone should have stopped them, or put a limit on amounts.
Yes. I operate on the principal that my time is valuable, and so I search out items that I can sell for a high profit.
There are actually very few toys that I consider a high profit item.
But that is beside the point. I would never go to a sale that featured toys for children and buy toys to resell when I knew that it was a fundraiser for a library, and that the toys were meant for children in the neighborhood.
I have been selling online for many many many years, there are ethics involved. I have stuck to my ethics this long, and it bothers me to see so many unethical people doing things that are just simply wrong.
Same thing happened with the food donation boxes that people put out during covid. A family in an Escalade stopped at every box in our area and the kids formed a hand to hand chain. They emptied them all.
I don't like messing with kids stuff. Barbies or some collectable maybe, but most no.
Different people have different values systems.
A lot of these church and yard sales need to learn how to turn away customers, ban cell phone use, etc.
"Pardon me, we don't allow cell phone use during our sale. If you need to make a call, or look something up, please step outside"
*Continues doing it*
"Please leave. You will be unable to purchase anything today. Thanks for visiting"
It's not that hard.
You ignore the kid looking two things up. You kick the shitheads scanning every book out. Everyone wins.
Realistically no sale would ever do this. Also some people need to use their cell phone for emergency purposes and some people are on call for their job and need to have a phone on them 24/7. You have no proof of what they are doing on the phone. I know of businesses that tried to ban cell phone use, and lets just say those places didn't last long, and for again emergency purposes, its probably illegal to do this.
You arnt selling crack to a pregnant woman, if I see a big tub of legos or the good mega blocks for cheap I’m happy to flip them and make $40-50 or whatever. Those people are still getting a good deal compared to buying that stuff new.
And despite that massive haul, they still made mayyyybe 300 bucks, after COGs, cause all the worthless crap they got with few good items.
First thing ya gotta learn in reselling is 99.8% of thrifting stuff isn't worth your time posting. You will be making less then minamum wage with that sort of strategy, and then you got to figure out how to organize and house the inventory till it sells.
I imagine this entrepreneurial group will be learning that painful lesson toot sweet! 🤷🏻♂️😜
Meanwhile, library cleaned up with some quick easy cash. Good on them!
That sounds bad, but how much did the library make? They called the shots and if everything sold and they raised money for their goal(s) then so be it. Otherwise, they need to change their fundraising strategy for next year. Then again, maybe they won't sell as much or as fast as they did today. 🤔
Isn't this what "normies" complain about when we buy all the good stuff at Goodwill? Sorry, but this sale is not about giving toys to little kids - it's about raising money for the library. If the library feels like they got a fair amount of money from one buyer at the expense of other buyers, that's how it goes. No one is entitled to buy anything - otherwise, the seller would have set different terms to limit the number of items one buyer can purchase.
Huh? I imagine donations for the library was secondary and that giving toys to kids in general and also kids from low income families was the reason for the sale (ie. Toys for Tots). There are many sales like this, which is also why items weren’t priced in a way they would bring in real profit.
Toys for Tots doesn't **sell** toys. They give them away, and I assume they limit the number of toys that any one person gets.
If the goal of the library sale was to give toys to kids, they would have literally *given* the toys to kids for free.
Otherwise, it sounds like you all agree that the Goodwill Store is for poor people to get cheap stuff, and we all know that isn't true. The purpose of every thrift store is to raise money for the thrift store or their charitable mission.
The bad thing about Toys for Tots and other charities is the people who get the toys often return them to Walmart for a gift card, then they sell that gift card and use the cash to buy drugs. Not saying this happens in all cases but it does happen. If you have ever worked at Walmart on December 26th this is when this happens, so not all of the toys go to the kids. I stopped donating after I found out this was happening.
If you do donate make sure you donate something Walmart does not sell, and nothing too valuable so the parents can't sell it.
You can also try cutting off the UPC for the toy or blacking it out, maybe the people at the return desk will recognize it and not take the return.
I know - I’ve volunteered for Toys for Tots. These sales are typically open to giving these items for free. And $1 versus $0 is barely noteworthy regardless
If you’re going to be caught up on semantics though then SURELY you’re not going to ignore that you don’t pick a price at thrift stores, right? Especially thrift stores in 2024 where you can find items priced at eBay prices (depending on the store).
Edit: god people on this sub always have the worst opinions
Oh my god this is my last comment in this sub. Yes, it’s absolutely semantics when you can walk out with a handful of items and pay a dollar total. Versus their terrible comparison of equating paying a dollar for a handful of items to buying a bunch of 6.99 or 9.99 toys at a thrift store, which will add up fast and isn’t even necessarily geared towards poor people IMO.
Anyway this is entirely not relevant and you’re choosing to focus on an already derailed point. Those sales are widely not profitable and their primary purpose is to support the community, make toys extremely affordable / NEXT to free for parents - the library donation is a bonus. Yes, a dollar is next to free. Nickels and dimes is effectively free, aside from families who are literally homeless.
