Great way to recycle books for Charities

JohnH1

I have found this new site that lets you recycle books, cds and dvds - and raise money for Water Aid and Sightsavers. Do some good with those old books. It is called Only One Pound (£1 goes to the caharities) at https://www.onlyonepound.org
Not an ad just a plug for worthwile causes!

jo_b_2

A well-meant gesture, but I think the site is a bit misleading suggesting that 'most' books can be posted for about 75p!!

As somebody who sells books regularly via Amazon marketplace, costs of posting books have increased massively since the Royal Mail introduced 'Pricing in Proportion.' It is now only possible to send very thin paperbacks (that fit under large letter proportions) for less than a pound.

Most sellers using this site would very soon find themselves out of pocket if they only receive £1 for every book they sell and have to meet the cost of posting it themselves! Far more moneysaving just to donate to a local charity shop surely?

Edit: I've read through the terms and conditions again and it seems as though the 'sellers' don't actually receive any money at all. I can't really see why this would work and why anybody would pay the costs of posting out a book to somebody else when the charity concerned is only going to receive a pound? Surely the only people to benefit would be buyers getting a cheap book?

JohnH1

To be fair - I've found it OK when posting and the site does go into detail about the postal charges. Perhaps I have an understanding local Post Office! Got two paperbacks sent at 60p each. Water Aid doesn't have high street shops and I am a keen supporter of their work and accept as a seller I am making a commitment. Buyers can make extra donations direct to the charities (correct spelling this time!) – which both did when they received the books I posted Not for everybody I agree – it does require a touch of altruism! Maybe Moneysaving is the wrong forum!

jo_b_2

JohnH1 wrote: »

To be fair - I've found it OK when posting and the site does go into detail about the postal charges. Perhaps I have an understanding local Post Office! Got two paperbacks sent at 60p each. Water Aid doesn't have high street shops and I am a keen supporter of their work and accept as a seller I am making a commitment. Buyers can make extra donations direct to the charities (correct spelling this time!) – which both did when they received the books I posted Not for everybody I agree – it does require a touch of altruism! Maybe Moneysaving is the wrong forum!

Hi. Didn't mean to sound too critical of the concept. Even though this is a moneysaving forum most of us do have some charitable intentions too!Although the site does go into postage costs, I think that it is a bit misleading. Particularly suggesting that people offer up their old textbooks! They could easily cost over £5 to post.Glad the site has some dedicated users though and welcome to this one.

Moon~Shadow

JohnH1 wrote: »

I have found this new site that lets you recycle books, cds and dvds - and raise money for Water Aid and Sightsavers. Do some good with those old books. It is called Only One Pound (£1 goes to the caharities) at https://www.onlyonepound.org
Not an ad just a plug for worthwile causes!

Our local Tesco has a Book Recyling Bank which is always full and I believe these go to Orphanages and Third World Countries.

The 'Bank' is not huge like the bottle banks so I think some people may not even see them.

HTH

soolin

I too sell a great number of books and it is very rare that I can send a book for less than £1.52 as a second class packet. I wonder if the site was written before the pricing in proportion charges came in last year?

On reflection I think I would prefer to use my local charity shop, that welcomes my books with open arms as I'm careful which ones I donate. The rest of mine go into the Oxfam recycling bins.

Thank you John for posting this and please don't think we are being picky, but it might just be worth dropping the charity a line to say that they may need to update their site to take into account the new shipping rates.

Soo

annie-c

I think the 65p overhead cost is huge and I don't see anywhere on the site that the use of this fee is explained. (for each £1 purchase there is a 65p additional fee paid to 'onlyonepound')

After the 65p overhead is removed, Paypal charges are taken from the £1 and then the remainder goes to the registered charities (which presumably have their own overhead costs?) And on top of all this the seller 'donates' the postage costs. I wonder what proportion of the total cost of transferring the books actually makes it to the charity?

It sounds like a good idea in principle but I don't think the website owners make clear what thier role is - they do not claim themselves to be a charity.

Maybe I am worrying over nothing though as there don't seem to be many books on the register anyway.

LittleVoice

The site does mention pricing in proportion and has link to Royal Mail postage calculator.

Water Aid is a UK charity: Sightsavers International does not appear to be.

I would be a little concerned about whether the onlyonepound site is operating properly in advertising the charities and saying it is raising funds for them when it does not include the charity number (though there is a link to WaterAid website which includes the number).

I'm possibly being too cautious over this one.

only1Steve

Hi, I picked up this forum post when checking our site stats. First thanks to John for the original plug!

Some interesting comments and maybe I can clarify some of them. No need to be cautious - we are genuine!

Only One Pound is an official funding partner to both Water Aid and Sightsavers - both are UK based charities and their reg numbers are listed on the site - i.e. in the "How it works" page and on the "Charities" page.

Only One Pound passes all of the £1 (hence the site name) to the charities and retains the 65p for site expenses and promotional materials - for example, we have bookmarks and flyers that we circulate. By the time PayPal take their fee we are left with about 40p of each transaction - not much to run and maintain a web site. The site was launched in June '07 and the number of listings and members has grown steadily. It is specifically targeted for WaterAid and Sightsavers as neither have High Street shops.

As for postage - yup the Royal Mail certainly have made it more complicated! But put a book in a good manila envelope reinforce with sellotape and it can get posted for a lot less than Amazon charge - I've done it!

Your comments are appreciated and we will look at the wording on the site to make it clearer.

I don’t want to abuse Martin’s Forum hospitality – just thought I clear up a few points!

Steve
Only One Pound

soolin

only1Steve wrote: »

As for postage - yup the Royal Mail certainly have made it more complicated! But put a book in a good manila envelope reinforce with sellotape and it can get posted for a lot less than Amazon charge - I've done it!

Just to clarify my point about postage. My point was that on average a standard paperback costs £1,52 to send and whilst people who regularly buy, sell or swap books will realise that newer people might not. I echo the other posts that the 'average' cost for sending a standard paperback should be made clearer, rather than only giving an estimate that very few paperbacks will achieve. This is nothing to do with packaging, virtually no modern paperbacks are thin enough to go through the large letter slot even unwrapped.

None of this has anything to do with what Amazon charge, they give a basic postal credit regardless of whether you are shipping a huuuuge coffee table book or a pamphlet..sellers just factor that allowance into the quoted book price, hence so many 1p books listed.

However any site that encourages recycling books is a good one as far as I am concerned..so I wish your endeavour well.

Flimsy

soolin wrote: »

On reflection I think I would prefer to use my local charity shop, that welcomes my books with open arms as I'm careful which ones I donate. The rest of mine go into the Oxfam recycling bins.

I think you have to be very careful which place you donate them to. I work in a charity shop and they used to have a 4 for £1 sale every time the level of books became too much to store as paperbacks are sold so cheaply in supermarkets more seem to be donated. However the area manager has put a ban on these and also having tables outside as they make the shop look downmarket!!!!:mad: I was told last time I was in just to pick half out of a pile to put out on the shelves and bin the rest which is just such an awful waste. Don't really want to name the shop as I might get myself into trouble. Needless to say I have a stack of books taller than my daughter I need to find a home for as I won't have them put in the bin. It's a sad day when I have to think twice about donating to charity.