Do You Buy From Charity Shops?

[Parafox]

Just wondering how many do, either regularly or occasionally. Since I started volunteering in my local shop, I've been surprised by how many regulars come in and always buy something. 

I have to say the Air Ambulance charity are quite particular about the stuff that goes on the shop floor and anything sub-standard is binned or sent off to rag merchants or goes to a recycling centre to be stripped of anything of value.

If you donate, who do you choose? I used to choose Mind or BHF for reasons of personal impact on me of those that have been close, being victims of mental and cardiac, ill health.

[MPH]

I absolutely do. 
 

 

chuffin love them and I can’t resist a ‘good find’  I used to like collected old books and the oldest one I found in a charity shop was dated 1782.  It was a bible. 
 

I find old things fascinating and no, I’m not Wayne Rooney.

[Spudulike]

I pop in from time to time and go through the cd racks. I've picked up loads of good 'uns for 99p or less. 

[Parafox]

13 minutes ago, MPH said:

I absolutely do. 
 

 

chuffin love them and I can’t resist a ‘good find’  I used to like collected old books and the oldest one I found in a charity shop was dated 1782.  It was a bible. 
 

I find old things fascinating and no, I’m not Wayne Rooney.

I'm surprised by some of the things that come in that are of value. Anything that we suspect being worth dosh is investigated and we've had a few things that were over £50. The problem is that we can't price it that high as most people think it's too much to pay so we price it about 2/3ds the value. If it doesn't sell in the shop, it goes to our eBay site.

[Fox92]

Yes I do, always pop in them.

A few of my vinyl records have come from charity shops. I think my best find was A Hard Day's Night for £7. 

[Parafox]

1 minute ago, Spudulike said:

I pop in from time to time and go through the cd racks. I've picked up loads of good 'uns for 99p or less. 

Currently our CD's are 50p each or 3 for £1. I sort the CD's and DVD's and the number of times the same titles are donated is remarkably frequent. 

[MPH]

1 minute ago, Parafox said:

I'm surprised by some of the things that come in that are of value. Anything that we suspect being worth dosh is investigated and we've had a few things that were over £50. The problem is that we can't price it that high as most people think it's too much to pay so we price it about 2/3ds the value. If it doesn't sell in the shop, it goes to our eBay site.

 

 I was about to say.. the ones over here have experts that sift through all the stuff that’s donated and anything of  sizable value goes to specialist antique sites or eBay. Some things slip through the net though..

[Houdini Logic]

I'd go as far as to say that I pick where I go shopping based on its charity shop selection 

Edited 23 October 2021 by Houdini Logic

[Parafox]

2 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Yes I do, always pop in them.

A few of my vinyl records have come from charity shops. I think my best find was A Hard Day's Night for £7. 

We sell vinyl. We have a guy in the shop that has a fantastic knowledge of vinyl and professionally cleans them. We've sold some for over £50 for rare first pressings.

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Missus got what appears to be a legit louis vuitton scarf for 50p last week. You come across some right finds from time to time. I pop in from time to time but never with anything particularly in mind and nearly always walk out without buying something. Great places to go Christmas shopping on a budget. 

[Raj]

Yes, we always pop in now and again for a butchers.

Got a proper decent shirt in a charity shop in Devon whilst on holiday!

[MPH]

I used to like going to the Oxfam in Clarendon Park when I lived that way. Always ended up buying their Nicaraguan coffee that was fairly tasty.  Don’t think it was second hand though

[davieG]

Donated quite a lot to BHF electrical stuff, furniture and bric a brac.

 

Always give them a brows and have bought a few things over the years. Once MrsG and I bought complete 1940s outfits for a themed wedding for £30  Suit, shirt, tie, shoes and hat plus dress, coat, shoes and hat for her. Had to visit a few shops.

[VLC86]

Attempt to find football shirts in them from time to time, i don’t have that much joy when I have looked but they are good for books, cds and dvds like others have said.

 

Done some volunteering for Loros a couple of times in their warehouse, I’ve sorted through more grannies pants than I’d care to remember. I’m also not Wayne Rooney.

Edited 23 October 2021 by Costock_Fox

[Libertine]

Like having a look through vinyl sections. Spiral Scratch (LOROS) is alright, got a couple of good ones in there recently.

[The Syrup]

Donated all my DVDs to the local BHF shop. I tried to sell them to Music Magpie and they offered a measly £1.90, sod that so donated them instead. Got an email from BHF a month later saying they had got almost £30 to date for them.

[jgtuk]

1 hour ago, Parafox said:

Just wondering how many do, either regularly or occasionally. Since I started volunteering in my local shop, I've been surprised by how many regulars come in and always buy something. 

I have to say the Air Ambulance charity are quite particular about the stuff that goes on the shop floor and anything sub-standard is binned or sent off to rag merchants or goes to a recycling centre to be stripped of anything of value.

If you donate, who do you choose? I used to choose Mind or BHF for reasons of personal impact on me of those that have been close, being victims of mental and cardiac, ill health.

I used to love visiting Hay on Wye, just bookshops and charity shops and some really nice old fashioned quaint pubs for lunch and a beer or two

[Parafox]

18 minutes ago, The Syrup said:

Donated all my DVDs to the local BHF shop. I tried to sell them to Music Magpie and they offered a measly £1.90, sod that so donated them instead. Got an email from BHF a month later saying they had got almost £30 to date for them.

Biggest amount our donations have made is £145 for Air Ambulance, mostly our unwanted CD's, some vinyl and decent clothes.

 

Don't sell on Vinted or eBay, they don't help those in need. Give to charity. It's an all round winner.

[The Syrup]

The Air Ambulance are opening a new superstore in Melton next month. Will have a drive-thru donation drop off point, plus a cafe to help get the punters in.

[jgtuk]

26 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Biggest amount our donations have made is £145 for Air Ambulance, mostly our unwanted CD's, some vinyl and decent clothes.

 

Don't sell on Vinted or eBay, they don't help those in need. Give to charity. It's an all round winner.

I’ve done a bit for the North Wales Air Ambulance, best mate was a paramedic on the chopper for years. I also ride a motorbike and there are a lot of bikers who owe their lives to them. I normally split any money I raise between them, the RNLI (brothers on the local lifeboat) and the Lymphoma association. 

 

[Webbo]

When we bought this house 3 or 4 years ago, the willy puller that sold us the house left the house and garage full of his crap. I took 2 car loads of stuff, a kids snooker table in really good nick, with the balls and cues etc. stacks of CDs a bin bag full of old XXL Leicester and England shirts and a load of other stuff. They asked us if we wanted to gift aid it so I signed up.

 

A few weeks later they sent us a letter telling us they raised £11. with our donation   There must have been at least 50 CDs at 50p each they should have raised more than that.

[Samilktray]

Alot of the good stuff gets picked up by people who are reselling it on eBay now for profit which is a bit annoying 

[Webbo]

A customer of mine used to manage an Oxfam shop. She told me the volunteers sort through and price the stuff. She reckons if there's anything good they'll price it at 50p and then buy it themselves.

[HybridFox]

I did volunteer at a charity shop for a while so don't feel any of the stigma attached to it. I do tend to pop down to donate things from time to time and while I'm there I do have a look around. 

 

Still some great quality items like homeware and if it goes towards a great cause then why not. 

 

I don't always visit the same charity. Sometimes it's down to convenience and what's open but does feel good to support different causes every now and then.

[ozleicester]

As much as is possible, waste of resources and money to buy new and id much rather my spend goes to a charity than a multinational sweatshop.