Guys, looking for a bit of STW wisdom over a dilemma I have
I use freecycle so the things I no longer require can be reused by someone, Karma and all that
However, I posted to see if anyone wanted 2 kiddie cycle helmets and got a reply from someone who was up front in saying that they would like to have them to sell at a car boot, to fund a charity trip to Ethiopia
Would you, is this deserving?
Is this better going to someone local that would use them??
What do you think
Mart
freecycle is for personal use, not to get free stuff to sell on.
They are going against what freecycle is meant for.... but considering I think a lot of pikey's use freecycle to get stuff to sell on ebay, at least their being upfront about it...
As long as it's genuine I wouldn't worry, ask to see some proof about the charity trip if your worried it's just a car booter looking for stuff to sell
Did anyone else reply?
If yes then give them to someone who'll use them.
If no then give them to the profesional freecycler who'll sell them to fund crack'n'hoes charideeeee.
I' give them. I thought the idea was just a way of disposing of stuff that you don't want rather than making judgements as to whether the people are deserving enough.
Reminds me a slightly of the concept of Victorians giving charity to the deserving poor otherwise 
Ask the mods, they amy take a judgement of it. Ask for a charity number to prove they are doing this?
I'd give it a few days, if no one else wants them then give them to the car boot person.
Martin:
Freecycle is a way of getting rid of stuff/crap/shite from your house that you don't want without even leaving your house.
If you're worried about how genuine that bloke is who "took your tv 'cos his tv is broken and the kids need a tv or they will get a bad disease" then don't use freecycle.
If you want to give them to someone more appreciative then contact local schools, charities etc and then you do the leg-work.
I'm not sure it's against the point of freecycle.
As far as I knew, the point of freecycle was to save stuff from landfill.
I've often see people specifically state the stuff they are giving is for "car boot sales" - ie a box of random assorted niknaks that aren't of specific interest individually.
If no one else has asked for the items, I'd have no qualms giving it to someone that's doing a car boot charity or not, if it meant it didn't get thrown away.
If there were other people interested, I might give them to them - but for me I find overly-begging sob stories irksome and they don't tend to get the stuff in high demand from me.
Gave up a long time ago with the true moral principles of freecycle. Few pay attention. It's like a free car boot sale basically. Everyone out to pick up cheap crap and hoping to flog to someone else for a profit. Either on ebay or another car boot sale. And yes, charities take advantage too.
The main benefit I've had with freecycle is to get rid of stuff that's way too much hassle to take to the tip. Old huge widescreen CRT for example that I couldn't even lift myself.
I'm wary though when getting rid of stuff. You're inviting anyone into your home to take away something you don't want and may be indicating that you're replacing it with something better, whilst also showing them the security you have in your house 
Thnaks for the reply guys, been usefull to hear other points of view
Decided just to give them the helmets. At least it gets rid of them out the house and saves me the hassle
Mart
For every one 'genuine' Freecycler - there are at least ten crazies out there.
I gave away a roll of carpet on Freecycle once. I gave it to the first guy who responded, and he collected that evening. Great, very pleased, no problems there.
However, there were no less than 56 other disappointed individuals who also wanted the carpet, and many of them were very experessive in varying degrees, venting their anger / disappointment / sob stories of abject poverty on me for several weeks after the carpet had gone...
Several people begged me to take the carpet back from the first bloke, and give it to them instead (some offering cash!).
Others demanded that I gave them the details of the bloke who had collected the carpet in the first place, so they could pursue him with similar bribes / threats.
One bloke sent me lengthy sob stories for several weeks, all of which ended in "..his poor helpless babies crawling around on bleeding knees, full of splinters from the cold bare wooden floor."
FFS! IT was only a bit of bloody carpet!
Reminds me of the sob story I got doing snipe bids on ebay. I always do the bid in the last few seconds with an auto-snipe tool, best way and avoid getting yourself into a bidding war. One time I got someone sending me messages about how I'd deprived their poor child of the gift of a lifetime.
However, there were no less than 56 other disappointed individuals who also wanted the carpet, and many of them were very experessive in varying degrees, venting their anger / disappointment / sob stories of abject poverty on me for several weeks after the carpet had gone...Several people begged me to take the carpet back from the first bloke, and give it to them instead (some offering cash!).
Others demanded that I gave them the details of the bloke who had collected the carpet in the first place, so they could pursue him with similar bribes / threats.
One bloke sent me lengthy sob stories for several weeks, all of which ended in "..his poor helpless babies crawling around on bleeding knees, full of splinters from the cold bare wooden floor."
