Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about if it's ethical to negotiate at Goodwill.
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Is It Ethical To Negotiate At Goodwill?
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about is it ethical to negotiate at Goodwill?
Rob: All right, guys, so we got an interesting comment the other day and we're talking about it today on today's episode. Is it ethical to negotiate at Goodwill or anywhere out there? You're trying to buy items.
Melissa: Yeah, so we get, you know, we put our stuff on social media, so you get all kinds of comments from all kinds of people, especially, you know, when there's videos out there everywhere and if a video tends to go more viral than then comments come out from everywhere, but people did comment like, you shouldn't be negotiating at Goodwill, or that's pretty low, or whatever. And then a whole bunch of other people come back and be like you know, Goodwill gets their stuff for free, so it's kind of like, alright, but we wanted to kind of dive into that because negotiating says it is a skill in this business that you need to have, negotiation. But what about negotiating at stores?
Are places negotiable, or is it only at yard sales in the flea market, and how does that work? And it's a great skill to have anywhere you go.
Rob: So the good thing is I've been in this business for almost three decades now and believe it or not, I've negotiated almost everywhere you can think of. That includes Lowe's, that includes Home Depot, that includes Goodwill, Salvation Army, any place you can think of.
I will try to negotiate. Does that mean they have to negotiate with me? No, that does not. They have the opportunity to say, no, we are firm on this price and we will not negotiate.
Melissa: I was gonna say, just the other day at Tractor Supply, you negotiated, what was it, belts that you bought?
Rob: Lawnmower belts. So they had a whole cart of lawnmower belts, and I'm talking about a big shopping cart of lawnmower belts, and they had them marked down to like $5, and some of these were $25.
Some of them were $50 retail, and they could not sell them for whatever reason. They were discontinuing them. Still brand spanking new in the packages. They had them all sitting in one cart. And as I'm leaving, I wasn't even planning on buying them and I wasn't even planning on anything. As I'm leaving, I told the guy, hey, would you take, I think I offered him $50.
No, cause I don't remember what I paid for the whole thing. I think it was only $50 for everything. I think I offered him like $25. I said, hey, if I take that whole cart from you, would you do $25? And he goes, no, I will not because there's a lot of belts in there, but I will do a dollar per belt if you want that so he came down from the original retail price. Like I said $50, $25 in that range and they came down already to $5 a belt on clearance and then after that, he came down to $1.
So he went down even further on that, just to get rid of them. So did he have to do that? Absolutely, he did not have to do that, but he was willing to do that because they wanted to move the belts. Now that's the case with everything, that you can think of. Every store out there, we've done it at Lowe's on scratch and dent items.
I love seeing a scratch and dent item at Lowe's to where I can go in and say, hey, you guys have this marked down to $1,000. Would you take, would you take $700? And they have a buyer right there in front of them. And a lot of times they will take the negotiation on that item.
Melissa: And you even created a good relationship with, like, one of the managers at Lowe's because you would go in there and you'd buy stuff.
We got our fridge from there. I remember it was missing something and, or it was a scratch on one of the sides that you wouldn't even see it when it's inside the thing. And anyways, but like, it's you may have had a good relationship with him. He was happy to give you a better deal because he needed to move that inventory.
And that's the biggest thing is usually it's when people need to move inventory. So they're going to give you a better deal. And so if you can take that off their hands and then it's a win win for each such each party, and that's what makes negotiation. It has to work for both parties. If it doesn't work for both parties, then you don't do it. So it doesn't and the seller can say no like if you we get offers all the time on eBay. We have the right to say no or we have the right to say okay, I'm ready to move this Let's get it gone. So.
Rob: So who draws the line on who can be negotiated with and who can like who draws that line, you know Goodwill, Salvation Army, all these thrift stores out there.
They are just donations and they do need to move donations fastly to get more stuff in and be able to do it. Does that mean it's unethical to do it in my book? Absolutely not because they ultimately have the decision to say yes We will take less money or no, we will not take less money and the whole instance with this.
Melissa: It was a personal sauna.
So it's a really random thing. It's very odd looking It's a piece of equipment. It was a personal sauna. It was for $200 and you went to go see at the front like you're like, oh, this is weird. Like we like weird stuff. And you looked it up and you're like, okay, we can maybe do this, but you didn't know if you're going to sit on it for a little while.
So you're like, let me see if we maybe get it less. And you went up to the cashier and she said, what did she say that she said the manager.
Rob: I'll get you the manager, but this manager might not negotiate. And she, so this was something exactly. This was not something new to the cashier to have somebody negotiate on something.
And it was a $200 item. Like Melissa said, I didn't know how long it would take me to sell this item, and I always wanna pay as least as possible on this. Now, I knew the price range that I'd be able to get was roughly about $2,000, which we ended up selling it for $1,750? $1,700, yeah. Or $1,700. So I got it in the rough range of that, but I just didn't know how long I would sit on it.
And if I sit on $200 versus a hundred dollars, I'd much rather sit on a hundred dollars if they will do it. This manager would not do it. She would not negotiate. So I had the opportunity to walk away and say, okay, thank you. And sometimes I do that in this case, I didn't. I bought it at the full price that they were asking for it.
And we then brought it home and sold it in like 30 days. I don't remember how long it took us to sell it. It was like a month or two, a month or two, sold it in a month or two and made, you know, some good profit on this item.