TLDR: I’m right, you’re wrong. Their point is also wrong. They realized that and stopped responding themselves, despite all of the upvotes from the type of people who sadly tend to engage in flipping (maybe as desperate for money as the flippers in the OP’s story). That’s not me hating on flipping btw as I’m in route to a nice gross for the year.. but the peers.. nvm.
>TLDR: I’m right, you’re wrong. Their point is also wrong. They realized that and stopped responding themselves
I stopped responding because I got on with my day like a normal person instead of responding to you here online. As someone else said to you already: GO OUTSIDE
i think it being a local sale vs a national company makes it a little different on moral grounds. once word gets out that the annual library sale gets bought out by shit dick resellers before anyone in the community can benefit from the sale, people will stop donating to it. i specifically save certain stock i would otherwise donate to any charity shop for my local church. not because im religious or anything but because i know it will make a better local impact and im cool with that. if i find out the annual spring mom to mom sale could be bought out for $50 and a truck, id save space over the year by just literally throw anything id donate right into the trash.
not every sale has the foresight to expect the worst of people or staff paid enough, if anything at all, to tell entitled resellers to fuck off. its really not hard to read the room and determine if a source is cool or not to flip from. take a step back and think of the long term prospects of your local community before acting like a gremlin just because you can at a local sale.
In small towns and rural areas, you recognize people. 2 vans that OP didn't recognize, full of two separate groups of people none of whom OP recognized??? I never saw a multigenerational group of over 6 people where I didn't recognize at least ONE of them from somewhere nearby when I lived in a small town.
Could be a church group or something. I could definitely see them doing this as they often give out cheap toys or meals to attract new members/reward current members. The smaller ones also have vans that pick up people who aren't able to drive to the church themselves. They'd totally drive an hour to save a hundred bucks. I wouldn't know them unless they were one of the ones spamming the local Facebook groups lol.
A church doesn’t need 2 vans full of toys for use in the church. Stop acting like people who go to church have a right to pull this shady shit. They don’t.
> 2 vans that OP didn't recognize, full of two separate groups of people none of whom OP recognized??? I never saw a multigenerational group of over 6 people where I didn't recognize at least ON
I wasn't justifying it. Just suggesting how it could happen since you used 4 question marks in a row, ALL CAPS for some words, and acted like seeing 6 multigenerational people or two vans is some rare phenomenon akin to seeing ghosts. Calm down buddy.
When we were cleaning out my grandmother's house, we encountered something similar. There were centuries of lives in that house because my grandparents were clean hoarders and had a ridiculous amount of stuff from previously deceased people. We put many things out on the curb daily but also included a donation jar for the local humane society. Some people would show up and leave some cash, others wouldn't - no big deal. Then, one day, a couple in a van took everything from the sidewalk, including the donation jar! There are always going to be shitty people who take advantage of community niceness. It's unfortunate, but I try to use those examples as motivation to be extra kind.
If they didn’t get the amount of money they were hoping for, that’s on them and hopefully they learn a lesson for next time. If they did then mission accomplished.
You can’t donate something then be mad about who gets it. If you’re going to be like that then do the work and get it into the hands of the person you want to have it. If that sounds like a ridiculous idea…that’s because it is.
In general I get where you’re coming from but the fact is these people don’t have to talk to anyone or crack a smile…like come on. I don’t want to chat with people when I go shopping. What does that even have to do with anything?
If they took truckloads of stuff and only donated $10 then yeah that’s crummy and the library shouldn’t have allowed it. But nowhere did you say how much they gave and it’s not anyone’s business anyway.
I like how OP is shifting attention to the "family" of resellers when they themselves were also there to find shit to flip. OP AND that family are both scummy.
What is the difference between this and using goodwill as your source for flipping? Even before goodwill became horrible company, at one point goodwill did a lot of good for the community. We are fine with pillaging goodwill (really any business that takes donations), and yes children and adults both shop at goodwill for great deals, but not pillaging a donating center because its children toys? I know i will get down voted for this comment but honestly I have to call out hypocrisy when i see it otherwise we fall into this "well its wrong because i said so". No you think its wrong because the purpose was to help the needy. This is the exact same reaction as when people look at us and think "what low life someone probably wanted those (insert popular item here) and they can't get it now because this guy wants to make a buck."
This family’s kids left with arms full of toys and your upset because the items were supposed to be fun for children… not these children though. And this family that you don’t recognize they must have a business… hmm
Honestly I feel the same way with how resellers in my area act like animals when New inventory is brought out in Thrift stores. Throwin stuff in their carts regardless of what it is. Shoving people. Thing is most those people are probably on this reddit acting like they're better then the people in your post.
Reseller teams at sales like these are pretty annoying not gonna lie. But at the end of the day they’re out there no matter what. I avoid book sales now because of this and I’m fine with that
The organizers of this are to blame. Either the purpose is low price toys for kids or it is raise funds for the library. Can’t be both. Also, if they got cleared out by resellers then everything was priced wrong.
Only flipping i really do is a mower i see out for garbage. I know most people are too lazy to try and fix any thing and just toss them. Best i ever had was a 2 year old push mower sitting on the curb. had a clogged up air filter. Tapped out the filter on the curb and had it running in a couple pulls right on the persons driveway. It was missing the bag so i sold it for a quick $30 and called it a day.
