Do You Buy From Charity Shops?

[Parafox]

2 hours ago, Webbo said:

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.

Depends on the quality and saleability of every item donated. They need to be in pretty much mint condition to be sellable. Maybe some of them were a bit scratched or had worn or damaged cases. They don't sell.

Even charity customers expect pretty high standards. I was surprised by how much gets chucked in the bin or goes to rag merchants because they have faults or are damaged or even unwashed. We had a bag of shoes donated, some of which had dog shit on them and we've had soiled underwear in a bag of clothes, torn and stained clothing, stinking old ashtrays and pipes that had been used. Unused condoms, (thankfully) unused tampons in packets, worn tights. It's a real eye opener as to what people think is suitable to donate. 

[Parafox]

3 hours ago, Webbo said:

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.

I'm not sure that's true. It's not allowed in our shops. Has to be overseen by the managers. Any discount that applies to our volunteers only happens if an item has been on sale for over a week. All our stuff is date coded so we can replace stuff that's been in the shop floor for 2 weeks or more and the outdated  items go to the rag merchants or other recycling places, which we get a small payment for i.e 40p per bag of linen, a bag being approx the size of a domestic kitchen bin bag. I reckon we get through 75 to 100 bags per week of clothing we can't sell for various reasons, mostly 'cos it's shit.

[Parafox]

3 hours ago, Samilktray said:

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

This happens unfortunately, but the charity still gets money from the original sale. There are no experts in charity shops but there are some very savvy customers. 

[Scotch]

I always used to pop in to the ones in the town I used to live in. One in particular had a massive and outstanding book section. 

I must have gotten hundred of books from them over the years. The entire selection of Terry pratchet books for example. 

 

Some of the bigger ones done furniture exclusively too, kitted out a few of my earlier flats as a teen/early 20 something thanks to them. 

 

Have noticed now that some of them have started extracting the urine though. One in Glasgow that labels everything "vintage" and sells for crazy prices. Denim and leather clothing for hundreds of pounds. All from donations. 

[Will1981]

I do from time to time but try to avoid the air ambilance as I feel the salaries they pay to their senior managers is obsene and not in the spirit of a charity.

[Crinklyfox]

I do occasionally.  There's quite a few around my town and unfortunately they don't usually have the bargains they used to have when charity shops first appeared.  Most of the time I find that it's cheaper to buy on Ebay and the like.

 

I've donated to charity shops before but during the pandemic a lot of them stopped taking donations.  Haven't checked recently.

[Md9]

Never even thought about it as I really don’t like going shopping anywhere but now might have to go for a look around for books for my son. He is such a quick reader that within a few days of having a new book he has finished it. Will try and take him for look around in a few weeks if get time see if we can pick a few up to keep him occupied 😂

[Buce]

 

We had someone come around collecting for the local old-folks home.

 

I gave them the mother-in-law.

[SpacedX]

13 hours 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. 

So did I. Years ago from an Oxfam shop in Shepherd's Bush, which was stacked with second hand books and records I picked up an original pressing for a couple of quid at the time. Now worth in the region of £750. 

 

[drumbeat]

Back in the 80s, I used to buy clothes in charity shops, from jumble sales too. I was partial to 'old man suits' (square cut, single breasted as a preference) but shirts, cardigans, jackets too. It was an affordable way for me to dress 'differently', back in the day when that mattered to me.

 

These days, I buy only books or maybe the odd unusual knick-knacky thing. I don't think I've ever looked at vinyl records, much less CDs, even less so DVDs.

 

I think I've nearly gone full circle, as I remember that as a kid I used to spend my paper round money on paperbacks from charity shops. It was a part of my Saturday morning routine; cycle into town, put some money in my savings account, maybe go into the library and then into the 2nd hand bookshop.

[jgtuk]

31 minutes ago, drumbeat said:

Back in the 80s, I used to buy clothes in charity shops, from jumble sales too. I was partial to 'old man suits' (square cut, single breasted as a preference) but shirts, cardigans, jackets too. It was an affordable way for me to dress 'differently', back in the day when that mattered to me.

 

These days, I buy only books or maybe the odd unusual knick-knacky thing. I don't think I've ever looked at vinyl records, much less CDs, even less so DVDs.

