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

[littleoldme]

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

lol, littleoldme, you're falling into the classic AIBU trap of insulting the people who think you ABU and thanking the (very few) who agree.

i'm perfectly relaxed, thank you for asking, certainly i'm not tightly wound enough to be 'bloody annoyed' at a helper at a second-hand sale and then go posting about it...

It's not always that easy.

I've helped at a couple in the past. It was very hard work and I had to take ds one time, and the next time I left him with my mother as it was just impossible keeping an eye on him and doing useful stuff as well. I did feel extremely looked down at, not anything specific but most of the women there were married and seemed to never have heard of single mothers. It made me feel very sad and alienated.

Also it was very very cliquey. I found the nice ones patronising and the others just ignored me.

I got a few nappies before they went on general sale which was the only good thing about it really.

I don't go any more and I let my membership lapse. (I used to pay the discounted rate because of being on benefit - this was another point of contention, it was made an issue of actually which just seemed wrong and pointless. 'Oh let them join for very little money but they're not one of us' was the attitude that came across very clearly.

My local NCT group was like that Flight. One of them told me that I hadn't given birth because I's had an emergency SC fucking slag

anyway.

I stopped going to NCT sales when someone actually shoved her elbow hard into my bump when I was 7 months pg with DS2.

I do think YABU though - the ladies in my local charidee shop get first dibs on the stuff that goes not the shop, and fair play to 'em I say. They are not being paid they are volunteers so they need an incentive.

Help out yourself next time - or just don;t go. easy.

It's a perk of the job. The unpaid long and boring job. If you want the perks, you take the job. Now stop moaning and help out at the next one. Or, you could buy your stuff full price from Mothercrap.

I sympathise littleoldme. In the past I spent many saturdays at church jumble sales. I expected queue for up to an hour outside. I remember seeing some 'volunteers' arriving 10 minutes before the sale began - just in time to take their pick of the stuff laid out .

I know lots of volunteers work hard to put on a sale and need to be incentivised, but there should be a limit to how much they can buy. One or two things, fine, but not whole bags of clothing. That is just taking the p* IMO.

If an NCT sale has 20 volunteers, and everyone bought unlimited stuff(perhaps to sell on ebay for instance) then you could be left with a very poor showing for the people who had queued up to buy.

No one here has said that buyers put in time and effort to go to sales as well.

You see a sale advertised, you have no idea really what to expect (it's not like there's a shop window!) and you travel some distance (often to some remote church or community hall)and queue up in all weathers, knowing that those inside the hall have got first choice of the things on sale. Fair enough if it is just a few bits and pieces and t
there are plenty of nice things left.

However,the Trade Descriptions act does not seem to cover ads for charity sales. I have have wasted whole afternoons travelling to and queing for charity sales advertised a 'bumper sale, bargains galore' to find three trestle tables of picked over rubbish and a smug smile on the faces of the volunteers!

I stopped going to sales years ago btw.

Actually now I have read the thread properly I can see some people have mentioned the some buyers put into going to the charity sales.

This bit about non members volunteering to help at an NCT sale: does that mean an NCT would automatically accept a volunteer is lives miles away, does not have children and is totally unknown to the group?

Must preview! I meant that I can see that it has been mentioned that buyers also put effort into attending charity sales, by queueing up etc.

Have never been to one and this has put me off further. Helpers should be there to help and maybe each should have a break for 20 mins when the sale is open if they want to buy. Helping just to grab the best stuff is horrible and greedy and not in the spirit of the event. Urgh.

Why on earth would people give up 10 hours of their time so that someone can swan in, after having done nothing, and get the best bargains?!!
The money goes to the person who sold it with a cut to the NCT- both sides want it sold, they don't care who they sell it to! It is hard work, setting out,selling and most importantly clearing up.
If you want the first pick-don't moan-help.

The spirit of the event is to raise money to train specialist workers..there is no other agenda.

Running a sale is hard bloody work and if we did not get helpers who give up their time from about 8am then there would be no sale. Lots are sellers who stay in help and lots don't buy anything as they have older children which the sales don't tend to cater for. Pre-viewing the goods is a perk for lots though and if we did not allow this and we would not get enough helpers...and then there would be no sale. Anyone can help by the way...and at our sale we would be grateful and friendly.

I have helped organise loads of sales and reading things like 'horrible and greedy' just because I have bought a cheap toy (which I will sell on eventually) as a perk for hours and hours and hours of my time makes we want to not bother.

By the way we have about 70 sellers at our sales bringing in loads of stuff each and only about 30 helpers so there is always stacks of worthwhile stuff left.

It depends a lot on the extent and quality of the donated things. I assume that volunteers pay for what they take and I think they deserve this perk within limits.

The bottom line is what's left for everyone else. I have been to sales (jumble, NCT) where the majority of things are either near enough rubbish or too optimsitcally priced or there simply isn't enough!

If you are expecting people to respond to your advertisement and give up a few hours to go along blind to a sale, with no idea of what to expect, then there has to be enough wantable stuff on show.

