[mywittyname]

> Ten years ago they used to be fantastic for obscure finds because it seemed people had not caught on, but these days they tend to be subpar, which is probably a major edge the non charitable enterprises have exploited.

Not sure about UK, but in the USA, people have discovered that there's profit in mining thrift stores for quality products and reselling them. Usually online, but also in antique malls*. There are a quite a few apps that make it easy to look up something by picture and see what it's worth.

* not sure what Brits would call this - it's like brick and mortar ebay. Merchants rent out cubicles that they fill with random stuff, and customers check out at a common till when they are done.

[dingaling]

In the UK, charity shops got savvy to this and now do their own 'mining'. Valuable items go to HQ to list on eBay for a lucrative price, the remaining dross goes onto the shop shelves.

There are some exceptions to this such as specialist charity bookshops which keep the stock locally, but do make sure to price match with the going rate online.

Few diamonds to be found in the rough nowadays.

[bombcar]

US, too, though the US has tons of smaller “independent” (read tied to a single local food bank, etc) thrift stores that can still have finds.

But the era of LEGO at Goodwill is over; all that stuff goes to the auction sites.

[AstroJetson]

I bought Lego on Tuesday at the Goodwill on Philadelphia Pike in Wilmington. So you just need to look on a regular cycle.

[bombcar]

Genuine non-Duplo, non-Megablocks real honest LEGO? Wow.

I've not seen it except by accident (wedged in something) in over a decade, the Goodwills I know all send it to the central area to be auctioned: https://shopgoodwill.com/