Charity Shops

I used to help in a charity shop and it was the manager of the shop who set the prices. You have to shop around with them, as you do with other shops. Some sell things ridiculously cheap, other over-price. Don't know if that reflects the clientele, but the items on sale are much the same.

I used to manage a charity shop which was part of a chain of shops in the city for the same charity. We were very aware of pricing and the volunteers had guidelines to work on. Mistakes were made, especially with bric-a-brac and paintings, but we learned by our mistakes. All the managers had computers, and so could look up items and value accordingly. I loved the job, and all the volunteers were amazing.

We volunteers price ourselves but we have guidelines and no one new would be pricing You really do get a good knowledge of the kind of prices in your area what would sell for £5 in Cambridge would probably fetch £2 in my neck of the woods
If things are too high they just won’t sell so you would soon realise if you were going wrong If they have 20 of those little craft jars and only 5 sell they will know they got it wrong if 15 sell they ll know they got it right
We keep our prices fairly low and we are a very popular shop if something doesn’t sell but is good quality and up to date then it will be reduced before giving up on it

...and as maddy says when it comes to bruc a brac or vintage or designer items we look them up and price accordingly or send to eBay if we feel that would get the most money

We have sooooo much bric a brac in our shop that they would have gone straight in the skip: I'm ruthless with that sort of stuff.

Last week I bought my granddaughter a Raleigh bicycle with stabilizers in good condition for £4 from our local charity shop. The same shop today had a plastic dinosaur in the window for £8.

It all depends on area I think,the Charity I worked for gave a price guide but we managers knew what the pricing should be in our particular areas.
The area I worked was not very prosperous and lots of mums came in for items they needed for thier children we made up packages of say 3 x babygro's/3 x bodysuits/3 x matinee coats/3 x cot sheets and never charged more than £5 all had been laundered or where new items.
Some Charity Head Offices forget that not all area's are the same and outprice themselves vastly,I always go to our local Banardo's to keep my GGCs toy box topped up with realistic
priced toys.

petra

‘we have soooo much bric a brac it would have gone straight in the skip’

Is this newly brought in bric a brac? Perhaps fresh stuff would have sold, if not the older items. Am curious as to how much stuff is dumped before it’s ever put out to sell. Our local Sue Ryder shop collects rags for re-sale, so I assume unsellable clothing gets sent for rags. Wonder if this is what happens with other charities.

The manager in my local charity shop wants a quick turnover so everything is sold cheaply and in my opinion, sometimes too cheaply.

Books, their speciality are an absolute bargain, most being sold for 50p, hardback and in superb condition. There is a room devoted to books and fortunately, they do not flinch if they receive eg 50 books to resell.

Chaffinch
You make that decision when the goods come in, will they/ won't sell?
Re the rags. Our man is coming this Friday. 27 sacks in 3 weeks. Average weight per sack 6.5 kilo.
It would surprise some of you to know that some of the big name charities clear their sorting room every day. By that I mean: everything that is there is put in the rag or in the skip.
Our skip is emptied 'sometimes' twice a week at a cost of £50 purely because people are too lazy to go to the public tip.
I'm the only person in our shop who looks in the bag/sack who says ^no thank you, we don't want that'

That’s awful. I would never send tatty clothes to charity, always wash and iron everything before it goes. And only send stuff I hope will sell.

A friend was (volunteer) manager of a shop run by a big charity. She went on regular courses on all aspects of running the shop, including prices, she also had access to a range of experts with specialist knowledge of jewellry, or books, or silver, or designer clothes, to advise her when necessary.

I've just noticed an advert in my local rag advertising a firm which buys gold,silver, old fountain pens, pre-1947 silver coins etc etc. The venue is close to where I live so it'll give me a chance to get rid of quite a lot of old stuff which is cluttering drawers/cupboards. What a good idea.

My family would have binned it all ! So charity begins at home in this case.

We get a lot of books and the rag man pays (I think it’s 3p a kilo) so as of this year I asked if I could use one of the book buying websites and so far this year have made about £400 it probably takes me about 2 hours a fortnight scanning them

calendergirl very few people wash the clothes they give, nine times out of ten they are just pushed into a black bag inside out pyjamas with a top in one bag bottoms in the other sometimes mucky sometimes holey
Some bags are lovely though and those ones are a leakier to handle

I meant £400 for the charity not for me ??

Can anyone who works in a charity shop tell me if you take unsaleable clothing for "ragging"? I know of a couple locally that do, but don't advertise the fact, tho I have asked if they would. It would save a lot of landfill if tatty clothing was donated and sold on by more charities for recycling. I'm not sure why it doesn't happen more.

BlueBelle

I know it’s not what you meant to type, but intrigued by ‘leakier to handle’. Should it have been ‘pleasure to handle?’ Just curious!

Happiyogi
Most rag goes for shredding. It is not put in landfill.

Bluebelle
That's our favourite job in the shop. We get quite excited when we find an expensive one
If we get a smelly sack it goes straight in the skip. We have one particular donator who's sack goes straight out the back door.

I have put tattier clothing in a separate bag and labelled it for the ragman because I know one shop which takes it.

So it's no good filling small coffee jars with buttons, bric a brac etc then? It could get thrown out.

I buy a lot of books in charity shops, paperbacks only. I don't like hardbacks - too heavy to read in bed!
When I worked at the library our 'for sale' PBs would usually sell quite quickly, but I would have the odd argument with a colleague who always insisted on pricing the HBs at double the PBs - because they'd cost more in the first place.

But they so often didn't sell and we'd end up binning them. Such a waste. I'd rather have sold them for anything than chuck them in the bin.

Sorry calendargirl no leaking

I prefer to buy paperbacks because they are easier to read in bed but sometimes beggars cannot be choosers.

I wash clothes before I bag them for the charity shop and if I have another with unsellable clothes- eg trousers with holes, they would go in a separate bag but labelled not for resale.

when my mother passed away we took a lot of her clothes to a Barnardos charity shop, I chose that shop because they are not over priced. That raised £146, which I was pleased and surprised about.

Other items such as brand new underwear, toiletries , new nightwear , we took to the care home where she had spent her last few weeks of life.

I also cleared out the wardrobe in my spare bedroom and gave the clothes that belonged to my grandsons that they no longer wore ( I bought them) to Barnardos charity shop.

Old but good school uniforms go up to the charity shop near the school.

Some clothes, books games etc that they've outgrown, I give to a young woman who is very grateful for them.

other items around my house such as ornaments, nic naks, CDs, DVDs, unworn make up , I donate the to a local cat charity - where the items are auctioned/sold off to raise funds.

I have actually been into some charity shops where they have been selling clothes for more than the new price!