I've been buying hundreds of used bath/beach/dish towels at garage sales...for practically nothing. When the ladies ask what I'll do with them, I say, I use them in the shop to wipe oil etc. (and, I do that too, they're much cheaper that the 'rags' at Sam's).
LOL. I did freak one woman out when I said that I'd use them to soak up the blood on the floor of the operating room when the revolution starts. (I just did that once)
LOL!
/johnny