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

bogwart

It's really a matter of conscience. If your daughter supports the charity from which she bought the vase, her response would be different to a person who was just grazing for a bargain.



Depending on the outcome of the auction (just because it has a reserve of £750 doesn't mean that the vase will fetch that figure) I'd give the shop £100 or so. But to avoid any subsequent misunderstandings I'd keep quiet about where the cash came from.

bergeracoise

hi, just to let you know, it may be quite easy for the charity shop to trace the owner as these days many shops take the details from donors so gift aid can be claimed on the sale of their donated items.

dktreesea

Rather than giving them the cash, how about having a big clear out and giving them a decent sized donation of things instead? You get space and they get something to sell. And if you can gift aid it, even better.

Mollyvent

I'm a great believer in what goes around comes around. So I would give a lot of the money back to charity, one way or another.

scrimperdave

I don't think there's any "should" about this. It's entirely up to your daughter how she deals with it.

Someone donates an item to a charity shop. They are not expecting any return from a donation.

The charity shop places a value on the item. They offer it for sale at that price. Someone pays that price, the charity has what they asked for.

Everyone is happy so far.

Then Whoops! somebody has the good fortune to realise they have bought a bargain and may make a substantial profit.

So who is unhappy here? The donor and the charity shop received what they asked for.

This is not like the situation where someone has donated a jacket and then realises they have overlooked the £200 in the concealed pocket but the charity shop won't return it. (Has happened, and I would censure that charity.)

Everyone got what they wanted, but your daughter was lucky. Whatever she chooses to do should not be motivated by guilty hindsight.

littleskintdragon

Would they have told u if youd given them something so valuable? - probably not! Think of it as a good find and make the most of it. Times are hard!!

janajay

This isn't a legal question, but a moral one: times are hard, but even harder for the beneficiaries of many charities.

Of course the charity doesn't know it's missed out, but the owner of the vase does. I'd give the charity least half...and then be able to sleep at night knowing I'd done the right thing.

Principles are more valuable than monetary gain.

moggymutt

janiebquick wrote: »

Charity shop staff are trained these days in antique identification, so it's really their fault they missed it. Of course, your conscience may suggest that you give that particular charity an extra large donation.

I agree with your second statement (oh to live in a world where people had consciences), but not your first. Where on earth has that idea come from- possibly the large national charities that afford to pay staff. We search through ebay, but all of us are sadly very busy poeople. (Even though retired , my life is looking after 40 cats, working in the charity shop, growing plants for the shop, and trying to fit that in around very dominating bipolar)

In our local cat rescue shop we are all total volunteers, not paid, luckily 2 have a little experience in that area. We are TOTALLY devastated when we find we have made a big mistake, knowing just how much our small, local charity could have benefited from the money. I get haunted by knowing how many cats and kittens die each year anyway, and would just see my failure to have realised its value as me really letting down the cats.

Even If they didn't like cats, I would hope that anyone with an ounce of decency would give the money to a human charity. If I was faced with someone saying they'd made £100's on a buy from us, but didn't like cats, I'd ask them to give to Ty Hafan (children's hospice)

Mind you, in my nice imaginary world, where paople all have consciences, no cats would be getting dumped, and everyone would get their cats neutered. Perhaps one day that imaginary world will be achieved. (World peace? , one day, please?)

IF someone did come in and give us half the profits we would be ecstatic, so grateful, because as well as our charity not losing out, it would partly restore our faith in human nature. I'd just want to hug the person to pieces!

(We have on occassion, had something from our shelves brought over to us by a potential customer, who has been kind enough to point out that something we've priced for say £1, is actually worth say £20, and we have been really grateful)

Quite genuinely, if I bought something that I could sell on at huge profit I would give half to the charity it came from, and half for the charity I volunteer for. It' one thing getting a bargain from a charity shop- we hope all of our customers are getting bargains, but the first post is about volunteers making a genuine mistake.

EccentricRavenJewellery

Hi, I would make a donation, but not as much as half (me personally, I could't afford to do that), and I would make it to a charity I really, really liked, not necessarily the one whose shop I bought the vase from.

joannie

Hi,

well personally I think you should make them a substantial donation. You will feel a lot better too.:j:j