To not understand why people buy stuff on parents sale sites on Facebook...

[procrastinationsupremo]

Well, actually they're pretty much all called 'Mummy' sales sites, which really pisses me off.

But what I don't get is why ANYONE would put their child/children in the car and drive across town to buy a second hand £5 toddler top, even if it is bloody Boden.

I happily bought all our 'big stuff' (pushchair, highchair, cot etc.) from Gumtree and love a car-boot bargain, but going to all that trouble for a single piece of second hand clothing seems nuts to me??

Blimey outy I was only exercising my right to ask a question on a public forum. You may find that ridiculous, or perhaps wouldn't bother, but surely in that case there's no need for you to comment? I'm actually genuinely interested in the ways people have described their use of the sites. I might even change my mind and give them a go. That's the point of a discussion surely. For clarity though I should say it was just the 1 X Jojo Bebe blabla dress for £10 type post that I was talking about, rather the bundles and furniture etc. There are a lot of those types of posts on the sites local to me and there always seems to be lots of people keen to snap them up....

No different from buying stuff on eBay really, except that they can probably get it much quicker and see it before they pay.

I've bought things from these sites before; a few extra pounds for the seller, and I've saved myself usually a chunk by not buying new. I've had a toddler trampoline, a wooden activity cube and a soft caterpillar rocker, all for £5 each, each would have been at least £17 new. Quick wash down and they were all as new.
We kept all of DS's clothes (other than damaged/faded/stained ones), DC2 is due in August, anything unsuitable (gender or season wise) will be getting sold in bundles, and the money put towards new clothes that DC2 will need.

I can understand people not being interested, but surely those who are, aren't doing any harm?

£3 has value however rich or poor you are. It might mean less, but it still has value.

I’d prefer to give clothes away or sell them, than to charity. I’ve seen lots of unsold charity clothes go into rag bags. I’d rather know someone got some actual use out them before they eventually get ragged. That doesn’t mean I don’t think charity is important, it’s just that giving to charity shops isn’t a reason to polish your halo.

Someone who decides to go the bother of selling a top for £3 might have many other ways of being charitable and good citizen.

Also, often adding a low price reduces the number of time wasters.

Personally I don’t sell as i’d rather fewer people knew my address, ages of my children etc.

I wonder if the charity shops aren’t missing a trick here by bundling up some of the mountains of children’s clothes they get and selling them in big bags. It might be a way for them to get rid of the excess stock.

I've found mine great for furniture.

But yes I regularly wonder why somebody would travel for a £3 second hand top when you can probably buy it new in Primark or Tesco for cheaper.
Clothes are cheap these days, no need to second hand.

Also the people who selllll the stuff for £2/3!
I'm certainly not flush but to pick up your phone, take a good photo, post, liaise, make sure you're in, etc, etc, for THREE QUID?
Fuck that.

I haven't purchased individual clothing items before, just bundles and non clothing items. I would do it if that single item is something needed, in good condition and cheaper than buying a comparable item new. To me it just seems like the sensible thing to do.

I sell things if they are in good condition and I can be arsed have the time. But I wouldn't sell individual items unless they were decent quality, a branded item and were expensive to buy.

Does seem to be a fair amount of tat being pedalled alot of the time, so you have to be canny. Like a PP said some people seem to think you should be honoured to have their overpriced cast offs.

But if you sell 10 items for £3 each you've made £30 for doing basically nothing, you've made some space and someone will get some use out of things you don't need.

People who don't want to bother will continue to give to charity or give away for free. I agree that most charity shops are inundated with more stuff they know what to do with, so I doubt they miss it.

We're not exactly strapped for cash, but I wouldn't be able to justify the prices Boden, Joules etc charge for DS to wear it for a matter of months (if that, sometimes). However if I see stuff going I like second hand at what would probably be the same price as supermarket/primark stuff I'll probably buy it and enjoy seeing DS in it. Just because you can afford to pay those prices doesn't mean you can justify it.

Agree though that if you live in a big town/city it's probably not worth it but we live in a small town so nowhere is too far away.

My town actually has a whatsapp group where mums can ask questions (e.g. What do people think of xyz nursery?) or suggest meet ups if they fancy doing something. People buy and sell on there too. The other day I bought one of those yellow inflatable swimming float/seat things for £5 instead on £20 new in Argos, never been used. £15 in £15 in my book!

Why?cause you can get some astonishing bargains 2nd hand
And as you said it gets snapped up.so clearly there is demand

@JustPutSomeGlitterOnIt - they come for a £3 top but then they see my 'shop' - I sell 3/4 times a year and set up everything in the sitting room and people usually end up buying a lot more stuff (cash point less than a minute away). One lady came for 2 puzzles for £5 and ended up spending £45. She was delighted with what she got and I was happy with the money too.

