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Is it morally wrong or a good business model . . . .
65 Answers
. . . . . to buy books from charity shops at, between 10p and £2 and sell them at a profit at carboot sales and on ebay?
My mum does this, and I think i'd feel bad if i'd had bought a book for less than a pound then sold it for about £40, which has happened several times.
Also she once sold a book for £80, but she may have got that one from the auctions, which she no longer goes to. She used to go to the auctions and buy boxes of books for a few pound each then sell them at a profit but when the auctioneers starting selling more expensive things, she focused on the charity shops more.
My mum does this, and I think i'd feel bad if i'd had bought a book for less than a pound then sold it for about £40, which has happened several times.
Also she once sold a book for £80, but she may have got that one from the auctions, which she no longer goes to. She used to go to the auctions and buy boxes of books for a few pound each then sell them at a profit but when the auctioneers starting selling more expensive things, she focused on the charity shops more.
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I really see nothing wrong with this. The money has gone to the charity shop, they are happy, and if she goes to the time and effort of selling it on, then good for her. If you look at the Antiques Roadshow and shows like this, there are loads of people who bought a pot for a fiver, or a vase for 50p, and find it's a rare antique and sell it for hundreds of pounds.
The charity shop has sold it for what it considers a good price - it's certainly not immoral.
You could say it's more immoral to buy football flags made on the dirt-cheap in China, then sell them on for a fiver each. It is, as you say, business. I sell on eBay all the time and as we go through loads of books in our house, some of them have almost certainly come from charity shops or boot fairs. Good for her!
The charity shop has sold it for what it considers a good price - it's certainly not immoral.
You could say it's more immoral to buy football flags made on the dirt-cheap in China, then sell them on for a fiver each. It is, as you say, business. I sell on eBay all the time and as we go through loads of books in our house, some of them have almost certainly come from charity shops or boot fairs. Good for her!
They should molly, if they had the time and expertise to do it - don't forget that the shops are staffed by volunteers and the people who do the actual selling may not have that expertise. When I worked in the hospice people did donate valuable stuff and that used to go to auction - but the charity shops on the high street would probably rather make a quite profit and sell 10 books for 50p each, than wait for that person who wants to spend fifty quid on what is usually an impulse buy. If I donated something worthwhile to a charity shop then I would make a point of telling them what I thought it was worth. Books come into charity shops by the ton - a couple of our local ones have asked people not to donate any more for the time being, they have too many books on their shelves. Your mum's block purchasing would probably be very welcome here at the moment!
Yes, but that may be (or may not be) a problem for the charity shops, not your mother. The shops don't have the time or expertise to value each item they sell. In a perfect world, everyone willing to buy the book for 40 would show up at the shop at the same time, and a bidding war would break out, and the book would sell for 40. But that's inefficient, as the cost of getting to the shop would be prohibitive. So your mom is serving the valuable role of intermediary - she goes to the shop, buys the book, and ships it to willing end buyers. She earns the profit for doing the work. The charity may find this acceptable (perhaps the cost of doing the work of valuing the item and finding willing buyers would exceed any extra profit the charity might get.)
This is a whole other thread, of course, but in the long run a business can only survive if it provides a good or service people want, at a price they are willing to pay. As in any other aspect of life, there are people of both high and low morals involved. Low morals may pay in the short run but tend to catch up in the long run. Of course, as Keynes noted, in the long run we are all dead......
You'll find many charities do sort the wheat from the chaff, Molly, and a visit to your local Oxfam shop will show you just that. There's a local charity here that even has a specialist, secondhand bookshop. Business is, as they say, a dog-eat-dog world and even charity shops have to be competitive if they want to justify their existence. I'm afraid those who don't will just go under and it's no-one's fault but their own.
Just as long as your mother doesn't resort to the underhand tricks of some of our borrowers. The favourite is to ask for a fairly rare book to be borrowed via the Inter Library Loan system. They pay the fee, take the book home and then just don't return it. Three weeks later you see a similar title selling on Ebay.
Our open access policy means they don't have to provide us with proof of ID, so they often use a false address. With 20 libraries in our system alone and several staff in each one, it's not hard to imagine how often they get away with it. But it's counter-productive in the long run, because the charges get passed on to us and council tax goes up, along with the loan fees.
Apart from which it's thieving, plain and simple. At least your mother's paying the asking price for her books.
Just as long as your mother doesn't resort to the underhand tricks of some of our borrowers. The favourite is to ask for a fairly rare book to be borrowed via the Inter Library Loan system. They pay the fee, take the book home and then just don't return it. Three weeks later you see a similar title selling on Ebay.
Our open access policy means they don't have to provide us with proof of ID, so they often use a false address. With 20 libraries in our system alone and several staff in each one, it's not hard to imagine how often they get away with it. But it's counter-productive in the long run, because the charges get passed on to us and council tax goes up, along with the loan fees.
Apart from which it's thieving, plain and simple. At least your mother's paying the asking price for her books.
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