I make my rounds about once every week or so to scour for any goodies in the records & electronics.

For many years, I could find some great vinyl, and usable computer equipment very nicely priced to refurbish and donate to a good cause.

In the last year or so, though, it's all went to hell. The records have dwindled down to mostly MoTab, while the computers are a decade or more old and severely overpriced. Not to mention that the stores are looking run-down and poorly maintained.

Are people donating less? Are the employees (who are looking more and more like they require constant supervision, but get none) being allowed to pick through everything before it hits the floor? What gives?

Wherever you encounter LDS, you'll find some skimming.

Some years ago you could find some very nice pieces of design porcelain (by "Arabia" and such), now - nothing like that. At least some people say they have donated such stuff but when they take a peek, it does seem the staff gets to pick the raisins from the buns before they are placed out for sale.

Rasins, or flies?

My local Goodwill has times when it's great and times when it looks bereft of any decent goods. It goes through cycles. I've noticed that its stock of vinyl records is down as well. I think that most people who were getting rid of large vinyl collections may have already done so.

the guy who took it out of my car was already going through the albums to see what I had. I'm sure he didn't find anything exciting. I kept what I wanted and got rid of the stuff I'll never use again.

I don't go to the DI. I find it depressing. My daughter and ex go there often and do find some things, but I don't know if they've been there recently as they haven't told me of any finds.

The last time I went, I checked out the George Foreman grills. I was just curious if they were clean since I hated cleaning mine. They were all DIRTY. It was disgusting. For one, why do people donate something dirty and why did the store not clean them first?

One store in Nor Cal stopped accepting donations of anything computer-related. Not sure if it's a wide spread policy or not.

I once ended up with a computer that contained very sensitive info from a European-based church mission. I knew something was up when I had to flip the voltage switch on the power supply back to 120 to power it on.

Had MormonLeaks existed then, I'd have sent it straight over to them.

Old Name Levi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I once ended up with a computer that contained
> very sensitive info from a European-based church
> mission. I knew something was up when I had to
> flip the voltage switch on the power supply back
> to 120 to power it on.
>
> Had MormonLeaks existed then, I'd have sent it
> straight over to them.

Oh man Old name, now I want to know what was on it!

The fact it was about a mission really intrigues me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2018 12:17PM by lazylizard.

I worked at a DI once and all the good sterling silver jewelry they would put out for like $5 disappeared - managers must have caught wind of the prices for silver, because it skyrocketed to $20 or more.

It was a French-speaking mission. I'm fluent in French. Mission president's initials were FJB.

Besides the usual stats (they had 2 baptisms counted in all of 2016, the last full calendar year covered), everyone who had served in the mission had their own individual Word document with biographical info, notes on conduct, potential "worthiness" concerns, etc.

The delicious irony was that both the Windows install and the MS Office install were pirated.

Old Name Levi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> The delicious irony was that both the Windows
> install and the MS Office install were pirated.
>


THAT'S the mormon church I know and cherish, in very negative terms!!!!

I wasn't shocked. I've fixed a lot of Mormon-owned PCs with plenty of pirated software.

They don't take old TV sets nor does Goodwill.

Analog sets are useless without a DTA adapter, and expensive to recycle.

if I recall correctly, people with cable TV can use old tech televisions without a converter.

GWs in Sequim & Port Angeles accept/sell old-tech televisions.

If I see an old movie on VHS that I'm too cheap to buy a DVD of, I might buy it if I really like it, those are in GWs here too ($.50).

I'm a Seattle 'old-timer', I grew up in Richmond Beach. I'm pretty sure the Shoreline GW was a new build, can't remember what might have been there previously.

I wonder what became of all those Brother typewriters some 20 years ago?

All DI stores that I used to visit have gone down hill.

My understanding is that they hold private auctions to sell off the good stuff and put the dregs on the floor.

I have noticed more trash, broken and damaged goods than ever before.

The prices are ridiculously high too. The Layton store recently raised the prices on most books 33%.

I used to check almost daily. Now it is barely weekly if that.

I literally laughed when I saw a $15 price tag on a Dell Pentium 4 PC made in 2004. It would cost about $15 a month in electricity to run it in any meaningful fashion.

