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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to make money from a charity shop purchase?

479 replies

Partnerprobs · 27/08/2021 11:29

Recently went to a charity shop and found a couple of items for sale that I liked and were in very good condition. A handbag and a book. Both were in a locked cabinet. I bought them for £25 in total and have sold them on eBay for £75 and £34 pounds, so I’ve made about £84 (less eBay fees which I haven’t seen yet)

My best friend was really shocked and said it’s like stealing and I should donate the money to the charity - this has surprised and unnerved me as I thought it was fine (as they were in the cabinet so had been picked as higher end items, and also they were more expensive than normal items)

I thought it was a lucky break and was looking forward to treating myself.

Aibu?

OP posts:
Tryingtryingandtrying · 27/08/2021 11:44

@icedcoffees Actually people do do that, esp. If it's a charity close to their heart.

Lockheart · 27/08/2021 11:46

If the charity wanted to make more money, they could have priced the item higher.

Not necessarily. The bag might not have sold for £75 in the shop - a shops audience is limited to those who physically go into the shop.

Putting it online opens it up to thousands more potential buyers, including those who are prepared to pay £75 who may never have gone into the shop.

It's another factor charity shops have to consider - they get a lot of donations so they need to move stock quickly. There is fuck all point having a bag taking up space for months because it's priced at e.g £100 (which yes, it may get be worth online but not on the high street in your specific town) when you can sell it for £25 and have done with it.

NeverTalkToStrangers · 27/08/2021 11:46

I agree with your reasoning that goods in a locked cabinet have obviously been looked at carefully and they’ll have taken a view on the pricing to strike a balance between a quick sale and a maximum possible price. You haven’t taken advantage of them.

If you’d got them out of a big basket of handbags all priced at a fiver and books for a quid each then I think I’d feel a slight moral obligation to give them ten or twenty quid.

HarrietsChariot · 27/08/2021 11:46

Nothing wrong with doing that, legally or morally.

Legally because you've bought the item for the price they asked for it, it's your property and you can do what you like with it. They shop could have asked for more but decided it was better to get it sold quickly - stock sitting around doesn't pay the bills.

Morally because often charity shop items are overpriced, so even if the occasional customer "wins" on one item, the shop will have won on several others. (It's the same way bookies work, they can afford the odd person winning big because lots of people have lost small.)

viques · 27/08/2021 11:46

The charity shop needs to be thinking about how they market higher value items if they are getting a lot of them in their donations, either by eBaying them or using other selling forums. If they are canny enough to to recognise the valuable items, they need to think about how they sell them.

One thing you could do is sign up to gift aid if you are eligible and use the shop regularly. It can make a huge difference to the shops income. For donors every ten pounds worth of your goods the charity sells it can claim £2.50 back from the government. A similar sum on amounts you spend in the shop.

TheWoleb · 27/08/2021 11:47

Totally fine to do what you did. Its business.

But it isnt fine to lie, and you lied in your OP. You said you bought them because you liked them. You didn't. You bought them because you knew they were worth more and planned to sell them on. Totally fine, but dont lie to people.

Lockheart · 27/08/2021 11:48

@Tryingtryingandtrying

I don't mean sell it online, just that they have undervalued it and the online price is the evidence
What something will sell for online when exposed to a national or global audience is not the same as the price it would sell for on your local high street.

Things are only worth what people are prepared to pay for them. There are more people online who will pay a higher price than there are on the high street in e.g. Solihull or Kettering.

girlmom21 · 27/08/2021 11:50

You paid the asking price. The charity made some decent money and you've benefited too.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong but if you're feeling guilty you could always donate some of the profit.

slashlover · 27/08/2021 11:51

I work in a charity shop and have people we know do this as a side hustle/job. They come in several times a week and go through every clothes rail (so random sizes) to buy things.

We know we wont get the money the items would get on eBay and the eBay division only accept things over a certain value (to make it worth their while to do all the admin) and wont take designer names as they have no way of verifying if real.

So the chance of the shop getting £75 and £34 for the items is miniscule.

NeverTalkToStrangers · 27/08/2021 11:51

Also the profit you made is not wholly disproportionate to the work you did, or to the additional work the volunteers would have had to do to get the same result. If you’d made 840 quid, or 8,400 quid, then it would be different.

VictoriaBun · 27/08/2021 11:54

Most charity shops have an eBay page. I volunteer for a small local charity that has 2 shops , and we have one.
If they have decided to sell at their shop , at the price they put on the item, then that is what they were happy to receive.
If you had then walked it down the road and given it to another charity shop, that is your decision, likewise to throw in bin. Selling it on as it belongs to you is 100% ok.

Hadenoughofthisbullshit · 27/08/2021 11:54

@Lockheart

If the charity wanted to make more money, they could have priced the item higher.

