I don't trust Goodwill, they are a fickle fairly political (as in corporate
politics) group. Without a "real" charter as a museum, the items on shelves
are protected only by the grace of whoever the current "boss" of that area
happens to be. Some Monday morning the whole lot could be in the dumpster,
or the back of some scrappers truck.
I know this since I have been one of the scrappers to show up when a new
boss takes over and wants the place cleared out.
Now the Austin Goodwill Computer Works IS a bit special, this is the store
Jag works at, and my guess is that they have a fairly deep volunteer effort
that would at least try to protect things.
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Now on a completely personal level, I also think it sucks. Goodwill is a
powerfull magnet for sucking up all donations available in the area,
regardless of their ability to process the stuff properly, ie some big
loads of computer stuff comes in, it gets a quick and dirty dock side sort
with all the excess going to whatever vendor they have a deal going with.
The amount of damage internal handling at Goodwill and its ilk do to
computer stuff is very disgusting too.