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?!

We have a problem with volunteers in this area too. The ones we do have are fantastic, but they get burnt out because it's the same people doing everything all the time.

Childcare is SUCH a problem isn't it when you want to do voluntary work?

I've just had to resign from the MSLC at my local hospital and I'm gutted. I just can't organise cover for the meetings, which are at least once a month.

I'll join again in September when my youngest starts in nursery.

Or what about projects like this.

Anyone in the Staffordshire area may perhaps like to consider donating their stuff to this project.

www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158315&command=displayContent& sourceNode=158804&contentPK=19671740&folderPk=87659&pNodeId=158795

I am not a member of the NCT as I didn;t hear of it until after DS was born. I wish that I had know about the antenatal classes as would loved to have met a group with children of simialr ages.

I used the NCT breastfeeding helpline more than once and it was great - a total lifesaver as I struggled with BF and didn;t really know anyone else with a baby.

I've sold at NCT sales twice now - here it is a £7.50 admin fee and 30% - if you do not collect your unsolf stuff you don;t get paid at all. I think it is pretty steep but it is a well run sale.

I found it very hard to know how to price items so probably totally undercharged. I only have one DS so the stuff was in v g condition and I priced it at charity shop prices.

I was happy for the NCT to take part of the profit as woudl like to pay back for using the helpline and I sold a lot of clothes etc that woudl not have sold other wise.

It is a great way to make a bit of pocket money.

I helped my sil organise such a sale and I did not think that it was that much hard work.
It was not a NCT one, but I was shocked to see them charging 25%.
I didn't mind 25% on some of my stuff, or up to a limit, but if I was selling one thing for £70 or £80 and they were taking 25% of everything, I thought that was wrong.
The costs were minimal. There were 6 of us organinsing and sure it was hard work.
But they made hundreds and hundreds.
And 25% of that, less the cost of the hall, was also alot of money.
The NCT 's are always on a much grander scale. They must be taking alot of money.

That may be true sabire, but none of those services are promoted in my local area, so while I am aware of them through MN, they are not there for the others in my town who have no idea they exist.

We don't have any Sure Start centres within half an hour of me, and only 1 within an hour. We don't have any bf counsellors working locally (and the training I'm hoping to do to be a bf supporter is not run by NCT).

While I appreciate they do some good work, I would rather support groups locally that do work I can see the results of.

I agree POTC that you should support local groups that mean something to you and help your local community.

After all, most of us choose to get involved with something that has helped us or that we feel is needed to support others. And if there isn't an active NCT branch in your area, it's a hard slog trying to get one set up on your own if there's something similar you can get involved with.

Good luck with your BF training

Oblomov when I lived in Clapham (late 90s) there was a children/nursery/babywear nearly new shop which took a 50% commission.

Your sale sounds very different to ours which involves the best part of 100 volunteers/60-70 sellers, posters being sent to every Sure Start and Children's Centre in the county, publicity in local hospitals, GP surgeries, radio stations, libraries, nurseries, etc.

It makes a lot of money, but in terms of how much it makes per volunteer hour, it prob scrapes minimum wages, iyswim. But it is about more than making money.

Surely you are not suggesting it is wrong to raise that money? It's not like NCT forces people to sell (round here there are other sales, equally successful) or holds a gun to people's heads to come and buy!

SueW, I do appreciate that my sil's was small scale compared to NCT's.

I am really shocked.

I think the NCT sales are great and was planning to donate all DCs clothes/ toys etc when the time comes.

I didn't realise that i was lining the pockets of sellers not the charity. I feel a bit cheated.

I think it's up to you to decide if you want to sell with a 40% cut.

But i think the NCT should be honest about the fact that less than half of the money you spend goes to the charity. I will now think about buying things in charity shops.

pulapula - you can always choose to donate things to an NCT sale, the full amount then goes to the charity (we have a few 'sellers' who do this).

funnyhaha,

Yes i will probably still donate things for 100% to the charity.

But in terms of buying ( i usually spend £20-30 at every sale) i am disappointed to think the NCT won't have got all my money. Can i assume if there are no codes on an item the NCT will be getting 100%? Does anyone know?

At our sale (& I think it's standard) every tag will have a sellers name on it along with the price. The only items that are going 100% to the NCT will be marked 'NCT' or similar. The percentage of items that are NCT at most sales will be pretty small, ime - searching through everything to look for them would be a nightmare!