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I see the Oxfam charity shop in Clarkston is at it again. They have a facsimile of the 1952 Rupert Annual, without its slipcase, in a cabinet with a £24.99 price tag on it. Just looked at it on eBay and there are several going for as much as a tenner less - with slipcase. (Even allowing for p&p, it still works out a few good pounds cheaper.) Out of the half dozen available on eBay, only one is marked up at £25, yet charity shops claim that they usually price items between the lowest and the highest on eBay - which, let's face it, given the chancers there, is hardly the most 'scientific' way of evaluating the value of anything.
Yeah, I hear you, it's for charity - but charity begins at home.
5 comments:
I was in Oxfam, Clarkston last week and saw a Dan Dare book and a Denis Gifford book on old UK comics I think they were on the high side of being ok (I that makes sense). I popped across the road to the Scottish Chest Heart and Stoke charity shop and saw an old Waddington's game that took me right back (The Battle of Little Big Horn) in the window and was taken right back to my childhood as my brother and his pals used to play that game. I was tempted to pick it up but it would have just have languished in my loft and it was £15 (which to be fair wasn't that high as its over 55 years old) So I took a picture of it on my phone instead.
I saw that Denis Gifford book myself, McS, but it wasn't particularly impressed by the visuals so I left it. Had it been cheaper I might have bought it, but the price deterred me. That means that there was less dosh in the shop's till that night than otherwise might have been. Why they play the long game is beyond me, especially as charity shops are always pleading poverty. Sell things cheaper and have more cash flow is the way I'd do it. And lofts are built for things to languish in, McS, so buy that game (if it's still there) next time they're in. Offer them a tenner - you never know.
I donated some comics to Oxfam last time I moved house. Most of them are still in the shop three years later, unsold. No doubt this is down to the pricing- they have a Marvel Indiana Jones comic priced at £3.99 which is way too high to be realistic- and I think the fact it's been on the shelf for three years backs this up.
This is the same shop run by a woman who once told me she "knew all about comics" when trying to charge me £5.99 for a tatty 1980s Conan comic after checking something on a laptop. You won't be surprised to learn that I later looked on ebay and saw that that particular issue was on sale for £5.99 in near-mint condition!
I've no problem with charities trying to make money, but they need to be realistic- £1 in the till would surely be preferable to a comic sitting on a shelf for years. I do have a problem with people claiming to know "all about comics" when they clearly don't!
I've never yet met anyone in a charity shop who knows anything about anything, DS, despite their claims. That's what they all do - look it up on ebay and charge the same, regardless of condition. And they give you such a superior, condescending look when you try to explain that condition is paramount. Imagine selling a book at £25 without its slipcase, when you can buy a complete one on ebay for anything from £10 to £15. Their ticket didn't even say it was a replica edition. They're more of a hindrance to charity than a help a lot of the time.
Oops, meant to type 'next time you're in' in my reply to McS, not 'next time they're in'. What am I like?!
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