I have purchased some recently-published great-condition used books online that came from some Goodwill stores, so maybe DI is doing that?

Goodwill has a long-running program that routes more pricey collectibles to online sales. Unlike DI, they're interested in helping people.

I'll mention two experiences I had at a DI, one in Utah, and one in So. California.

The Utah one occurred when we were 'house sitting' for my sister and her husband. They had a large lot where he grew corn and other vegetables. They asked us to water the items while they were gone, as they only got to do so on a certain schedule which controlled the water-providing ditches (as they had to share this ditch water with others).

Anyway, my husband had only brought with him his regular 'street' shoes, so we went to a DI store to see if we could find some 'cheap' shoes for him to wear. (We ended up with a pair of old school sports shoes, with someone's name printed in black on the back of them.)

At the time (and I think is still true), there was only one big D.I., in L.A., and it had a large basement. My daughter-in-law and I had gone to see if she could pick up a couple of inexpensive triple combinations for her kids. As it turned out, there was a man there who was 'doing a good deed' by taking every single one of them for his own purposes.

Then we looked at regular books, some of which were in an "expensive" items glass case (as they were considered theft-prone on the open shelves). We asked for help, and the person who helped us could only find one such book in the enclosed display case, but it was badly mildewed. I mentioned to her that the book ought to be taken out and thrown away, before it contaminated the other books next to it.

However, sadly, she was too 'slow' to see the wisdom of this, and thought I might be trying to pull the wool over her eyes, so she refused to do so. As far as she was concerned, it was still valuable.

One of the purposes of DI stores is, after-all, to give jobs to handicapped people, and this includes 'slow' thinkers (one of whom lived in my ward).

That's another thing I have noticed about DIs here lately...more and more of the employees don't obviously fit into the disabled or refugee camps anymore. Most of them now are pretty much "white & delightsome" Utah Mormon types.

Is actual charity and good works too expensive for the bean counters within LDS, Inc. now?

I think there are 2 DIs in the Seattle area, I haven't visited either for many years.

The North end one isn't favorably located IMHO, there's LOTS of thrift competition here.
Goodwill stores often occupy re-purposed buildings, the North DI was a new build, I think.

I enjoy browsing at thrift stores, vinyl & electrical-electronics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2018 09:33PM by GNPE.

I'm not sure if the one on North Aurora Ave was a new build or not. What I do know is that it has been there since at least the middle 1980s.

I've driven past it a million times and yet I have never wandered in. I've been to DI's in the SLC area numerous times, but for some reason I never hit the one in North Seattle.

The one in Sacramento had a foul stench in it last time I went in. All they had for sale was worthless junk, not even any collectible grade items. It was just sad.

IIRC the Sandy Utah DI has completely eliminated their VHS tape and DVD (video media) section.

The Salt LAke area DI's used to have a fairly good selection of power transformers and computer related components. now they just discard that stuff right off with out even putting it on the shelfs. AS IF they just can not tolerate their shelves being cluttered with that stuff.

However they DO have coffee makers now !!!! (LMAO !!!)

My local Goodwill doesn't have VHS tapes anymore. But it does have an extensive DVD collection that people like to check out.

DILDoS don't do diddly… doe dem dump day dirt. Speaking of dump - they dump the "good stuff" on the internet, where they cash more fi$h… overboard.

Like a badly boogered nose, it's all been picked over.

M@t

I've told this before, but I don't know who saw it. I purchased the book "The Other Side of the Closet" years ago before my ex left me. It was so depressing to me because it basically said that gay/straight marriages don't last. So I gave it to the DI.

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to read it from this frame of mind and so I bought it on Amazon from the place where there are the places like Goodwill who sell old used books. So, it came and it had a DI price sticker on it. Did I get my own book back?????

I think that some of their stuff is sold off to places like Goodwill or given (I tend to wonder if they give anything).

I know several people who have worked at Utah DIs in the past and can confirm there is a lot of employee skimming. The good stuff never gets onto the sales floor. There's quite a bit of outright theft, too.

Yes, the prices are ridiculous; in some cases, I could buy new items for the same or even less than what DI charges for worn-out junk. I rarely go there, although it's still pretty good for used small appliances like Crock-Pots.