I’m an admitted golf gear junkie. I have an ever growing collection of clubs in the “corner” (read: multiple corners) of my garage. If I see a good deal on a club or set of clubs, I feel compelled to buy them. Perhaps I’ve twisted reality so drasticaly that my logic behind these compulsions doesn’t make sense anymore but I always buy the clubs for two main reason:
1. I enjoy trying new clubs for cheap
2. I can always resell them and make a small profit, at minimum
Thrifting golf clubs has become a small hobby of mine. I make it a habit to check my local thrift stores a few times each month and do the same whenever I’m traveling to other areas. I’ve even ran into a few of the same people scouring the golf bin at my local Salvation Army a few times so I know I’m not alone.
If I haven’t convinced you that my hobby is worthwhile yet, here are a few of the deals I’ve gotten over the last few years.
5-PW Ping G15 Blue Dot Iron Set – $17.50
TaylorMade SLDR Driver – $7
34″ Scotty Cameron Newport – $3
Ping i20 White Dot 3-PW + 3 Tour wedges – $29
Nike Forged Blade Iron Set 2-PW – $25
That’s ~$1000+ worth of golf clubs that I grabbed for around $100. Some of them I’ve sold and turned a profit on and others I play rounds with on ocassion or test out on the range to see what fits me the best. I enjoy seeing how each club is unique and how the different lofts/forgiveness fit my swing.
Over the years, I’ve picked up some tips that have helped me score some great finds. Before I dive into them, I need to start with the most important tip of all: luck. I’ve had 3-4 months in a row where I spend time staring at the worst, most beat up golf clubs you’ve ever seen and I feel like I’m wasting my time. Great quality clubs show up randomly and out of the blue. You might just miss out on them by a few minutes at Goodwill. You can increase your chances of finding clubs but luck is always a huge factor. I totally lucked into the Ping G15 set. I was on vacation and stopped at a local thrift store early in our trip and saw the usual horrible collection of beat up Northwestern clubs. I wasn’t planning to go back but decided to stop by a few days later on our last night (Yes, I have a very understanding wife.) The crappy Northwesterns were still there but a flawless set of Pings were propped up next to them. Score.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when trying to find golf clubs at Goodwill.
1. Learn your local stores patterns
When do they set out new merchandise? Does it go out right away or do they have a few specific days each week? Do they put stuff out at night or in the AM? You can ask the staff these questions and they are usually happy to answer.
A lot of Goodwill stores have special 50% off days and will restock the store with new merchandise pretty heavily the day _after_ these big sale days. Those can be the best times to look.
If you wanted to get really aggressive, you could probably talk to a few people who process the donations and ask them to give you a call if anything good comes through. I haven’t tried this yet so I can’t vouch for it but I’m sure some enterprising golf fiend has done this before.
2. Watch the calendar
Certain times of the year tend to see more golf clubs coming through local Goodwills than others, at least here in the northeast. Spring cleaning and the spring yardsale are a big deal in colder climates and you’ll see an influx of golf clubs donated during March-May each year.
Another common time is once winter starts to roll in and people need to clean out their garages to start parking cars in them. The old weight sets, skis and — yes, golf clubs — are often the victims of these efforts. Their loss can be your gain.
3. Search the store in strange places
Don’t go roaming around the back room or behind the counter but Goodwill does have a very random way of organizing their inventory. Golf clubs are typically placed in a huge bin or near the furniture at most of the ones I’ve been too. That’s the logical place to look. But every now and then Goodwill employees will put golf clubs in hard to find places. This isn’t done on purpose but some people don’t know where to put them. I found a Scotty Cameron putter in the far corner of a store behind an old recliner. There were a few other junior sets of golf clubs back there. I guess they felt these ‘shorter’ clubs belonged in a different section from the other bins of golf clubs.
I had been to one of my local stores over a dozen times and never saw a golf club section until I realized they were stashing them in a side room with large items like bedframes and Christmas trees. I never even thought to go in there to look but there were several nice full sets of clubs tucked away beside a corner bookshelf.
4. Go as often as possible
You don’t need to show up everyday unless you are really dedicated, but making it a habit is the best possible way to increase your chances of finding golf clubs at Goodwill for an amazing price. People who play have a good idea that a clean, nice looking set of Pings are worth more than $25. Moreover, people who _don’t_ play tend to have a really skewed view towards golf clubs and I’ve seen 75 year old women who know nothing about golf buy a set of clubs at a thrift store because they think they can turn a nice profit on them. These are the people who list beat up Knight drivers on Craigslist for $150 a pop.
If you make a habit of going to your local stores, you’ll have a much better chance of beating everybody else to the goods. You never know when somebody will get divorced, move away, have health problems or even pass away and a set of clubs will be up for grabs.
5. Use the PGA Value Guide
There are super random clubs at almost every Goodwill I’ve been to. Sometimes you can’t tell what is worth a lot of money and what isn’t. Sure, a Scotty is easy to pick out as a good deal for less than $100 but there are seemingly random Wilson putters that are very valuable that most people couldn’t pick out of a giant bin of golf clubs.
I always bring my phone and will run stuff through the handy PGA Value Guide to get an idea on a clubs value relative to its condition. This will prevent you from making any foolish purchases based on appearance alone.
Those are my five best tips for finding cheap, valuable golf clubs at your local Goodwill or thrift store of choice. Happy hunting!
