Ive been selling on ebay for about 14 years. My love for hunting for things to resell goes way back to when I was a kid.  Once ebay started and I was introduced to it back in 1998 I realized this was exactly what I needed to do what I love and make money.  It did not take very long to get started and make money at selling on ebay. With in about 4 years I was making enough money that I could make a living selling on ebay.  One big problem there were a ton of other people doing the same thing.  I had to stay ahead of the game, do a lot of research and find what sells where there was not a lot of competition. 2004 through 2006 was very profitable I would spend a 1.00 and make 100.00 sometimes every day. The goodwill that I would go to figured out that ebay would be a great place for them to sell also.  So they started there own ebay account.  They would walk around and watch what we would buy and they would pull those same items and sell them themselves.  I understand!  They realized they could make more money doing the same thing.  But I have some issues with that.  First my belief is thrift stores should support the community. You donate and then your neighbor can buy the item and use it.  Thrift stores are still very involved in the community. But I feel like all the really great and interesting items get sold through the auction websites. Now that does make sense BUT for the public reseller it makes it really hard to make money now that there are fewer things coming out in stores.   So if the thrift stores specifically only sell local, put whatever price they want be it hi o low I feel it would help the community. First it's gets donated, PURE PROFIT for the thrift stores, second they make it available first to local people. So they sell to us and they are already making money  And if we can use it or resell it that in turn helps us to make a living and puts more money back into the community. Goodwill does basic job training for free. One big problem, there are very few jobs to get placed in. Also in goodwill's training they train you by having you work for them volunteer training.  So they get workers in "training to work for FREE.