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I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

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Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#271

Post by SoftTalker »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #261
apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little mind-boggling when you compare a decent $5K car to a $60K one, and realize you could have a 12-car fleet for that one car.

Is such a thing even to be had these days? I certainly own a decent $6k car, so I know it used to be possible. But I bought that car 14 years ago now, and it would surprise me if you can still get a decent car for that price after 14 years of inflation.

I bought a $4k car a couple of years ago. It’s had a few issues but nothing I couldn’t handle in my garage with fairly common tools. I’d say you can still get a very good car for under $10k and much less if you are handy with wrenches.

When shopping for this sort of car look for private sellers. Used car dealers in this price range tend to be sketchy and none of them do any maintenance or repairs before the sale.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#272

Post by suzzer99 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #266
suzzer99 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through several pairs of crappy wireless headphones until I gave in and got airpods, which just work.

Wired headphones also just work, don't need to be charged, and are much cheaper. AirPods are a strict downgrade from normal wired headphones, and it is insane to me that people are willing to pay for them.

Except when they get stuck in the treadmill and yank the cord out of the headphone. Wired headphones for working out and jogging are a nightmare.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#273

Post by creer »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #207
creer wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thrift store pricing: It's disappointing. > You can barely give away china these days. [...] it would just sit there. Most times I look, it's overpriced. Very much so. Price lower. Obviously? > Most fast fashion is worthless [$6 for a piece that's new for $10] Well duh? Price lower? Obviously? Around here it feels like thrift stores have not noticed the revolution in pricing for online, delivered, made-in-china-but-n…

> Thrift store pricing: It's disappointing. When I read things like this, I laugh when people think that it's possible to bring much manufacturing back to the US. The thrift store I volunteered at was for an animal charity. After paying rent and some salaries, the general rule of thumb was that we were able to convert volunteer hours to profit at about minimum wage rates (and I mean ~$8/hr rates, not "living wage" ra…

> People just couldn't understand that we couldn't sell it for less without essentially making the thrift store not turn a profit, even though the products were donated.

Let's also watch out how we think about enterprises. (1) The customer - most anyway - isn't concerned with the purpose of the thrift store, with whether it's making a profit, or even really with how the store gets the product. They are looking for the things they need, at a better price than otherwise. Some costumers are exceptions, sure. (2) The thrift store needs to make money to pay a few employees, the lease, and its sponsor if there is one (like this animal charity). Running a thrift store does not garantee that it will make this much money. (3) Even the people providing the stuff have a choice of places where they can do that, including putting it in the trash or listing for free on Craigslist & Co. They may want to favor the thrift store but if the thrift store makes itself sufficiently difficult or irrelevant, they will choose another way. (4) Even you volunteering for the thrift store as a way to donate to the animal charity have choices: You evaluate that volunteering your time provides about minimal wage to the animal charity. This may or may not be your best deal on how to convey money to that charity.

More generally these are fundamental points of economics: (a) wishing for things doesn't make them so. (b) The economy is the result of a lot of independent people thinking for themselves.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#274

Post by Tyr42 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #127

It's pretty sad people throw away stuff when it's possible to give it away to charity. Well, maybe it's not convenient to donate stuff around their universities? I personally never throw away anything that could be useful to someone. There are organizations around me that accept almost anything.

I didn't have a car as a student. It would be hard to manage that goal as a student.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#275

Post by bluGill »

gosub100 wrote: post #251
bluGill wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how to verify the claim since I'm not a serious potential student.

you dont need to be one to check the price of a service

I'm not asking for the list price I'm asking for the real price that you end up paying. Those are not the same and they hide the latter. The list price was already given at 60k\year.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#276

Post by cgio »

paulcole wrote: post #260
directevolve wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Portland. Walk around certain neighborhoods, and you’ll see items out on the street - mostly garbage. Broken couches, broken tables, broken appliances, that sort of thing. Typically, items with remaining utility are exchanged via Goodwill or an online tool like Buy Nothing. My guess is that the college does not want to allow students to dump their mostly-garbage on the neighbors. At the same time, wealthy s…

I live near Ladds Addition and the free piles are the worst. 90% of it is pure crap that just sits out for weeks. People put it out to feel good about themselves. Once I saw a bunch of random wires with a label, “FREE - great for art projects.” It’s like thanks for letting me know I was going to knock on doors until I found the right person to make an offer to.

