Charity shop or Freecycle?

I volunteer in a charity shop in a town that isn’t very wealthy but has many generous people in it. We are so delighted when a bag of clean, good quality items comes in, sometimes items that the donor could well have sold on elsewhere. But they choose to give them, which we appreciate so much. My one gripe is that some people bring in black sacks of clothes and bedding that are dirty or smelly. Sometimes these contain good things, like shirts or other clothing that just need a good wash and iron and then would sell well. How nice it would be if all of the donations were clean and folded nicely with no mouse droppings or bits of straw in them!

Ive given and received various things on Freecycle and Freegle and have never had a problem with time wasters.
Things I ve given A very nice blue and white striped sofa as I was buying a matching pair.
Seedlings surplus to requirements
Curtains
Fabric remnants
Odd balls of yarn
Kefir grains
Things I've gained
Sky+HD box
Jam thermometer
Lawn rake

Charity shops wouldn't want any of those.

Five years ago I had 'an escape of water' ie '' burst pipe'' . Apart from the kitchen my 80% wool carpet covered the dining area which I only used when having guests and where the damage occurred, the lounge and stairs to the first floor which ascended from the lounge. The insurers allowed me compensation to re carpet the whole area as unfortunately the original was no longer available in the same design.. Consequently this meant a large area of carpet with underlay was still useable.I contacted a nationwide charity who did not want to know. I then put a free add in my local paper and the surplus undamaged carpet, etc, was collected on the day the add appeared. The collectors were a couple who had recently bought their first home and over the moon claiming the carpet which they could not have afforded would cover two of their rooms.

Can I just say our charity shop would sell plants and packets of seeds , curtains, fabric remnants, balls of wool odd or in groups lawn rake, jam thermometer and HD box (after being checked) so all of the things you mention
Please don’t think all charity shops throw away we only throw torn or dirty items We still have a rag man pay for items not up to selling and we recycle in other of our shops where they may got more opportunity to be sold (different towns different clientele different needs)
All electrical items can be sold as we have an electrical checking them and yes like Geryfelin says sometimes we get horrible bags with dirty pants, nappies, BO or very smelly items and some people even bring in a big bag of cxxx and say these won’t be any use but they may as well go in your bin as fill ours up

BlueBelle I hope you are right and that Niucla is wrong about staff having the pick of things.

I willingly give my unwanted stuff to local charities because I feel it will be evenly distributed to those that maybe can use it. I did use freecycle for a box of china and glass only for the woman to say, great I’ll make a tidy packet with this, without even a thank you. Never again.

A friend works in a charity shop. She sometimes buys things she likes, even before they are put out. No problem with that. She deserves the occasional perk for the hours she puts in.

I once listed a cycle on free cycle but I became overwhelmed with the number of replies .

If a person sells the Freecycle stuff on, is it not a joy that someone is industrious and making their money go further? It does keep the economy more fluid. The grotty clothing although unpleasant for charity workers and seeming a bit insulting; whilst living in Mombasa when the load of 'rags' arrived by ship from the UK (used to wipe off engines etc), the dockyard workers would rush to pick it over and use for themselves and family anything wearable. So one persons rubbish is another's treasure.

A few weeks ago I took a brand new pair of M & S trousers to a charity shop. Half an hour later I saw a lady who was working there, on the bus, with them on top of her bag!
The only things I take to the charity shop are really good condition items, and they never seem to appear on the shelves. ,

I managed a charity shop for a well-known and well-supported local charity. Organisations have different rules about how they work and what they will sell. We would only sell items of the highest quality.

We also derived income from rags and paper pulp but what to do with all those chipped plates, cracked glassware, bent cutlery and broken toys? They went in the bin and our collection charges were high.

I'm aware of some charity shops where staff may be helping themselves to donations. Whether this is policy or done without the manager's knowledge I can't say.

Our policy was to allow staff to buy goods at the ticketed prices but only after the items were out on general display so the public had a chance to buy too. My assistant manager and I did all the pricing and were the only ones allowed to take money from staff and the sale was coded as a staff purchase. Head Office kept a watch on all till transactions, analysing the numbers to make operation decisions.

It would have been difficult for volunteers to steal larger items but who's to know they haven't popped a small but potentially valuable item in their pocket or handbag? You have to take people on trust and work on the basis that people volunteering their time are honourable. When I recruited staff the rules were made very clear but there were still a few occasions when I had to let people go.

Each of our shops had an annual sales target and like all sales targets they increased each year. Do well and next year's target would be higher. My last target, in a shop tucked away on a quiet housing estate, was 150K. That's a lot of goods to sell when the average ticket price was around £2-£5.

