In a small warehouse building on Lincoln’s O Street, toy collectables, books, sports memorabilia and ceramic Christmas decorations are neatly sorted on the shelves. Vintage Husker gear, jackets and jeans line the walls.
Over 3,000 of these items are posted for sale on eBay, but they don’t belong to a small business or savvy collector. They’re all donations to a local nonprofit.
Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska has operated thrift stores to sell donated goods at affordable prices since the early 2000s, but it entered the online resale space in 2023.
“Our community is extremely generous to us with the donations that they give us,” said Mario Racicot, the director of e-commerce at CSS. “So, we thought, if a donor is giving us their generous donation, how can we better be better stewards of that donation?"
Racicot said donors trust CSS to do the greatest good with the items they give. Sometimes, that means an item goes to the thrift store. Other times, listing an item online multiplies the impact of a potentially valuable or unique donation.
“If we can leverage that item and now get 80 bucks for that item -- instead of selling it for five or 10 dollars -- we could then use the opportunity to take those funds and help our clients at a greater multitude," he said.
According to Racicot, many donations CSS receives are in great condition – and ready to be resold at collector prices.
“We get a lot of shoes here -- nice shoes, name brand, some of them brand new,” Racicot said. “I've sold shoes upwards of $200.”
Racicot’s highest sale was a silver pitcher. It was donated from a woman clearing out her basement.
“She ended up giving me this beautiful silver water pitcher -- sterling silver -- and we were able to sell it for close to $600,” Racicot said.
The best-selling items are electronics. Racicot said digital cameras from the early 2000s sell immediately, and for up to $150. Husker gear and Christmas decorations sell year-round.
“No two days are alike,” Racicot said. “Every day we get brand new donations, and once we put something on a shelf, the hope is that it will be here for the shortest amount of time and then off to its new home.”
Selling online at market prices created a new revenue stream for the nonprofit’s other services.
“We have a lot of legal immigration law clients that come to us and they need help with their documentations,” Racicot said. “We have a domestic violence survivor shelter unit here in Lincoln that provides support for mothers, women and their families. We have the food market that allows clients to come in and get food.”
Racicot said those services are in high demand across southern Nebraska.
“We're trying to help as many clients as we can,” Racicot said. “This just provides us an opportunity to help at a larger capacity.”
CSS operates thrift stores in Lincoln, Auburn, Hastings and Imperial. Racicot said those locations also send donations to Lincoln for online sales. If something isn’t sold online, it will be put up for sale in a thrift store.
The e-commerce operation brings in more than $100,000 a year. Development Director John Soukup said that’s enough to help about six women through the CSS St. Gianna’s domestic violence survivor program.
Soukup said e-commerce is another way for the nonprofit to stay sustainable – environmentally and financially.
“It’s a way to reuse things, regift things and recycle things that’s really a part of God’s plan for keeping this earth clean,” Soukup said.
Since 2020, CSS has been sorting stained, ripped or otherwise unwearable clothing for baling and recycling. The initiatives earned the nonprofit a Keep Nebraska Beautiful Sustainability Award in 2023.
“We're always finding ways as a nonprofit to be lean in our operations as best as possible,” Racicot said.
For example, Racicot said he hasn’t bought shipping boxes since last summer, saving thousands of dollars. Instead, a local bookstore gave him its boxes, and USPS provides free boxes when CSS uses its shipping services. Technology also saves him time. On eBay, Racicot can take a photo of an item to see how much it has sold for and how often.
CSS brought in a contractor to help scale up the operation. Now, every item is barcoded and sorted, and the nonprofit uses eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark and more.
“There was a lot of strategy behind it, so I needed some assistance,” Racicot said. “Then once they left, I just hit the ground running and have created a great team that is excited, passionate about seeing what something is actually worth and seeing the value in it and then getting into the right hands.”
CSS isn’t the only nonprofit leveraging the popular U.S. secondhand market. Goodwill and the Salvation Army also operate online resale stores, and eBay offers Charity Seller account benefits to nonprofit organizations.
According to CapitalOne Shopping Research, Nebraska has the highest proportion of non-profit thrift stores -- about 52%. With the online secondhand market only growing in value, more of the state’s nonprofits could enter the online space soon.
“Nostalgia, vintage is starting to come back, and even the younger generations are starting to see a desire to get a hold of some of those vintage items that we do receive,” Racicot said.
Racicot added that old items help people create new memories.
“There was a woman who said that she found a Pyrex dish from us. It had been in her family like 20 years, and it broke over Thanksgiving,” Racicot said. “It was her mom's, and she remembered growing up with it and it broke in the microwave because it got too hot, and she was devastated. We happened to have the same exact Pyrex bowl, and she was ecstatic. She said, ‘this is not the same bowl, but it's the exact same design and all that. Now, I can continue creating more memories with my kids.’”
Racicot said he’s shipped to nearly every U.S. state and to 15 countries, but the support stays local.
“Your item may go to London or Australia, wherever it's gone,” Racicot said. “But at the end of the day, the clients here in Southern Nebraska are the clients that we support.”