Freecycle is it corrupt??

Ken68

Giving stuff away has never been done on such a large scale, and Freecycle is ever growing. Beginning of the end for small shops and auctions. Popular, but not good for the economy as a whole. And banning traders from Freecycle is like banning traders from auctions, or from E Bay.
I am providing an alternative viewpoint, Ellie. The Devil's Advocate. Not all is rosie in the world of Freecycle. There are losers, including small traders ,and shopkeepers and probably the environment too.

NemoToad

People have always given stuff away, I'd say more in the past than now because it was seen as much more important then to re-use things until they fell apart (and then mend them), and only just recently with things like freecycle has their been a revival. When I was little we got almost all our clothes from hand-me-downs from friends and relatives. When we'd outgrown then we'd then pass them on to another family. I'm sure when my parents and grandparents were growing up clothes and ohter things were passed on so they could be re-used as many times as possible. There was also charities like FamilyFirst (I have no idea if this still exists) where my parents would give our old toys and baby things to so they could be re-distributed to poorer charities. There have always been adverts in newspapers and post offices with people giving things away as well as selling them.

Ken68

This is an interesting site

http://freegan.info/.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Ken68 wrote: »

Giving stuff away has never been done on such a large scale, and Freecycle is ever growing. Beginning of the end for small shops and auctions. Popular, but not good for the economy as a whole. And banning traders from Freecycle is like banning traders from auctions, or from E Bay.
I am providing an alternative viewpoint, Ellie. The Devil's Advocate. Not all is rosie in the world of Freecycle. There are losers, including small traders ,and shopkeepers and probably the environment too.

The environment? How would keeping reusable goods out of landfill be detrimental to the environment? I'm afraid I don't understand what you're getting at.
Secondhand dealers have had to compete with charity shops for many years: I'm all for charity shops, but they rather than Freecycle are the direct competitors of the traditional junk shop. Shops selling new goods of the sorts often offered on Freecycle (furniture, bicycles, electrical goods etc) generally belong to huge chains which are hardly under threat from Freecycle and similar organisations, though I have to confess I don't understand why anyone would buy new flat-packed disposable chipboard and cardboard furniture when the same money could buy them proper solid wood furniture secondhand. The one saving grace of chipboard is that woodworm don't like it.
There are still people out there who don't use the internet regularly, and they will still go to shops and auctions. If someone wants, say, a wardrobe and can afford to buy one, the advantage of an auction is that they can look at several and choose the one on which they wish to bid. I don't think a Freecycler would be overly impressed if someone turned up and said "well, it's not bad but I could actually do with one a slightly lighter colour to go with my room... can I come back after I've gone to look at some others?"

sukysue

No but they should not feel obliged to take the item if it does not work out. I went to see 2 chairs and they were filthy (they were really posh and well off too!). I told the lady concerned that the chairs were sadly too big for my house not to hurt her feelings.

grayme-m

angelatgraceland wrote: »

....As for charity shops-they are nothing but shops who dont have to buy in their stock! They again have volunteers in their shops but volunteers don't run the organisations-they are there to make money for the fat cats!....

Really!?

Ken68 wrote: »

There are losers, including small traders ,and shopkeepers and probably the environment too.

Really!?

flea72

recently the group i belong to has gone over to having more Wanted than Offered posts, which i find is starting to really fill up the boards.

But the real bugbear is the items they want. i have no objection to someone asking for a car, but when they say it must be taxed, i really think they are taking the pee. if the car runs, and gets you from a-b, then the running costs of it must be met by the recipient. im just waiting for someone to post 'Wanted Car, must have MOT, tax, full tank of petrol, and 2yrs servicing included'!

Flea

jaffacat_2

I like the idea of freecycle and that it stops stuff going to landfill but what upsets me is the animals that are offered......the mods dont stop this and I think that this board (freecycle)is used more and more for getting rid of animals...

sukysue

Yes Jaffa good point !

linzibean

Our freecycle group allows animals to be rehomed at the mod's discretion - I myself offered two baby guinea pigs after we rescued a pregnant guinea. It's quite strict though - you need to tell them exactly why you want the animals, how they will be housed (includng photos if possible) and our mod does checks later on to ensure animal welfare is key. Around here, a lot of rehoming is livestock which is no longer required by a farmer and is given to a loving retirement home It's not all bad!