No increase in book and magazine listings

[bykimbo]

'If we build it, they will come.' Cool name btw, Neverchucks!

bykimbo - likewise here in Edinburgh, Oxfam have a separate bookshop - I eavesdropped on a manager training a new assistant recently who was saying, 'We're educating folk that if you're buying for charity, you can't get a good quality read for 10p - that's what that's for.' (pointing dismissively at a wire bargain bin full of airport paperbacks marked 3 for £1). So there we have it ...

Cru
x

So much for charity beginning at home! So if you can't afford the sort of prices Oxfam thinks you should pay, you don't deserve to read a good book? Thank goodness some other charities remember that they're providing a local service, not just raking in as much cash as possible!

If Oxfam want to behave like a mega-corp, perhaps they'd like to start paying the full local business rates, instead of getting the subsidised charity rates supported by... oh, local businesses and shoppers. Grrr!

Thanks for the info, very interesting!

[klj]

I`m a new seller on Ebid and I just started listing some vintage magazines this week. No sales yet, and only very few views but I remain hopeful ) If a few of these sell, I`ll put more up, Ive got quite a few more up in the loft lol. Ive been a magazine junkie nearly all my life.

Welcome Never! Put a signature on (see User CP), so we can all see your listings. Good luck with the magazines.

[klj]

'If we build it, they will come.' Cool name btw, Neverchucks!

bykimbo - likewise here in Edinburgh, Oxfam have a separate bookshop - I eavesdropped on a manager training a new assistant recently who was saying, 'We're educating folk that if you're buying for charity, you can't get a good quality read for 10p - that's what that's for.' (pointing dismissively at a wire bargain bin full of airport paperbacks marked 3 for £1). So there we have it ...

Cru
x

So much for charity beginning at home! So if you can't afford the sort of prices Oxfam thinks you should pay, you don't deserve to read a good book? Thank goodness some other charities remember that they're providing a local service, not just raking in as much cash as possible!

If Oxfam want to behave like a mega-corp, perhaps they'd like to start paying the full local business rates, instead of getting the subsidised charity rates supported by... oh, local businesses and shoppers. Grrr!

Thanks for the info, very interesting!

Cru and Kimbo - It is a sad state isn't it? Especially considering everything is being given to them. All the charity shops seem to have someone pointing out first editions and other rarities so they can up the price.
And now with used bookstores able to check every book online, I rarely find any great bargains there.
So we are only left with boot sales?? And online auctions.
I'm finding it's not just books either - have also seen near retail prices on many collectable items lately in charity shops.

[Spyder1942]

have seen over retail prices as well

[klj]

It just doesn't seem right for charity shops does it? And as far as I can remember, it's only been the last five years that prices have gone that way.

[neverchucksowtaway]

Welcome Never! Put a signature on (see User CP), so we can all see your listings. Good luck with the magazines.

Finally managed to suss out how to put a signature, make a banner and open a shop today Phew!!! Its taken me all morning lol. I`m not very techy minded.

[klj]

Finally managed to suss out how to put a signature, make a banner and open a shop today Phew!!! Its taken me all morning lol. I`m not very techy minded.

Looks good! Well done you. Now just add a bit about yourself to your about me page and you are ready to go.

[cruellady]

:: tip-toeing through the moral quagmire ::

Hmm. Well, I'm not sure I entirely disapprove; the larger charities have smartened up their acts because they need the money for charitable work and want customers with money coming through the doors without blushing at being seen in a 'secondhand shop'. Oxfam only open bookshops in areas that will support them; the Edin one is is Morningside, and I suspect bykimbo's St.Austell is similarly well-heeled.

The reduced business rate is simply a plus in their credit column, which they are taking advantage of in the manner of any clever retailer. Even 'though much of the generated cash goes to 'admin', a lot of these bigger charities support renewable projects now, which I think is a good thing.

There are still many smaller charity shops that charge 'get-shot-of-it' rates; the car boots; rl auctions and the fetes/jumble sales - one simply adapts, as do readers on a budget who want to own, rather than using the library!

And let's face it folks, we ain't gonna become millionaires by selling 20p paperbacks for 99p - it's the thrill of the chase that gets us going. Many of the 'poshed up' charity shops aren't that switched on: I got a 1st edition Biggles for £1.99 from this same Oxfam bookshop, which I sold for £25; a genuine Gucci clutch at another shop for 50p which I sold for £30, and three pocket dragons for a tenner, for which I pocketed £50.

Oxfam are a bit too smug, admittedly, but for the latter two bargains, I went back and gave them 50% of the profit, as the harassed volunteers in a lot of these shops need motivational boosts, and I just felt too horribly guilty! The entire profits from coups sourced elsewhere, of course, go into Cru's Guinness and Cig Fund :-)

:: tip-toes out ::

Cru
x

[bykimbo]

All good points Cru. I don't actually expect to buy to sell in Oxfam at all though, I go there to buy to read... but don't succeed very often. The Oxfam I was talking about is near my previous place, so in Hythe in Hampshire... so your well-heeled comment is probably fair. I don't expect them to sell the good stuff cheaply, I really don't want them flogging off the family jewels for tuppence. I do think it would be more fitting if they sold the mass-produced paperbacks that are *only* going to be bought by people looking for a cheap read, at a more reasonable price. No reason that I can see that they can't have a two-tier system, with the good stuff getting sensible prices, but the rubbish being trotted out for local bargain hunters.

[klj]

Yes, all good points, and I would fully support the charities charging as much as they want for items that will sell. But, what I'm seeing, in my area anyway, are charity shops that are dumping boxes of unsold items on the local auction houses where they sell for about £3.00 a box. If they would put some reasonable prices on them in their own shops, they would have done better. It's not just the buy to sell crowd, but the collectors as well that used to hunt for those bargains.
Glad to hear you've still found some Cru. It's good to know they are still out there.