You get a feel for what's going on in your own shop. What's coming in, what's binned, what's going out, what kinds of goods sell, what doesn't, who your regular customers are, how much money is going through the till. Putting high valuable items on display is a risk. Precious metals and stones were sold via a dealer. We had an eBay operation for other high value items and collectables.

It's like running any other retail business except you have to manage more staff and never know what stock you might have from one week to the next.

It's sometimes assumed that charity shops are amateur operations and maybe for some very small charities they are but the bigger ones are professionally run businesses.

Some time ago I took two ladies suits (Windsmoor) to a charity shop only to find them for sale in a second hand
boutique!!!!

In reply to Littleannie.

Also bear in mind that your donation might be a seasonal item held back for another time or may have gone to another branch.

My shop was in a residential area with good parking which made it popular because it was easy for people to drop off their donations rather than go to the high street. As a consequence we got more stock than we could handle and would share it with other branches.

Also we had shops which still sold a general range of goods but specialised in certain items. For example, we retained a small section of CDs and DVDs but most (including all vinyl music) was sent to our specialist branch. We had a branch which specialised in old books, another in evening wear. That branch was very popular with students looking for something to wear at a college ball.

I tried selling a brand new Minecraft controller and game on my local FB pages - lots of views but only 3 or 4 enquiries wanting just the controller at less than half what I put both on for, came to an agreement with one arranged for collection from my workplace then she didn't contact again. messaged her and she said it was too far from where she lived - less than 5 miles from her easy to find as basically one road!!! in the end I took it to one of the "cash for goods" shops in my local town and got £10 less than what I had asked for on FB. Know where I will go again when selling. I buy more than what I donate from charity shops

I think charity shops are missing out these days because people can often buy new stuff cheaper in pound shops or Primark,certainly I have seen an item in a local charity shop being sold for more than the exact same garment in Primark!

I used to be a moderator on Freecycle and often got complaints that people saw there stuff on eBay also a lot of people hade multiple accounts so although wanted ads were restricted to so many asks per month they were getting round it, shame to see a good idea being abused

I donated a lovely wool coat to our local charity shop last year, along with a check jacket and other items ……...some two weeks later a friend saw a similar coat on a market stall in a different town ...so out of curiosity she asked to try it on ..YES unbelievably it was MINE ...we knew because of two things ...it was a Debenhams coat (I live in France !) and it had the top button missing which was in the pocket !...then I saw one of the shop's assistants in my jacket ! All ok by me as long as the charity got any money they made !!! ...we do not have any charity shops like the UK, but only two places to donate items to one is the Emmaeus charity which has collection bins (I have seen teenagers, standing on the seat of a moped trying to get things out of them !) and the Secours Catholique shop which sells donated items for 1 euro each to people on low incomes or benefits

Yes, I take your point about seasonal items FountainPen.

I take everything to the local charity shops. DD offers stuff for sale on Facebook and if she gets no takers, puts them out on the pavement for people to take ,though last time she had lots of stuff, I took it to the charity shop for her (they were very fussy - would take the jigsaws but not the soft toys which still had tags on them.

I have a 55" Samsung tv which I bought from a friend 18 months ago who was emigrating. I've never used it and it's still at one end of the hallway, in bubble wrap. I already have a tv but hardly ever watch it. Usually use my laptop as a screen connected by Bluetooth or cable to my mobile.
I keep saying that I'll put it on eBay but never do get around to it.
The whole eBay thing is too much work with descriptions and size and photos blah blah...

DD put a sofa on Freecycle a couple of years ago. We had a lot of no shows and were getting desperate. Then a young girl and friend showed up. They were so delighted with the old sofa. She said it was her first home and her face lit up. Such a delight to think that we had found a good home for the third hand sofa!

I once advertised on Freecycle (now calls itself Freegle) for jam jars and received a good quantity from a lady who ran a B&B. I gave her a couple of pots of the finished marmalade and she reported that they went down well with her guests. I also got a sewing machine for my GD when she was studying A-level Textiles.

i have used Facebook market place many times i got a bottle of perfume thats 95.00 in shops for 35.00 a huge cat tree for 30 untold clothes for my GD as my DD likes certain vintage brands..all cheap..i love it

I do mind if someone sells my stuff on. I give to help people in need. So family first then charity shop - local Ageuk and Barnardos. Freecycle for things they don't take.

I've only used facebay once and I got a beautiful next arm chair £30 it was amazing hardly been used now I'm on the look out for a sideboard fingers crossed.