An ethical question

@ aka...just because you dont agree with comments doesnt mean to say we are wrong ..

To get back to the original post 'question'.... If I bought an item cheaply at a charity shop, then was able to sell it later for a lot of money, I would keep half and send half to my favourite charity The Salvation Army.Not sure about the true ethics of this, but I would have done the legwork of selling it on so would take a cut, but I would make sure that a charity made some money as well.

There's no ethical dilemma buying cheap and selling high - the original buyer got lucky.

Not very moral if the charity doesn't share the windfall.

Charities are struggling in these tough economic times. I know people are as well, but I hope that I wouldn't exploit a charity in this way.

@ Dollie ...let's agree to differ. Peace.

A big van comes to our local Oxfam shop and all the others and takes away a huge quantity of stuff to a sorting and distribution centre in Bradford. There was a TV programme about that as well, quite recently. Rubbish is sent for recycling, really good stuff identified and sold individually and the rest distributed to retail shops or sold on-line. We gift aid the things we give to Oxfam and we get a regular acknowledgement of how much they have made from our donations. If you regularly give stuff to charity shops, I urge you to ask if they do a scheme. It isn't any trouble to you and it makes the things you give more valuable to the charity.

Harking back to what someone said about Oxfam decades ago
Oxfam also have a big centre in MK - vintage items get picked out and sold through their online shop.

Lilygran, that's the reason I give past-it stuff to Oxfam, because of the sorting centre in Bradford. Don't they also make their own recycled fabrics to make new bags, etc? I think that's Oxfam.
The better stuff I send to AgeUK and the Air Ambulance.
There has been so much adverse publicity about charities in the past few years that they have to be more open and transparent than the government.
I notice somebody mentioned what they were told twenty years ago. It's not like that now because there is so much competition between charities.

JessM, some of the bigger cities, like York, had their own vintage shops.
People would go there from all over Yorkshire to get good bargains. I do not know if they still have.

Dollie I am sorry but the information you have been given about Oxfam's finances is absolute rubbish.

Just look at their accounts.

www.oxfam.org.uk/~/media/Files/OGB/What%20we%20do/About%20us/Plans%20reports%20and%20policies/documents/Annual-report-2011-12.ashx

If you scroll down to page 7 in the income and expenditure part of their report you will see how this is calculated.

2011/2012. tax year
Straight fundraising.
£282.8 million income.
costs £23.0 million that is only about 12% on admin.

Charity shops, (their "trading income") has much higher overheads as they rent shops on the high streets etc .
£89.9 Million income costs
£67.6million costs
Net income & 22.3million

Yes they do sell on clothes etc to allow projects in Africa. This is to benefit from business opportunities from reusing fabrics etc. I think they do make some charges and give "Micro business loans etc to help people learn skills with which to start there own businesses.
www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/donate-goods/what-happens-to-your-donation

i dont think its rubbish nellie ...i wasnt 'given' the information i did some investigations of my own...

Into their accounts?

Back to the OP: it would depend on how badly I needed the money. If I was broke and got lucky, 'charity would begin at home'.

Ok. Dollie Show me where you got your information from so I can see it for myself. Post me a link to your information.

Thanks, Nellie, that's what I was looking for. I like the opening ad. We do not want to make them angry, do we, by misquoting either.
One thing aqbout recycling. I have been looking for sportswear using recycled plastic bottles. I think I have discovered that the biggest company in this country has just gone into liquidation, probably because, although people give articles to be recycled, they do not continue the cycle and buy recycled. The same goes for paper recycling. How many of you actually make sure you buy recycled paper/ toilet paper?
My loft insulation is made out of recycled plastic bottles.

I'm sorry but I cannot buy recycled toilet paper, although I do understand how they make it. Anyway, we like the aloe vera stuff. We use little kitchen roll but I buy the one with the elephant on because it works better.

I would point out that this doesn't necessarily make me a bad person as I do recycle and buy recycled when I can.

@ nellie did post it earlier but didnt get all the addy in...heres the link....

http://www.snouts-in-the-trough.com/archives/6022

Interesting!

www.snouts-in-the-trough.com/archives/6022

(blued it to make it more accessible)

Is your kitchen roll not a bit squashed, Kitty?
I think Andrex do a toilet roll with bamboo in which I get if there are no recycled in the shop, although I tend to buy a dozen rolls at a time and try not to run out.
"Cannot buy" is a strange statement to make. Why not?

thanks ana i didnt know how to do that..

I have just read about David Craig, who wrote "Snouts in the Trough".
He has written an amazing number of books criticising everyone with titles like Squandered, Greed Unlimited, Fleeced, Pillaged, Plundering the Public Sector.
A lot of Snouts in the Trough he admits is guesswork rather than fact, so his figures cannot possibly be accurate. At least he criticises both sides of the political spectrum, but as the only comment on snouts-in-the-trough says, 50% of a lot is better than 50% of nothing.

It's the connotations of ' recycled' and 'toilet roll' together,Jen !! .

I feel there is a balance to be struck between doing the right thing and doing the thing that suits one best!

Our local Salvation Army takes nearly anything as long as it's clean and unbroken. What isn't good enough for resale they sort and sell for recycling. There's a group of ladies who unpick buttons and reclaim usable zips, a sort of reverse sewing circle.

kitty things are recycled INTO toilet rolls not...

Aka silly me