(Photo: Goodwill)
Americans throw away about 85% of their clothes each year.
WHAT?!
You`ve got to be kidding me! We all know Americans like to shop-until-they-drop, but to throw away 85% of their clothes each year... must be some kind of joke.
Earth isn`t laughing, that`s for sure.
According to the
The Atlantic: "The average American throws out an average of 70 pounds of clothing per year, equivalent in weight to 200 pounds of men`s t-shirts."
You`re thinking, "But, we can recycle clothes, yeah?" Not according to
Upworthy: "It (clothes) could be recycled as the stuffing in your couch, the insulation in your walls, and the padding under your carpet." You see, we don`t have the technology to recycle clothing on a large scale. We can send a man to the moon, but we can`t recycle 1 million jeans... does that make sense to you?
According to the
Huffington Post: "For the most part, these textiles aren’t biodegradable, which means they
sit in landfills for at least 200 years. As a result, they release harmful gases into the air."
FASHION KILLS!
So what do we do about it? Well, most Americans donate their clothing to charity organizations like Goodwill Industries.
Did you know there`s only a 15 to 20 percent chance that someone in your community will wear your unwanted jeans or shirts?
Goodwill sells only what they can in their retail shops, which is about 20 percent of the clothes you toss into their recycle bins. What happens to the clothes that they cannot sell overseas?
SHHH, HERE`S THE SECRET.
In cities around the country, when you toss your clothes into a Goodwill donation bin, it first arrives at a Goodwill Outlet Center.
Now that light bulb clicks on inside your head.
(Photo: Goodwill)
Line upon line of bins come out every two hours. People then sift through the clothes, the quicker the better.
You will find clothes new-with-tags (not kidding) as well as designer items there for you to pick and buy by the pound.
An eBay power seller stated she had a bad day. She sold only $600 worth of clothing that day on eBay. Oh, boo hoo! We`re not crying a river for you.
As an experiment, someone I know went to a few of these "sell-by-the-pound" Goodwill outlets in California. She traveled to Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Though she`s not as fast picker/sifter like the regular Goodwill Outlet shoppers; she still managed to purchase $200 worth of clothing (remember, it`s sold by the pound) and converted that haul into a $1,000 profit within a couple of months through eBay auctions.
And this was an inexperienced eBay seller!
The professional auction hunter sells on eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, yard sales, swap meets, etc. Can you imagine what a seasoned storage auction hunter could do at a resell center that sells by the pound? They would make bank!
Not only does Goodwill Outlets bring out bins of clothing, they also carry unwanted electronics and such. Even collectibles, if you know what to look for, which you would as a seasoned storage auction buyer.
Storage auctions at one time one of the best kept secrets as a flip-for-profit business, until the first A&E
Storage Wars episode aired in 2010.
Will a producer think to create a reality television show centered around Goodwill "sell-by-the-pound" Outlet stores?
They should, but then, one of the best kept secrets by eBay sellers would no longer be a secret, and everybody and their brother would crowd these centers.
We wouldn`t want that now, would we...
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Also
Top Selling Items On eBay 2016
About the Author...
Chuck G. is a freelance blogger and celebrity interviewer based in Southern California. She`s a Geek who watches Soccer & Volleyball ❤ Beach Life. You may follow her on Twitter @chuckgwriter.
