Charity shop donations

[Seymour5]

I'm a volunteer in a charity shop, and it's an eye opener. The items for sale are gratefully received, even unsaleable old and torn clothing is sold in bulk, as are damaged books.

However, donations regularly include: Chipped and cracked ceramics and glass; bog standard odd plates, cups, saucers; odd bits of cutlery; ancient plastic utensils; bags full of plastic coathangers; shoes with soles hanging off; opened and part used toiletries; broken toys.

My question is, who do donors think would buy a broken toy for their child? Or a filthy, plastic drainer, or a torn lampshade?

@bobbikato

This op is why i no longer donate anything,last time i washed lots of clothes but got told " sorry we only take m and s " so i gave them to a friend who was doing a boot sale and she sez sold the lots in 10 mins for £20.00 . also like to say that i ran an antigue shop for years and every day i would go to peoples houses and sort out what they had,very rarely was there anything i wished to buy and every day people would dump some old teapots in store after i said they have no value . all this is par for the course - its what you put up with for the occasioncal Clarice Cliff caster (chipped) and a jug Sold for £ 82 inc. premium . Also i buy odd bits of kitchen stuff and naff coffee cups - the kind given away by plumbers - but no charity shops bothered selling them anymore,they think they are a mini john lewis . and from my dealing with the public most are clueless about value of old stuff,they are not calpable of sorting out the wheat from chaff . every day i would give free valuations often to charity shops and where has it got me ? relative poverty whilst oxfams ceo is buying a yacht .

Charity shops will know what sells and what doesn't. Why should they take in things that people won't buy? And I've never heard of a charity shop that only takes Marks and Spencer clothes.

There was a programme talking about the sheer cost of disposing all the rubbish that people donate is so high that it eats into charity shop profit.

People are dumping their crap at charity shops, patting themselves on the back and not realising they’re costing charities money.

Having said that, as pp says, some people do donate some nice stuff.

😄 Wet dog and Arse
You know it’s not going to be a good bag of stuff when you get a waft of that when you open it 😂

A rusty old wood saw sticking out a black bin bag ( so dangerous)

Yes, knives/scissors/tools/sharps just loose in a black back, also things like glass/ceramics/easily broken too.

I remember thinking a pair of suede boots had an unusual white pattern - it was mould.
So many pairs of socks/pants/bras etc.
Frying pan with the coating peeling off and food still stuck to it.
Bags where you open them and the smell of urine/BO is overwhelming
A used condom mixed in with clothes

A lot of the time charity shop stuff is too expensive, now buy from eBay

We sell CDs/DVDs at 10 for £1, our clothes are mostly £1.50 each, we had lots of (larger) toys for £1 each and we still get people trying to haggle.

I would recommend watching ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops’ on YouTube it pretty much sums up what the donations are like 😁

I think

Things like hangers, videos broken cutlery that he cant sell have to be put in the rubbish, the charity PAYS for that

But at least the charity got rid of the stuff themselves - at the one where I volunteered we were expected to take the rubbish home to put in OUR bins

I agree that people are using them instead of the tip though; it's made worse round here because you have to book a slot to visit and there are hardly any available

Cats Protection will hand you back a bag of hangers because 'they use their own'. People on Freecycle are grateful for them because they don't have any.

I have bought the 'odd bits of cutlery', it is usually in a box or tray for people to pick through. I don't like the modern designs and the ones I do like seem to hold water and leak all over my hand (coloured handles) so I happily root through to find ones that match my vintage cutlery.

I donate old but clean fabrics, in a bag labelled 'clean rags'.

I find it sad that the good items I donate never appear in the shop, and no they don't go to another branch because they don't have one. I donate seasonally suitable items where appropriate. Some of my donations have made it to the shop Ebay page, badly listed and unsold but not the really nice stuff, that just vanished into thin air. I don't dump rubbish on them, it is things I would normally sell on Ebay but have so much I can't list it all.

Some of my donations have made it to the shop Ebay page, badly listed and unsold but not the really nice stuff, that just vanished into thin air.

Could it be that it sells quickly? I've put items out for sale before and then sold them through the till 10 minutes later. We tend to put things out for sale during the last hour of the day/the hour before we open and then we have people who come in during the first hour because they know that.

I find it sad that the good items I donate never appear in the shop, and no they don't go to another branch because they don't have one

I find that hard to believe Slopes what sort of ‘good items’ are you talking about?

Designer boots still in the box, brand new shoes, in box, unworn dresses, good quality cookware, unused. I don't give crap to charity shops, maybe the stuff is too good.

