TTers are a penny-pinching lot

During my time in London I have been joining in on a beautiful thing called Freecycle. The name is pretty self-explanatory...you put up stuff you no longer need and someone takes it off your hands. All free, no money changes hands.

Now I am back in Munich and I have a look at the kind of crap people try to sell on Toytown. Fans, routers, plants, chairs and lots of other worthless stuff is put up for prices ranging from the symbolic 5-10€ to the ridiculous (thinking about most of the computing stuff put up!). All these things were always available for free on Freecycle and not only that, things such as cars, garages and so on could also be found (Although you had to fight to be first inthe queue!). Taking into account that the average person on Toytown is surely better off than the average person on freecycle, why are we such a tight lot? Why can`t we just give away furniture and things we won`t need because we are moving to another country and MUST leave it behind? Is the hassle really worth it for an extra 50€ for 20 items?

Your thoughts please...

I have extremely strong opinions on this subject but would be modded for certain if i put them here.

what would you like to give to me Pirulero

We do. There is a section of give-aways on Toytown and people use it.

I noticed this too. Without starting a row between TTers who are here for the long haul and the passers through, it does seem the latter that are tighter.
Possibly to do with trying to re coup osts that couldn't so easily be "written off" over time.

So now you want thoughts for free, too? geez... the nerve of some people...

A quick look at said free section for Munich, one of the most affluent cities in the world shows...free programming books, a floor lamp, a VCR, and a gay magazine...everything else is only on there as people cant be bothered to dispose of it or because it requires hefty transport. Are we more selfish because we are in an alien environment and feel the competition more?

To be honest, I am not sure everyone is better off than the average person here, I sure am not (being a college student). As for those that do have money? I don't know. I do know I also tried to sell my stuff when I left BCN (though obviously not on TT) and whatever I couldn't sell I gave to a friend of mine. I think I made about €70 that way which is a lot of money to me.
Some people move around a lot, if they always buy stuff when they move there, and then give that stuff away for free when they leave, they lose a lot of money in the long run.
I think you need to leave it to people whether they want to give away stuff for free or not, if it is useless crap maybe they won't find a buyer, if they do, it clearly wasn't that useless to them (the buyer). Different people do things differently.
Or maybe some people have been living in Germany too long.

We have got rid of a fair it of stuff recently. We used the GBV Hofflohmarkt, gave away directly to friends or simply left it on the pavement with zur Verschenken and it was gone in minutes.
I personally can't magine using TT to give away stuff really.

What is the harm of first asking if someone can make use of something you might otherwise take to the tip? Never heard of recycling? Some people are glad of a giveaway or good stuff for a token gesture. You are entitled to your point of view but it is also rather uncharitable in itself. If you seek to see us as a bunch of meanies you will find evidence to support your view, of course.

If I know someone who needs something I want to get rid of, I'll give it to them. If I don't, I'm more likely charge a nominal amount for it in order to keep the pure scavengers away. I'd far rather give something to a charity sale then to someone who is simply looking to turn a quick buck on it themselves. I also prefer to pay a nominal amount as well. It helps prevent the accumulation of useless crap in the cellar.

Sorry, bit of a misunderstanding there i think FL...I am comparing Toytowns sale/free service to a similar and richer experience in a less affluent area...

I think we would like to hear your opinion! Why not?

This is what we do. We give our stuff to a charity for homeless and underpriviledge Germans in the area I live and the clothing we donate to a children orphanage.

Pirulero saying something good related to Britain?....I must be imagining things

sà shithole, didn`t you notice the bit where I said I left again!?

Well, there are freecycle groups in Germany too. Maybe people are giving away their free stuff there, but coming to TT with items to sell, because they know they'll get a good price from the all the merchant bankers that hang around here.

When I was in Munich, I tried to give away things both on Toytown and Freecycle. Freecycle was nearly always more successful. I also don't think the average person on TT is better off than the average person on Freecycle. Where I am, lots of the Freecyclers are very well off. Money has little to do with wanting to stop stuff from ending up in a garbage dump.

So, all the stuff I have here I was planning on selling on tt (when I finally got around to taking photos and typing up descriptions) makes me a tight wad? geez.

Yeah, a few euros for children's english cassettes is not much, but it means my kids can take the change and buy something more suited to their age. And honestly, I can't afford to be just throwing away toys and outgrown things.

Or is someone trying to guilt us into giving him our stuff for free??

PS - Freecycle is cool - I've gotten rid of a few things there as well.

I hear you DDbug, I have two growing kids (and people that know me know how fast they are growing- my daughter 3 shoe sizes and 10cms in the last year alone!) that need new everything every six months and my housekeeping budget only stretches so far. Selling the old stuff helps , though I do some of it on ebay so as to retain some privacy here.

I have though given away a kitchen, a table and semi broken TV on TT that I couldn´t otherwise sell.

Maybe the tightwads are the ones who expect to get secondhand stuff for free from someone who spent their hard-earned money on it in the first place.

It's pretty rich to assume everyone can afford to simply give away their possessions. Maybe they are moving because they can't find a job here or as someone else said, a student, or just plain need the money. You don't know what anyone's individual circumstances are.

There`s a strange defensive tone to your posts lassie...bad experience?

