O/T Freebies

We were subscribed to our local one in Wellingborough and another one in Bedford for a while, but there are too many 'regulars' for my liking, and so often there's literally hundreds of emails and only the very occasional bit of interesting stuff.

Too many people don't respond either, so we dropped out again last year.

While the idea is a good one, too many people seem to be making a living out of taking freebies and selling on ebay or at car boot sales for my liking.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Rushden, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

Is that the fault of the giver or the receiver? Anyone can sell on ebay if they take the trouble. I can sympathise when you think you're doing a someone a favour by giving them something they need only to see it sold for money you could have got. The main purpose of freecycle is to keep stuff out of landfill and giving or selling does that. If someone can get something for my cast offs, good luck to them. I've not seen any evidence of that around here though. Most of the stuff I see offered has little market value anyway. I did get told (by SWMBO) to help a neighbour take some stuff to the tip in the trailer a while back. He was throwing it on and I was sorting it into stuff to keep and stuff to throw. I rescued a nice patio set for us but she didn't like it so it went on ebay for =A365. Paid my petrol and a bit for my time.

John

Round here if the message is more than about an hour old the chances are you'll be too late. One or two people operate a "fair chance" where they don't accept the first response but wait a couple of days, they state this in the message. Not sure how they select from the responses though, may be a hat?

I wasn't trying to apportion blame, John, just commenting on my own position.

As I said, the idea is valid, but the implementation leaves a little to be desired.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Rushden, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

There is a spare chain hoist lurking here (near Weston Super Mare) if you are close enough to fetch it.

One possibly two of the groups up here specifically exclude reselling. The moderators keep track of who offers, who gets and anyone taking "a lot" with not offers gets their knuckles rapped or booted from the list.

My biggest problem is being 20+ miles from most of the offers or being 20+ miles from anyone else when making an offer.

Thanks but I'm in Oxford so quite some way from WSM. I do actually have a chain hoist but it looks like it's pre war and has no SWL markings. I've shown it to our lifting tackle inspector here. He agrees with me that it was probably a 1 ton one originally and as I only lift the occasional car engine weiging about 1/3rd that, it does the job. The oportunity to upgrade for free was attractive though.

Thanks

John

When visiting Newark we used to go to the auction on the car park opposit the castle rows of cardboard boxes with odds and sods good buys include a working 24v mains charger for =A31. A full set of Laura Ingles Wilder (little house on the prairie etc) for 50p I was prepared to bid =A310. The first time you visit it is a puzzle all this junk and nobody selling it then the aucioneer wanders up and down the rows knocking boxes down to eager bidders who pay cash on the bid.

Would you believe most of that stuff comes from the local tip,anything that gets left is collected by the council and returns to the tip,i've put stuff on there in the past as it is closer than the tip,just means getting up early.

That's a brilliant bit of recycling and earns a few =A3 as well. Our local civic amenity site (series of council skips) is manned by contractors who used to seperate anything that looked useful and put it by their portacabin. A few =A3 and you could take it home. Much rubbish was recycled and the staff earned a bit extra. The council have now stopped that and even installed CCTV to make sure no one nicks their rubbish! Stupid or what?

John

Well, in my experience, FreeCycle rocks. I'm a member of the Bedford group.

I've got shot of a lot of stuff I didn't need anymore ( wish I'd had many more chicken coops to gift away) - giving me valuable garage space... (and the best thing I did to clear out space was to hire a skip)

And received some great stuff. You just have to be persistent. The fair use policy is what I use, if somebody then sells on what I don't need and can't be bothered to sell, good luck to them.

Remember, you can divert FreeCycle messages to your work email so you can respond quickly - I tend to disregard all weekend messages - as I don't keep a PC at home.

Your lucky you can get into your tip, having a van with or with out a trailer is a no no at Bedford tip, I can apply for a license so I have to stack my waste to justify a trip and they wonder why fly tipping is rife in Bedfordshire. Rant over.

Martin P

That's a brilliant bit of recycling and earns a few £ as well. Our local civic amenity site (series of council skips) is manned by contractors who used to seperate anything that looked useful and put it by their portacabin. A few £ and you could take it home. Much rubbish was recycled and the staff earned a bit extra. The council have now stopped that and even installed CCTV to make sure no one nicks their rubbish! Stupid or what?

John

We have van access on two days of the week at Rushden.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk