---
title: 'Is the Salvation Army Still a Scam?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=eZwdsZCFKzA'
video_id: 'eZwdsZCFKzA'
date: 2026-07-26
duration_sec: 985
---

# Is the Salvation Army Still a Scam?

> Source: [Is the Salvation Army Still a Scam?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eZwdsZCFKzA)

## Summary

The video is a follow-up to a previous bad experience buying from the Salvation Army's online store. The host tests if improvements have been made by purchasing an Apple lot, an Xbox 360, Pokémon games, and a PC gaming lot. While some items show improvement, significant issues like mislabeled items, locked devices, and privacy breaches remain.

### Key Points

- **Salvation Army's Acknowledgment** [00:12] — Salvation Army responded to the previous video, acknowledging the issues and promising improvements, including removal of hard drives and stricter policies.
- **Apple Lot Condition** [01:34] — The Apple lot included an iPod Touch, iPhone 5S, iPhone 7, iPod Nano, and iPad. The iPhone 7 was locked and had 56% battery health, the iPod Touch was glitchy, but the iPod Nano worked with 700 songs.
- **Xbox 360 Purchase** [05:53] — An Xbox 360 was bought for $83 including shipping. It was clean, came with games like Halo 3, and worked perfectly, booting to the NXE dashboard.
- **Pokémon Game Mix-Up** [09:13] — A copy of Pokémon Pearl was advertised, but the box contained Pokémon Diamond instead. Paid $89 for the mistake.
- **PC Gaming Lot Issues** [11:50] — The PC lot for $234 included a misrepresented graphics card (advertised RX 6600, actual RX 580), wrong power supply cables, and a router that was e-waste. Worse, it contained someone's personal address.
- **Overall Verdict** [15:18] — The host notes dramatic improvement over the previous bad experience, but still finds issues like doxxing, incorrect items, and mixed value.

### Conclusion

The Salvation Army's online store has improved but still has significant flaws, including privacy breaches and misrepresentation of items. It's not a complete scam, but buyer beware.

## Transcript

So recently we did a video where we bought and the results were terrible. "It recently came to our attention
you received from shopthesalvationarmy.com and genuinely appreciate you bringing this to light. and we take full accountability for that lapse.
for you to make another purchase after 30 days. and improvements will be evident." removal of hard drives,
that seems like a pretty clear and pretty correct policy. or have they forgotten all about However, there's one elephant
Last time I purchased as Pierre Luigi, and while I think the items did come through clearly they found me out.
Hit me with some names, we gotta retire, wait. (Alex laughing) - No. Ray Tracy.
So I have a number of items This should be a selection of Apple products. - [Alex] They described it as a bulk lot of six,
- So essentially, products that are likely but also maybe don't work. Very nicely wrapped up.
which, I mean, short of the cracked screen protector, We have an iPod Touch, 2nd gen 8 gig, - This is an iPhone 5S.
"Happy birthday Jeff, love Theresa xoxo." Wow, Theresa, you actually do love Jeff. They've been charging for a little bit now
and some not so positive signs. So whether that's from a jailbreak if you put into DFU mode and try to restore it,
The iPhone 7 has been charging for a very long time But our iPhone 5S actually works fairly well. However, it shows it's on Verizon, it says no service.
Oh yep, there is a SIM card in here. but they should have still just popped the SIM out, because other than that, it seems like it's fine.
However, this one, as you can see, is locked. because it was acting like a normal iPod it's locked to someone's Outlook.
I understand that this is still a functioning iPod I don't love the fact that it is locked but, eh.
Our iPod Nano is fully functioning, And not only that, it has 700 songs on it. Do y'all wanna listen to some 2000s iPod Nano music?
(upbeat music) - Hey, and the iPad is actually working, question mark? It is though the 64 gig version, it's on iOS 9.
How did we do? Like, how much did I spend? I was willing to go a lot higher - [Alex] We paid $71,
I don't like the fact that Is there a SIM in the iPhone 7 as well? But the answer is there is another SIM.
- Great, oh and it, did it boot up This was charging for like 45 minutes. So it has been factory reset.
Yeah, it looks like the SIM card is also not active. battery health is 56%. - Wow. - I don't think I've ever seen below 60.
at least this first batch of products? we actually got some pretty decent value, right, The iPod Touches are unfortunately mostly just sort of junk,
our iPod Nano just needs a battery, but it works, A dramatic improvement over the absolute dog water that we saw last time.
in my fever dreams of spending scrolling through shopthesalvationarmy.com, with a couple of items.
You maybe bid on a couple of extra items and you get upset and then you put more money on other items "Oh, I didn't mean to actually get that."
All that being said, this one, I'm also just looking for An Xbox 360.
So this is a complete in box, theoretically, Xbox 360. and you can see it was a refurbished console, because if you know anything about the Xbox 360,
they had to refurbish a few tens of millions of consoles. I was excited because based on the photos, And the answer is, oh hell yeah, brother.
Oh, oh wait. - Oh I love that game. - And "Halo 3." - And they're actually, yeah, and in the boxes.
I feel like someone got this and did not really use it. and it does have batteries. They expired in 2016.
- Damn it, you stole my joke, I was gonna say that too. Thank you, Alex, Hmm.
So I'm just gonna swap some cables. Did it work? - Yes. - (gasps) NXE, let's go, baby. (laughs)
which was the best one, but you know what are better than the Blades? - The New Xbox Experience, the NXE, the NXE.
Oh well, that's a little sad. 'cause I don't know why these aren't working. A controller that works and is functioning, hello.
We can watch video from Netflix, Zune and ESPN? Wow, that actually came out so smoothly. Is everyone ready to play the best game on the Xbox 360?
(Austin singing) How much did we pay - [Alex] We paid $83 with shipping.
- That's actually kind of, wait, what? they post a ton of old consoles, of course, right? I don't think that most of these sell for that much money
And I got it for way less than a hundred bucks, right? The actual price of it was like 65 or something. it was for $71 and $12 in shipping.
just so I could play the "Halo 3" theme song and I actually did tear up. Edit team, can we get a little flashback to the tear?
So this is an item that, You may recall, my house burned down.
- No, edit team always run the clip. I get to bring it up now too. Well, in that fire, some of my previous things were lost
So I have this little project that slowly but surely getting some things I used to own. Behold, my friends,
of "Pokemon Pearl" version, That better not be all. - [Ken] (laughs) He got ripped off.
Wait, that's "Diamond." - Ooh. in a copy of "Pokemon Pearl" box? Literally, it says "Pokemon Pearl" case and manual.
- Oh, I thought it meant "Pokemon Pearl" - [Ken] Well unfortunately, yeah, you scammed yourself, buddy.
I've still got a copy of "Pokemon Diamond," Besides who wants that big old (beep) looking at you anyway? he's got point. - Oh come on.
My house burned down. All right Mac, it took you 22 hours to get five badges? Austin Roasts Children's Save Files.
You got a Pichu at level 29? This seems like a perfectly reasonable copy How much did I pay for my
single copy "Pokemon Diamond" with a "Pearl" box? (Austin laughs) Oh no. - [Alex] You paid $89 including shipping.
- Wait, we got a whole Xbox and two games. but I feel like maybe they could have made it Sometimes I will read listings more carefully.
- Well... So this is a lot of PC gaming gear. Now I know for a gosh darn fact
people's information on it. the graphics card that I bought on this and I could literally read someone's name and address
So at the very least, they maybe took care of the digital information So we have ourselves a MSI,
which is not sealed in the box, So we'll take a look at that. So it just seems like one of those classic lots
A router? We also have a motherboard. which, yes, this is the one.
but this is from (beep) Maybe you should not give me someone's address
This should be though an actual motherboard I mean, it looks fine, physically. So it probably worked at some point
for a while and then just dropped it off which actually this is the 750 Oh, very dusty, incredibly dusty.
Wait, that's not the right power supply at all, what? but they gave us all of the cables from the EVGA, - [Ken] Yeah, we're mixing and matching the cables.
- [Ken] What the (bleep) is that? This is the sub for the Razer Leviathan, the sub by itself. Totally useless because there's nothing to plug it into.
we got ourselves a graphics card, an RX 6600. - It's actually a decent card, now this is from Best Buy, This is not the right goddamn graphics card at all.
- Oh, what is it? - It's an XFX RX 580. - [Alex] Yeah. I guess I'll do a little due diligence
this gaming PC lot of largely lies? back when I thought that we got
I thought that was a pretty fair price. We paid $234,
- Some of these items are straight just e-waste. I wouldn't really use that router, So what do we have to say about the Salvation Army?
I will say that it is dramatically better than last time. However, I think that when you look at all of it together, The fact that this lot came with
doxxed straight in the box that is on the website of the Salvation Army, not great. some of these items were just clearly not correct.
Like, that Xbox 360, incredibly clean. we still found some issues, right? you look at the fact that
It is, without a doubt, a dramatic improvement. Sounds like a song we would listen to on our iPod.
♪ We didn't know what we're supposed to do ♪ ♪ The Salvation Army is still needing salvation ♪ - Ahem, I got a little weird, I apologize.