Charity shop re-sellers - is this CFery or fair enough?

[NagathaCrispy]

My friend volunteers in a local charity shop, which sells large amounts of clothing. She told me today, that they regularly get people in who buy multiple items and are re-selling items for a profit - I suppose that's the way of it these days! But she told me that there is one person who is a frequent re-seller, who buys a loads of items every week, clearly attempts to sell them - probably on Vinted or similar - but if they don't sell, then returns them to the charity shop for a re-fund of their purchase price, sometimes 2-3 weeks after purchase.

Am I alone in thinking this is the height of CFery, or is simple good practice and fair enough and I'm being a bit self righteous.

Buying to resell is fine - clearly the person can reach a larger/ more appropriate audience than the charity shop, the item gets reused and the charity makes some money.

I think returning in bulk anything that doesn't sell is crossing a line, although obviously not if the shop allows it.

Having said that, if I had the same taste as the person buying up all the stock I think I'd be annoyed that it was leaving my local shop out of decent stock - I do visit and want to see the item in person/ try it on, so I would feel that that option had been removed from me unless I started visiting the day before she did every week!

I feel like the charity shop > vinted reselling, like Bargain Hunt is a fundamentally backwards business model. You’re buying high and selling low.

We've given tonnes of stuff to charity shops in the last 3 months. So much stuff. Loads of people suggested we do a car boot or sell things online, but really it's so much hassel.

If someone was buying things I'd donated and trying to make some money I don't think I'd be bothered. I do feel getting refunds on stuff from charity shops is wrong in these circumstances, but presumably it's easier than arguing with people if they have guidelines on returns.
It's a bit CF.

I am in a fb group where people often share their lovely finds from charity shops and I suspect some people sell things on, but most just love the treasure they have acquired.

HMRC have cracked down on people selling lots of stuff, so anyone doing it now should have to declare an income.

I have bought items for myself at a charity shop which I've then found I'm not keen on when I get home, but i wash everything from charity shops anyway. This week I bought a skirt for £4.00, tried it on to find it too big on the waist. Washed it & sold it within the same day on Vinted for £10.00.

My niece paid for her university accommodation by buying clothes from charity shops and then selling them on Vinted.

My Charity shop always gives me a receipt but I’ve never returned anything . If it doesn’t suit me or fit me I always pass on to a freind or redonated it . It’s doesn’t feel right returning charity items

Some interesting points of view here, but it seems I'm not alone in thinking this is very cheeky. It's not the re-selling I object to, it's the return of unsold "stock" for a re-fund.

The shop in question is reviewing its returns policy - currently 30 days - and will be bringing it down to 7 days very soon I think, just to avoid this happening.

Yes, the returning is definitely the seriously cheeky part. If ever I've bought something from a charity shop and later changed my mind or found that it wasn't suitable for what I wanted/needed, I would always just donate it back.

By treating her purchases as sale-or-return, she's denying the charity shop a chance at the 'first blood' (as it were) of the good items. By effectively only 'lending' them to her, rather than getting a clear, permanent sale, they are losing prime selling time - as well as their wasted admin time/costs.

It could be especially selfish if she bought e.g. clothes themed around/popular for Christmas or Valentine's Day two weeks before the special date, couldn't sell them and then returned them a week after it's all over and nobody wants them anymore for another year.

We are always told Charity Shops are business. They don’t sell super cheap anymore, so I have no problem with people returning as long as it is in timeframe.
7 days to return is ridiculous. Especially as they don’t have changing rooms.

It’s called capitalism (cheeky fuckers)

I think even 7 days is too much. It should be no returns unless items are faulty; or maybe (unpublished) at the manager's discretion if somebody had make a genuine error of judgment.

It's not like people are spending vast amounts at a charity shop to start with - unless they're like your woman and treating it as a wholesaler.

It's really shitty. It's not entrepreneurial, it's a fucking liberty.

If you have the eye for what will sell well on vinted, you could volunteer with that charity to support them to have their own online selling or donate some of the profit you make from selling on.

Big ick.

I'm reminded of the case that made the news a few years ago of the woman who returned an item to a charity shop and the volunteer processing it made a seriously bad error.

She was due a refund of the £9 that she'd paid, but the person on the till entered too many zeroes and ended up 'refunding' £90,000 to her card!

www.charitytoday.co.uk/charity-shop-mistakenly-refunded-a-mother-90000-and-she-now-faces-prison-time/

I couldn't volunteer, because I work for most of the time that the shop is open.

We only allow 2 weeks for returns and no refunds it’s exchange or credit note, that puts off most of those people

It's kind of a halfway house, though, surely? Yes, it's a business, but most businesses don't get their stock given to them for free; and the fact that it's for a good cause is often an added bonus for many people who use them.

A credit note wouldn't deter the likes of this woman, though, as she'd just treat it as a running float for her business.

You presumably wouldn't be the person who buys charity shop clothes to sell on then if you're always in work while the shop's open. By volunteering, I don't mean being another shop assistant but specifically selecting the items you know will sell well and for more online and helping the charity shop set up an online account to sell on vinted or whatever. I'm sure it's probably not allowed like that but it could just be splitting the profit with the charity shop.

The charity shop needs to stop giving refunds unless the goods are faulty. Or give a credit note for returned goods. I think its fair enough to resell charity good stuff.

Returning the unsold stock as donations is one thing, but asking for refunds is just despicable

The charity shop needs to stop refunding the sales

When I was more mobile I used to do a fortnightly trip of the charitys shops in my area and resell stuff in my Ebay shop, Not so much clothes more accessories like bags, scarves and rhinestone jewellery. Its called business.

Im surprised that the shop doesn’t have someone who goes through the donations and filters out the high end items like designer clothes and shoes, new stuff will the tags still on it or still in it’s original packaging and prices that up accordingly.
The days of finding quality stuff for next to nothing in charity shops are long gone.

People have done this on ebay for years. I think they should donate the unsold though, or the charity shop refuse refunds.

They’re paying the same as someone not reselling so what’s the issue? The charity could close the shops and just he volunteers to Vinted items if they wanted to reap the same rewards. But that’s more of a faff.

Refunds is cheeky tbf though.

Many shops do do this, but I suppose it depends on having people available (and sufficiently tech-savvy) and willing to spend the time to organise, photograph, list, deal with the sales and then post items out.

You do occasionally hear of charity shops that get donations that are really valuable indeed - a first edition of a popular book, an old painting that turns out to be by a well-known artist etc. - and they usually sell those outside of the normal process in the shop.

That said, I wonder how many similar items aren't spotted by the staff and are hoovered up by customers who realise their true value; and conversely, I wonder how many donors give something that they think is maybe worth a couple of quid and don't realise that it's actually worth hundreds or even thousands... and would they have given it if they'd known?!