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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to eBay something I was given on Freecycle?

178 replies

quandry · 03/01/2011 11:41

My Mum's freezer stopped working and I asked on freecycle if anyone had one we could borrow/have to tide her over until she got a new one.

A man offered us one, saying he was just about to freecycle it when he saw my request.
Said we could have it, and could we freecycle it after we'd finished with it.

Mum now has her new one, so we need to get rid of the temporary one. Thing is, it's actually in really good condition - only about 18 months old, and I reckon I could get at least £80 for it on eBay.

I can't decide if it would be 'wrong' to eBay it. After all, when we picked it up the man said we were 'doing him a favour' by taking it away...

I can't decide... £80 would certainly be useful after Christmas! Blush

OP posts:
ChippingIn · 04/01/2011 00:49

Emmy - it's not sanctimonious crap, it's just manners & morals. Many of us (as my branch of FC) believe it's unethical to take FC items and ebay/carboot them. Your branch of FC might not be like that, but some of us would like to keep our FC's as they were intended - what's wrong with that?

TheHeathen - where does it say that the original guy couldn't be arsed to eBay it? I can't find anywhere that the OP said that? Did I miss it?

TrillianAstra · 04/01/2011 08:54

Everyone talking about what Freecycle was originally for, or how it was intended, please can you show me where it says that Freecycle is for giving things to needy people, rather than for keeping things out of landfill?

Obviosuly the two are not mutually exclusive, but I can only find reference to it being about not throwing away good stuff.

Giving things to needy people is a side-effect, nt the original intention.

Megatron · 04/01/2011 08:58

YABU. Freecycle. He did you a favour, now do someone else a favour.

MankyPissFlaps · 04/01/2011 09:06

Ebay it. no question about it. It is your fridge, nobody elses.

People get rid of stuff on freecycle cos they can't be arsed with messing and just want it gone....

people here are so preachy and up their own arses .... fuck em

DirtyMartini · 04/01/2011 09:07

YANBU. It was given to you, is yours outright, and what you do with it now is nobody else's business. It is certainly not "stealing" from the needy, any more than ebaying any other possessions YOU OWN would be.

You are clearly not a regular exploiter of the poor and downtrodden. I think people are finding you an easy target and making themselves feel very virtuous by slamming you; there are far worse Freecycle offenders out there.

Apart from Trillian and emmyloulou, nobody here seems to be able to take off their rose-tinted specs re Freecycle's "original purpose" anyway.

DirtyMartini · 04/01/2011 09:08

oh and Manky Grin

dinkystinky · 04/01/2011 09:15

If it were me, I'd freecycle it - would speak with the person picking it up and make sure they are definitely there at a set time to pick it up to stop x number of trips to your mums and back.

I tend to give stuff to charity shops rather than freecycle - the only things that go on freecycle which dont go to charity shops are electricals which they cant accept (microwave, blender etc) and to be honest, I dont think I'd mind too much if the ones I'd given away ended up on ebay (though doubt they'd get too much money given they were over 4 years old)

tiredandgrumpy · 04/01/2011 09:24

I thought it was one of the (maybe unwritten) rules of Freecycle that items acquired are not sold on. Doing anything otherwise is not in the spirit of the setup and you shouldn't be using it.

DirtyMartini · 04/01/2011 10:00

"you shouldn't be using it"

Really? That seems incredibly bossy and silly to me, not to mention unrealistic. Freecycle users worldwide are many and varied. To attempt to create unwritten rules they should all abide by seems v v odd. I doubt you'd find they would all agree -- just becausde the ones who all have mumsnet in common seem to agree here means little as we're a very small slice of the whole.

Have only ever used it to give away, btw, so no vested interest here.

Imarriedafrog · 04/01/2011 11:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rockinhippy · 04/01/2011 11:25

YABVU .....it was a gift to someone more "needy" as is part of the freecycle concept in general

e-bay it by all means, but any profit should go to charity, better still pas it on to someone else in need

I have passed on a lot of decent stuff via freecycle in the past, & would be pretty p'd off to find out any of it had been sold on.... you are missing the point Angry

TheHeathenOfSuburbia · 04/01/2011 12:02

ChippingIn - "where does it say that the original guy couldn't be arsed to eBay it?"

In the middle of the OP's 14.38 post yesterday (phew, had a moment of doubt where I thought I'd imagined it!)

emmyloulou · 04/01/2011 12:34

Chippingin, I don't use freecycle. I don't need anything and dontate elsewhere.

I donate everything to local charity, or schools, playgroups, etc, etc.

