Goodwill Gulf Coast - Cottage Hill Donation Center in Mobile

I've given poor reviews to the other Goodwills in this area based on my personal experiences... But haven't yet reviewed this location. It's here that your donations arrive and are priced, and then are sent To various branches for sale. There's an elderly gentleman who is in charge of electronics, who does this pricing. And he's an outright con artist. That said, he's the reason primarily for the majority of my poor reviews at other locations, as it happens. He told me once that his prices were "on par with eBay". And I retorted, "the people on eBay are making some of the money back that they spent on the product initially. That's the entire point. They're sold at a discounted price because they're used. They're not donations such as the things found at the Goodwill. The point for you is to make a profit, but when there's no overhead, it's all profit! So if a set of speakers cost $200 brand new, and they're twenty years old, and they were free to you, there's no reason to not let him go for thirty bucks or less. It's all free money". When I donate items to the Goodwill it's not only for the money to go towards the community or whatever, it's so that somebody can get something nicer that they can generally afford. A "come up" or a "blessing". And for the money to go bsck to my community. Not to scalp my fellow shoppers. Check out woth Google how much their CEO made last year, when you have time. Then there's the issue of the products themselves. There's no returns, and the vast majority of the electronics you're not in a position to test without a computer maybe, or an audio system capable of powering whatever device you're looking at. I bought an expensive camera once because it powered on so I assumed it was functional, and it wasn't. Couldn't tell until I had it plugged into a computer at home. Once, a streaming player that powered on. Assumed it to work then...but no. It turned itself off after a few minutes without the remote...which it didnt have. Another time I bought a set of vintage speakers cabinets but didn't have the presence of mind to check if there were any speaker drivers inside. That's right, they were Hollow. He's told me that he checks them with a 9-volt battery which is a very plebeian way of doing it. That will just tell you if they're blown completely out, not that there's anything wrong with them. Not to mention, he definitely didnt check with a 9-volt battery the speakers that he sold me. As an example of his overpriced foolishness, I saw today a set of soundtech vintage speakers commonly used by DJ's for sale. Expensive. Maybe $1000 new. My first thought after my previous experience was to take the covers off and make sure that they were drivers inside and what did I find? A whole other brand. I'll Grant you cerwin Vegas aren't bad speakers, and in fact my Mains at home are Cerwin Vegas. Probably the best rock and roll speakers ever made. But these are definitely not those models, and theyre definitely not worth the price of a sound tech set such as match the covers that are on there (that they lead you to believe that they are). In fact, most people would hesitate before removing the covers for fear of damaging them....so you wouldn't know. Those speakers sold for $60-sonething bucks EACH (NOTHING SHOULD COST THAT AT GOODWILL for one, and two, separating vintage sets should have you shot at dawn) are REALLY worth far less. I saw a man loading them up and attempted to hip the guy, but he was of a different skin color than me, and immediately became very defensive and rude. As a white male visiting the south.... I've learned to not even bother. So he can find out for himself. Rip off artists here.