Here's the Computer Works for the Orange County
area. Mike? You reading
this?
http://santana.ocgoodwill.org/computer_works/index.html
Gee whiz if you reveal all my secrets I'll never get around to editing my
list and sending you a copy. ;)
Various areas in the Goodwill empire have wised up to the need for a
dedicated computer store with a paid staff. They still love volunteers, but
the core of sales and all of management are retail experienced carreer
people. Anything donated in Orange county that looks computer is supposed
to go to this facility, and most of it actually does. Close to half is
rejected though and goes straight to the AS-IS auction along with all the
other stuff rejected by the stores. This location is also the main Goodwill
sorting center, home of Goodwill Industries, and include administrative
offices too I think.
Don't expect to find any vintage computer stuff at the Santa Ana CA store
though, as anything they can't put W95 on generally gets tossed in a bin
and sold by the pound. Now raiding that bin can be fun, but be prepared to
buy a whole load, or at least get the dollar volume above $50 total. Most
of the items in the store I actually sell cheaper than Goodwill does, but
they do sometimes have a interesting item.
Austin is a bit more enlightened, but also more saavy, ie they might have
it, but also be well aware of the latest eBay sales prices. Jag is the mac
guy and well known for his efforts to make old macs still usefull. AFAIK
the prices are firm, but I think shipping is possible, or may be possible
on some items.
BTW Goodwill in my experience does more damage handling items than any
salvage operation I have seen yet. They separate power supplies from units,
dump sorted collections of floppies into large unsorted boxes, and when I
say old units get tossed into a bin, I mean tossed. Documentation is also
routinely trashed since it just confuses the customer when one system has a
full set of docs and another has nothing.