I doubt many people on here are worse off than 5 head families in council estates in South East London, and I visited a few of those to pick up stuff I wanted. People like that also came round to pick stuff off me. The point is that people try to sell on here what people give away on Freecycle...more frequently than I have seen elsewhere...

No, I've never sold anything on here (listed some dvds but no takers), but I don't see what's so offensive about someone posting an ad here, one man's trash is another man's treasure after all. If you want to do Freecycle then go to Freecyle--it seems kind of obnoxious and high-and-mighty for others to tell someone what to do with their own property. Charity is great but who isn't to say these people don't give other things to charity or give in other ways? How do you know their financial situation? Maybe I have a different view on things living in Berlin, land of the skint and unemployed...

I was asking why people thought that people sought to earn money on what other people are giving away for free...that`s all. The people that I met gifting things in London were probably similar to your skint and jobless Berliners...

You don´t usually earn money on things you´ve bought...you lose it upon selling (or upon purchase perhaps lol). (Barring antiques, collectibles etc). You might be lucky and recover some of the sunk cost though...

MVG ticket, unstamped, for sale. I forgot to stamp the ticket and now don't need it anymore.
€1 - pick up in Perlach.

pirulero, there are people who give away new computers for free. Would that make you give away a new computer? One thing is not the same to every single person so what you are saying is simply not true. It is not the same thing.


Selling something you previously paid money for usually means making the loss smaller, not earning money.

there has been the odd case of people buying up really cheap stuff or taking free stuff and then immediately re-selling at a higher price, iirc.

You do rc, you do

I'll usually put a price on something as people are more likely to show up for something which has a price whereas they often don't bother if it was free anyway.

Anyway assumptions about TTers being better off than others are just speculative bollocks. As far as I can see this forum caters to a very broad spectrum of society so you simply can't assume that someone may or may not need the money, however small it may be. That said, a single solitary ad selling something for €2 is definitely a little odd.

Didn´t someone once try to sell a used broom for 2 euros...I recall that getting a few giggles....?

Second-hand, partially used make-up is the worst I've seen on here so far. That just strikes me as desperate (and unhygienic), but in general I tend to think if someone is willing to go through the hassle and embarrassment of advertising such low-value items, they must need the cash. 'Tight' is definitely relative.

Edit: The ad I saw was a while back and featured partially used eye make-up, among other delights. I'm not having a dig at any current ads.

There's thin ice up ahead lads!

...said the bishop to the actress.

That would be an ecumenical matter, Keydeck.

Harp Lager is a good lubricant - but enough of that kind of thing!

One doesn't expect anyone to make a detour to spend one Euro. I have a hundred baby things that I will sell for one Euro, and I am assuming that someone is going to come and take a bag full of things. This weekend I gave away a baby changing table. At the same time, I offered several bits of baby paraphenalia for free, some of which was accepted and some gracefully declined. The same couple also bought a bag full of little baby clothes. Essentially, they paid 20 Euro for a car full of stuff and I got some space back. I think they got a bargain, I hope they think they got a bargain. I admit it is nice to have a small return on things you have paid a wad of money for and hardly used. Does this make me tight? Possibly but I prefer to see it as a win, win situation. I think the difference lies in giving things away to folk you know and like and selling stuff for pocket money to absolute strangers. Maybe this is just an Anglo-German cultural difference. Expectations are different.

Obviously there's something that's for sale on TT that you want but don't feel like paying for. Instead you accuse others of being tightwads when it's actually you not willing to shell out, making you an incredible hypocrite with a disconnect greater than that of anyone reading Leviticus and talking about "God's love".

woof.

ugug

FL, just in case you think that I put this up in response to your own postings...don`t worry, it`s just a general observation!

BD, Leviticus! Used as a reference on a thread about online trends...and I`m the one with the disconnect!

Talk about crap, try a garage sale in the USA. And if you can get a buck; why not. Then give what you don't sell. Plenty of places to do that.

Talking about hygiene, a friend of mine took over a small studio flat and on the list of things to sell from the previous tenant was his own personal used TOILET BRUSH for 2 Euro!!! We looked at each other and thought we were in the twilight zone!!! YUCK!

Used bog brushes make wonderful bass drum beaters at quieter Scottish Pipe Band events.

Yes, Pirulero, I feel totally paranoid now. Should I bring you the sofabed...?

We gave away a load of kitchen stuff, decent condition with the intention of helping someone get set up here, and some pikey came round to collect it, then she sold it on in front of us on TT. That was not our intention and I was mighty pissed off.

I'm going to be accused of being a forum elitist but I don't care.

Unless you're just looking to unload stuff and don't really care where it ends up or if someone sells it, I see no problem with people only offering free stuff to 'established forum members'. I think that way there is more accountability on the part of the person who takes the goods and more of a sense of contributing to the community on the part of the person giving the items away.

Helles - was that Shazz?

So here we have someone who's made over 2000 posts on Toytown and won't fork out the €10 every 6 months to become a supporter, calling others "tightwads"...

Who do you mean Hazza?
And UA, in the name of discretion I couldn't possibly say it was Shazz, but there is a sense of deja-vu reading her posts and, how to say, she isn't in our target group if we give away anything else.

The person who started this thread...

Is there any particular nationality that is tighter than others??

AFTI was an abbreviation I once saw...

PAY!!?? For the INTERNET!!...U`s crazy!