Charity Shops getting cocky with their prices.

gik

hollydays wrote: »

Have you actually read the thread??!!

Can you really be comfortable asking this question given your history of non/mis reading?

Kaz2904

I have real issues with charity shop pricing. It used to be 2 way charity- money for the charity and cheaper goods for people who couldn't afford to buy brand new. Nowadays, it seems to be in most charity shops that they are pricing thing at the same price as new objects are. There are always the odd few items which are like a diamond in the rough and I have luckily been able to pick some up over the years for my family when we haven't had any money to clothe ourselves after paying bills.
I have also pointed out to assistants before when I think that something is wildly underpriced.
In my area, the most overpriced I find are: Oxfam (don't even bother there any more), Hospice of any type. Then the Barnardos ones are fair to middling and the animal charity ones are the ones which you can tend to get something reasonable for a reasonable price- although you have to wade through mountains of tat to find anything decent.

Jitterbug123

I live in London, and always have done.

I found that if anything the Charity shops have actually started pricing more realistically. 8 years ago I bought a Ralph Lauren blouse with a tag for £4 in my local charity shop. It would probably now go for £10-12. That seems fair to me.

Likewise, I notice very graded pricing. I was looking for a dress/suit to wear to an interview recently and saw a number of suits priced at £10-15. All fairly fashionable, all from Next, M&S, etc. They then had a Dior suit, and a Moschino suit which were priced at £80. Makes sense to me.

Pollycat

Jitterbug123 wrote: »

I live in London, and always have done.

I found that if anything the Charity shops have actually started pricing more realistically. 8 years ago I bought a Ralph Lauren blouse with a tag for £4 in my local charity shop. It would probably now go for £10-12. That seems fair to me.

Are you saying that a 200% increase over 8 years is a fair increase?

Jitterbug123 wrote: »

Likewise, I notice very graded pricing. I was looking for a dress/suit to wear to an interview recently and saw a number of suits priced at £10-15. All fairly fashionable, all from Next, M&S, etc. They then had a Dior suit, and a Moschino suit which were priced at £80. Makes sense to me.

Are Dior and Moschino new prices on a par?

chucknorris

Yorkie_Pud wrote: »

I couldn't believe my luck the other day. I went in a charity shop for a peruse and had a look at an owl ornament, there were only asking a fiver for it, turned out to be Beswick, sold it for fifty quid.
Also found some side plates, early Royal Worcester, only 90p each, I sold them for a fortune on a well known internet auction site.
And would you believe it, on the way out, in the window was an original Whitefriars blue vase, only six quid, picked that up too.

The original oil painting of a stag, well that's a different story

That reminded me of a joke about a charity shop, it is more a visual sketch than something you would tell though.


A couple in a charity shop see what they suspect is a valuable painting, after a brief discussion the wife says that she will go and ask how much it is. The husband quickly says that they should ask about a few things so they don't give away that it may be valuable. So she asks, How much is that vase (£1.25), how much is that silver spoon (£1.25), how much is that painting (£1.25, no wait, sorry, that is the Turner painting, it's £1.25m).

PILES

Pollycat wrote: »

Are you saying that a 200% increase over 8 years is a fair increase?


Are Dior and Moschino new prices on a par?

Completely irrelevant i'm afraid, if someone will pay that then that is what it is worth.

Podge52

The bigger charity shops are actually paying for a lot of their donations. When I was volunteering for shelter we had a self employed guy who would put out and collect donation bags that we would then pay him for at £x per bag. A lot of the contents were only fit for the bin as some of the donors were just having a clear out and wanted to get rid of their rubbish without filling their bin up.

This is something we had to do as the amount of donations coming into the shop would simply not be enough to keep the shop open.

The thing I'm in two minds about is charity shops buying and selling new imported goods. I can see where the non charity retailer could take exception to this practice.

Pollycat

PILES wrote: »

Completely irrelevant i'm afraid, if someone will pay that then that is what it is worth.

Yes - but that is the question, isn't it?

Did or will someone pay that?

FYI, I wasn't disagreeing with Jitterbug123, I was merely asking for clarification of his/her 2 statements.

PS - no need to be afraid, you're among friends.

redmike123

Simple solution, if you don't like the shops, or their prices then don't go there.

PILES

Pollycat wrote: »

Yes - but that is the question, isn't it?

Did or will someone pay that?

FYI, I wasn't disagreeing with Jitterbug123, I was merely asking for clarification of his/her 2 statements.

PS - no need to be afraid, you're among friends.

True, if it doesnt sell at that price then it will be reduced until it sells. The "correct" price may be £4