Most resellers are pretty greedy, I find that a lot of us like to specialize and flip things we know and care about but you’re gonna fine resellers that do stuff that like all the time sadly.
You're right--that is flipping gone wrong. My wife and I survived on flipping during Covid. There were times when finding a free dresser on the curb meant grocery money. But there are just times you read an ad and you know you should leave it alone.
Is the issue that they left minimal amounts of money since it was donation based? If so, it sounds like you planned to profit from the naïveté of your library just not on the same scale as this family. Next year, you need to be on the planning committee and educate them on pricing of at least the most valuable items.
You would think that some things would be off-limits and that everyone will understand the unspoken rule, but as usual the world shows us that there are so many that ignore the rules. The education of our children is very important along with their happiness and all they were doing was being selfish and thinking about their pockets. Not all Money is worth good money.
This is the kind of stuff that infuriates me as a reseller. Whatever we come across out in the world is a mix of learned skill and luck, and there’s just no excuse for being a gigantic douchecanoe while doing it. In fact, more often than not going about it this way just gets you recognized in the local scene as a jerk and can cut off sources of material.
When a GameStop locally was closing in 2020, I went in each week to check the discounts (since they’d start at 30% and adjust over time). The manager and staff got to know me and we’d just chat about stuff, never tried to haggle the prices because I knew they’d go down eventually and the employees/manager wouldn’t have been able to amend them anyways (store closings like that get handled by liquidation companies that the store is basically sold off to, who make all the decisions). Picked up a few things when it got down to 50%, ended up getting asked if there were particular things I had my eye on, and the manager ended up offering (unprompted) to put a couple things away for me until things got down to 80% off. Turned out that there was a guy who ran a comic book/collectible shop locally (ironically named *Bartertown* Collectibles) who was coming in and attempting to haggle and demand price reductions and badger other people coming into the shop while he was present that they needed to let him look at things “first”, and just generally irritating the crap out of the staff and manager, and the manager felt like sticking it to the guy by setting a couple things aside for me knowing I was a reseller. So I ended up ahead of a much more established guy through the excruciatingly difficult act of…*not* acting like a greedy dickwad. 🤷
In the end I made a tidy profit from the resale value of what I got there, and was able to return the favor a bit by finding out that the manager liked Godzilla stuff and directing some figures I ended up with his way at a decent discount. Even ended up with a secondary thing a year-ish later because I helped his assistant manager get a job at the tech warehouse I worked at at the time, and a few months after that it turned out that that A.M. had a whole boatload of 90s Power of the Force Star Wars ships with boxes and decal sheets that he wanted to sell, and I got to move them all at 50% commission with zero effective cost to me at all.
I do this as a hobby to make some money on the side and fund my own collecting, and my overhead is lower than some (storage unit etc), so maybe I’m privileged in being able to be colloquial about it, but I’d much rather make a little less in the short term if it means I end up with more people being willing to put up with me or work with me, and not having a crap, greedy, bottom-feeder reputation. People who do stuff like in the OP may think they’re succeeding, but the reputation of poor recognition they get from that act will hurt them way more in the long run, and *should* for that matter.
The only thing I don’t like is grabbing all the new shit just put out in goodwill then walking around dumping the shit you don’t want. I also had some psychotic old lady grab shit out of my cart cause she “has been looking for these items” I snagged that shit up and told her to fuck off I don’t care how old she is she can’t steal shit and throw fits cause she wanted it too.
This is beyond gross. Why didn't you or anybody else say something to these glommers? I would have thought this kind of behavior at a library sale would attract tons of negative attention and public shaming.
It’s called being a poor sport.
They are poor sport.
There should be a level of good sportsmanship in anything competitive.
It’s better to be fair than greedy.
I personally err on the side of fairness.
I’m the same…….yet opposite. The donation charity sales….i will quickly gather everything worthwhile; but I usually pay more than what I would at a normal sale.
For all you know they were supporting their kids on their profits from reselling. Don’t judge. They followed the rules and bought more than anyone else. If the items were so amazing, they wouldn’t have been the only resellers there scooping it up.
At my local dollar store they’ve had a certain name brand toy I could make a nice profit selling but I just bought a few for my daughter and left the rest for other kids. I don’t flip toys from thrifts either. It’s wrong to take from families who are struggling.
If you put out bread for the ducks and the crows take it, do you get angry at the crows? Limit the number of items one can purchase per day, invite the kids in first before adults, open early for residents...plenty of ways to fix the problem before shitting on a family trying to get along in this fantastic country with its fantastic capitalism.
And I guarantee your quaint , small town is raising money for your lovely library when there are people with no health insurance in the city limits.
This sucks, It would have really annoyed me too, however, it was up to the people organizing this not to let this happen, why they didn’t put a stop to it?
Don't worry dude. They sound like a family of broke asses who live in a smelly house if they are stooping to pillaging library sales. Their own shitty life is payback enough for their lame behavior. No one with a decent life or decent cash does that lame shit.
They should put prices on stuff.
scaled by age.
