Slim Pickings in the Charity Shops

MaggieBaking

thriftychick wrote: »

I've been put off giving anything to charity shops after Mary Portas did her makeover, she made me feel that unl

Don't be daft. You have to realise that some people do donate what should be rubbish or rags and she's trying to disuade that practice as it's so costly for charities to dispose of it.

If you own an item of clothing and love it and wear it to death - when it is no longer fit to wear just don't donate it to a charity shop - your local recycling bank will have a bin for textiles.

However, if you own something that is in good condition - perhaps it's out of style, too big, too small, or you're the type who wont wear the same outfit to the same place then charity shop it rather than throw it away. Same with children's toys and the same with other bric-a-brac.

She's not saying if it's not expensive don't bother - what she's saying is, if it's crusty, or stained, and you know that no one else will want it - don't take it to the charity shop. Did you see the state of that suede jacket someone had offered? Yuk!

It might not be in your circle of friends but I know people who have brand new or nearly new clothes who just bin them and she is trying to encourage those fashionistas to charity shop - not dissuade people who already do it to stop.

seraphina

MaggieBaking wrote: »

Don't be daft. You have to realise that some people do donate what should be rubbish or rags and she's trying to disuade that practice as it's so costly for charities to dispose of it.

It is not true that it costs charities to dispose of rags. IIRC the going rate for scrap rag is about £800/ton.

If you have a bag from a charity through your door, which they ask you to fill up with old clothes and leave out for collection, it is almost certainly a scheme run by a third party, who sells on the scrap rags and gives the charity a cut.

the_cat

Popped into a local cs today..... paid of value tesco shorts brand new with tags. original price£3. sold in tesco sale for 75p. charity shop price £2.75!

Now I know they have to make money where they can, but seriously!:rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

Eh, I think the bad-pricing is due to a misunderstanding of the retail price. Hardly surprising when you look at the age of a lot of the staff in charity shops, really. BUT this can sometimes work in the buyer's favour, especially with foreign manufactured clothing. The lovely ladies in a particular shop near me don't appear to understand the second-hand value of MaxMara. I do! At another shop near some friends of mine a lovely black Armani trouser-suit was being offered for £15. If I'd had £15 on me at the time I'd have bought and sold it on ebay.

One recent "find" was a massive (and heavy) three-inch thick wooden butcher-block chopping-board. I suspect the weight was the reason it wasn't snapped up. I got it for £4.50 and very nice it is, too.

ceridwen

I certainly agree that many charity shop volunteers don't realise just how cheap "disposable fashion" is in shops like Pr*mark, Tesc*, etc and therefore price in accordance with the secondhand value of the clothes they themselves buy. I have pointed out to a shop myself before now that they were trying to charge the "new" price for a cheapie teeshirt and got nowhere.

On the other hand - there ARE still bargains to be had. A fave ever cardigan cost about £5 brand new from a charity shop - I could see instantly that it had been someones misbuy or similar and would have normally cost around the £80-£100 mark. I wore that a lot until I darn well shrank it by accident:(

On the "giving end" - my mother sometimes buys pretty expensive clothes (if normally only ever at sale prices and a couple of reductions later.....) and I always get first refusal when she throws out little-worn clothes. However - she is a different size to any I will ever be and slightly different tastes to me as well - so there certainly have been instances of me donating Country Casuals and Jaegar clothing to a charity shop - so someone will have got lucky from that. Some people (ie me for instance:rotfl:) simply cant be bothered to go through the whole learning how to sell things on EBay route for the odd few "worthwhile" items we have - hence I just go in order of priority:
- offer to friends for nowt
- try and "sell" through the LETS Scheme
- give to charity shops

hence clothing usually goes to the charity shops...

I just want to "get rid" in the quickest/easiest way possible and can only recall actually selling something for cash once - ie an armchair I advertised in a free ad. in the local paper and someone promptly came and grabbed it and pronounced it a bargain for £15.

It really does come down sometimes to how a potential donor values their time for getting the best deal possible from something. Personally - I'm quite prepared to spend absolutely ages having a go at preserving foods/trying out unusual foods/foraging for obscure foods and its simply not remotely worth it financially - but I have other reasons for doing it (like I enjoy it for instance) but I dont want to spend any time at all on "getting rid..." because I hate it...

hollydays

If a charity shops knows its frequented by people who like to buy their clother there,for reasons of thrift,recycling or liking to give to the charity,you cant blame the charity for charging top whack (eg oxfam).I know some charity shops that only sell nearly new,or hardly worn stuff-they smell different-and while some ARE expensive,others are not. It could be argued that the charity who charges more is doing more for itself and its beneficiaries.I like to look for as new kidsa clother for my family and or top brands-but you sometimes get these at car boot sales/jumble sales too.

sb44

GreyQueen wrote: »

Also, as most of my own clothes are pre-owned, when I do have a turn-out they are really only fit for the rag-bag as I tend to wear favoured items to death. misguided.

Do you still take the 'rags' into the charity shops?

I used to bin mine until they told me they get paid for them.

They are bagged and weighed and they get paid for them by weight.



So don't throw away your rags folks, just bag them and stick a tag on saying rags and they will be glad of them.

BitterAndTwisted

I can't see how they can't get paid for rags: there are companies who will collect them from your door and pay 40 pence a kilo for them (I think). I expect that's what happens to those bogus charities who put their collection bags through the letter-box.

Rage_in_Eden

I think it depends on the charity shop itself. I approached one with a huge collection of Cross Stitch magazines most of which had their kits on the front - simply didn't have the time to e-bay them as they take ages to shift. They bluntly told me "well you can give them to us but we'll probably bin them".....rang another charity shop who practically bit my hand off and even offered to come and collect them as they "can't get enough craft stuff" - made an entire window display out of them and the next time I went in they told me they'd made loads from them..... incidentally the first shop I've also heard turned away a couple who had found a couple of boxes of first edition paperbacks of Dan Dare type stuff from the 70s in their loft in perfect condition and they went to another shop who practically fainted with delight and were unpacking the boxes as they came in! All of them were in the window within 24-hours ....and they all went... But yeah sometimes I do see things in local charity shops which are priced higher than they would have been originally. But I'm getting wise to those ones now - suprisingly they seem to be the ones that always have notices up asking for donations....I wonder why that might be.....:rotfl:

FatVonD

There is a certain chain of charity shops in our area that charge ridiculous amounts for their clothing and have the most obnoxious staff. I actually had an argument with one a couple of years back when she started telling me how lovely a hat I was looking at was, I agreed it was lovely but too expensive for me (£25) and she launched into telling me that the hospice was the charity, not the customers! I told her that if she had a problem dealing with people maybe she should get a different job After we left the shop a man ran down the road after me to say she'd done exactly the same thing to him the week before, I avoid the whole chain now.

Re lack of stock, I blame ebay, I know that I give clothes a once over and if I think I can sell it I will and I'm sure others do the same. I still give them anything too heavy to make it worthwhile posting but not nearly as much as I used to.