YABU

Help if you want to get the good stuff, very cheeky to swan up and whinge that people who had worked hard setting up and clearing away got first dibs.

When I helped there was masses of good quality stuff and everyone who queued up to get in was more than happy with what they got. We don't all want the same stuff! I think that we probably had a rule about the amount of stuff that we had but I can't remember-I can't remember anyone having a 'greedy' amount anyway.
Helping was hard work and involved having to leave my own DCs. To expect someone to put in all those hours, at an inconvenience to themselves, and then only be allowed to buy anything 20 minutes after the start is unfair. Why should someone who doesn't put themselves out in the slightest expect to get first pick?

I understand that you were disappointed, LOM - but not sure that it is reasonable to also be annoyed. At our local sale, the vast majority of good items are still available after the 'pre-shop' by volunteers. ONLY people who volunteer for more than 4 hours are allowed to 'pre-shop'...but it may well be that volunteers turn up in time for the pre-shop at 10am and then stay until all the cashing up and clearing up (including hefting of rails and tables, bagging up unsold stuff etc) is done by 3.30. It's really hard work on the tills and adding up al the money etc. I have volunteered at a few - usually because the rate of commission you pay on your sold stuff is lower. I didn't even bother to pre-shop at the last sale I attended because there are so few items for children over about 5 or 6. (I usually assemble rails, drag tables about and dothe washing up - nothing skilled) I am not a member (though I was in the year DS was born) and there is no 'members first' queue, either.

Loads of volunteers make and donate cakes which are sold as refreshments, too.

I have sold loads of stuff at NCT sals - finding it much less of a faff than e bay.

But fo buying, you mau be lucky, you may not. Sorry you were disappointed.

I went to one once. It was crap stuff left though I got there early.
Maybe I should have volunteered but I'm wondering who would have been looking after my 3 preschoolers at the time. Its not always as easy as just saying well you should volunteer then.

I think you would find that the people helping had to find someone to look after their preschoolers. You only get helpers by giving them perks. (I was a single parent when I first started helping so I didn't have the luxury of a built in babysitter).

I am not an NCT member but I helped at a sale. It's not benefiting members, it's a small reward for those of us who get up off our arses to help out at the sale. If it wasn't for the helpers, there wouldn't be any sale. So yes you're being bloody unreasonable.

In my experience, people who never put themselves out to help are the first to moan!

I helped at ours last weekend. I left my house at 6pm on Friday and got home at 10.30pm. I had to ask my MIL to come down and stay for the w/e to babysit as my DH is working away. Then on the Saturday, I was there again, leaving my house at 11am, and getting back at 3.15. The sale ended at 12pm, and some people had been there since 8am, but I didn't want to ask too much of my MIL! So I gave up nearly 9 hours of my time. Helpers at ours had the option to pre-shop the night before. I think you have to offer this perk (I'd have forgone this for lower commission fees, I paid 40%) to get helpers. We had at least 40 over the two days.

All that said, there was still tonnes and tonnes left, even at the end of the sale, and we sold LOADS. I realised at the first ever NCT sale that I attended that helpers get first dibs, so now I help too.

We were given a bin bag at ours, and could select things as we saw them, even as we were putting them out. Some people did very little, and just spent the whole time 'sorting' through the stuff. I genuinely helped out, and just put stuff away if I saw it in the course of my 'work'.

I might have some 9-12m boys stuff.

YABU. I've helped out at several NNSs. The local branch lets helpers buy six items before the sale starts. Seemed fair dos to me. I didn't know about it for my first or second sale, even though I was a member then. That was crap communication but a bargain's a bargain and I swiftly volunteered for the next .

I don't think that the OP has the faintest idea of quite how much stock there is at a NNS, or quite how much effort goes into organising one.

We have 170 sellers, and need at least 50 volunteers to make sure that nobody has to wait too long to pay, that shoplifters (yes, really) don't get all the best stuff and that fresh stock is put out if any section starts to look empty. So it is not as though everything is out at the start, anyway. We have to recruit our sellers and depots, and we have to set it all out and clear it all up again at the end. We have to check everything to make sure that it is nearly new and not stained or holed (something that your average ebay seller doesn't bother to do...) and we have to publicise the event.

The fact that the OP didn't happen to find anything that she wanted did not mean that everything there was "crap". It just means that she didn't find what she wanted. Same as it would have been in any sale, shop or charity shop.

Our volunteers have half an hour in which to shop beforehand and earn every second of that time. Our volunteers are not the stereotypical SAHM with hours of time on her hands (who doesn't actually exist anyway...) they are busy parents who would actually rather be spending their Friday evening and Saturday morning with their families. The women who run depots have their houses full of stock for up to three weeks beforehand.

And some people begrudge them a sale preview? YAB vvvvvvvvvvv U

I suppose that we should be flattered that the sales are so slick and well run that they look effortless. That must be why she was miffed.

If you can't volunteer because of your DCs, how about getting together with a friend? SHE has the children while YOU help at the sale and take a long wish list on behalf of both of you? Then you will both be happy.