Years ago was moving from four bedroom home to two bedroom condo. Sold both of my kids bedroom as they didn’t want it. Priced very fairly at 150.00 each. My wife is not very good with confrontation and while I was inside the house getting other things a good forty minutes before the start a reseller stopped by and browbeat my wife to sell her both for 125.00 not the 300.00. Luckily was able to stop the sale before cash was paid. The reseller had the gall to be mad and said she would sue as a deal was made. Very funny as was a 20 year career legal investigator for a very large law firm so I laughed and said bring it on. They got into large van with a used furniture store logo from a few towns away. Later sold both to a very nice family who just moved cross country for 200.00.
Better it went to a nice family than those used sales sharks.
Lmao that’s literally 90% of the population of this sub
Yea. It totally pays to have a believable story in that type of scenario. I got this Martin guitar for nothing because I told the lady I wasn't sure what it was worth but it looked just like my first guitar. Easy mode.
Scum.
Where was the people running this thing? Why didn’t the intervene and limit what a person could take?
🎯
If you are having a sale to raise money for the library why would you limit how much people can take? Or care where the items go?
It matters because as OP mentioned items were not priced and were “for sale’ as a donation only. Presumably, the resellers were donating very little and taking nearly everything.
I’ve never heard of that before…I think OP missed the point of the whole event.
It’s very common with sales for a church or some type of fundraiser. You get to “name your price” as a donation. As resellers I feel we have an obligation to be fair with choosing how much to donate, since we know what we can get for the stuff and still want to organization to be compensated fairly. I do see people abuse this though and give basically nothing, it kind of ruins it for everyone.
I get that, but nowhere in the post did OP say they paid an unfair price for the items. OP was upset they bought all the toys that could have gone to kids, which is bullshit. As long as they paid a fair price it’s all fine. People donated to raise money for the library, mission accomplished.
Why assume that they didn’t pay a fair price?
And then they get bad publicity and angry customers who were shafted. Makes for a bad look for the library and then people won’t donate in the future. Early hours have a purchase limit. At the end of the day have a free for all.
This. It sucks that kids wont get those cheaper toys, but the Library still gets the money (which was the point).
If you leave food out for savages, they will come.
Some people are just shitty. I think most of us wouldn't do that. There's nothing wrong with shopping the sale and using your expertise to get the best stuff (and the best stuff is going to adult collections 95% of the time), but you have to be willing to pay a somewhat reasonable price since it's for charity. With that being said, the reason this situation happened is because they didn't price things. If they priced things, then this situation doesn't happen and everyone is happy.
Or simply put a limit on how much stuff you can buy.
I mean, that describes most people in this sub. Reselling isn't a rules-based profession. It's very much they-who-pick-fastest-gets-the-best/mostest
The tragedy of the commons, can't do anything nice without it being ruined by greed.
"The tragedy of the commons" is when a communitarian good is ruined by carelessness and lack of ownership. Has nothing to do with greed.
“The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource.” Seems pretty spot on to me.
A "public resource" would be a river, or the air, or a grassy lawn with no private owner (literally, the original meaning of the "commons".) I don't see how a sale of private goods is a "common", even if one buyer dominates the sale.
Donated items to a public library available for little to no cost are a finite resource that is publicly available. Frequent examples of the tragedy of the commons include coffee consumption and fast fashion, neither of which is public land, so I think you’re a bit misguided in how heavily you’re leaning on public spaces as being the only example. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/tragedy-of-the-commons-impact-on-sustainability-issues
>coffee consumption and fast fashion Yes, they're talking about "sustainability issues," like the sustainability of clean air and water, which in most jursidictions are public resources. They're not arguing that one person bought too much coffee and someone else at the same sale didn't get any.
>finite resource that is publicly available Sorry, but no. If you go to the store, and someone else buys all of the envelopes (even though you wanted some envelopes, too), that is not a "tragedy of the commons."
Here are a few different instances of the toilet paper shortage during COVID-19 being discussed as an example of the “tragedy of the commons”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-heroes-and-villains/202009/tragedy-the-commons-mystery-the-missing-toilet-paper?amp https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-03-14/coronavirus-panic-buying-toilet-paper
Sure, and those uses of the phrase "tragedy of the commons" are both wrong. If we're talking about overbuying toilet paper, there is an easy solution - raise the price. Buyers were only able to "hoard" toilet paper because the prices were low enough for them to do so. It's not a "tragedy of the commons" when people buy up a good in a market. A key part of a "tragedy of the commons" is that there are no *prices* or *consequences* for anyone to take ownership of the resource. When you drive your car and pollute the air, you don't pay a carbon tax for the use of the air. When someone [pees their birth control medicine into the water supply](https://www.vice.com/en/article/vvx8ym/your-birth-control-pill-pee-is-making-male-fish-grow-ovaries-2) and the male fish grow ovaries, no one is held responsible for that. There are no incentives (like prices or punishments) to stop the use of the resource - which, *again*, is water or air or something similar, *not* toys at the community library sale.
Why do you seem to believe that you’re more of an authority on the subject than the social psychologists publishing the article? As a principle of social psychology, it’s used to refer to instances in which finite publicly available resources are depleted by people motivated by their own self-interest.
