To sell my mums fur coats??

[TheCalmingManatee]

They are real fur (im not sure what they are, i think there are a couple of rabbit so less value) all vintage, she has five of them I haven't a clue where she got them from, she wouldn't have bought them new, they are at least 40 years old.

Now I am categorically anti-fur, have taken part in demos etc in my past. And a rather questionable sit in in a fur department of a posh department store in my rebellious youth So, i really don't want to be supporting the fur-trade in any way shape or form. But i have noticed that there seems to be a bit of a revival for vintage fur coats.

Yesterday whilst visiting a collectors fair i noticed coats similar to my mother's for £500, you could have knocked me over wiht a feather. I asked the guy if the woman selling them (she wasn't there) was interested in buying fur and he said she was. I have spoken to my mum and she is interested, well she had actually asked me to take them to the charity shop for her a couple of months back.

AIBU to think i could get a reasonable sum for these? I would never myself wear a fur coat, vintage or otherwise and i would imagine that many other people would feel the same way as i do. I would be (on my mums behalf - but actually im willing to bet she would share the pickings!) very VERY happy to get £200 each for the coats, if she is selling them for 5!!!!

I have an underlying feeling that im mad though!

Rowanhart I don't sleep. I lie awake with visions of circa 1920s rabbits dancing before my eyes. It's horrific. Those suicidal Apple employees don't know they're born.

Oh, and I once faced up to a 6ft tall man who was kicking his dog in the street. Obviously I have massive kudos in the Caring for Animals Stakes.

missymoomoomee If you had chosen carefully, you would have known that there was more than 'vague possibility' of the products being produced through exploitation. The information is out there for anyone who cares to look for it.

Sorry, I don't believe you. You are back tracking.

Off to bed now, but if anyone doubts what I'm saying about the phone and computer industry, please watch this short video.

Yes saskia you are the only person in all the world that researches things before they buy, you have found me out in my huge lie of saying I buy ethical brands and there is only a very vague possibility of child labour being involved in any part of the process of making my computer.

Unsure how I am backtracking since my last post was explaining my previous comment.

Being vehemently anti-fur is one of those things that's a bit like being actively involved in anti-fascism: a wonderful way to let out all your aggression and feel smug and virtuous about doing so. Anti-fur activists can have even more fun shouting abuse, throwing paint, damaging property etc because their targets are usually not going to fight back (being generally, you know, women and often elderly ones) whereas if you decide to be a brick-throwing ruck-starting anti-fascist you run a higher risk of bricks being thrown back at you.

A lot of anti-fur stuff is basically a golden opportunity for left-wing men to indulge their inner misogynist (see just about any PETA campaign...).

You're generalising quite a lot there SGB. Yet more insults from you. You say it as thought being anti fur is a bad think.

I'm anti fur because I genuinely love animals and believe they have a right to a fair, pain free life.

missymoomoomee Just going to repeat what I said earlier.

"If you had chosen carefully, you would have known that there was more than 'vague possibility' of the products being produced through exploitation."

SGB Very good point!

I'm anti fur - but not a 40 year old rabbit. In those days rabbit was part of a staple diet so rabbit fur was a byproduct of a food. Better to use it than throw it IMHO, so to me it's like leather.

Chinchilla (I used to have a couple as pets) or mink I would nave a problem with.

Good lord - what bedlam!!

I do have morals, we all do, they are just different to each others.

I am anti-fur, people can say im not if im not if they like, i really don't mind.

I respect everything people have to say about it, but just because i respect an opinion it doesn't mean I have to concur.

I will sell the coats, would be madness not to, you would have to be quite rich, in my opinion, to turn down the opportunity to make some money. Especially as the money will be used to pay for something to forward my DPs career, something which we have wanted to do for a long time but haven't been able to get the money together.

So the argument is: (if a little extreme ends of the stick)

Sell the coats - use the money for DPs course, the business will flourish (hopefully), we will get straight financially and no longer have to claim tax credits. Slight bad taste in my mouth about selling dead animals

Don't sell the coats - don't have the money to pay for the course, the business will flounder (potentially), we will struggle to pay our mortgage, be repossesed (this is genuine not just a what if, we ARE struggling) then have to rely on social housing and benefits. The animals will still be dead, the people who killed the animals are probably dead by now too.

REally guys, its a no brainer! Its not a trivial amount of money, maybe it is to those of you who can afford your morals but to us, its a lump sum that we would put to good use.

I'm not trying to justify a dodgy decision. Oh and i can't BELIEVE it has been turned into a feminist debate

The thing about morals is, they are independent of financial issues. If money can influence you then you didn't have morals, you had opinions which it turns out you weren't that committed to. Morals are completely different. They don't wax and wane in accordance with your bank balance.

