Let Thrift shopping thrive in 25!

Miró

Ooooh it’s feast or famine with this chazza/car boot shopping innit?  Today was a feast day. Bedale car boot: George cream dressing gown £1, down gilet thingy £1. Large plant pot £3.  Thirsk BHS shop, purple Karrimor jacket, as new, £13, and Oxfam, Ted Baker black dress, (no hanger appeal but fab on), £15, RRP £195! Soz the pics are so dark, gloomy day!

skye_blue

Hi
Normally just an avid reader but also a charity shop volunteer for a local hospice.  It seems that the larger charity shops are told their pricing policy to follow whereas as a local shop the decisions are made by the shop managers who know their customers better.   We have had plenty of people recently telling us of the higher prices they are seeing.  A quicker turnover of donations, more important I think you will agree.

Also a problem becoming more common by lots of charities at the moment is the quality of some of the donations.  Sometimes it feels like a throw everything in a bag to be donated attitude rather than to sort and recycle the rags.  We do recycle rags but when things are mixed it can contaminate the good items.

Thanks everyone who supports their local shops and keep finding your bargains, love seeing them all.

cbsexec

Great buys. 

florianatwobob

Our local hospice has created its own outlet above the uber cool shop that’s aiming to capture the teenager CS’ers. They opened the outlet a few months ago and have sold 5000 items of clothing and raised £13,000 for the charity. Everything in the outlet is stuff they’ve not been able to sell in their other shops. They’re very pleased and it’s meant they’ve saved it from recycling. 

weenancyinAmerica

That is my theory with our book sales - the books are all donated and we get so many donations that we need to price them low enough to keep moving them along. 

SandyShores

Rosa_Damascena said:

@SandyShores - which day? I'll catch up whilst I exercise this weekend.

Sorry Rosa I missed your question until now.  Hope you found it, if not it was Tuesday 9th at 12.04 apparently

SandyShores

beanielou said:

This is why Vinted is getting so popular. I have had a fantastic week on Vinted and got myself and my mum jackets. Myself some trousers. One pair were brand new with tags at a tenth if not more of the new price. The charity shops in my village are vastly over priced. 

I've had a few good buys on Vinted too.  I like M&S stuff and managed to buy some more of the same at a quarter of the price in either new or new without tags condition.  

Just a small warning though, I bought a BNWOT item the other day and it most definitely wasn't brand new in any possibly way.  I then noticed another item categorised as Very Good condition, but in the description it said there was a paint mark on the front!  I suppose at least they were honest, but worth noting that people have very different standards for 'new' and 'very good'. 

I was reading a question on a forum about what you should do if something arrives not as described.  The general consensus was nothing because you end up having to pay postage to return the item or nothing happens or you get verbally abused.  The bad sellers also apparently trash your own feedback (which I personally wouldn't be bothered about) but that's why people don't leave negative feedback which makes it hard to know who is a good seller and who isn't.  I'll still use it but worth being aware that until it arrives you don't truly know what you are buying.

Rosa_Damascena

@skye_blue - useful insights! And does explain why I do better at lesser-known chazzers.

Having said that I visited a St Francis Hospice chazzer (small local chain) and clothes were on offer 3 for £5 - I picked up 9  and am happy with what I've got.

beanielou

SandyShores said:

beanielou said:

This is why Vinted is getting so popular. I have had a fantastic week on Vinted and got myself and my mum jackets. Myself some trousers. One pair were brand new with tags at a tenth if not more of the new price. The charity shops in my village are vastly over priced. 

I've had a few good buys on Vinted too.  I like M&S stuff and managed to buy some more of the same at a quarter of the price in either new or new without tags condition.  

Just a small warning though, I bought a BNWOT item the other day and it most definitely wasn't brand new in any possibly way.  I then noticed another item categorised as Very Good condition, but in the description it said there was a paint mark on the front!  I suppose at least they were honest, but worth noting that people have very different standards for 'new' and 'very good'. 

I was reading a question on a forum about what you should do if something arrives not as described.  The general consensus was nothing because you end up having to pay postage to return the item or nothing happens or you get verbally abused.  The bad sellers also apparently trash your own feedback (which I personally wouldn't be bothered about) but that's why people don't leave negative feedback which makes it hard to know who is a good seller and who isn't.  I'll still use it but worth being aware that until it arrives you don't truly know what you are buying.

Absolutely agree with this. I have had some dreadful buys but on this occasion all 5 items were absolutely worth the little money paid. 

Floss

SandyShores said:

I was reading a question on a forum about what you should do if something arrives not as described.  The general consensus was nothing because you end up having to pay postage to return the item or nothing happens or you get verbally abused.  The bad sellers also apparently trash your own feedback (which I personally wouldn't be bothered about) but that's why people don't leave negative feedback which makes it hard to know who is a good seller and who isn't.  I'll still use it but worth being aware that until it arrives you don't truly know what you are buying.

I tend to message first, before raising an issue. It's easier to gauge the seller's reaction.