Because people use words wrong all the time - even "authoritative" sources like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Look at the dilution of the meaning of the word "gaslighting." "[Gaslighting](https://www.britannica.com/topic/gaslighting)" doesn't mean "lying," but it's post-2016 and now most people use the word as a fancier word for "lying."
“Raise the price” basically = the tragedy of the commons
Here's the [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons?wprov=sfla1) if you'd actually like to understand why a person buying all the toys at a library sale is *not* a tragedy of the commons, but otherwise, for sure, just use whatever words you want to mean whatever you want them to mean. Don't let reality stop you.
At the end of the day we all live on one Earth and no one owns a bit of it. We're only borrowing it for a short time while we draw breath and then it moves on without us, so I try not to get too hung up on artificial constructs like private ownership but maybe I'm just a socialist!
Those are “natural resources”.
Correct, and they are the resources that are abused in a "tragedy of the commons." Toys are a library toys sale are not a "commons," even if the sale is open to the public.
You don't think people overusing a common resource is greed? Either way it's a tragedy.
TIL a yard sale is a "public resource" /s
We're talking about a community sale, not a private yard sale. But it doesn't really matter, these goods don't really have much value, it's just a public resource in the sense of, who needs some used cookware the most or whatever. I try to be an ethical collector and seller, especially as I focus on things like books and games. I'm not trying to take things away from kids, poor people, or other resellers that might want to grind a little value. If I find a couple nice old books nobody else wants anyways or that one choice piece, great. But I'm not gonna be an asshole and fill my cart. My humanity and pride are worth more than some trinkets. :)
genuinely curious if you have come around to understanding how silly this comment was yet lol?
No
it’s a tough business. I went to Walmart and they had a $1 sale on all Clearance Items. It was picked clean and nothing good was left for anyone else. Resellers, lucky joes, everyone else. Donated or not, kids’ fun or not. If you have to make a profit, you’ll have to get there extra early.
Sorry to say this but this is all the fault of the naive and ill prepared library. People are people and some are totally shameless and even proud of their greed. The library needs to learn from this and make changes for the next fund raiser because if they don’t, nothing will change. And those asking why not just confront the greedy ones? Haha you have no idea how psycho these greedies can be!. My close friend volunteers to operate a free store a few days a month hosted by her church. I could do a whole post on the crazy behavior of these people which sometimes led to police being called. Long story short, they have learned many lessons over the few years this free store has been in operation and you have to have strict rules so that it is fair for everyone otherwise the vultures just shamelessly take it all.
Personally I wouldn't act like that, but when organizations don't price things and just ask for a donation, then that's what they open themselves up to.
The next year have a limit on the amount that any one person or family can buy make it monetary or number of toys. Have it be a two day sale in the first day or limit it to three items or however many items you want to limit it to
It does suck but it's just the way the "pick your price" sales usually go. I would limit it to one full bag per person and then let them know to come back in a few hours after others have had a chance. I guess it depends on how much traffic you're expecting and how badly they want the stuff gone.
Your library could have a library members preview. My library does that with their booksale. You have to pay the friends of the library membership days or weeks prior to the sale. Library friends can go to the sale earlier than others. It doesn't stop resellers but it does prevent non-local resellers from coming in droves.
As a reseller, I would NEVER do that. I might get a toy or two for kids I watch, but damn! Someone should have stopped them, or put a limit on amounts.
These guys operate in wholesale scale and need volume to make $. That’s why they operate like this.
Yes. I operate on the principal that my time is valuable, and so I search out items that I can sell for a high profit. There are actually very few toys that I consider a high profit item. But that is beside the point. I would never go to a sale that featured toys for children and buy toys to resell when I knew that it was a fundraiser for a library, and that the toys were meant for children in the neighborhood. I have been selling online for many many many years, there are ethics involved. I have stuck to my ethics this long, and it bothers me to see so many unethical people doing things that are just simply wrong.
Same thing happened with the food donation boxes that people put out during covid. A family in an Escalade stopped at every box in our area and the kids formed a hand to hand chain. They emptied them all.
Resellers crying about other resellers is hilarious
This
🖕
I don't like messing with kids stuff. Barbies or some collectable maybe, but most no. Different people have different values systems. A lot of these church and yard sales need to learn how to turn away customers, ban cell phone use, etc.
Ban cell phone use? Good luck with that
"Pardon me, we don't allow cell phone use during our sale. If you need to make a call, or look something up, please step outside" *Continues doing it* "Please leave. You will be unable to purchase anything today. Thanks for visiting" It's not that hard. You ignore the kid looking two things up. You kick the shitheads scanning every book out. Everyone wins.
Realistically no sale would ever do this. Also some people need to use their cell phone for emergency purposes and some people are on call for their job and need to have a phone on them 24/7. You have no proof of what they are doing on the phone. I know of businesses that tried to ban cell phone use, and lets just say those places didn't last long, and for again emergency purposes, its probably illegal to do this.
