to think that the NCT taking a 40% cut from the nearly new sale is a bit much?

[littlelamb]

I am going to sell a few things next week at our local NCT nearly new sale and recieved a confirmation email this morning telling me how to label everything up and that my share would be 60% of the total. I know they are a charitable organisation and that I should be grateful to be getting anything for my old things, but it just seems steep to me. Am I just tight or is this pretty standard?!

I think my local branch takes 30%. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me but I used to be a committee member and I know how much work goes into these things!

25% if you sell in our area. (plus a £3.50 admin fee) 40% sounds a lot, but I read on here before that that is the going rate in some areas. I kind of think that 40% sounds almost half of your profit!

tis normal here for ALL nearly new sales

I think it sounds alot too considering stuff sells for buttons I dont do them anymore

The cheaper things don't really bother me- dds clothes would probably end up at the charity shop anyway as not really worth the faff of trying to trying to ebay them, but it discourages me from taking the larger things like pushchairs because the money I would get from them wouldn't seem much. Maybe I am just tight afterall

where do you find these sales? i've just moved to my area, never joined NCT.

internet go find the NCT site

Just been to nct sale and i'd say 40% was cheap for amount of publicty, hire of building etc

I think that's the percentage taken around here, too.

It's a fiver subscription a year to sell on mn ...

I've not done it myself (yet) but for that method of organising it, it seems like a good way of getting something for a clearout and probably less work for more money got out of it than say, ebay. You don't have to post what you sell, and the ebay/paypal cut is quite substantial.

SueW's NCT sale sounds lovely to go shopping at - whereabouts are you? My local NCT has got fed up with doing that because it was too much work for too little return last time apparently, and now they've gone over to each seller having their own stall. Still worth visiting as a buyer but harder work.

isn't it easier to just give them the money

30% cut and £2.50 admin round here - I think they should waive the fee if you sell more than a certain amount, given you can end up 'donating' a substantial amount of money to them. The clothes sale was this morning - they allowed drop-offs last night as well as this morning, I was the first person there, and as I was leaving the the cars were just rolling in ... very popular.

They did online sales for a while, but it seems to have disappeared now - it was like Ebay, with higher fees and a really small audience, so I'm not surprised.

i thought the whole point of nct sales was to support the nct as a charity, help out other parents and recycle stuff. if you want to make cold hard cash do ebay.

SueW, wish you were less then 80 miles from my mum and 130 from me, I think! Your local sale sounds fab. I learned of the joys of NCT sales from my mum, her reaction to the announcement that I was pregnant, a few weeks after her husband's daughter also announced same, was that she had an excuse to go to them again (well, I guess she's had to wait long enough - her youngest child will be 28 this year and DS is her first grandchild).

We had some grandparents first in the queue one year. Their daughter in Manchester had tipped them off to come along and pick up things ready for when she came to stay!

The biggest problem any charity has is raising unrestricted income - money that is not tied to a particular project, that goes to pay salaries, pay for developing new ideas, lobbying politicians and so on.

I imagine the Nearly New sales are incredibly important to NCT to enable them to carry on their work.

DCMB were you there last night or this morning? I helped out before the sale started this morning (get to go shopping before anyone else comes in!) and came out just as they were opening. maybe we passed each other...

Last night, bumper - I've only sold at two sales, I quite want to buy, but it's a Saturday morning when I get a lie-in, plus I haven't the foggiest where you're supposed to park.

If you got anything with a green 710 label, that was mine ... or DD's strictly speaking.

40% seems steep but I guess is ok as long as the sales are well publicised and attract lots of people.

However, I'd go to your local one first to get an idea of how busy they are and what people sell things for.

our local NCT takes 30%.

40% does seem steep, but maybe they have to pay a lot to hire the hall etc. or they may need to raise money if they have lots of trainee breastfeeding councillors or something. i guess if people weren't happy with it they wouldn't sell their stuff there.

NCT sales take a heck of a lot of work/organising, and we volunteers do it all for free

It's not a lot at all considering someone is doing the majority of the work for you.

The amount of time and effort put into these sales before, during and after the event is astonishing - and it is done by volunteers.

A lot of branches rely on these sales as their biggest fundraiser. The profits made then go onto help pay for bfc training, antenatal teacher training and peer supports - people who give something back through their knowledge and time.

Can you tell I'm pro NCT?