youtube shorts are basically dumbass comment bait. like yt very obviously applies absolutely no logic to how they spread these so my imac video is being put in front of hundreds of thousands of people who have never heard the word "retrocomputing" before and they're understandably confused about it. i have received half a million views on this video and i think almost none of them were from people who wanted to see it. this does not make any of their comments less stupid of course it's just an observation
also it's constantly amazing to me how many people don't understand what thrift stores are. a third of the comments on this are "OMG THEY GOT THAT FOR FREE AND THEY'RE CHARGING THAT MUCH FOR IT???" like buddy what do you think they should charge? do you think the purpose of the store is to give stuff to poor people at low prices? that was literally never the intent. like yeah goodwill apparently is a terrible charity that's mismanaged at best and fraudulent at worst but even if they were functioning ideally, their goal is to make as much profit off of resold donations as possible in order to pay for other projects. the reason you're donating or buying stuff is to indirectly support a charity! there are signs all over the store that say this! their retail demographic is the lower middle class! it always was!
this is why i get so confused about people who get mad about reselling stuff from thrift stores.
i've had mixed opinions about this over the years and the process went like this
stage 1: [irritation] god damnit, they are taking everything before anyone else can get it. these people come in and scrape everything off the shelves into their cards at 8AM so if you pull in 4 minutes after the doors open, everything of value is piled up in a cart being slowly punched into terapeak. why even bother, you can't compete with someone whose fulltime job is Being There First
stage 2: [rage] okay and you know what, this sucks even more because thrift stores and flea markets were one of the few remaining bastions of functioning capitalism, where prices are set by what people are willing to pay. goodwill couldn't price something at $100 if the only person willing to pay that much was in new york, because they simply wouldn't come over here and buy it. the ebayers are putting everything online where the rich new yorker simply yawns and summons it to them. there is always someone willing to pay too much, which means all prices are now permanently set at "whatever someone, somewhere in the country, is willing to pay."
stage 3: [seething indignation] and furthermore, this is removing all locality from the secondary market. you live in topeka? good luck ever getting a neat Thing because every single one is going to get scraped out of your goodwills and exported to new york and california. even if they continue to circulate in a local market after their new owner tires of them or dies, it won't be your local market, so your only option for having one will be to summon it back at Nationwide Market Rate Plus Shipping. fuck you i guess if you wanted to ever experience Finding Something By Chance because that era is permanently over
stage 4: [dawning realization] oh. ohhhhhh. none of the thrift stores or flea market sellers wanted it to work like that. they always hated that. they didn't hang on to shit indefinitely. if i left this imac at the store it actually would have gotten thrown away eventually. in fact, since my tastes are way less congruent with the general "mainstream" of retroelectronics, i bet goodwill has thrown away gobs of stuff i would have wanted because nobody bought it after a week. i bet they do throw away tons of stuff i don't notice because my interests are so specific. i wonder how many really good sewing machines the seattle goodwill has chucked because nobody is coming in to buy them
stage 5: [acceptance] the shelf-scrapers are symbiotes performing a necessary if distasteful service. they warehouse shit goodwill would throw out, ensuring it remains available. yes, ebay prices out a lot of people but most of those people never had a chance at owning any of this anyway. this is the best it's going to get because the secondary market has no place in our economic system. used things go in the trash by default and it is only a tiny sliver that make it into anyone else's hands. well, this sucks, guess i'll stop caring