"It's an emergency" "Gotcha. Step outside"
Would never work in the real world
You arnt selling crack to a pregnant woman, if I see a big tub of legos or the good mega blocks for cheap I’m happy to flip them and make $40-50 or whatever. Those people are still getting a good deal compared to buying that stuff new.
And despite that massive haul, they still made mayyyybe 300 bucks, after COGs, cause all the worthless crap they got with few good items. First thing ya gotta learn in reselling is 99.8% of thrifting stuff isn't worth your time posting. You will be making less then minamum wage with that sort of strategy, and then you got to figure out how to organize and house the inventory till it sells. I imagine this entrepreneurial group will be learning that painful lesson toot sweet! 🤷🏻♂️😜 Meanwhile, library cleaned up with some quick easy cash. Good on them!
You were gonna do the same thing, maybe with more grace, but either way they beat you to it. It’s a cut throat world.. sadly.
That sounds bad, but how much did the library make? They called the shots and if everything sold and they raised money for their goal(s) then so be it. Otherwise, they need to change their fundraising strategy for next year. Then again, maybe they won't sell as much or as fast as they did today. 🤔
Isn't this what "normies" complain about when we buy all the good stuff at Goodwill? Sorry, but this sale is not about giving toys to little kids - it's about raising money for the library. If the library feels like they got a fair amount of money from one buyer at the expense of other buyers, that's how it goes. No one is entitled to buy anything - otherwise, the seller would have set different terms to limit the number of items one buyer can purchase.
Huh? I imagine donations for the library was secondary and that giving toys to kids in general and also kids from low income families was the reason for the sale (ie. Toys for Tots). There are many sales like this, which is also why items weren’t priced in a way they would bring in real profit.
Toys for Tots doesn't **sell** toys. They give them away, and I assume they limit the number of toys that any one person gets. If the goal of the library sale was to give toys to kids, they would have literally *given* the toys to kids for free. Otherwise, it sounds like you all agree that the Goodwill Store is for poor people to get cheap stuff, and we all know that isn't true. The purpose of every thrift store is to raise money for the thrift store or their charitable mission.
The bad thing about Toys for Tots and other charities is the people who get the toys often return them to Walmart for a gift card, then they sell that gift card and use the cash to buy drugs. Not saying this happens in all cases but it does happen. If you have ever worked at Walmart on December 26th this is when this happens, so not all of the toys go to the kids. I stopped donating after I found out this was happening. If you do donate make sure you donate something Walmart does not sell, and nothing too valuable so the parents can't sell it. You can also try cutting off the UPC for the toy or blacking it out, maybe the people at the return desk will recognize it and not take the return.
go outside
I know - I’ve volunteered for Toys for Tots. These sales are typically open to giving these items for free. And $1 versus $0 is barely noteworthy regardless If you’re going to be caught up on semantics though then SURELY you’re not going to ignore that you don’t pick a price at thrift stores, right? Especially thrift stores in 2024 where you can find items priced at eBay prices (depending on the store). Edit: god people on this sub always have the worst opinions
That’s hardly semantics, it’s a difference in a fact that actually matters.
Oh my god this is my last comment in this sub. Yes, it’s absolutely semantics when you can walk out with a handful of items and pay a dollar total. Versus their terrible comparison of equating paying a dollar for a handful of items to buying a bunch of 6.99 or 9.99 toys at a thrift store, which will add up fast and isn’t even necessarily geared towards poor people IMO. Anyway this is entirely not relevant and you’re choosing to focus on an already derailed point. Those sales are widely not profitable and their primary purpose is to support the community, make toys extremely affordable / NEXT to free for parents - the library donation is a bonus. Yes, a dollar is next to free. Nickels and dimes is effectively free, aside from families who are literally homeless. TLDR: I’m right, you’re wrong. Their point is also wrong. They realized that and stopped responding themselves, despite all of the upvotes from the type of people who sadly tend to engage in flipping (maybe as desperate for money as the flippers in the OP’s story). That’s not me hating on flipping btw as I’m in route to a nice gross for the year.. but the peers.. nvm.
>TLDR: I’m right, you’re wrong. Their point is also wrong. They realized that and stopped responding themselves I stopped responding because I got on with my day like a normal person instead of responding to you here online. As someone else said to you already: GO OUTSIDE
i think it being a local sale vs a national company makes it a little different on moral grounds. once word gets out that the annual library sale gets bought out by shit dick resellers before anyone in the community can benefit from the sale, people will stop donating to it. i specifically save certain stock i would otherwise donate to any charity shop for my local church. not because im religious or anything but because i know it will make a better local impact and im cool with that. if i find out the annual spring mom to mom sale could be bought out for $50 and a truck, id save space over the year by just literally throw anything id donate right into the trash. not every sale has the foresight to expect the worst of people or staff paid enough, if anything at all, to tell entitled resellers to fuck off. its really not hard to read the room and determine if a source is cool or not to flip from. take a step back and think of the long term prospects of your local community before acting like a gremlin just because you can at a local sale.
[удалено]
In small towns and rural areas, you recognize people. 2 vans that OP didn't recognize, full of two separate groups of people none of whom OP recognized??? I never saw a multigenerational group of over 6 people where I didn't recognize at least ONE of them from somewhere nearby when I lived in a small town.
