...to expect a charity shop (business) to take my donation when I deliver it to them?

I still feel that items donated to charity shops should be sold at less than their marked up retail price. I thought that was the whole idea of charity shops, after all the donation is given freely and cannot fail to make a profit. If I want to buy a new toy, I would go to a toy shop to buy it, not a charity shop - even if the price was the same. There are a lot of folks who struggle financially to buy new things and for them a charity shop's an essential way of life, it should be a 'two-way' thing, ie: the shop and customer both end up in profit...re-cycling at it's best

I agree, gorki Things should be less than their new price, mostly because a saving, even a small one, is an incentive for people to buy.

What is bad practice, though, is almost giving away items of value. If someone gives something to charity which is worth £20, and it is sold for £1, then their gift has been devalued. If they spent £10 on wool and then several evenings knitting it up into a beautiful article, and it is sold for a pound or two, they have wasted their time and money.

The biggest benefit from charity shop sales should be the charity they are working for, not the people who are buying from them. The advantage to them is a side effect, not the main purpose.

I'm with you there, Goose. It's more likely that more will be sold, if the prices are kept low. Yesterday I bought a Per Una cardigan from Barnardo's. It was new, with the tags still on and cost £7.75. I also bought an M&S cardi from Cancer Research yesterday, and a jacket from British Heart Foundation. However, the £20 odds that I spent was spread across these charities which might not have happened if the 'new with tags' cardigan was sold at, say, £35. After all, the tags may still be on an item, but how long may they have been in someone's cupboard until they decided to hand them in.
I really wish there had been such things as charity shops when my children were young. We really did struggle financially.

Sorry, Goose, for calling you Gorki

That's okay Elegran I sound like a Park