Goodwill handles over 4.4 billion pounds of donations every year. Most of it gets cleaned, priced, and sold at a retail store. For some, flipping Goodwill finds lead to massive paydays.
Now Goodwill is using AI listing tools to sell the best items online before they ever reach the floor. That’s squeezing the thrifters who built businesses on nabbing hidden treasures.
We got behind-the-scenes access to see how Goodwill sorts and sells millions of items a year, then followed the resellers fighting for what’s left. Some are earning six figures sourcing vintage clothes by the pound. Others have moved to live selling on Whatnot, which hit $8 billion in sales in 2025, nearly as big as Goodwill itself.
Editor’s Note: At 11:10, we reported that Whatnot surpassed $6 billion in sales in 2025. That figure was a projection. The company actually did over $8 billion in 2025, $1 billion more than Goodwill Industries.
This video excerpts segments from “Where Goodwill’s Best Donations Go” from @tycetycebaby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTUt0Cv3zvs
Read “I put myself through college reselling used clothes. I’ve made nearly $50,000 so far this year”: https://bit.ly/4w2DhFC
00:00 – Inside the world’s biggest thrift machine
01:08 – How Goodwill Bins Work
02:50 – How Resellers Work
04:45 – Behind The Scenes Of Goodwill Retail
06:36 – Behind The Scenes Of A Goodwill Outlet
08:28 – Why Resellers Started Live Selling
10:01 – Gary Vaynerchuk @Garyvee
11:25 – How China Dominates Live Shopping
12:59 – What Happens After The Bins?
15:26 – The $90,000 Lakers Jacket
16:22 – Credits
——————————————————
#goodwill #resellers #aitools #liveselling #aiinaction #bigbusiness #thriftinghaul #thrift #flipping
WATCH MORE BIG BUSINESS EPISODES:
Why Don’t Robots Look Real Yet?
https://youtu.be/EBO6z839sug
This Mad Science Lab Invented MREs
https://youtu.be/s80mBDNJ5lo
Meet The Young Founder Turned Biggest Glass Recycler In Louisiana
https://youtu.be/pwFUrE2YWjo
Business Insider is a global newsroom covering business, technology, innovation, and the economy.
Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com/?utm_source=youtube
Sign up for our newsletters: https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter?utm_source=youtube
Find Business Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider
… on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/businessinsider
… on X: https://x.com/BusinessInsider
… on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessinsider
Can Goodwill Still Make You Rich? | Big Business | Business Insider
Business Insider is a video channel brought to you by SloppBoxx.Com, a global newsroom covering business, technology, and the economy.
Read “I put myself through college reselling used clothes. I’ve made nearly $50,000 so far this year”: https://bit.ly/4wEGmwJ
And “I skipped college and now earn over $40 an hour in a blue-collar job. The AI boom is creating more opportunities for me”: https://bit.ly/3S8OtT4
2:51 hey that’s the goodwill in st louis!! I’venever been there but I might check it out now!
Donate to a church guys, don’t give away your items to be sold for profit.
I watched this with my family and was very unhappy when you allowed the scene with a dildo on the ladies phone. You can make out what she shows even though it’s blurry . And her comments while laughing “that could you imagine your mom finding this” . I’m watching with my children and it wasn’t appropriate. Then ending the video with curse words. The word sh+*. That also wasn’t called for. Could you please edit your videos so that they don’t have vulgar pics and words
@ChrisM-wy2lx Oh no not your CHILDREN, how terrible. Grow up and stop trying to force your censorship on the rest of us.
It’s too much work and a load of BS. If you count every minute you spend listing, responding, packaging and shipping you’re barely making $10 an hour.
Goodwill is the biggest scam on earth. Do a doc on the Executives pay and where the ” Goodwill” goes.
I completely stopped donating and shopping at Goodwill. The selection is lackluster and their pricing can be ridiculous.
So, GOODWILL receives items for free and makes huge profits out of it? Incredible
Donate to local thrift or FB curbside or Good Deeds, rather throw away then give to GoodWill
there needs to be investigative reporting on what happens to Goodwill’s money — what good do they actually do?
Find a thrift store that funds a cause that you want to support. Plenty of thrift stores fund shelters for cats, dogs, or people. Donate to them. Goodwill is a for profit store! You are funding a millionaire’s lifestyle while he laughs all the way to the bank. Or have a yard sale and put that money back into your pocket! I used to take clothes to work for other people to use. Also, there is usually a group on your local town facebook for free stuff and people will usually take whatever you have to offer. Help each other not another CEO with their entitled hand out.
Remember – Goodwill is a For Profit company.
We only donate to AMVets now. I’ve talked to former workers of Goodwill and those workers at Ambes and he the stories of how they’ve been treated so differently. Goodwill, not so good at all.
Goodwill doesn’t help anyone, but the CEO
I am very selective about what I buy in thrift stores and which stores I go to. I worked in thrift stores for several years and learned a lot. All thrift stores regardless have problems with roaches, mice and bedbugs because items often come from businesses, homes, vehicles and have come in contact with food items, I know people that thrift for resale and had these costly problems in their homes, no items in thrift stores are washed and rarely cleaned at all. Important to look over what you buy thoroughly. Furniture, pillows and bedding can harbor pests. If there are items with tags they are often not much of a bargain and often have issues, why they were not wanted or did not sell. Thrifting is a gamble and you have to know how to play the game.
watching only to find out exactly how predatory goodwill is
Define cleaned? I bought a mens suit coat that had a snotty hanky in the pocket. We no longer shop or donate to Goodwill. We go to Savers.
I give items to Goodwill so Goodwill will make money for their charities and their employees, not for other people to make money off of.