Well there is this thing that all civilised societies have called liberty. It means that you can do whatever you want no matter how ridiculous other people think it is. I don't do this, I really couldn't be bothered but I wouldn't presume to judge others who do.

I think you are on the wrong website :-)

I tend to use them just because I see them as quite ethical. I feel like im helping out local people. Most people sell goods when they need to drum up some cash for some reason. I know what thats like especially with a child. So if im in need of something I will check facebook selling groups first to see if anyone near me is selling it.

I bought a micralite stroller with footmuff,raincover £40 to keep at GP.
BN still had tags unwanted gift

I have an absolute mountain of clothes that I'm waiting to get rid of. I'll sort it into bundles and sell them for about a tenner. Maybe list a fewer of the nicer and more expensive things separately. The group I'm in is just for my postcode so generally people will walk round to collect them. It soon adds up to a decent sum so I feel a bit less guilty about the huge amount of money I spent on them. They get a bargain. Everyone's happy.

I've found a lady on our local site who has a DD about 3 months older than my DD and has a similar sort of style. When her DD grows out of the clothes she puts them up and 9/10 there will be a few things I want to buy. Some things are more expensive, some are not but she only lives across a main road and down an avenue from me so it works out.

Plus the only "cheap" places round here to get things are Asda and Pep and co - no Primark and not even a Sainsburys.

I'd rather pay £3+petrol for a snow suit (for example) and pick up a few more bits from her than have to either buy things I don't like or drive to the next town where there are more shops

I have also bought and sold on non local FB pages linked to a particular brand. People genuinely like the brand, and are very helpful to others, especially if someone is having difficulty finding something from another season that they want.

The richest people I know (they own half of the town we live near and six BIG fancy hotels, sports stores, cafes, restaurants etc) are constantly on fb selling $3 items.

If I was in their position I'd be giving it to charity but then they're the rich ones and I'm skint haha.

Whispers...i buy and sell on these groups. They great. Just got a little tykes slide for dd for £5. When she used it next year ill resell for £5 if still good. Today i raised £20 towards bills selling bits we dont need. Its easy, quick and clears stuff out and tbh great recycling! Whats not to love

The ones that shock me are the groups dedicated to specific brands (so Scandinavian clothes or monsoon clothes or little bird clothes) . People are always diso a t shirt and willing to pay more for a worn one than the original cost.

I tend to only buy clothes in the sale, ds will wear them and then I can sell them on for the same as/more than I originally paid.

I quite like the FB selling pages.

I have recently bought a metal bench for my garden for £20 (perfect condition). I sold my Miele Hoover on FB and some IKEA furniture.

Most of my sons clothes are given to a young lady I know, who's DS is 2 years younger than mine. I am on a specific page for kids designer clothes where I buy and sell.

Really??

We're seriously broke so I scour local parenting sites for nice bits of clothing that my 2 like. They're school aged and prefer fatface/plain casual clothes to bright slogany pink things and being able to buy then for a few pound a really adds up. Most of the stuff is pink and unicorns it seema at thw moment so it takes some looking!

I simply don't have the money to spend a hundred pounds on clothes twice a year for them. So would happily pop somewhere locla for a hoody for 3 quid instead of 20.

I had no idea it was that hard to understand.

We're on a fairly tight budget at the moment, newborn baby, getting married this year, so these buying and selling pages on Facebook have been a godsend for us. I've picked up basically a whole wardrobe worth of clothes in 3-6 and 6-9 months this evening, total cost £35. All in fab condition, and in some cases brand new. I could never have afforded to buy clothes of that quality brand new for our little one, and it's taken a lot of hassle away too. It's nice to do our bit for the environment too, and once we're finished with them they will be passed on to family or stored for our next baby. Or put back on Facebook for the next person!

I read an article the other week with the CEO of Salvo's charity shops (I'm in Oz) saying that their business was down 20% because of FB buy and Sell groups. He was asking people to consider whether their need for that $10 or $20 was greater than the charity's need. A lot of responses he got were not very favourable!

As for me, I wouldn't drive across town for a $2 item, but a lot of people do it so it must be worth their while I guess.

I did a lot of my baby shopping on these pages this time, some of my bargains included:
A Stokke folding bath and insert rrp £40 for £5
Fisher price jungle playmat as new £5
White company pyjamas new/as new £5
Changing unit worth £200 for £30
Perfect prep machine new and sealed £40
Lamaze toys new and untouched £4 each

We could have afforded new but it’s a no brainer isn’t it, surely?!

Depends what you mean "drive across town" too. In a big city you're likely to have fb grp ups for smaller subdivided areas.

I'm on one for my immediate area. On ones that cover bigger areas I just look where the item is. I probably wouldn't drive more than a few minutes...why is it always "across town?"