Great charity shop bargain

WOW! Primrose, what a bargain, lucky you. What have you made so far, or are making now?

Oh, and I forgot my Coalport figurine of a ballet dancer, which I bought for £4 in an RSPCA shop a few years ago. Something looked familiar about it, so when I got home I looked at it more carefully. It is a figurine of Dame Margot Fonteyn in her Swan Lake costume and when I looked it up on ebay, sellers were asking £99 for the same model. A real bargain and she is proudly decorating the top of my piano.

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Royal Doulton figurine of a girl reading, not a vintage one, but a bargain at £1.99.

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Yesterday £4.99 for 100% cashmere House of Bruar new jumper, new !!

Chocolatelovinggran

BlueBelle - stealing from a charity shop has to be a pretty low thing to do, doesn't it?
A friend who volunteers in one says that they used to have a collection tin on the counter for people to drop in their change. It was stolen, frequently .

The sad thing about shop-lifting in charity shops is that The Salvation Army give clothes to those in desperate need. I have given several perfectly usable items to them. They have a separate area for donated clothes and shoes, which are given to the homeless and needy.

I bought a lovely top from M and S for £4.50 from a local charity shop. It still had its original price tag for £22.50 on it. Very pleased with my bargain.

Took 3 bags of good, branded clothes into banardos, spotted a nice candle for £3 but only had £2 quid on me, asked the lady if she would knock off a £1 but she wouldn’t 😩

Our local charity shops won't take electrical items.

However, there is a upcycling centre where donated items are fully tested by a qualified electrician.
I wish I'd gone there for a sewing machine, but only saw them after I'd bought a new one.

Tenko

Lemsip the shop I volunteer in is very fussy about the condition of donated items . Anything with bobbles is put in the rag bag for recycling.
When I started there I was shocked that so much stuff went into the rag bag . Clothes that were dirty , worn , frayed collars and cuffs , missing buttons and broken zips . Ripped pages from books, cracked crockery and scratched CDs . Some people use a charity shop to dump their rubbish .

Tenno,
Surely it was a case of “ being shocked at the state of the donated items “!
One donor I remember really well ,came in with 2 big bblack bags & said “ I’ve cleaned out my Daughters bedroom & found loads under her bed “!
Yes ,loads of rubbish , one look & it was all binned as it was literally rubbish .
People use Charity Shops as dumping grounds to get rid of their rubbish .

Ikiesgranma

During lockdown I coveted the KitchenAid mixer but couldn’t really buy one as they were around £500 and were like hen’s teeth with people buying them to make banana bread 😂 A couple of years ago we were visiting Lytham which has a beautiful charity shop in aid of a local hospice. They had a KitchenAid mixer for £200 still in the box. The assistant told me that the beaters etc looked like they had never been used. I paid the £200 for it and took it home. When I opened the box the accessories were unusable and unsafe as they were metal coated in some sort of enamel which was chipped. I wouldn’t risk using them because bits of enamel would get in the food. I rang the shop to tell them about this and they said that I could have a full refund. I worked out how much replacement beaters would cost which was about £100. We agreed that I would get the £100 refund and order replacements for the machine. I learned that you should always check the contents of the box not take the word of another person. My daughter who is a fabulous baker made her wedding cakes using the machine and I’m unlikely to get it back 😂

It does pay to look tbh the shop would / should have checked the item ,but you say you were pleased as you got a bargain Kitchen Aid Mixer for £200 & then got a refund ! 🙄That’s taking the biscuit ( forgive the pun)
You were quite happy with your bargain & then accepted £100 .

grandtanteJE65

I always start off in the charity shops unless I am looking for underwear or nightwear.

To me this makes sense both financially and evironmentally.

And I agree you can get some marvellous bargins.

You’ll find that unless it is NWT CS do not sell underwear & a lot won’t sell nightwear or sports/ swimwear

I was in need of something to store the music l am practising on a regular basis as it is a faff to keep getting it in and out of cupboards and it falls off the music stand if I put too many books on it. I found this lovely basket in Age UK today for £8.99, which is just the right size and, I think, looks slightly quirky yet elegant at the same time.

