Charity shops - expensive?

Reverbe

crazyaboutsaving wrote: »

Great idea OrkneyStar, I think that's fair. That way everyone benefits. After all, if the shop tried to sell the same product for 20 in the shop they probably would never sell it.

I don't know. One of my local charity shops recently had a handbag for £20. I knew it was a good make but they didn't. They marked it up at £20 just cos it was leather.I went back to get it as with expensive purchases I like to leave it a while to think it over but it must have gone within a coupla hours.So someone will pay the money for it.

Churchmouse

Best find ever. A Hermes tie in Save the children shop 50p. Sold it for £27 on e-bay.

Now are you all going to shout at me for making a profit out of charity shops??

N9eav wrote: »

I thought my bargain would provoke a reaction.... You see I did not buy it with the intention of making a huge profit. I bought it because at the time I was on a 6 week course and wearing a different novelty tie everyday as part of a fund raising mission (see below). This one had pandas on it. I wore it the one day and in the search for more on e-bay I discovered that Hermes ties are very collectable. So I sold it and made a whopping profit. Do I feel bad? Guilty or my concious pricked? Nope. At the time we were saving for a my wife to go to Liberia to help orphan children and the money went straight in the funds. (the flight alone was £1200). I guess we put the money to better use than the huge % that charity shops cream off for admin. They wanted 50p, they got 50p If it was £2 I would probably have left it on the shelf and someone else would have bought it

The first two smilies you've used in your posts say it all.

Austin_Allegro

I guess selling on from charity shops is a grey area morally speaking.

I think's it's less of an issue now because with Ebay, Amazon etc I suspect most charity shops and most customers have a rough idea of the true market value of most items, so you are less likely to find items that you could sell on for a big profit.

In the early days of online selling you could make a tidy profit from this sort of thing, particularly books, but now everybody's in on it so the market is flooded.

All I can say is whilst I have occasionally sold on things from charity shops, the charities have made far more money out of me overall than I have out of them!

mother_noah

kunekune wrote: »

As the mother of a school aged down-syndromey kind of boy I found emmzy's post kind of offensive. Sorry.

I was also offended by this quote.My 7 year old son has Downs syndrome and is most definately not a " thing "

Ishtar

I was also offended by this. We lost our son at 18 weeks gestation through complications relating to Down's Syndrome.

It is definitely not a 'thing'.....

juno

No, the disability is described as a "thing"! Emmzy describes the woman as a "lady".

robin_banks

Sorry not read all this thread, Mrs B and I are avowed charity shoppers, and I think they've got a bit wise, collecting vinyl is a hobby of mine.

I encountered a record I knew to be worth £40ish on sale for 50p, I did stick a few extra quid in the collection jar on the way out.

I have since seen a couple of the elderly female volunteers browsing through copies of 'record collector' (which is a trade mag for the anally rententive) in the same shop while pricing up some records.

I didn't know whether to laugh or have a guilt trip.

Sweetpeanut

HI, all i took my daughters pram into our local hospice shop ( i paid £850 for this pram) to be told, they could not accept it as it was a "health & safety" issue it being big and so? thankfully our local cancer research took it and sold it for £25:eek:, they were pleased though,(pre-ebay-days:eek:) i have bought a lot from diffrent charity shops worn it used it, or so on and sold on e-bay for the same if not a small profit, if you buy things you are supporting the cause, if you sell it on and make the same or more money GOOD on yer' in my eyes. this day and age beggers can't be choosers. so as long as you are supporting the charitys live & let live in my eyes:D

N9eav

Olliebeak wrote: »

awwwww c'mon, N9eav - provoking a discussion is one thing, but holding back on all the information of the situation does not allow people to make a proper personal judgement .

It would have been much 'fairer all round' if you had stated the full circumstances in the first place.

I guess, but I was not thinking it would get such a reply. People assume things (Assume = !!! of U and ME) I have no problem buying things in charity shops or giving away lots of stuff to them. Our local hospice shop is now getting tax back in gift aid from the stuff we give them! (and all other customers too). But saying that I don't have issues with buying stuff and later selling it from charity shops. Some people do, others think it's a grey area. I give loads of money to charity and I do charitable stuff overseas. The money goes around.

I personally don't like some of the charity shops high pricing policy. If it were me I would like to see high turnover of stock at a reasonable price.

It's like Freecycle another one of my pet hates is exactly what Chruchmouse said. You give stuff away free. Tracers watch the listings all the time snap up the items and then flog them at boot sales. I think that's wrong. But some say if it's recycled then the aim is complete.Freecycle thread

TheDoolallyDilly

Dobie wrote: »

You don't live near Ashby-de-la-Zouche do you? I visit the Sue Ryder shop there & have found some really good quality things very reasonably priced. The staff are really friendly too & when I put a few coins in the donations box they always say thank you. The window displays are awesome - they look like they've been done professionally. This year some of their Christmas decorations (new) were stunning, really unusual

I don't no, nowhere near. Perhaps Sue Ryder recruit very talented volunteers?!