Melissa: So. Yeah, it has to make sense for both parties and I think that is the biggest thing with negotiation. Like we negotiate at the flea market all the time. It has to make sense for like these people are really trying to move their stuff. They want it gone, but it has to make sense for us as a buyer too If somebody has something, you know for $100, $200, to $300.
And we're like, well, we really can't invest that much for it, for it to be worth our time to pick up the item, clean it, list it, ship it. Like it has, the profit has to be there. And if it's not there, it's not worth our time. So that's okay. We can walk away, or we can negotiate and they can move an item.
So it's, it has to be a win win for everybody.
Rob: So, and a better question is, how weird are you going to feel going up to a Lowe's or a Home Depot Home Depot manager and being like, Hey, would you take less for this? Because that's where I don't really care. I will go and ask them and they'll either say yes or no.
Typically on a normal item inside of Lowe's or Home Depot, they won't negotiate on the price because they have, they're very, very small markups on their items that they're selling already at a low price. But items that have been discounted for clearance for their, not stocking that item anymore for whatever reason.
They got to get them out of the store to bring more stuff in. And those are the items that actually will, they will negotiate with. Now, if you're going to buy a, a tool, a battery tool, and all the tools are the same price, they're not discounted or anything like that. Typically, they're not going to negotiate with you.
And it's, you can try but I've kind of learned on that myself. They won't negotiate with you until there is something else. And I'm talking about Lowe's and Home Depot really like clearance.
Melissa: It's on clearance. They're really trying to get rid of it and then they're more apt to negotiate with you.
Rob: I still remember safes. So I did this at Lowe's. This is an actual item. We, we told you about appliances, but they had some safes, that they were discounting and this is big, like a gun or a money safe. They had, I think two or three of them left in stock. I called my nephew up, he was looking for one and I went to the manager and I said, hey, would you guys if we took two of these your last two of these would you come down an extra you know two hundred dollars on these? And they did it they came down on the price because they were discounting them already to get them out of the store. They were bigger items and they needed room for more stuff. They discounted, like I said, it was like two hundred dollars per safe that they came down on the prices to get them out so, there's just there. Trust me, if you're willing to actually feel a little uncomfortable at first and I I'm the first one when I started negotiating anywhere at the flea market yard sales, it feels a little weird at first. And it's a game, it's a dance that you really have to learn, but man, when you learn it, you can save a lot of money and really, really get some good deals.
Melissa: And we've talked about it before on the podcast, but there is a right and a wrong way to negotiate too, because you want to, you always want to be respectful.
You never want to tear anybody down. Even if you're meeting somebody for an item that you're buying on marketplace, you never want to like trash talk the person or trash talk the item or like just be being rude. Cause we've seen that too. And you can't stand that when people are rude, but there is, if you are polite.
And you are just trying to make a transaction and both parties are polite and it, it works out and that's great. But there we have had in instances where, we talked about it once on the podcast. Yeah, it was actually episode 114.
Rob: Go back and check out that one. If you wanna see the wrong way to negotiate, go check out that episode, because that was the wrong way.
Melissa: And that was somebody coming to our house and trying to demand that we take less for an item. Yeah. And it was a whole big ordeal and we ended up having to almost call the cops on him because he wouldn't leave and then they left. So.
Rob: Just go check out that episode. That is the wrong way to negotiate. We are never, we never ever tell anybody to be rude.
No. It's always something where if it works for you and it works for them, then you make the deal. If it doesn't, and whatever party doesn't want to do it, you walk away from it, and you're always polite and cordial with whatever you're trying to purchase.
Melissa: And you'd be surprised how many times people even come back.
Like, you'll give them an offer, and then, weeks later, they might still have the item and give you a call. Even, like, if you make relationships with managers at thrift stores, or whatever, they might still have the item. If you had a good relationship with the manager there, and they still had the item sitting there, because you didn't buy it, if it was still, it was a personal sauna.
Very like different from what a lot of people would buy. Most people like not many people, it was a weird bulky item like not many people in the local market probably were in the market for that. So it it would have probably sat for a while until they marked it down. And if you were had a good relationship with them, they might even call you.
Okay. Hey, we'll take a hundred dollars now if you want to come and get it. And so, so yeah, so it was a weird item and, or you don't buy it. It sits there and then they mark it down to $50 and then they only made $50. So, so there's just a lot of different scenarios, but it was a weird, different kind of item and we're not like trying, I don't know, trying to, we don't sell items that are like, must need like, last water on earth that you are selling for a lot of money, so.
Rob: Anyways. We're not price gouging people. No. And we're not taking advantage of people. No. These are, this was definitely an item that was a luxury item for somebody, for the right person, when they found it, we gave them a good deal on it and it was awesome, so.
Melissa: So, I think if you just stay respectful and both, it works for both parties, you're, you're good.
Rob: So we want to hear from you. What story do you have or what instance have you had on negotiation? Shoot us an email, a comment, whatever you guys want to do. We'd love to hear from you and know a little bit more about your flipping journey as well.
Melissa: And your thoughts on it too, like in your experience with negotiating. Another way to reach us is Instagram or Facebook. Shoot us a message. We love to hear from you or email at Rob@fleamarketflipper.com and we would, yeah, love to hear your stories. So thanks so much for taking the time to listen and you guys are awesome.
You guys are awesome.
Rob: Have an amazing day and we will catch you on the next episode.