£410 for a second (or third) hand, badly stained sofa

[Silence0000]

I'm on the hunt for a cheapish sofa to replace my current one which is old and falling apart. I popped into my local BHF charity shop thinking there might be one or two for £200 or under.

£410 for an old, worn and badly stained corner sofa. You'd need to spend about £50 on throws to cover the stains!

AIBU to think that is just ridiculous?

Same here. And incidentally BHF charge people an exorbitant rate to take sofas away. They wanted £60 to get rid of ours only it sell it on.

I've had that too- thought the charity shop seemed like a great approach, circular economy, better for the environment, donation to charity and money saved for me. Brilliant.

Went down to an area where there are loads of these shops and was horrified- more expensive than Ikea for stuff that's worn out/stained/chipped and very outdated. Makes it much less tempting despite the benefits..

We did better on gumtree too- will keep my fingers crossed for you as that sofa in the pic looks lovely!!

Check free cycle - mentioned up-post, but you might have missed it. Otherwise, another vote for your local auction house.

BHF charge really high prices. I got my sofas from Gumtree which seems more genuine 2nd hand, than bloody Facebook market place full of fake prices. Good luck.

On Facebook marketplace you can put 'used' in the filters at the top and it removes most of the scam-type ones.
You only get actual people's old sofas.

I recently bought a fab sofa on fb marketplace for £80. If you filter on ‘used’ you get rid of all the professional sellers. I hired a man and van which cost £40 to move about 3 miles. This was in the NW. There’s loads of bargains to be had on fb marketplace.

Is there a Sue Ryder shop that sells furniture near you as they sometimes have ex-display sofas for a couple of hundred.

We went to our local one and only paid £49 for a three-seater which had been donated, which we bought for our dining room, we had to pay £30 delivery, but it is a really good sofa.

Blimey. Ours was immaculate and we gave the whole set away to a local lady who needed it for her son setting up home, he was undergoing Chemo and had learning difficulties so couldn't work. I could have sold it for £200.

They FB market place or even put out a wanted post, you'll probably get something quite decent.

We use our local auction house quite a lot. If you are looking for one, dining tables are an absolute bargain! This week two solid wood (possibly oak) tables plus chairs went for a hammer price of £5! Cheaper than buying fire wood.

It is a strange place. You get a mix of antiques and house clearance all mixed in together.

I gave BHF a bookcase that I couldn't give away for free, tried for months. They sent a letter to say it had sold for £90!

Yanbu. I've seen some awful ones in charity shops for hideous prices.

Loads on our local FB site going for free or very little money, can you try that?

The sale room! All the auction houses but online. Got a fab Errol suite for 160 last week. 2 seater sofa, two armchairs and a stool. They are perfect condition.

Fb market place is your best bet.

DP got our sofa off eBay for a fiver before I met him six years ago. It’s still going strong and is so comfortable everyone that visits seems to pass out on it. BHF must be mental.

I'm surprised BHF took the sofa in that condition , they are really fussy about what they will accept round here

Yes I also knew before clicking! I often have a ratch our local one and an extra £200 often buys a new sofa of the same type!

I donated an ikea sofa to BHF a few years ago, they sold it for more than I bought it for!

These are exactly what I was talking about! It drives me round the bend. You click on the ad or inbox them showing interest and suddenly the £89 sofa is £700.

It's blatant false advertising IMO. They even write things like "unwanted sofa, free, must go" when they know full well what they're selling them for 🤯

Good grief. We have a beautiful expensive sofa and matching armchairs £60 all in on eBay.

Admittedly, I'm still stunned no-one else wanted to go to the trouble of getting a van or bid, but the vendors weren't fussed. They had upgraded to a Duresta 😂

The blue sofa I asked about is still available and I'm in the process of sorting a van for Monday.. fingers crossed!

The only thing is, he wants £80 to deliver it and that's with my partner helping him carry it down the stairs (from sellers flat)

Do you think that's reasonable or a bit much?

Depends how far you’re transporting it.

I would recommend negotiating a ‘call out’ charge with the man& van just in case you turn up and the sofa stinks and you decide not to buy!

This is a good idea.

I feel a tad uneasy about buying from places like Facebook etc as I got messed around something rotten a few weeks ago and then had to explain to the van guy that he was no longer needed.

The sofa is 4.5 miles from my place so quite a way but not too far in the van.

I had no respect for BHF. or any charity shop.

Years ago, 2007 I used to see BHF hose down (like fight fighters, in 2007 in Colchester) old sofas before they clearly resell. Clearly they were not broken.

In recent times I went on to work with a retailer who used to encourage BHF number to be given out for all it's worth. But pretty useless as I recently found out.

By, my very recent experience with BHF Ipswich (hardly a flush town) was a refusal and couldn't be bothered to collect a working TV because I had no' two' items for them to collect, they would not ask to collect a broken stained sofa after all for sure as it goes against their site, I could visit them on a Sunday apparently paying lords only knows what in town centre car parking charges to drop off a TV they would probably end up selling for a profit....

Instead, I would now rather post the TV for free online, pick it in a FU and why do you exist to charity shops galore who dominate high streets for really no need.

I'd want to see the sofa before parting with £80!