FFS! IT was only a bit of bloody carpet!
That story is enough to put off anyone!!
However, there were no less than 56 other disappointed individuals who also wanted the carpet, and many of them were very experessive in varying degrees, venting their anger / disappointment / sob stories of abject poverty on me for several weeks after the carpet had gone...Several people begged me to take the carpet back from the first bloke, and give it to them instead (some offering cash!).
Others demanded that I gave them the details of the bloke who had collected the carpet in the first place, so they could pursue him with similar bribes / threats.
One bloke sent me lengthy sob stories for several weeks, all of which ended in "..his poor helpless babies crawling around on bleeding knees, full of splinters from the cold bare wooden floor."
FFS! IT was only a bit of bloody carpet!
That's a brilliant story, made my afternoon!
I go onto the site and check them out, if someone has a history of giving something back then they are welcome to it. There are a lot who give away one thing at the beginning, then have a 100's of wanted posts.
I haven't had any pestering or begging like Monstermarrow. Can't you report them to the adninistrator and get them bared?
Second-hand helmets? Fit only for the bin surely
Least the guy was upfront about the helmets I guess.
Her indoors went on freecycle recently looking for a caravan - just wanted to have it as a spare room if extra folk come to stay.
THis guy replied and said he had one we could have. We asked if he wanted anything for it and he said, "Oh no, but a bottle of gin would be nice."
I was duly despatched to retrieve what I assumed was going to be some rusting, mouldy piece of scrap. The bloke had given me directions and I drove past a house with a cracking looking caravan on the drive and carried on going looking for the pile of junk. Wasn't there. Turned back and went to the first house. It was the place. This Bessacar Cameo whatever was immaculate, clean, fully working with gas/electric/new battery etc. THe old folks getting rid of it didn't like all the "riff-raff" at caravan parks anymore and just wanted shot of it without the hassle of punters coming to haggle. The wife even apologised for not cleaning it(!). It had all bills/receipts/habit.certs. etc too.
Exchanged the gin and hitched it on and towed it away. Checked a few similar age/models on the web and found £1500-£2500 to be the price range.
JUst goes to show that freecycle can work well. It's such a good van we'll probably use it for the odd trip and if we ever get rid of it it'll just be for gin!
Funnily enough, another bloke e-mailed us and said it was a bit much to expect someone to give us a caravan but he had a friend selling one. We mailed him a pic of our 'van hitched on to the S3 Land Rover that someone else gave us.
Rich - MemberThat story is enough to put off anyone!!
Its not all that bad! The good side to freecycle (and ther IS one), is when your unwanted junk genuinely helps somebody out.
I had a load of long timber battens, and half a roll of chicken wire I needed to get rid of. I posted it on freecycle, a girl emailed me right away, and arranged to pick it up that evening.
So, later on after work - I answered the doorbell, and found a uniformed female paramedic on my doorstep, and a bloody great big ambulance parked out on the street. At this point there were alarm bells going off in my head, as I immediately assumed there must be an emergency somewhere - but when she started talking about building herself a chicken coop, I stopped panicking and the penny finally dropped...
Turned out she had just finished her shift, and was intending to use the ambulance to shift the timber home before dropping the van back at the depot. Anyway - I helped her load it all up, and off she went.
Two weeks later, I found a thank-you note, and a tray of eggs on my doorstep.
As far as I knew, the point of freecycle was to save stuff from landfill.
This. I do get the argument that people taking stuff and then selling it on is against the spirit of freecycle, but if I put something on there it'd be something I wanted out of the house, couldn't be bothered to try and sell myself, and would rather it ended up being used by someone than going to the tip. All things being equal I suppose I'd rather give it to someone to use than to sell but I wouldn't be that fussed really.
Two weeks later, I found a thank-you note, and a tray of eggs on my doorstep.
Emits warm glow
Checked a few similar age/models on the web and found £1500-£2500 to be the price range.
Flip, I wonder what the record is.
I just give stuff to the most seemingly deserving/polite email I get. Giving away PCs always gets a lot of interest. Get annoyed when people don't turn up though.
monstermarrow - Member
Rich - Member
That story is enough to put off anyone!!Its not all that bad! The good side to freecycle (and ther IS one), is when your unwanted junk genuinely helps somebody out.
It made me laugh more than anything...."It was only a bit of bloody carpet!!!"
I've had a dyson (it's broken but you might be able to fix it, smells of brurning when you use it and doesnt suck much) which just needed the filters washing out of a load of ash (blockage and burning smell solved in one).
Washing machine was a friend of a friend who was going to freecycle it if that counts?
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