During lockdown I coveted the KitchenAid mixer but couldn’t really buy one as they were around £500 and were like hen’s teeth with people buying them to make banana bread 😂 A couple of years ago we were visiting Lytham which has a beautiful charity shop in aid of a local hospice. They had a KitchenAid mixer for £200 still in the box. The assistant told me that the beaters etc looked like they had never been used. I paid the £200 for it and took it home. When I opened the box the accessories were unusable and unsafe as they were metal coated in some sort of enamel which was chipped. I wouldn’t risk using them because bits of enamel would get in the food. I rang the shop to tell them about this and they said that I could have a full refund. I worked out how much replacement beaters would cost which was about £100. We agreed that I would get the £100 refund and order replacements for the machine. I learned that you should always check the contents of the box not take the word of another person. My daughter who is a fabulous baker made her wedding cakes using the machine and I’m unlikely to get it back 😂

Great that you found a charity shop that prices to sell. I have given up looking for wool in charity shops as it's usually part balls at more than the price of a full ball in regular shop.
I did, however, get a real bargain in local charity shop recently. Found a brand new pair of pj's for DH on a table with items "5 for £1.49". I paid £1.49 as more than worth it. Lady wouldn't accept more as had been trying to clear out old stock for ages.

Lemsip the shop I volunteer in is very fussy about the condition of donated items . Anything with bobbles is put in the rag bag for recycling.
When I started there I was shocked that so much stuff went into the rag bag . Clothes that were dirty , worn , frayed collars and cuffs , missing buttons and broken zips . Ripped pages from books, cracked crockery and scratched CDs . Some people use a charity shop to dump their rubbish .

ordinarygirl

on the opposite side of the subject - i get annoyed when a used Primark t shirt is up for sale at £4 or more when if bought new would have been about £3. I am happy to pay a reasonable price but I have an expression I use to describe some high prices - TTP. "Taking the ...."

I so agree with your comment!

and some jumpers have all the bobbles on the front already when you have some at home like that and priced at £5. lol

I can't believe the amazing bargains found in charity shops. Recently I have bought a pair of COS trousers for £5.00; look brand new; £80.00 on website; M&S stretch Jeans for £6.00; look brand new; £35.00 in store; Gap shirt; looks brand new; £65.00 in shop; a jumpsuit for a wedding £15.00 and Jacket £6.00; look brand new! And various useful household things like dishes, jugs and tins. Plus wool like the OP. And inexpensive but nice Birthday cards. It really is worth a quick browse when passing charity shops. 🙂

on the opposite side of the subject - i get annoyed when a used Primark t shirt is up for sale at £4 or more when if bought new would have been about £3. I am happy to pay a reasonable price but I have an expression I use to describe some high prices - TTP. "Taking the ...."

Shizam

BlueBelle

Today in the charity shop I volunteer in we found 10 empty hangers in the same age range in the boys section ( probably £20+ )
This is so so disappointing and upsetting We had a similar thing happen yesterday

Charity shop I visited in London had the pricier clothes, such as leather jackets, chained up. Sad sign of the times.

Well to add to that little thing , yes where I worked it was a 24 hour rule with a discount ,if you wanted to pay full price you could buy at that without waiting 24hrs .
But having worked in that environment & having different managers , i took my retirement despite loving my role & excelling in sales & experience. My reason that “yet another “:manager would “ bin” donated items , I even found items I had donated in the skip . That was really the final straw . found a “ designer purse “ priced at £100 , that was actually fit for the bin was another .. yet when I wrote it in our handover book 📕of my find , priced by a volunteer omg it was me in the wrong !!!!!
Yes, one man’s treasure & all that , yet it works as one Managers junk another’s treasure .. I have furniture in my home that one manager from a furniture CS threw out that I brought home & upcycled , nothing wrong with it ,she could have sold for £40-50 or more …😢