I donated some art posters, unframed, and they actually got propped up in front of the pictures in frames, by the door, where they were getting blown about and trodden on. Nothing else has ever been on show.

I just hope it made some money for the charity, wherever it ended up but suspect it went very cheaply. I know someone who sells a lot on Ebay, a paid staff member of a CS. They get stuff very cheaply.

@slashlover

Some of my donations have made it to the shop Ebay page, badly listed and unsold but not the really nice stuff, that just vanished into thin air.

Could it be that it sells quickly? I've put items out for sale before and then sold them through the till 10 minutes later. We tend to put things out for sale during the last hour of the day/the hour before we open and then we have people who come in during the first hour because they know that.

I don't think so, I keep an eye on their Ebay shop as I can't get to the RL shop to buy anything, hence seeing my stuff there. It is a weird selection of stuff, doesn't look as if they sell much.

This thread has made me double check the three carrier bags I have that I sorted in the Summer. It's mostly decorations, cuddly things, quite a few purses and wash bags that have never been used, etc. 80% with the tags still on as they have just been sat in my sideboard. I don't have space for them but they will probably end up in the bin anyway as I am now questioning who would even buy that and is it of any use to the charity.

Obviously because of covid I haven't been able to determine shop opening times (always seems to be shut when I pass by) and I have mental illness so rarely leave the house (usually once a week to get food). To be honest I will just get completely sick of it at some point and bin it when there's the room.

I just hope it made some money for the charity, wherever it ended up but suspect it went very cheaply. I know someone who sells a lot on Ebay, a paid staff member of a CS. They get stuff very cheaply.

I'd get the sack if I did that. We are allowed to buy items but they have to be out for sale for 24 hours before we can.

@slashlover

I just hope it made some money for the charity, wherever it ended up but suspect it went very cheaply. I know someone who sells a lot on Ebay, a paid staff member of a CS. They get stuff very cheaply.

I'd get the sack if I did that. We are allowed to buy items but they have to be out for sale for 24 hours before we can.

But if you have the keys for the shop no one would know if you went in when it was closed.

I think some people are just lazy - maybe easier to take a bag of rubbish to the charity shop than go to the tip. Our tip is only open 3 days a week, but the charity shops are 5 days a week. Awful.

Some items do sell incredibly quickly. I have put goods out and sold them the same afternoon.

I wish more shops had that rule.

I stopped supporting one because one of the staff would grab things and make off with them at the back when all the other donations were left in a heap on the shop floor. Her eyes lit up and whoosh it was gone. She would always be walking through from the back with something and putting it by the till to be kept for her, it never got to the shelves.

I used to go there most weeks to drop stuff off and see if there was something I could buy. I think she was a manager so 'perks' and imagined her house to be jammed full of nice stuff.

Sadly stopped supporting the charity completely as the owner was so rude, and I had made a lot of items for them to sell at their fairs, but that's another story.

I worked in a charity shop that sold bundles of clothes hangers for $ 2-. They went quite fast.

Even when a shop gets decent donations, there can still be issues.
I worked in a charity shop and one time, someone donated male and female Muslim wedding outfits from a shop that had closed down so they were still new, but they were to be sold at a fraction of the price. A complete dress or suit was put out for £20. They were bargains and worth so much more. The beading work was incredible and the dresses were so pretty.
A man came in and purchased them on a Thursday (same day they were put on display). On the following Monday, he tried to return them, but they were covered in food/makeup stains and smelt like perfume.
They had obviously been worn to an event over the weekend and he thought he could return them in that condition. My manager dealt with him and he left with the garments looking sheepish.

As for the bad donations, I have found pissed stained trousers in donation bags that were still wet, blood stained bedding, bras with bones hanging out that were once white but now a yucky shade of grey, white t-shirts with yellow sweat armpit stains, you name it!
Now for the most rememberable donation.
An elderly man walked in once with a little carrier bag that was tied up. He handed it to me, muttered "donation" and walked out.
I put it out back with the other donations and when I went to check through it, there was another sealed bag inside. It was full of shit. Quite literally, a bag of poop. For an added extra, there was also the handkerchiefs included that had wiped the bottom it came from.
Not quite sure how much we were supposed to sell that for to be honest!!

Agree with Slash that you would be sacked if caught selling on eBay
And I find it hard to believe that unworn designer boots wouldn’t be sold in any charity shop

You take the prize Liza!
Even I’ve never had actual shit...

My favourite donation offer is the hostess trolley.
Some people get quite offended when you tell them they don't sell so we don't want them. After all, they don't want theirs either!

Oh my god, Lisalops. And here was I thinking why would anyone want owl decorations, lol.