Are Charity Shops Charging Too Much

Well I had an interesting chat on  Saturday when I went into Lichfield.  I visited one of the bargain book shops (they sell new books at a large discount), and one of the girls who works in there also has her own eBay business and as it was quiet we started chatting.

Emma made a very interesting comment  that  over the past  18 months she  had stopped buying almost 100%  at Charity shops as they were charging over the top prices. This got me thinking Are Charity Shops Charging Too Much ? . When I got home I looked at my stock buying and also discovered that my buying from these shops had also gone down.

So are charity shops charging too much, or have they just put prices up, or is it that as sellers we are looking for a bargain?

So I asked a few eBayer’s the question “Are Charity Shops Charging too much” one or two said no, but when questioned further I found these sellers never bought much from these shops. Some more said they had never thought about it (this did worry me as they did not keep a check on prices) and a large number (well asked 12 in total – so 7) said yes now they think about it Charity shops are charging too much.

So is the reason Charity shops are charging too much for books and DVD’s etc their stock items have gone up – well no as all the items are given.  Is it that the internet has shown them the value of the items – well maybe. Or is it they are trying to get the most out of items given to them – again that is a maybe.

Can anything be done about Charity shops charging too much, well no of course not they can charge what they like for a book or DVD, as sellers we do too.

And a thought here I am not getting at Charity Shops charging too much as one person pointed out to me, all I am doing is making a point. To put it better it might be better to give you some facts.

December 2007 – Paperback books were around 10p each -      December 2008  Paperback books 50p – £1.00

DVD 20p                                                                                                            DVD  £2.50

Or I was spending around £50.00 a week in the shops, today it is around half that.

So yes charity shops are charging too much and no they are not charging too much, people are still buying from and I will continue to do so, as long as I can make some money.

In the old days they had £200 a month from me, they were happy, I was happy, and my buyers were happy.

Today they get well under half of that. But again we are all happy.

So please leave comments good or bad whether you think Charity shops are charging too much

Another resource bought by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires