Hey I'm relatively new to customizing. But grew up on 3 3/4 GI Joes. While getting actual figures in this scale I've had a lot of luck at flea markets. The hands down cheapest place to get set pieces and random vehicles has been the local Goodwill Outlet. I've been to normal good wills and they almost never have anything. But the goodwill outlet sells all Toys and house wares by the pound. I've even fished out real gijoes. A couple were intact! Though I get a lot of Lanard and chap mei stuff. The thing to know is get there when they open. Because when they bring the bins out its all tail bones and elbows as people dig through. There are tons of train set stuff, race track stuff and playsets of all kinds. You know the ones parents buy but always take up to much space to keep. If you don't know where one is I suggest you look and see for your area because its crazy the stuff people turn in. It's also great to be "recycling" these Toys and put the money to a good cause.

tips:
-hand sanitizer
-drink of some kind: diging is hot work
-Grab a bucket, there almost always Halloween candy buckets, I grab one of these to load the small bits in so they don't fall through the cart
-Watch out for theives, in my area its safe no one steals from you no one pick pockets you or anything but people might take something out of your cart. Stuff you worked hard to dig up. And unlike Walmart you may never see that thing again or know what is was or where it came from. ----Ask the people who work there I'd these are all the bins. At mine they bring bins out about every couple hours and take bin off the floor when they do.
-Always do a second sweap. People put stuff back stuff you might want and when I have foundb real Joes its usually after everyones dug through and I'm on a second or even third pass the bins are big and small figures sink.
- grab a bat or sword or poll from the bin to move stuff around that you can't reach im 6+ feet tall and I still can't reach the back of the bins de without some help
- don't hit people with it no matter how dumb they are..

What do they charge per pound?

I've never seen that, interesting...

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It seems that every GW outlet handles the shopping experience differently. One I went to had two sides you shopped one side while they stocked the other. When it got about an hour away from switching sides people started lining up to get a number. When it got time to switch sides everybody lined back up in the order that they were numbered and they opened the gates.

after shopping the open side people would stand and watch as the other side got stocked taking mental notes of what path they wanted to take when they switched sides.