I don't think it's unreasonable to not have morals, by the way, I think it's unreasonable to pretend you have them. Be honest.

its a hypocritical thing to do- but its the type of hypocrisy i could live with. Ever wondered about gold mining? people probably died mining gold but none of us would hesitate to flog it to the highest bidder if necessary

go for it and good luck to you.

I agree and disagree at the same time mordion. If i concur with your argument, then I would agree, i am amoral However, it really does hinge on how one defines morals. Someone might argue that a prostitute (for example) has no morals - however, she (might) choose to sell sex in order to avoid a life on benefits and earn an honest wage. So her morals are just as valid as those who think that prostitution is an immoral thing to do, they are just different.

So my morals stretch as far as the fur-trade now, i would not buy and sell fur if i thought there is a cash in it. But i have items in my possesion that i can make money from, i NEED the money, i do not feel that my selling the items (because i have said this over and over) do support the fur trade, My morals remain in tact thankyou very much. If i was saying, ah well, i hate the furtrade (i do) i know these coats are going to support it, but im selling them anyway, then i would have no morals, but that is not what im saying.

That is my honest opinion, my morals are not the same as yours. Yours are just as valid as mine because that is what you believe, as are mine.

avivabeaver - thankyou - thats kind of how i feel about it.

So it's about "the end justifies the means"?

Would you apply the same logic to other ways of raising money where you were making a moral compromise?

No, you are just displaying moral relativism. Since your claim that selling fur second hand does not support 'the fur trade' has been clearly debunked - the mere act of starting this thread has resulted in several people coming out of the woodwork saying they want to sell fur too, and others who apparently want to buy it. You are not just supporting the fur trade, you are becoming the fur trade. Trading in fur. You claim to have morals relating to fur, but you do not.

You may well have morals relating to other areas of life but that is irrelevant to this thread.

As I said you are entitled to your views but since you are being dishonest you are being unreasonable in that respect.

Why not give some of the money to an animal charity so at least you're giving a bit back?

Im 'truly' anti fur. I binned my mums mink coat as I didn't want to contribute to the promotion of the fur trade in any way. I don't care about the money, I never had it so didn't miss it

Youmaylogout - no, i wouldn't actually, because i don't believe i am making a moral compromise.

I am not being dishonest, what a pile of tosh. As i said, you are entitled to your opinion and i respect that. Just because i don't agre with you doesn't make me dishonest. I am no philosopher and im not going to spend too much time pondering this becuase i totallly disagree that it is supporting the fur-trade, if you think i am, i respectfully disagree.

Solid thank you for putting into words what I have always FELT but been unable to string together!

You're bloody right!

Now I'm all in favour of moral relativism. People who are not are either idiots or have never been in a position where they have had to make a hard decision.

In my defense I have really poorly eyes but I read this thread as "I sold my Mum for Coats"
Now that would have caused a kerfuffal!

@SGB I prefer honesty to casuistry. The OP is clearly a master practitioner of the latter and despite her protestations is conspicuously failing to display the former. She wants to trade in fur, for money, yet she maintains that she is not supporting (or joining) the fur trade and that she has morals which encompass being anti fur. She is being dishonest.

If she was honest, I'd not agree with her but I wouldn't wish her ill with her endeavour. She needs money, she doesn't have a problem with the fur trade, fair enough. It's the attempt to have her cake and eat it which is unreasonable. If I supported the fur trade I'd object to her seeking to profit from it while at the same time attempting to claim some moral highground niceness points by protesting 'but I'm against the fur trade really, this is different. Because it's me.'

It's rank hypocrisy.

Mordian, with respect dear, you can sugar it with as many flowery sentences as you like but you are spouting shite. You are deliberately ignoring the fact that i have said from the start - i don't consider this to be supporting the fur trade (i am not looking to have my opinion changed on this). You are choosing to interpret it that i am ignoring the fact that i am. That is your opinion, it is not one i agree with. Dishonest? whatever!

Had you interpreted my OP properly, you would have also realised that i was not looking to justify selling the coat, i don't feel that i need to. My question was, as OTHER people do have feelings against the fur trade and might feel that this is supporting it, is it even worth me bothering. There have been enough responses on this thread for me to think, actually it is worth the effort of selling the coats because someone will be interested in buying them.

I am anti-fur trade, i have, as a young impressionable teenager taken part in protests against the fur trade. They never achieved anything, ive grown up now and am busy with my own family and career to be letting off stink bombs in fur departments.

IF i might pick up on your point "but im against the fur trade, but this is different, because its me" Errr no - I am against the fur trade, but this is different because (in my opinion!) it doesn't support it.

cheekybarsteward If i thought i could sell my mum, i just might, but i wouldn't use the money for fur coats :)