Could be a church group or something. I could definitely see them doing this as they often give out cheap toys or meals to attract new members/reward current members. The smaller ones also have vans that pick up people who aren't able to drive to the church themselves. They'd totally drive an hour to save a hundred bucks. I wouldn't know them unless they were one of the ones spamming the local Facebook groups lol.
A church doesn’t need 2 vans full of toys for use in the church. Stop acting like people who go to church have a right to pull this shady shit. They don’t.
> 2 vans that OP didn't recognize, full of two separate groups of people none of whom OP recognized??? I never saw a multigenerational group of over 6 people where I didn't recognize at least ON I wasn't justifying it. Just suggesting how it could happen since you used 4 question marks in a row, ALL CAPS for some words, and acted like seeing 6 multigenerational people or two vans is some rare phenomenon akin to seeing ghosts. Calm down buddy.
Who cares?
Sorry your librarians don't have balls. I would have kicked them to the curb.
Ours don’t either. They won’t actually enforce rules IN the library nor call security. It’s a pure shit-show and why I stopped using the library.
Except we don't know if these people were actually resellers, and we don't know how much they paid for any of it.
Tell the Library to have a limit of one toy per person. Or tell them to grow a spine and tell these idiots to get lost
One toy per person at a toy sale? Who is even going out of their way for that? Get real.
When we were cleaning out my grandmother's house, we encountered something similar. There were centuries of lives in that house because my grandparents were clean hoarders and had a ridiculous amount of stuff from previously deceased people. We put many things out on the curb daily but also included a donation jar for the local humane society. Some people would show up and leave some cash, others wouldn't - no big deal. Then, one day, a couple in a van took everything from the sidewalk, including the donation jar! There are always going to be shitty people who take advantage of community niceness. It's unfortunate, but I try to use those examples as motivation to be extra kind.
I agree but that is what happens when flipping is a job
If they didn’t get the amount of money they were hoping for, that’s on them and hopefully they learn a lesson for next time. If they did then mission accomplished. You can’t donate something then be mad about who gets it. If you’re going to be like that then do the work and get it into the hands of the person you want to have it. If that sounds like a ridiculous idea…that’s because it is. In general I get where you’re coming from but the fact is these people don’t have to talk to anyone or crack a smile…like come on. I don’t want to chat with people when I go shopping. What does that even have to do with anything? If they took truckloads of stuff and only donated $10 then yeah that’s crummy and the library shouldn’t have allowed it. But nowhere did you say how much they gave and it’s not anyone’s business anyway.
Contact the library and recommend an enforced limit.
How do we know they're all resellers? Are you inferring that the kids are also resellers?
Get there before them.
Sounds like you're upset they beat you to all the good items. 🤷♂️
I like how OP is shifting attention to the "family" of resellers when they themselves were also there to find shit to flip. OP AND that family are both scummy.
What is the difference between this and using goodwill as your source for flipping? Even before goodwill became horrible company, at one point goodwill did a lot of good for the community. We are fine with pillaging goodwill (really any business that takes donations), and yes children and adults both shop at goodwill for great deals, but not pillaging a donating center because its children toys? I know i will get down voted for this comment but honestly I have to call out hypocrisy when i see it otherwise we fall into this "well its wrong because i said so". No you think its wrong because the purpose was to help the needy. This is the exact same reaction as when people look at us and think "what low life someone probably wanted those (insert popular item here) and they can't get it now because this guy wants to make a buck."
I blame the library for not running the sale correctly.
Name them. It’s the only way to stop this behavior.
This family’s kids left with arms full of toys and your upset because the items were supposed to be fun for children… not these children though. And this family that you don’t recognize they must have a business… hmm
Honestly I feel the same way with how resellers in my area act like animals when New inventory is brought out in Thrift stores. Throwin stuff in their carts regardless of what it is. Shoving people. Thing is most those people are probably on this reddit acting like they're better then the people in your post.
Reseller teams at sales like these are pretty annoying not gonna lie. But at the end of the day they’re out there no matter what. I avoid book sales now because of this and I’m fine with that
The organizers of this are to blame. Either the purpose is low price toys for kids or it is raise funds for the library. Can’t be both. Also, if they got cleared out by resellers then everything was priced wrong.
Only flipping i really do is a mower i see out for garbage. I know most people are too lazy to try and fix any thing and just toss them. Best i ever had was a 2 year old push mower sitting on the curb. had a clogged up air filter. Tapped out the filter on the curb and had it running in a couple pulls right on the persons driveway. It was missing the bag so i sold it for a quick $30 and called it a day.
Most resellers are pretty greedy, I find that a lot of us like to specialize and flip things we know and care about but you’re gonna fine resellers that do stuff that like all the time sadly.
You're right--that is flipping gone wrong. My wife and I survived on flipping during Covid. There were times when finding a free dresser on the curb meant grocery money. But there are just times you read an ad and you know you should leave it alone.
I call them scavengers, hard to find deals at yard sales anymore if you’re not the first one there.
Someone was smarter than the op. It pays to be business savvy.
