Freecycle is it corrupt??

gravitytolls

The vast majority of stuff on freecycle, seems to be stuff that no one wants to buy anyway.

Although, I must confess, I have this week seen requests for laptop, desk top pc's, car, and motorbike with sidecare. They just make melaugh.

I suspect that many peoplehave already tried to sell things, but are unableto do so, so they end up on freecycle. Which then begs the question, has freecycle done away with a booming trade insecond hand stuff?

I have given away golf clubs, and I have asked very openly 'Are you going to put these on ebay?'
Of course, they the recipients are bound to say no, but I guess I just feel better having asked. Both tiumes, I've received lovely emails from folk saying how their young mephews have enjoyed bashiong balls in the wrong direction in the fields.

A new concept for freecyclers who woudl prefer to sell, called Cheapcycle is operating in our area. Unfortunately, stuff isn't very cheap, it's just an cheap outlet for freeads, IMO.

Ken68

There are six charity shops in my town, and they all seem to be busy. The shops are losing out, no question.
Yet they are only an extension of church fetes and bazaars, and seem to be the right place to put small items, and even furniture.It does good.
Quite why people want to post on a Freecycle messageboard and all the hassle of making an appointment and travelling miles is beyond me.

painted_lady

I have only ever offerred on freecycle the awkward items that are saleable but bulky, so cannot go on ebay. For example, I offerred a matching 3 piece suite which had to be picked up within 3 days. No one was interested so I had it taken to a furniture charity shop, who got £50 for it (worth more with gift aid). I also offerred a baby bath with a few toiletries my boy was allergic to (although they were good makes) and a big water cannister for camping/caravan. I think its good, but some people just get carried away. BTW, I have never requested anything on there. My sofa bed will be going to the charity shop this week too, it has a few small stains (although nothing too bad) so its easier to take it there where someone will know what they are getting before hand.
I have also just given a box of stuff to my charity shop, mainly clothes, books, ornaments, vases, just feels better than freecycle.

gravitytolls

I don't think freecycle has damaged charity shops; far more likely to be ebay.

Personally, I'm much more likely to use ebay, as charity shops are actually very expensive nowadays. TBH, I am better off shopping in Primark or even Asda and Tesco value ranges than charity shops.

I suspect if charity shops are down on trade, it's because they've priced themselves out of their target group's price range.

top_drawer_2

I agree that charity shops are pricing themselves out of the market... I went in the Scope one in Blackburn and nearly passed out in shock at the price on a fake fur short jacket priced at £39.99!! I had a quick look round and there were other items similarly over priced.

Jen

geordie_joe

We have a lot of charity shops in our small town. Don't why, but we seem to have more charity shops, chemists and barbers per head of population that any other town.

The charity shops always seem to have a few customers in them when I go past, but one that used to sell everything has gone over to just books because there is too much competition from the other charity shops.

I go into the one that sells book now and again and have noticed that any new or popular books are not much cheaper that wh smith's sells them for.

I guess they have started pushing their prices up as far as they can. But I've bought a couple of books from amazon that were cheaper, and in better condition that the ones in the charity shop.

zztopgirl

geordie_joe wrote: »

We have a lot of charity shops in our small town. Don't why, but we seem to have more charity shops, chemists and barbers per head of population that any other town.

The charity shops always seem to have a few customers in them when I go past, but one that used to sell everything has gone over to just books because there is too much competition from the other charity shops.

I go into the one that sells book now and again and have noticed that any new or popular books are not much cheaper that wh smith's sells them for.

I guess they have started pushing their prices up as far as they can. But I've bought a couple of books from amazon that were cheaper, and in better condition that the ones in the charity shop.

I just got a book off Amazon for 1 penny, when it arrived, there was charity shop price marks on it, marked £1.99. I can guess which is the charity shop above, my local one does the same thing. I dont go in anymore, its far cheaper to buy brand new books.

I have binbags full of (good)stuff to give away, cant freecycle it and charity shops round here wont do collections. Ive only managed to get rid of one item, the collector said she felt strange coming round to pick it up and not having to pay anything!

mattogier

Firstly I'd like to declare and interest - I started the FreecycleLuton group in March 2005 and now have 3600+ membership.