When I put out any electrical/electronic device here in Australia, the only thing that gets picked up, is the wires, snipped from the devices; I still don’t know why. Recycling would not make sense at this scale I think. And in the process, they destroy the device for anyone who might have a use for it.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#277

Post by ghostly_s »

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

> why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items?

Leaving it in the "trash" room is the equivalent of this in large apartment buildings ime. Note these reusable items were set aside, not tossed in the dumpster. I would agree the curb is better, where any passerby could take it, but in buildings large enough to have staff on-site that isn't tolerated because it would make the property "look bad."

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#278

Post by MiddleEndian »

anigbrowl wrote: post #140
the__alchemist wrote: post #124

I wonder what we need to do to make buying and selling used items convenient. My experience has been that the bid/ask spread is too large, and liquidity too low to be practical. And if you're giving something away, no one will take it. No explanation; just observations. I want to not throw things out and buy new, but haven't found a workflow that works. (I'm in an apt building near the one listed in the article; more…

We don't have to do anything, Craigslist already exists and works great. I've bought stuff from departmerting college students, the transaction is as simple as showing up and saying 'hi, are you X? Great, here's $50, thanks for The Thing'. Some people just cannot be bothered, and if they're wealthy they simply may not care about concepts like wasting money - doubly so if they grew up with money and have never had to…

My experience trying to give stuff away online (or sell it for cheap) is similar to this Simpsons meme featuring vanishing Spock: https://i.ibb.co/0Vs9qHqm/116609166-3570105309667743-4078949... ... Although for the same reason, it's super easy to buy used stuff online just by offering the asking price and actually showing up.

Nowadays I leave unwanted but usable stuff by the trash room in my building, usually somebody will grab it, and if not it will get removed by the cleaning people eventually. I got a nice roller suitcase that way myself lol

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#279

Post by mynameisash »

dkga wrote: post #150

A few „anthropological“ impressions from this text. First, why do people throw away tennis shoes, unopened food etc? Why not take with them on to their next destination? Second, why not just put on the street so that other people can come and collect items? This is very common for example here in Switzerland - you put unwanted things ranging from old kid toys to books to furniture on the sidewalk with a sign saying „…

Lots of responses to your first two points, and I immediately jumped to your last one:

> Third, I was surprised the author felt bad. A sign that there is unfortunately some stigma in re-using things.

Ever since my wife and I got married 20+ years ago, we've had a clothesline, and we are constantly line-drying our clothes, weather permitting. I've had plenty of weird looks and probably even a few comments. I definitely have had the impression that people look down on me for doing so, but weird stigma be damned.

Re: I salvaged $6k of luxury items discarded by Duke students

#280

Post by yallpendantools »

pembrook wrote: post #229
atonse wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution could be top down: - give 2-3 extra days for students to move out. - maybe partner with a few moving/freight companies? you’d bring them a lot of customers and they could provide a good rate.

But it’s a “solution” to a nonexistent problem. The vast majority of stuff people own sits unused for decades but gets moved around to whatever home you’re living in out of irrational loss aversion. This is human, and fine. But I’m 100% certain this author is grossly overestimating the value of the junk they believe they are “saving” and how much of it they will actually use. This is the rationalizing of a budding ho…

What really bothers me with the article---something I think I share with top-level commenter dpkga---is throwing away perfectly fine articles of clothing (i.e., "tennis shoes"). Not to mention, expensive. These, presumably wouldn't cost a fortune to transport even overseas. I get it that maybe the student had to make a choice between, say, bulky books/notebooks/school work which may come in handy for the future but that's where the "expensive" part comes in; why even buy something expensive if there was any chance you'd discard it before its service life is up? (Other commenters have provided answers elsewhere that I consider plausible.)

The furniture (i.e., "bean bag chair") I can totally understand why they'd discard it. The only thing that bothers me then is, will they buy a similar item for next year? Because if they will, then this stuff doesn't "doesn't matter" and therefore the problem actually exists, if only because it feeds into the mindless consumer attitude which leads to over production of goods that end up in landfills if not in someone else's hoard pile.

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