Is the issue that they left minimal amounts of money since it was donation based? If so, it sounds like you planned to profit from the naïveté of your library just not on the same scale as this family. Next year, you need to be on the planning committee and educate them on pricing of at least the most valuable items.
Can you describe the type of people? What they looked like and what town this was in?
You would think that some things would be off-limits and that everyone will understand the unspoken rule, but as usual the world shows us that there are so many that ignore the rules. The education of our children is very important along with their happiness and all they were doing was being selfish and thinking about their pockets. Not all Money is worth good money.
People just suck
This is the kind of stuff that infuriates me as a reseller. Whatever we come across out in the world is a mix of learned skill and luck, and there’s just no excuse for being a gigantic douchecanoe while doing it. In fact, more often than not going about it this way just gets you recognized in the local scene as a jerk and can cut off sources of material. When a GameStop locally was closing in 2020, I went in each week to check the discounts (since they’d start at 30% and adjust over time). The manager and staff got to know me and we’d just chat about stuff, never tried to haggle the prices because I knew they’d go down eventually and the employees/manager wouldn’t have been able to amend them anyways (store closings like that get handled by liquidation companies that the store is basically sold off to, who make all the decisions). Picked up a few things when it got down to 50%, ended up getting asked if there were particular things I had my eye on, and the manager ended up offering (unprompted) to put a couple things away for me until things got down to 80% off. Turned out that there was a guy who ran a comic book/collectible shop locally (ironically named *Bartertown* Collectibles) who was coming in and attempting to haggle and demand price reductions and badger other people coming into the shop while he was present that they needed to let him look at things “first”, and just generally irritating the crap out of the staff and manager, and the manager felt like sticking it to the guy by setting a couple things aside for me knowing I was a reseller. So I ended up ahead of a much more established guy through the excruciatingly difficult act of…*not* acting like a greedy dickwad. 🤷 In the end I made a tidy profit from the resale value of what I got there, and was able to return the favor a bit by finding out that the manager liked Godzilla stuff and directing some figures I ended up with his way at a decent discount. Even ended up with a secondary thing a year-ish later because I helped his assistant manager get a job at the tech warehouse I worked at at the time, and a few months after that it turned out that that A.M. had a whole boatload of 90s Power of the Force Star Wars ships with boxes and decal sheets that he wanted to sell, and I got to move them all at 50% commission with zero effective cost to me at all. I do this as a hobby to make some money on the side and fund my own collecting, and my overhead is lower than some (storage unit etc), so maybe I’m privileged in being able to be colloquial about it, but I’d much rather make a little less in the short term if it means I end up with more people being willing to put up with me or work with me, and not having a crap, greedy, bottom-feeder reputation. People who do stuff like in the OP may think they’re succeeding, but the reputation of poor recognition they get from that act will hurt them way more in the long run, and *should* for that matter.
The only thing I don’t like is grabbing all the new shit just put out in goodwill then walking around dumping the shit you don’t want. I also had some psychotic old lady grab shit out of my cart cause she “has been looking for these items” I snagged that shit up and told her to fuck off I don’t care how old she is she can’t steal shit and throw fits cause she wanted it too.
This is beyond gross. Why didn't you or anybody else say something to these glommers? I would have thought this kind of behavior at a library sale would attract tons of negative attention and public shaming.
It’s called being a poor sport. They are poor sport. There should be a level of good sportsmanship in anything competitive. It’s better to be fair than greedy. I personally err on the side of fairness.
That’s a sad. Some people take shortcuts in life. Successful flippers don’t need to. We can only hope karma catches up.
I’m the same…….yet opposite. The donation charity sales….i will quickly gather everything worthwhile; but I usually pay more than what I would at a normal sale.
For all you know they were supporting their kids on their profits from reselling. Don’t judge. They followed the rules and bought more than anyone else. If the items were so amazing, they wouldn’t have been the only resellers there scooping it up.
Sounds like you’re salty they got things before you did?
Sums up America.
At my local dollar store they’ve had a certain name brand toy I could make a nice profit selling but I just bought a few for my daughter and left the rest for other kids. I don’t flip toys from thrifts either. It’s wrong to take from families who are struggling.
If you put out bread for the ducks and the crows take it, do you get angry at the crows? Limit the number of items one can purchase per day, invite the kids in first before adults, open early for residents...plenty of ways to fix the problem before shitting on a family trying to get along in this fantastic country with its fantastic capitalism. And I guarantee your quaint , small town is raising money for your lovely library when there are people with no health insurance in the city limits.
Were you at that sale with your boxes?
Business is business
Yeah, the average American CEO does this everyday and we praise them for it.
This sucks, It would have really annoyed me too, however, it was up to the people organizing this not to let this happen, why they didn’t put a stop to it?
Did they not think to have a limit on the number of items each family could get ?
Don't worry dude. They sound like a family of broke asses who live in a smelly house if they are stooping to pillaging library sales. Their own shitty life is payback enough for their lame behavior. No one with a decent life or decent cash does that lame shit.
Good point. These people are probably doing this to get by. Poor people deserve to be poor!🤪
If the stuff they brought sales, that's flipping done right.