Charity shops and their prices

Anyway... the food mixer got sold............ do I care?

I have a hand mixer which works perfectly well

Humbug

Roses - in the '70s I had a large, much loved, soft leather patchwork handbag in red and purple. At a school jumble sale I thought I'd stowed it away safely behind a stall until I saw a colleague lifting it up. She had been asked the price of 'that teapot cosy'!!

If they sell then for the good surely, labour free and more money made for their charity

I buy a lot of furniture from charity shops to upcycle but a lot of shops have started painting the furniture themselves, not doing a very good job and then charging quite a lot for them.

I tried to find a jumble sale locally to send some things to because I didn't want them to go to the charity shop and even our vicar didn't know of any; they hadn't done one for years. I did like the idea that Emma and Fallon have just organised in Ambridge called a Jumble Trail. You have a map and go to different houses. I imagine each house contributes a fixed fee which is how you raise money for your village fund. It does mean you don't need to "encourage" so many volunteers

Never wear a coat ( or wear one but keep it on) when helping at jumble sales.?

Not even 50/50 rosesarered

When I helped out at a jumble sale for WI a few years ago, I put my raincoat over the back of a chair behind me...... Sometime later it had gone, either stolen or more than likely sold by somebody!

I remember the playgroup and school 50/50 sales (50% to the school, 50% to the seller).

Gracesgran - I've long thought that all schools should have a second hand uniform shop. I think those who don't probably have no one willing to run one.

Sorry that should have been "May I" not "Can I". There is a voice in my ear saying "we all know the you can ... but whether you may or not is another thing" insert Sunday name where the dots are

Can I bring back my thrift shop question. When I was young I am sure they had them on RAF/Army camps although I suppose that may have been a left-over from the war - it was well into the 50s though. My son's school (independent) had one too but my daughters at the same period (state) didn't. I wonder if they still do? Probably, because the uniforms were expensive (they haven't changed) but they lasted forever with fast growing children.

If a community set up a thrift shop both seller and buyer could benefit. I like the idea of share shops for gadgets - paint sprayers, drills (drills are used for 9 minutes in their lifetime apparently) ladders, sewing machines, etc., too.

Perhaps we have relied on Charity shops for too long? [questioning]

Like the idea of getting nectar points Michael, I didn't know about that.

I agree with your last sentence ab
And once an item is purchased at the price asked for the contract is complete, so really the purchaser should not feel guilty if the item is found to be worth much more than the price paid.
It's called serendipity.

Of course, one's conscience may decide that a donation to the charity would be a good thing to do if one made a huge profit. (I have never found any of these gems.)

They have an obligation to make the most of what they are given, not waste it.

The charity is for the cause the shop bears the name of, they are there to sell to shoppers they are not responsible for them, if you only shop to get a bargain then shop around the charity shops .

And sorry but I do not agree the shops have any oblligation to the donor apart from sincere gratitude , once a gift is handed over that's it

Some charity shops do overcharge Secondhand paperbacks priced at £3 when you can buy new ones for £3.50 and Primark tops and other basic crockery and glasses at more than new cost. I know they are raising money for a charity but most of their staff are volunteers (or sent by the job centre for free) and most customers go there because they don't have much money themselves.

It was noticeable at the fair that even while we were setting up, an hour before opening time, every year there were always eagle-eyed people (probably dealers)wandering round all the stalls taking a close look at what was being put out and trying to persuade the harassed volunteers to sell them things before the oficial start. The more experienced volunteers sent them packing to wait until everything was set out and priced, but the newbies were so pleased that something was selling at all that they would take tuppence if that was offered.

You could tell what was worth more than average from what most interested them. Their offers were laughable though.

At the more recent fairs, there has been an expert offering "Antiques Roadshow" type valuations for a small donation - he was very busy with stall-holders getting realistic prices for things they thought looked good but hadn't the knowledge themselves to estimate how much to ask for them.

Incidentally that charity has no shop and no longer takes a stall at the fair - it is "Too much work" so I don't know what they do with any donated stuff.

As I said, people buy from charity shops for a variety of reasons,

But are supermarkets there to serve the local community they exist in ? Do they charge less in a town of high unemployment then in an affluent area?
They do anniebach - we have noticed this when shopping!! and they certainly do with the petrol prices, the same supermarket charges less per litre in some areas than others. They pitch their prices to what they think the market can afford. Naughty.

Elegran I remember years ago going to a village 'jumble sale' that my sister-in-law was helping to run. She was on the bric-a-brac stall. They had a pair of candlesticks on there for a reasonable sum (probably about 30 shillings but too much for me and anyway they seemed rather old and slightly bashed). After the sale had finished and no-one had bought them they said they realised they were solid silver, so they were sending them to auction. I'm not sure what they got for them!

The thing is, many people at a fete or church sale may not recognise that something is valuable, but I think charity shops have been told now to look out for known makes. I am happy to pay more for some china, which would probably be in a cabinet in our local charity shop.

What am I talking about! I am not going to buy more china.

They don't need to put a very high price on things - but they are not there to give them away either.

When I was on the committee of a local charity, we would get a lot of things donated to sell to help funds. When the charity had started, twenty years earlier, the usual price asked was £1 or 50p. Some of us thought it was time to raise the price for at least some of the things - there were things worth £50 or £100 sometimes. The reaction from the old stagers was "Oh, but it was a donation, it hasn't cost us anything so anything we get for it is profit"

Yes but . . . the donor believed that they were giving us something quite valuable, so to only get £1 for it was to cheat them not just the charity, and turn away their generosity. If you are given things which will sell for tens of pounds, why sell them for pennies? It is the equivalent of someone holding out to you a £100 note, but you waving it away and taking a fiver instead. Ungrateful! Particularly when the charity is a small one with no public or corporate funding at all and struggles to keep afloat.

Then when we received some ornaments cleared from someone's mother's house, most if it was put on our Fair stall that summer (at pretty low prices, but not £1 each!) However I kept back a couple of Beswick china animals and sold them on Ebay, handing over the proceeds - almost £200. I wished I had been brave enough to fight to put more of the better stuff on Ebay.

On the whole charity shops are run mostly by the people and should therefore serve the needs of the people, as well as raising funds. The items have been donated. Tesco good's have been purchased in a food chain. There's a huge difference.

people's

The prime aim of these shops is to make money for their charities. There's no point in them just relying on the goodness of peoples' hearts, particularly in a deprived area.

But do they price themselves out of the market? Not every one who buys from them has the same reasons for doing so

Surely it's common sense? If charity shops price themselves out of the market they're serving (i.e. the local community), what's the point? Not everyone is able to be so generous as to pay over the odds for something. I'd have thought prices should be tailored to the area, at least they might sell more!