Thrift Stores - Survival of the Fittest

I like going to thrift stores in my area to seek out treasure. You wouldn't believe the stuff that you can get. I resell quite a bit on ebay, and usually at an average markup of 400% from what I bought it at. One of the special items I look for is music and guitar equipment (rack gear in particular) - along with 3000000 other folks who are lookong for the same things as I am. I have a few tips you can use to beat them!

1. Check every few days, the good stuff turns over pretty fast.
2. They don't put out new stuff until mid afternoon, going early doesn't do much for you.
3. Make friends with one of the workers, and tell em what you are interested in.
4. A lot of time people don't know how to work the gear, so they can't test it, so they dont buy it. I found a brand new Korg guitar effects pedal and when I tested it, it wouldnt power on. I remembered that some higher end pedals won't turn on unless a cable is attached to them (so the battery won't drain!). Found a cable, plugged it in, and bingo! Paid $7.99 - sold for $79.00.
5. Take your smartphone with you and look at prices on Ebay - even if you don't know what it is for, you may find someone else might - and you can find the value.
6. Clothes at a thrift store suck. With the exception of music tshirts. Concerts shirts from the 80s and 90s are going for $50 to $70!
7. Make sure you get the right power supply with the units, some are hard to find and are valuable in and of themselves.
8. Just because a unit powers on, doesn't mean it works. Most stores will allow you to return something that is totally hatched. I've found stuff that powered on, but didn't display properly and the knobs didn't work. Back it goes.
9. Be very careful with LCD screens - they can fail very quickly. I power units on for 2-3 hours to let them warm up. Some of the capacitors die if the unit has not been used for several years. It will kack in the first few hours if they are bad.
10. It doesn't happen a lot - but get the boxes and manuals if possible. Some of the older ones are a bugger to track down online, and units sell for a premium if you have 'em - even print out PDF copies.
11. Bonus tip - every goober looking to score is looking for names they recognize (Martin, Gibson Fender) . They won't know about boutique names and always overlook them. Look for Korg stuff, Marshall, Digitech, Roland, Macintosh, Behringer, Rack Rider, BBE.......

Happy hunting, and now, back to your regularly scheduled life.