What is your charity shop bargain of the week?

DulceMiel

Pollycat wrote: »

How much do you sell your books for, though?

If - like a lot of places - they are priced at £1 or £1.50 (or, like one of the BHF in our town - £2 :eek:), they might struggle to sell.
I buy paperback books for my holidays and at the moment have a stock of approx 50, I'll pay up to £1 for an author I really like.

My local Hospice shop sell their books at 25p each or 5 for £1 and their turnover of stock is really good.

Rather than getting 4p for a book that's not sold, surely it would be better to sell them at 25p or even 10p each?

I rarely see books reduced in the main charity shops.

This is just a general moan at the pricing policy that some charities have.

I agree with you on the point that they may be better off pricing them at 25p or 10p, but yes, we all know about them pricing policies! Which is a shame, but hey ho, the charities do what they think is best and that's okay.

It's funny. I've been trying to sell my books at carboots to raise much needed funds for some work experience abroad and oh my!... Even at 20p they're not shifting, and I've kept them in good condition, so it makes me wonder how charity shops manage to sell any at all! :rotfl:

Bogof_Babe

It's the same with CDs. I buy them to put on my iPod, and have found some superb ones for 50p, while some tatty scratched old things with only five songs on are priced £1.99 or more.

An Age UK shop I was in today priced ALL CDs at £1.99. You could see some had been there for ages, and would never sell. I got lucky with a Very Best of Meat Loaf double CD for £1.99 that was only put out yesterday - right place at the right time for once :j.

sairy2010

Unfortunately I don't have any say in how much things are priced at. This is laid down by head office. They decide that books sell at a certain price.
They have standard prices for all our shops. We are a very small Norfolk based charity so I hope they know best.
I just volunteer two days a week. I therefore do not want to get into an argument about it. Some one asked what happened to the books and I answered with what happens in our shop

DulceMiel

sairy2010 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have any say in how much things are priced at. This is laid down by head office. They decide that books sell at a certain price.
They have standard prices for all our shops. We are a very small Norfolk based charity so I hope they know best.
I just volunteer two days a week. I therefore do not want to get into an argument about it. Some one asked what happened to the books and I answered with what happens in our shop

It's interesting to see how much it varies from place to place Of course some will be more relaxed with pricing than others. Anyway, I'm on a book buying ban now so shan't concern myself too much. Got enough to see me through a couple years at least!

maman

Interesting that it was in the news today that Oxfam says it's taking less in its charity shops (and believes the same is true of other charities). They put it down to people not spending because of the recession. I think they're rather missing the point. People are buying less because what they sell is no longer value for money. People love a bargain and a well worn dress from Primark/Matalan/George isn't a bargain when it's priced the same or higher than buying a brand new one.

kboss2010

Some charity shops are really pricey! Oxfam, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK are particularly bad. I find the best value ones are Clan (Aberdeen), Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and the local smaller ones like the Sailors Society.

I bought an original watercolour painting (50cm x 80cm) of Aberdeen University by a local artist for £5 (similar prints in local art shops can cost £200+!!), a men's hollister tshirt for £4, brightly coloured plant pots for 50p, a bird print sheer blouse for £3.99, 90x90" heavy lined curtains for £10, a new men's monsoon scarf for £3, a George stripy vneck men's jumper for £3 and a painted martini glass for £3

Pollycat

sairy2010 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't have any say in how much things are priced at. This is laid down by head office. They decide that books sell at a certain price.
They have standard prices for all our shops. We are a very small Norfolk based charity so I hope they know best.
I just volunteer two days a week. I therefore do not want to get into an argument about it. Some one asked what happened to the books and I answered with what happens in our shop

Sorry, Sairy, I wasn't having a go at you about the pricing.

As I said, it was just a general moan about pricing - and I meant across a lot of different charities.
I just think that some charities aren't doing themselves any favours.

It's a topic that comes up quite a lot on this thread.

maman

Pollycat wrote: »

I just think that some charities aren't doing themselves any favours.

It's a topic that comes up quite a lot on this thread.

Yes, and such a shame that charities just doggedly keep their heads in the sand. It hasn't stopped me giving but I'm buying less and less.

madwife28

Yesterday I bought from Age UK, a beautiful navy pleated long chiffon skirt (£4) and a pair of red with white spots mary jane heeled shoes (£5). So pleased and look very chic together!

AimingForBetter

Went for a quick look in our local CS yesterday and found a pair of like new M&S Footglove leather mules for the bargain price of £1.

They are almost the same as the ones I had to bin at the end of last summer which had lasted me for years (and they were only seconds from the factory shop for about £10) so I am very pleased.

Did pick up a few bits for the kids - a brand new word game and 3 books - a couple of weeks ago total of £2.

Very happy with our local CS at the mo (it's a MacMillan support) as the quality and variety has def improved over the last few weeks. There are also some lovely ladies in there who like a chat!

Their books are 50p paperback or £1 hardback and I've picked up some good ones, the normal CS prices in the towns around here are £1 upwards for paperbacks.