Not necessarily. The bag might not have sold for £75 in the shop - a shops audience is limited to those who physically go into the shop.

Putting it online opens it up to thousands more potential buyers, including those who are prepared to pay £75 who may never have gone into the shop.

It's another factor charity shops have to consider - they get a lot of donations so they need to move stock quickly. There is fuck all point having a bag taking up space for months because it's priced at e.g £100 (which yes, it may get be worth online but not on the high street in your specific town) when you can sell it for £25 and have done with it.

This better that the op buys than no-one buys it. They haven’t paid anything for the donation after all. Win-win in my book.
SpacePotato · 27/08/2021 11:55

The bag might not have sold for £75 in the shop - a shops audience is limited to those who physically go into the shop

This.

They had it in a locked cabinet so knew they were valuable but if they have no means to sell online themselves they chose a price acceptable to them and their customers.

Enjoy your treat.

halcyondays · 27/08/2021 11:55

The big difference with selling online compared to in the local shop is that you’ve got a much bigger market. How long would it have taken the shop to find someone to pay the higher prices for the items? There may not have been anyone in the area prepared to pay £25 for that particular book but online there was. Even online it can take a while for things to sell and you can’t always tell how much tings will actually sell for.

TractorAndHeadphones · 27/08/2021 11:55

YANBU.
You paid the asking price.
And a charity wouldn’t have been able to sell it on for that price. There’s work involved in listing the item, packaging and sending. Things don’t sell themselves.
So you’re perfectly entitled to keep the money. It’s nice if you have them some but not necessary.

ManifestDestinee · 27/08/2021 11:56

@TheWoleb

Totally fine to do what you did. Its business.

But it isnt fine to lie, and you lied in your OP. You said you bought them because you liked them. You didn't. You bought them because you knew they were worth more and planned to sell them on. Totally fine, but dont lie to people.

That's a reach. Op could easily have bought them because she liked them, and then looked them up and discovered they were worth something, at which point she realised she liked the cash more than the item. Which is completely fine.
TractorAndHeadphones · 27/08/2021 11:57

@TheWoleb

Totally fine to do what you did. Its business.

But it isnt fine to lie, and you lied in your OP. You said you bought them because you liked them. You didn't. You bought them because you knew they were worth more and planned to sell them on. Totally fine, but dont lie to people.

Could be both. She could have liked it - then realised what it was worth. Very few people have things they like, that they wouldn’t sell for the right price.
TractorAndHeadphones · 27/08/2021 11:57

@ManifestDestinee x posted 😂

FlumpsAreShit · 27/08/2021 11:58

I probably wouldn't do this but I suppose there are no rules against it.

If you feel bad maybe you could donate 10% of your profits back to the same charity?

halcyondays · 27/08/2021 11:59

Some charity shops do sell some things on EBay themselves of course. But they need to have someone spending the time to do it.

The Harry Potter first edition is a bit different as it’s obviously massively undervalued and presumably any charity shop that spotted it would send it to a specialist auction. If you saw it at a boot sale would you tell the seller or snap it up?

pumpkintree · 27/08/2021 12:03

@Doomscrolling

There! Not their in “shop their” - how embarrassing
How embarrassing you forgot a full stop. We can all pick at others, most people try to be nice instead. You should try it.
listsandbudgets · 27/08/2021 12:04

As long as you don't make a business of it.

I went to a charity shop earlier in the week and was blocked from the rails by a couple who were grabbing stuff off in any size.. they were only interested in the labels they actually discussed it.. White Stuff yes, Tu no, Jaegear yes, primark, primark, primark no, Hobbs yes etc. etc.
Several things in my size I'd have liked at least a look at swooped on and they made it so people couldn't get past.

Shop manager said they were obviously ebaying them and came in 4 to 5 times but there was nothing she could do as long as they paid.

slashlover · 27/08/2021 12:08

@pumpkintree

How embarrassing you forgot a full stop. We can all pick at others, most people try to be nice instead. You should try it.

Doomscrolling was correcting their OWN typo. Maybe YOU should try being nice? FFS. How embarrassing.

Lockheart · 27/08/2021 12:09

@listsandbudgets

As long as you don't make a business of it.

I went to a charity shop earlier in the week and was blocked from the rails by a couple who were grabbing stuff off in any size.. they were only interested in the labels they actually discussed it.. White Stuff yes, Tu no, Jaegear yes, primark, primark, primark no, Hobbs yes etc. etc.
Several things in my size I'd have liked at least a look at swooped on and they made it so people couldn't get past.

Shop manager said they were obviously ebaying them and came in 4 to 5 times but there was nothing she could do as long as they paid.

Well yes, they got there before you, they paid the price asked, it's the same in any shop.
knittingaddict · 27/08/2021 12:12

My moral compass works just fine and I think what you did was totally fine op.