Is it morally wrong....

themull1

I would have no qualms in buying from anywhere and then selling it to make a profit.

misskaytee

Hi Jim, i can understand what you are saying and the OP proberly wasn't intending to make mega bucks, but yes it is classed has trading and is seen as a business if you buy to sell on, no matter if you make a very small profit or not, many business dont make a profit,especially during the early years but they still have to register.
Infact even paperboys/girls should be registered with the taxman :eek:
although they wouldn't be earning enough to pay tax surely ?
The allowance before taxing for self employment is approx £5000, as tixy has said,
Im not sure how it would work if you were already in employment.

There are thousands of unregistered business sellers on ebay no doubt, some may get caught out, most wont i suspect,but
Im certain anyone struggling with debts, wouldn't like the taxman on their case aswel


Im not trying to put a dampener on the idea, i wouldn't like to see OP or anyone else trying to make an extra few quid to pay off their debts get into trouble.

Im almost certain that you should also declare extra income from say survey sites ect....But not many do, do they ?

I only know about this because i am considering starting my own secondhand online business, so ive been swotting up :rotfl:

thistledome

dreamdreamer wrote: »

I personally don't think so but can see both sides. The charity shops put things at low prices to ensure steady profits becaue they rely on said profits. They can't sit a jacket at £5 and wait 2 years for the person who's willing to pay that amount to come in, when hundreds might have paid £2 for it. Whilst the jacket you bought for £2 in a charity shop might sell for £5 on ebay, ebay has a HUGE audience compared to a charity shop on say, Felixstowe High St, so you're always going to sell for more on there. It's just basic economics.

I totally agree with this. I don't think the OP is doing anything wrong.

However, I do feel uncomfortable when you see someone on flog it or real deal who's knowingly bought something rare and/or valuable from a charity shop and auctions it for a very large sum of money (I'm not talking about a few quid, it can be hundreds or even thousands). I really can't stand the ones who unashamedly gloat about it.

I think that's greedy unless you share the profit with the charity.

mel12

My opinion would be its fine, as its a mutually beneficial exchange

- the charity gets their items sold quickly, at a price they feel is fair (they probably don't have the time or want to take the risk of selling on ebay, sorting out postage etc as well, though some charities do sell higher value stuff on ebay themselves).

- you get some money to pay off your debts, in return for the additional time you've spent shopping for suitable items, creating listings and posting things.


If you found items the charity hadn't realised were very high value (antiques/ paintings/ first edition books etc), or if you were working at the shop and delibrately reducing items for yourself to buy, then I think it would be an issue.

Car boot & jumble sales may be other options for even cheaper items to sell?

Theres nothing actually stopping you asking charity shop staff if they mind you selling it on if you're worried about it, the worst they can do is say they're uncomfortable with it.

mlp

What you could do in ebay when listing items for sale is to set a %age of the final sale price to be an automatic donation to charity....

Norfolk_Jim

I guess if you actually are trading it would be wise to declare it - you might even be able to ofset losses against tax if you pay tax. But I would like to know how long you need to keep and use your charity shop purchase before it becomes your own goods which you can sell and not be classed as trading.
I'm planning to sell as many of my own possessions as I can in the next year or two, one way or another, on the basis I'd rather do without and not have money worries screaming at me every moment of every waking day - and you dont have to pay tax on selling off your own possessions and neither is it trading (Unless I use it as the basis of a new busines, which I'm not - my job demands all I have to give of myself as it is without a second one!), but don't fancy HMRC oggling my multi E-Bay 99p listings and thinking "Investigate - Investigate" (Think those last two words in DaLEK accent)

mandragora_2

I'd say good for you, if you have the initiative and energy to get yourself out of debt by doing this. It's not morally wrong at all; the charity could have done this themselves.

Another poster has mentioned that if a purchase makes a lot of money at auction, the charity *ought* to get a share - at the risk of bring flamed, I also disgaree with that - you don't see the charities going back to the original donor and letting them know their offcast donation was worth several thousands, and are they sure they'd really like to donate it? Charites do amazing work but are enterprises - they pay their staff, make a profit and do what they need to to operate efficiently. You can do the same, if in doing so you get out of debt and into liquidity, good for you. For what it's worth, car boot sales tend to offer better value than many charity shops, which I find to be overpriced nowadays.

misskaytee

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

I guess if you actually are trading it would be wise to declare it - you might even be able to ofset losses against tax if you pay tax. But I would like to know how long you need to keep and use your charity shop purchase before it becomes your own goods which you can sell and not be classed as trading.
I'm planning to sell as many of my own possessions as I can in the next year or two, one way or another, on the basis I'd rather do without and not have money worries screaming at me every moment of every waking day - and you dont have to pay tax on selling off your own possessions and neither is it trading (Unless I use it as the basis of a new busines, which I'm not - my job demands all I have to give of myself as it is without a second one!), but don't fancy HMRC oggling my multi E-Bay 99p listings and thinking "Investigate - Investigate" (Think those last two words in DaLEK accent)

:rotfl:

I think quite a few clothes sellers have had to upgrade their accounts to business accounts, even though some were not traders, simply because they had listed a large amount of BNWT( brand new with tags) Items and varying sizes. This may well look suspicious but i think a lot of people have thin and fat clothes in the wardrobe! and if theres anywhere to meet compulsive spenders or ex cs its within these boards.
Unfortunatly, there are ebay members who will report private sellers as business sellers to ebay, just because they think your account looks like it could be a business, People like to dig around in other peoples business, some people do it on here when they go looking at what a poster as previously posted on other threads ect, same sort of thing !

Im not sure how long you would have to "own" something before selling it, i think you could run into problems if you regularly listed similar items.

HTH

Flat_Eric

I work in a street which has 8 charity shops !! :eek: along side /near my office

I walk past the window of one of them twice daily and I am horrified at the prices they charge. They have been given the stuff for free so why do they charge so much ? They are pricing themselves out of the market in my opinion.

I see nothing wrong with what you intend to do - the charity shop have set their price, you have paid it and the money is in the charity's shop till leaving space on the shelf for something else. Charity Shops (as I have mentioned above) are becoming wise to brand names and charge accordingly so I think they will have some very full shelves in 2011 unless they reduce their prices.

misskaytee

It does also go the other way ~
Before christmas i paid £20 for a pair of boots from a charity shop which i wouldn't normally of paid "in a charity shop" but knew if i'd bought off ebay i would of had to pay £6 p&p aswel,