Real life MMD: My £1 charity shop vase is worth £750 — should I split the profit?

pitry

We bought some crystal glasses for £1.20 each and when we went home we found they went on Ebay for £60 for the set. We just needed the little brandy glasses so they are staying with us.
But I wouldn't have given any money back to charity should I decided to sell them.
We have recently noted that prices in many charity shops are increasing tenfold. I saw scarves going for £20, I can buy a new one for a lot less and they are also becoming picky as to what you can give them. The Red Cross doesn't accept any tv without a remote control and they don't want VHS players either! Last time I went to one of their shop they were selling a very heavy old style 32inch for over £150.00, I can get one on Ebay for a lot less!
I understand the need for money, but they have to be realistic and if my parents passed away and I decide to give their possession to charity, I'll make sure I'll check that anything of high value is kept!

Also, do you know that only 4.7% of your donation actually goes to the person it's intended to?


And many times Primark is cheaper then the charity shop......

cuba2008

I wouldn't feel obliged to give the charity half - maybe £50 donation because it's for charity - but even then I only tend to give to animal and children charities (personal choice and all that). I don't actually see any difference between finding something in a charity shop that's worth quite a lot of money and finding something in the attic of the house you've bought, or the trinket bought at the boot sale which then turns out to be worth thousands. Would you then hunt down the original owner to make sure they got a share? Following the logic of some comments suggesting you should donate half to the charity - that's fine as far as it goes. But times are hard for everyone and it could very well be that the OP's daughter really needs the money herself. I certainly wouldn't feel obliged to give the charity 50% of anything I made on the item; after all, whoever donated it originally obviously had no clue as to the value or surely they would have told the charity?

JesaRose

pitry wrote: »

Also, do you know that only 4.7% of your donation actually goes to the person it's intended to?

What charity are you talking about there? Do you mean the Red Cross? Its certainly not true of all charities so please be clear when giving out this kind of information. If you are referring to one in particular please make that clear

Chloe901

SINBAD wrote: »

As ever I find it really hard to understand how mean some people are on this website. Any amount above 1.50 is an unexpected windfall and should be returned to the charity. End of. Yes, sure the person has the legal right to keep the money, but morally, it's black and white.question is: what sort of a person are you?

The other day I realised I'd left my wallet on the Gatwick Express inside the airport! 60 quid inside, all my cards, boarding pass etc. I like to think that the reason I 1) managed to get back to the train (it hadn't left) 2) found my wallet and 3) it had all the above still in it, is the fact that whenever I find peoples' wallets, USBs, cash etc I make a massive effort to return what's not mine.

Hello! I'm pretty new to forums so I hope you'll forgive any faux pas on my part. Here we go:

Sinbad, the difference with this 'dilemma' and the example you give is that the lady in question bought and paid for the vase fair and square; it is rightfully and legally hers, and she is therefore entitled to do whatever she likes with it. If someone had found your wallet and pocketed the cash, they would be stealing, and so morally these are two entirely different circumstances.

Going back to the original question, I think she should keep the money. Many people have said something along the lines of 'support the charity and donate the money', but in my opinion, she has already been supporting the charity for as long as she has been shopping and spending in there. Let's face it, one of the main reasons we (or at least, I) shop in charity shops is to save money/get a bargain. This just happens to be a big bargain!

Also, I'm a firm believer in the saying 'everything happens for a reason', so as far as I'm concerned, the money is supposed to be in this lady's pocket!

Njal

SINBAD wrote: »

As ever I find it really hard to understand how mean some people are on this website. Any amount above 1.50 is an unexpected windfall and should be returned to the charity. End of. Yes, sure the person has the legal right to keep the money, but morally, it's black and white.question is: what sort of a person are you?

The other day I realised I'd left my wallet on the Gatwick Express inside the airport! 60 quid inside, all my cards, boarding pass etc. I like to think that the reason I 1) managed to get back to the train (it hadn't left) 2) found my wallet and 3) it had all the above still in it, is the fact that whenever I find peoples' wallets, USBs, cash etc I make a massive effort to return what's not mine.

I hate to break it to you but the reason you found your wallet has nothing to do with how you act when you find other's lost things.
Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people.

The daughter does not owe anything, let alone everything above £1.50.

The only issue is because she is selling it. She could have found out it's value but kept it anyway because she bought it because she liked it.
Or she could never have found it's value.

Personally I would donate nothing, but I think if somebody chose to do so I would be fine with that.
If they chose to donate everything above £1.50 because they thought they weren't entitled to it, I'd think they were...well, better not say really!

funnyguy

what a pointless thread to discuss.Simple answer is its up to the individual..and we are all individual.

brightonman123

part of me says give a share, though the other part says stuff em-

if they dont care enough to check value of goods donated, do they really care about the cause that funds supposedly being raised for..?