 

I think I've nearly gone full circle, as I remember that as a kid I used to spend my paper round money on paperbacks from charity shops. It was a part of my Saturday morning routine; cycle into town, put some money in my savings account, maybe go into the library and then into the 2nd hand bookshop.

I get the books thing, it's all I've ever bought (apart from a 1950's Silvertone semi accoustic jazz guitar for £20) and I buy far too many. All of my buys are non fiction, history, geography, wildlife, politics, birds and biographies and if I live to 120 I'll never read them all, although they're mainy reference manuals for me.

I love books. I love the smell and feel of the pages and the thought that the author (in the case of my latest aquisition for £70 - living with birds by len howard ) signed it and it's been through many peoples hands since printing.

EDIT: I also hate kindle type reading. I don't know why but it's probably because I'm stuck in my ways.

Edited 24 October 2021 by jgtuk

[Parafox]

2 hours ago, Crinklyfox said:

I do occasionally.  There's quite a few around my town and unfortunately they don't usually have the bargains they used to have when charity shops first appeared.  Most of the time I find that it's cheaper to buy on Ebay and the like.

 

I've donated to charity shops before but during the pandemic a lot of them stopped taking donations.  Haven't checked recently.

All charity shops are taking donations now 

[RumbleFox]

I do, have done since I was young as my parents shop in them regularly. In fact I’d say that browsing the chazza shops is one of my favourite things to do. I reckon 80% of my clothing is second hand. 

[RumbleFox]

23 hours 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. 

I picked up the White Album, second pressing the other day. On that note….. is there a selling section on this forum? Is that even allowed. I have a shite load of vinyl and original star wars figures I was gonna eBay but if anyone on here wants them happy to give first dibs to fellow foxes as I hate eBay. 

[Jon the Hat]

On 24/10/2021 at 05:42, Webbo said:

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.

It warms the heart!

[Parafox]

11 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It warms the heart!

That's Oxfam for you.

[Free Falling Foxes]

On 24/10/2021 at 09:36, Line-X said:

So did I. Years ago from an Oxfam shop in Shepherd's Bush, which was stacked with second hand books and records I picked up an original pressing for a couple of quid at the time. Now worth in the region of £750. 

 

Is the £750 valuation for a mint copy?

I used to subscribe to Record Collector magazine back in the day and the price for originals/rarities used to drop alarmingly if they weren't in mint condition.

For example: something worth £500 mint, would be worth say £150 very good condition, £50 good condition

 

Mint condition also referred to not only the vinyl but the sleeve too, including inner. In fact, mint was once described to me as it needs to have be stored, without opening, when first bought! Even then, how it was stored can have an effect.

[SpacedX]

10 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Is the £750 valuation for a mint copy?

I used to subscribe to Record Collector magazine back in the day and the price for originals/rarities used to drop alarmingly if they weren't in mint condition.

For example: something worth £500 mint, would be worth say £150 very good condition, £50 good condition

 

Mint condition also referred to not only the vinyl but the sleeve too, including inner. In fact, mint was once described to me as it needs to have be stored, without opening, when first bought! Even then, how it was stored can have an effect.

Yes, I guess it would be.

 

No it really isn't mint - so you're right, probably significantly less. It's interesting to value these things, but it's pretty meaningless unless you intend to sell. 

[FerrisBueller]

Absolutely, can pick up some excellent stuff if you get lucky. Mainly odd T-shirts and vintage shirts and Jumpers. Got lucky once with vinyls and got Dark Side of The Moon, Tusk, Abbraxas, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and a few others for a quid each, but most of the time it’s classical stuff, Neil Sedaka or those weird Top of The Pops compilations everyone had.

[The off]

When I worked in town, at lunch time I used to do my charity shop walk. I had a route that that took me by 7 charity shops. Used to look for craft stuff, sometimes got real bargains, things that you can't buy anymore. Some of the shops often have factory over-makes or previous years fashion donated, all brand new.  On Facebook there's a page called Charity Shop Shit, if you're having a down day check it out, its's hilarious. People try and find the worst/ugliest things for sale and post photos. There's also a trend of buying said ugly items and then smuggling them into a friend's house for them to discover at a later date.