MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Janine profit from a Freecycle telly?

chrissie121

This is a no brainer to me. You were lucky enough to be given a TV so make someone elses day a bit happier by giving it away to them.
A bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine as a thank you would be nice for either party.!

tallgirld

It depends which work colleague offered me the £50!! If if was one of my favourites then I would give it to them for nothing. If not then I would be more than happy to take the money :-)

nitrofunction

I have given away many items on FreeCycle.

Don't forget you are not obliged to give your item to whomever asks for it.

What I do, is read the replies to my FreeCycle posts; you quickly get the idea of who's not being sincere, and those who have a legitimate reason for wanting the item.

There have been some items that I have posted, where if I get a bad 'vibe' from the only person replying to the post, I would rather withdraw the post and send the item off to the tip instead!

That's the way I respond; it makes me feel good, (possibly) knowing I have geniunely helped someone; makes me feel superior too!

Anyway, if I had made a decision and passed an item on, I would not WANT to know what happened to it; if someone had profited from my laziness!

Ignorance (in this case) is bliss!

tramsay

I see nothing wrong with it. She's better off and good for her. In fact nobody loses, her colleague gets a good deal too.

aloiseb

I don't see why she shouldn't let her colleague have it for £50 - she got it from Freecycle on good faith,and didn't intend to sell it on. If her colleague knows she got the TV for nothing but is still prepared to give her £50 for it, that seems fine to me.

She's not in the same category as, say, someone who had been made redundant and was making money for Xmas by obtaining things on Freecycle and selling them on, on Ebay or car boot. (Which might have been a more interesting moral question btw!)

jgriggle

Sell it! The freecycle person gave it away because it was worth nothing to them. If it's worth £50 to the other person and someone's willing to give them that then go for it. For the mos part, people don't give away stuff on Freecycle out of generosity to others, they do it to get rid of something they couldn't be bothered to go through the hassle of selling or couldn't be bothered to take to the tip.

redglass_2

If she was taking FreeCycle stuff deliberately intending to sell it, that would be wrong, but she didn't do this, so I think she's entitled to sell it. It would be nicer though if she put the TV back into FreeCycle.

I have occasionally sold possessions that originally came from FreeCycle, but they have always been things I genuinely wanted/needed at the time and now don't need any more. I never take Freecycle stuff with the intention of selling it on.

eurovision_fan

I think Sally has a right to sell on, but if she feels honestly guilty for the making a profit, i think Sally could take the £50 and either give half to charity and give it to Freecycle if they have a sponsored charity.
Failing that Sally could always put forward other items on freecycle as a thank you to its members.

crossleydd42

The decent thing would be to sell the TV (friend would be happy with the price) then donate the proceeds to charity (which would be happy). Everyone benefits!

Anon

I cannot see a moral issue - Freegle/Freecycle is keeping items out of landfill. She took it off someone's hands (and did them a favour collecting it!), no longer needs it and it is her good fortune that someone is willing to buy it.

Good luck to her!

Anon