Anything they don't need if it's more than say a hundered I'll ebay it, below that I just can't be bothered fees etc and I don't always have time to hang around. Anything below that gets tipped.

People are attacking the op as it's easy to get the pitchforks out. It's her fridge now to do what she wants with, that's life, that's the law, posession is 9/10 of the law and all that.

I just find this whole thread unpleasant, all this karma bollocks and it's an unwitten rule yadda, yadda, yadda.

So? She gives more than she takes, there are people on freecycle who use it as a career or to soley, take, take, take. She hasn't offered up selling her own child. The one time she could really do with the money she sells one item, hardly crime of the century.

A lot of rose tinted spectacles about freecycle indeed.

Some really quite ott reactions in this thread over a bloody fridge get a grip people.

emmyloulou · 04/01/2011 12:38

Oh and all his in need crap people spout, half of what is said on freecycle is crap, the lengths people will go to, to spin a yarn for items is shocking.

This is what put me off as my friend used to use it. You can't possibly ever know that your item is going to someone in need, ever. You'd like to think people wouldn't lie about their child being ill or whatever, but this is the world we live in now sadly.

mumeeee · 04/01/2011 12:39

YABU put it back on freecycle

everythingchangeseverything · 04/01/2011 12:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

StayingFatherChristmasGirl · 04/01/2011 13:49

No, emmyloulou, people are disagreeing with what the OP wants to do, because we don't think it is morally right - not because it is easy to do so.

The OP asked the question - I answered it honestly - what's wrong with that? Just because my opinions differ from yours do not make them crap or a vicious attack for its own sake.

easylife9 · 04/01/2011 13:49

I've been given stuff in the past and told when I'm done with it take it to the charity shop. Charity shop/pass it on, is an expression people use in some cases (because they're offloading unwanted goods on you). I've been given things then asked to give back after use (which I've done). I've also ebayed, carbooted, charity shopped and freecycled unwanted stuff people have given me..... Its not a big deal its only a fridge... If you do feel guilty which from the responses you've had on here it might... Freecycle it! Me? I'd do what suited me at the time which being quite poor, put it on Ebay or a local forum...

Fimbo · 04/01/2011 14:05

What I don't understand, if it is in such good nick why not just keep it and tell the family member to freecycle theirs? Save you a load of hassle surely?

DirtyMartini · 04/01/2011 14:14

Staying, why is it morally wrong to sell something that belongs to you? Serious question.

If someone gives you something, then it's yours outright. It just is. Even if they vaguely say something about what they'd ideally like you to do with it later as long as they do give it to you, the fact is that the item belongs to you and you are free to do what you like with it. I can't grasp how this could be considered immoral that seems very OTT. Cheeky, perhaps, I'd accept as a judgement Grin

As someone else has just posted, freecycle itself makes this very, very clear.

It is not in any way a rule of Freecycle that you have to then pass the item on for free.

As I stated earlier, I am not arguing from a position of self-interest; I am just astounded at how keen people are to apply a moral judgement on this matter. Especially as the OP is generally a "good" (in your terms) Freecycle user, and not even close to being one of the many, many people who ONLY use freecycle to get stuff they then flog.

DirtyMartini · 04/01/2011 14:15

OMG, how did I do that?! I meant to use double dashes, like en dashes, not to strikeout Grin

StayingFatherChristmasGirl · 04/01/2011 14:34

It feels immoral to me because she got the fridge for nothing, out of someone's generosity, and gave the donor the impression that she would freecycle it onwards when it was no longer needed (by saying nothing when he said to freecycle it onwards) - and to make money off this seems wrong to me.

It would be different if her mum had used the fridge for a longer time or if she'd said to the chap that she might ebay it and he had been OK with it.

I know that it is essentially a gift, but my gut reaction is that selling it on wouldn't be the right thing to do, whereas freecycling it again would give someone else the chance to benefit.

NinkyNonker · 04/01/2011 14:42

Tell the relative you don't need theirs, keep good one. Our county has an nhs emergency dental number which will help find a dentist.

LBsmumblingxmascarols · 04/01/2011 14:42

Bad karma man, if you eBay it, you'll get yours

lucky1979 · 04/01/2011 16:12

"Bad karma man, if you eBay it, you'll get yours"

Oh for gooness sake. The most she will "get" is 80 quid for the fridge, not a plauge of locusts.

Anyway, maybe she's already had her karma in advance, because people sold things on that she had freecycled. SO by selling the fridge she would be redressing the karmic balance and keeping the world on an even keel. So OP it is your moral duty to sell the fridge. Grin