What happened to the second-hand bowling balls?

[Aunt Carol]

When I was young, there were always used bowling balls at Goodwill. Super cheap, too; a couple of bucks, so maybe ten bucks today's money by the hamburger scale.

Now I haven't seen a bowling ball at Goodwill (or anywhere else) for months.

Did the last bowlers die thirty years ago? Where did the balls go?

I picture a cave, lit by phosphorescent fungus, the floor wall-to-wall with swirly-patterned bowling balls.

 

[rel=alternate]

They are bulky and heavy. I am guessing most shops are just not interested for this reason, as well as inventory cost.

If you're going to have something heavy seating on the shelves or in the back for months, you'd rather have a larger amount of items with a higher sale through. Probably higher margin as well, because I can't think that there is much to be made on a $10 bowling ball.

 

[Fat Gollum]

I have two free bowling balls right here for you in my pants.

 

[Aunt Carol]

I have two free bowling balls right here for you in my pants.

Really? Great! Do you have a couple dozen friends like you?

I gotta go buy more rebar.

 

[Fat Gollum]

Really? Great! Do you have a couple dozen friends like you?
View attachment 6632330
I gotta go buy more rebar.

No but I have a couple more dozen pairs of bowling balls in my pants, but you'll have to pay for them.

 

[Gog & Magog]

No but I have a couple more dozen pairs of bowling balls in my pants, but you'll have to pay for them.

Are you sure those ain't some kind of horrific testicular cancer?

 

[Temmie]

I bought them all to drop off overpasses. Aiming is very difficult so I've needed a lot.

 

[Aunt Carol]

inventory cost.

You make good points, other than this. I'm looking at thrift stores where the items are donated, so their expenses are staff/real estate/disposing of unsellable donations.

Then again, if bowling balls are still being donated but don't sell, maybe it's easier for them to chuck them in the Dumpster than to let them eat up shelf space.

What I'm getting is: if I want to be quirky on a yardwide scale, I gotta pay a lot more or get a time machine.

 

[Fat Gollum]

Are you sure those ain't some kind of horrific testicular cancer?

No.

 

[SandyCat]

I've been keeping all the free bowling balls from the bowling alley in my basement with the rest of my free stuff sorry about that

 

[TheRetardKing]

I ate them all. I thought they were giant jawbreakers.

 

[biglurker]

Wild Guess: The vast majority of people only casual bowl nowadays so there isn't any reason to have your own ball. The ones who don't probably aren't going to sell a custom made ball, but less donate it to goodwill.
In fact, I'm surprised you managed to find them common at your goodwill in the first place. Maybe an avid bowler died in your area?

 

[Gangstalker #32194]

you're asking too many questions, stop asking about the bowling balls, don't worry about it, just live your life and forget about this issue and you won't have any problems

 

[Aunt Carol]

Wild Guess: The vast majority of people only casual bowl nowadays so there isn't any reason to have your own ball. The ones who don't probably aren't going to sell a custom made ball, but less donate it to goodwill.
In fact, I'm surprised you managed to find them common at your goodwill in the first place. Maybe an avid bowler died in your area?

Hm. I think you're right about the current popularity of bowling being involved. These definitely weren't all the same bowler's balls; they were all different weights and the ones with names different names on them. Unless the Goodwills in my hometown were dealing with the estate of Bowling Georg, who gave all his bowling balls different names so he could tell them apart.

Bowling peaked in the 1960s (dying off so hard that Robert Putnam called his 2000 book about anomie and the death of community Bowling Alone.) so it was probably Silent Generation adults doing a lot of the serious bowling. I remember at least a half dozen bowling balls per chain thrift store in the late 1980s--mid 1990s, which would be around the time the Silent Gen was hitting their 60s: downsizing, clearing out the back of the closet, or dying from something cardiac if they had bad luck. Maybe just messing up their shoulder joints.

There's still a rack of misc. golf clubs at every thrift store like I remember; presumably golf has stayed more stable. Then again, I haven't been sizing up golf clubs to make art out of.

 

[Hepativore]

You make good points, other than this. I'm looking at thrift stores where the items are donated, so their expenses are staff/real estate/disposing of unsellable donations.

Then again, if bowling balls are still being donated but don't sell, maybe it's easier for them to chuck them in the Dumpster than to let them eat up shelf space.
View attachment 6632365
What I'm getting is: if I want to be quirky on a yardwide scale, I gotta pay a lot more or get a time machine.

You can always get a bunch of gazing balls in different colors.

 

[Aunt Carol]

You can always get a bunch of gazing balls in different colors.

I forgot to emphasize how cheap I am.

But seriously, gazing balls are cool, and I have a couple. You can't forget that they're made of glass, though, and if you put them somewhere they might get kicked or lawnmower'd, you're going to have to look for glass shards in the grass.

I wanted to make a bottle tree once, but while I was in the planning stages I realized that the place I wanted to put it would be in full view of kids walking to school and wandering hobos who love a good bottle deposit.

Left to my own devices I would decorate like a bowerbird, but you ignore the local hobo ecosystem at your own peril.

 

[dick brain]

you're asking too many questions, stop asking about the bowling balls, don't worry about it, just live your life and forget about this issue and you won't have any problems

I knew they were eggs.

 

[Gangstalker #32194]

I knew they were eggs.

you need to shut your fucking mouth right fucking now

 

[DankSmoker]

Those dead guy's bowling balls are haunted, why the hell do you want to decorate your lawn with them?

 

[DankSmoker]

I wanted to make a bottle tree once, but while I was in the planning stages I realized that the place I wanted to put it would be in full view of kids walking to school and wandering hobos who love a good bottle deposit.
View attachment 6633394

Also this would be fun to shoot at with a pellet gun. You could make a game out of it with those different colored bottles.