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

That's okay Elegran I sound like a Park

Sorry, Goose, for calling you Gorki

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.

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 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

Maybe because where I used to live, what didn't get used was sold to go abroad in huge bales to be sorted by ladies in Africa in particular. I always thought everywhere did the same until I moved. What didn't go in bales was sold on to a factory that reused the shredded fabrics but I can't remember what was made from it. There were four charity shops and they all did it. I suppose it depends on what you have near you. Now I take my nice things in to shops, but have to drive the rest nearly ten miles away to our nearest textiles bin. Even the Salvation Army bin has gone from Sainsbury's carpark, to be replaced by a batteries collector.

I worked in a charity shop for 3 years, and sometimes we had so many donations in a day that we just couldn`t cope we it all. So we use to turn it away.

Oops. Never mind grannyknot at least it went to a good cause .... Probably

That's funny, Liz. My daughter won't go to the local Methodist Church fete with me any more, because she got a "pre-loved" pack of facial wipes for her £1.00 in the tombola. Husband too was not impressed with the plants I carried home, complete with infestation of some bug or other.

My MiL, at the age of 89, had worked for Age Concern for many years; she liked to help the 'old people! The only reason she left was a change in management who made her feel too old. We did get some interesting birthday and Christmas presents though: chipped vases, much used beauty sets, skirts with torn seams. Everyone opened her parcels in fear and trepidation

It is a shame when donations are undervalued. At a local charity market recently, I bought some beautiful handmade baby clothes from the Salvation Army stall. Little knitted and crocheted cardigans and coats were priced at between £2.50 and £4. Such a bargain. But you had to ask for the price of each and they were all piled high in deep boxes to rummage through with the eyes of half a dozen volunteers on you. All lovely and trying to be helpful, but younger potential buyers were definitely put off. If only they'd kept the quantity down, displayed them properly and put a price label on. I'm not getting at volunteers though - they do a fantastic job. It's just a shame when sometimes their efforts don't pay off as they should.

But hang on a sec, no matter that Goose donated stuff that still had the price tags on, charity shops sell second-hand stuff so you would expect a mark down as opposed to the retail price. And those items were not "brand new".

People go to a charity shop looking for a good buy, in the US they are called thrift shops.

Granjura I think what you describe is just poor pricing policy - donating new or home made items e.g. to a church fete, is different to donating to a charity shop.

Our local Salvation Army takes nearly anything. What's unsaleable goes to recycling and makes cash that way. They will also collect if you can't get to the shop. Love 'em.

Yuck!

Will always remember my first jumble sale at a school in Isleworth in 1970 - 2 tables covered in ... second hand underwear. Just could NOT believe it..

I only found out last week from a volunteer that one at least of our local charity shops actively welcomes tatty old clothes and unsaleable books - they can make a lot of cash from recycling it, as Absent says. I don't think many people know about this - it would be helpful if the shops could put up notices letting us know what they really want from us.

As for doorstep collections: apart from the dubious outfits that HildaW mentions, I've been let down a couple of times by charities that scatter leaflets about then don't collect. Age Concern did themselves no favours with me when I left out a couple of boxes of very good books and other stuff for them, some new. I even rang during the morning to check that they would be collected, as it was looking a bit grey. By the time I got home from work at 6 the heavens had opened and the plastic sheet I'd covered them with had fought a losing battle. I dried off and salvaged what I could and rang them - they promised they'd come at a specific time later in the week and get them. Did they heck.

Yes of course, but old habits die hard...
People will buy the new items which are supplied to the charity shops by manufacturers or other outlets, but they think items donated by the public should be cheap!

Yes, I love a bargain too. In our small East Leicestershire town we have a fab charity book shop and I just can't resist.

But there is a big difference between used and new surely. At the end of the day, they can always reduce price if items do not sell.

But can you see why the above examples about bring and buy sales seem completely barmy to a furiner like me!?

I suppose that in this country people tend to visit charity shops expecting things to be fairly cheap - we love a bargain! I can see the shop's point in charging full price for the toys, but I wonder if they'll sell?

I got a nice email from Oxfam today telling me that they had raised over £200 in the last tax year from my donated items and informing me that over £50 was available, if I was happy to donate. Nice to see such professionalism.
I hope they sell things I donate for as much as they can get. I donate because I want the charity to benefit, not the purchasers so not sure why you are ranting Goose.

WHY Goose - a charity shop is supposed to raise as much money as poss for the charity they represent, surely- not provide bargains. If the toys are new and in perfect nick, why not offer them at full price? What is the problem with this?

There is something a bit weird and flawed with (sorry but it's true) the UK idea of charity raising. I'll always remember my first 'bring and buy' coffee morning. I'd taken a jar of Nescafé Gold, which cost me (say, can't remember that was 40 years ago) £2.50 - price label still on jar. And it was put for sale at £1.50 - I just couldn't get my head around it, so I asked the host, my neighbour and friend. 'Oh she said, it's for charity so it's supposed to be cheap'. 'WHAT?????' I told her it would have been better for me to put £2.50 in the tin, and the charity would have been £1.00 better off. But she said, that's not 'how it works'. She had spent about £7.00 on wool and spent weeks knitting a very intricate baby matinee jacket- the most exquisite. And put it up for sale at £3.50. So hours of work and a loss of £3.50. After 40 years in the UK, I still can't get my head around it. For charity people here are prepared to pay more - not less.

RANT warning!!!
I donated a couple of little new toys to my local charity shop. They were both as new with the shop price labels still on them. Today I visited the shop and out of curiosity looked for the items, which I duly found - with no (charity shop) price labels on. I took them to the counter and asked how much they were selling for, and the woman explained that as they're new they're selling at the price shown. Erm, not exactly a bargain then! Is it just me being really mean, or aren't charity shops supposed to be selling donated items at something under the new price? RANT OVER!!!

jeanie99 remember collecting items for your trousseau? How strange that seems now. I think the older generation perhaps still had that 'must put things aside for one day' approach to bedding and the like.

Someone gave me piles and piles of sewing stuff this weekend - cottons, embroidery threads, elastic, buttons, several unopened tape measures, quick unpicks, bias binding, ric-rac braiding ... an elderly relative had passed away and the woman doesn't know anyone else who sews. Now husband keeps asking me "What are you going to do with all that stuff?" I should tell him: "It can be given to someone else when I shuffle off the mortal coil".

My MIL died recently and we have been sorting out things which are suitable for the charity shops.
We have delivered to different shops to spread the stuff around.
Today I took bedding and curtains 8 bags in all and the shop were delighted.

I have know idea why my MIL had so much bedding some of the things were as new.

Before moving we sorted through our accumulated possessions and discarded some stuff and took the rest to charity shops. The local hospice shop would collect furniture if it was in reasonable condition - so that was a dining table and chairs, a glass-fronted cupboard plus some other small bits and pieces - while almost everything else went to the Mind shop. They have a shop for children's things and another general one, so the curtains with little animals went to the first (after that room was redecorated and refurbished) and a sizeable dinner service and lots of odd china and wearable clothes, among other things, went to the other. They are also glad of rags (e.g. old bed linen) and old shoes which are sold by he 10-kg bag for industrial wipes and so on. Finally, a few hundred books went to a charity shop that sells only books. All together a most satisfactory state of affairs. Nevertheless, we still crammed full a 20-ft container with our goods and chattels which is now somewhere on the high seas.