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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be bloody annoyed by the 'helpers' at the NCT sale.

154 replies

littleoldme · 18/10/2008 20:18

There must have been about 20 odd helpers there. It opened at 10 I queued from about 9.30 as I'd been advised to get in early and get the good stuff. Then I find out that the people helping get first pick before it opens and all the decent clothes - what I went for - had gone before it even started. I did find one nice thing and the woman at the pay desk said " Oooo that's nice, I wonder how I missed it " . No more NCT for me.Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

OP posts:
mazzystartled · 18/10/2008 21:18

got to take issue with the e c/s and bf comment
its not really like that at all
ime everyone is really nice, very supportive of each other, whatever their choices

but, on the other hand, i went to a recent nct sale, saw something that ds would have loved, picked it up - from the stall - and helper got all flustered and said oh that's reserved. i mean, it was just a blatant "shit i didn't see that" moment.

that kind of stuff, just like queueing up for half and hour, paying your quid only to find that the best stuff has been snaffled, just pisses people off. and does not help the nct's reputation at all.

Original poster
littleoldme · 18/10/2008 21:23

Mazzy - I absolutely agree with you on your points about the sales. The other stuff, well that's a whole new thread.

OP posts:
toomanyprojects · 18/10/2008 21:25

I ran our local NNS for 8 sales and only stopped whe we moved away. We were lucky enough to be one of the biggest sales in the country and used to have over 100 helpers - most of them weren't members but just helped for the preview sale. We did used to limit the number of toys they were allowed to one large and two small and also limited equipment. There were so many clothes that we didn't limit them.

As the sale organiser I used to have to police it even before the preview when helpers were stashing stuff in certain places as they were displaying it ready for them to grab it, just as misshardbroom said.

To be honest, I just did it for the buzz - I was always too busy to get exactly what I wanted - the sales are a lot of work and I know that without the preview incentive we could never have run them.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

Aitch · 18/10/2008 21:53

promise me that if it had been an oordinary parish jumble sale and the helpers had got first dibs you'd have posted a thread. your word of honour.

(although at many parish jumbles pro dealers get first dibs, as it happens...)

LackaDAISYcal · 18/10/2008 21:56

if it had been an ordinary parish jumble sale Aitch she wouldn't be fit to post anything....those OAPs are vicious

CarGirl · 18/10/2008 22:00

I have to say at the ones I've helped at, I haven't witnessed any hiding stuff. The helpers aren't allowed to preview until a certain point and in times past a few people haven't been permitted to help again.........our biggest problem is the amount of theft from "shoppers".

Aitch · 18/10/2008 22:07

i'd be interested in an answer though, ime the nct is held to a higher standard than any other locally-run fundraising concern.

Aitch · 18/10/2008 22:24

did i kill the thread, then?

AbbeyA · 18/10/2008 22:25

Any volunteer helper of a sale is going to have first pick-that is how they get helpers! In the days that I belonged to the NCT I helped for that very reason. I don't think you would get any helpers if they had to wait and see what was left at the end. There was still masses of stuff for sale.

Original poster
littleoldme · 18/10/2008 22:26

Aitch - if I had been a jumble sale I wouldn't have posted because I wouldn't have gone. I only went because it was NCT and therefore I expected decent quality and availablity - as was advertised

The NCT is held to a higher standard because that is the image it projects for itself.

OP posts:
Aitch · 18/10/2008 22:30

what, higher than a church? blimey.

CarGirl · 18/10/2008 22:33

The partly depend on what the people who sell bring along and I think ebay has dented what is brought along to sell. Cetainly top quality branded items such as tripp trapp, bugaboo, stokke etc will now sell for more on ebay IYSWIM.

for a cosytoe you can say charge £10 max at an NCT (so nly getting £7.50) for an original funky buggysnuggle you would probably get £20+ on ebay.

hatrick · 18/10/2008 22:35

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Aitch · 18/10/2008 22:35

anyhoo, no problem. you can volunteer next time. for no personal gain, natch. you'll get your rewaed in heaven.

Original poster
littleoldme · 18/10/2008 22:48

Easy there Aitch - touched a nerve methinks.

OP posts:
Aitch · 18/10/2008 22:52

no, i just get tremendously bored with people bitching wheen things don't go all their own way with no effort on their part.

and pmsl at the fact that it wasn't as advertised on the poster... you must report it to trading standards and the ASA.

onceinalifetime · 18/10/2008 23:00

I helped out once and it was absolutely knackering - about 8 hours on my feet with maybe one coffee in all that time and a slice of pizza at the end, by which time I just wanted to go home. The only perk was first dibs and at our one (not a member btw), there was still loads of great stuff left. All the sellers at ours were only allowed a set number of items to sell so all the crap was edited out. They've since changed to a table top sale instead and although it's a lot less organising, I do wonder how successful it is, especially as it's now a set fee of £30 per seller.

hatrick · 18/10/2008 23:01

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FattipuffsandThinnifers · 18/10/2008 23:05

Am I missing something here? What is the point of having a public sale (ie one that any old person can go to, not just members) if it is an unwritten rule that joe public just has crappy stuff to choose from?

If this was brought to a logical conclusion it would end up being just the members who do go, therefore they'd all have equal chance of getting any of the stuff on sale. So... if these NCT sales are open to non-members, surely it isn't unreasonable of them to expect to have something halfway decent to choose from?

Or am I being dense??

fabsmum · 18/10/2008 23:06

Aitch - I'm with you. Sick to death of people bitching about the NCT. All the people I know who are involved with the NCT where I live are kind, lovely, ordinary mums who are very generous with their time and their expertise.

Aitch · 18/10/2008 23:08

hatrick, she says in the OP that she was going for 'the good stuff' in particular. hence the reason she turned up early.

'course perhaps some of the helpers wanted the good stuff, hence the reason they turned up even earlier.

seems to me this is a bad case of the biter bit.

hatrick · 18/10/2008 23:11

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Aitch · 18/10/2008 23:11

you are being dense on two counts, fattipuffs.

  1. every sale, jumble, nct, white elephant, whatever, will be looked through first by volunteers who ALWAYS get first pick. it's the way things work. of course you could make the case that you won't know that unless you do volunteer to help out, so if you're more of a moaner than a doer you'll never know.
  1. i VERY much doubt that 20 people were able to clear an NCT of all the 'decent stuff'.
Original poster
littleoldme · 18/10/2008 23:17

Aitch - you really should relax a little.

fattipuffs - agree absolutely

Goodnight everyone. Thanks for the chat

OP posts:
hatrick · 18/10/2008 23:20

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