Regarding Offers I have encouraged the group to use "Fair Offer Policy":

Fair Offer Policy: I agree to take a period of time to see what responses I get before deciding who to give item(s) to. This gives members on Daily Digest, or those who don't have continual access to the Internet a fair chance to reply.

it seems that many use this (it is part of the messagemaker facility that we have on the home page) and encourages offerers to give a chance for the whole group to respond rather than giving to the first person to respond (unless they want shift quick!)

Also - when I offer (and I offer lots at the moment) I always check the activity on the board of anyone who responds - if they have offered in the past (and ask nicely for my offer) I will consider them - if I see a load of high value WANTED posts then I MAY disregard them. If they are a new member with no posts I would consider them. I can't say that this is the case for everyone BUT lots may use it.

I and my other moderators use the moderators edstension (sic - extension developed by ed) for firefox - this automatically looks for other posts by an individual so if there is no offer the mods do not let the taken through so I dont know why so many are getting lots of un matched taken posts on their boards.

One possible explanation is cross posting (which makes me cross!) where an offer has be sent by a user to one or more groups and the taken is sent to one and EVEN MORE groups. Again the edstension allows the mods to filter info from other groups to help prevent mass cross posting.

As moderators we have a separate private group to discuss complaints from members about each other and have re-moderated, warned, removed and banned people for no shows, spamming etc.

On the point of car booters/ebayers - this IS allowed on our group if you are up-front about it - and I know it is difficult, even impossible to police.

My closing comment on traders is - Freecycle IS about the local community and the good feeling at being able to gift something or get something for nowt but the MAIN AIM of Freecycle is to keep stuff out of landfill and reduce manufacturing envirocosts.

Do I REALLY care if someone is making a quick buck behind my back out of a widget that I don't have time to sell myself? A little YES - but at least it isn't in landfill and Someone in China is not building a new power station so that someone else can make another widget to ship over here to sell to somone who wanted one!

Cardew

Mattogier,
Informative post – thank you, I wonder if all moderators are as diligent as you?

I would comment on a couple of points.

Many groups ban taking goods for resale; your group allows it “as long as they are up front about it” but I suspect that few comply with that stipulation??; if they did they would surely be at the back of the queue for everything and giving it to them would be a last resort for most people.

Personally I care a great deal about somebody making money out of me if he has deceived me by not declaring he is a trader. I want my goods to go to the local community and “get the good feeling at being able to gift something” (as you nicely put it)

I don’t know if you saw the programme on Sky News yesterday about organized gangs going around and taking(stealing) bags of clothes left out for charity; and also sending out flyers that imply that they are collecting for charity.(deception)

To my mind, traders on Freecycle who do not declare their status are no better than those people – deception or theft, call it what you want, they are despicable!

mattogier

Cardew wrote: »

Mattogier,
Informative post – thank you, I wonder if all moderators are as diligent as you?

I would comment on a couple of points.

Many groups ban taking goods for resale; your group allows it “as long as they are up front about it” but I suspect that few comply with that stipulation??; if they did they would surely be at the back of the queue for everything and giving it to them would be a last resort for most people.

Personally I care a great deal about somebody making money out of me if he has deceived me by not declaring he is a trader. I want my goods to go to the local community and “get the good feeling at being able to gift something” (as you nicely put it)

I don’t know if you saw the programme on Sky News yesterday about organized gangs going around and taking(stealing) bags of clothes left out for charity; and also sending out flyers that imply that they are collecting for charity.(deception)

To my mind, traders on Freecycle who do not declare their status are no better than those people – deception or theft, call it what you want, they are despicable!

I agree 100% - personally I gift a lot of the spare stuff to a local charity (Noah) that sells stuff given to it but has also got a policy of asking those who really can not afford to buy the items to do some work for them (they also provide a drop in centre where people can get a good meal)

On the question of clothing collectors - you may be aware that even some of those "charities" that put a collection not and bag through your door are selling the clothes that they collect and making a profit so be careful!

Unfortunately in any society there will be rogues out to abuse the system - only by fostering a community spirit and open communication can "we" hope to remove that rogue element but unfortunately I don't believe that we can eliminate it - but that wont stop me offering and receiving.

Amongst other things we've (me, kids, OH & foster kids) had 3 camping hols in a Trailer Tent that was gifted to me in the early days and helped somone build Guadi inspired garden furniture by gifting two crates of tile off cuts - both of which would have ended up in landfill if not for Freecycle.