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Shetland Home Company


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Ive always liked a nosey round this shop, and have in the past bought the odd bits. I was quite dismayed recently when I expressed an interest in a piece of furniture that had just come in, and I waited while they looked up the price on ebay before offering me a rather expensive price. Is this how they do all their pricing ? Based on Ebay prices? Shame really !

other charity shops do as well. makes sense its a large seller of 2nd hand items. so a quick reference will give a guide to price.  

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^ Nothing wrong with using ebay as a ballpark price guide, if they use it properly and realise that ebay's target market and their's is far from comparable. Having seen what things go for on ebay, and seeing what COPE pricing is like on their F/B page, I'm severely tempted to conclude that they use ebay asking prices, not actual ebay selling prices as guides, and don't really factor in that ebay has a target market of millions in the UK, whereas COPE only has a target market of thousands in Shetland.

 

Furniture and similar bulky household items, which are generally COPE's main stock in trade are arguably among the least best lines for them to use ebay as a price guide for, as collection/delivery options for such items are considerably more attractive than for the majority of Shetland getting something from the toon.

 

Quite frankly, given how long COPE have been on the go with the Scrapstore, they should have been the experts long ago on the local market values, including its anomalies, for their product range and not still be relying on a best guess numbers based on a not particularly similar market.

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Not an 'expert' on valuing things myself but, over the years, I have noticed a general trend on Shetland to overvalue 2nd hand items.  Perhaps this is just a continuation of that?

 

On the other hand, Cope needs money to survive and (I suspect) does not exist on it's (paltry) grants alone.  Big question is where do they (Cope) draw the line? 

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^ Surely the same as any other market. Unless your income at least equals your expenses, you ain't long for this world.

 

Price too high and you risk pricing yourself out of the market and losing income, price too low and you don't realise the full potential of your product, and lose income. Certainly its a fine line to tread, and one that needs constant tweaking, but after the length of time COPE have been at it, is it too much to expect them to be a little more proficient at valuing than they appear to be.

 

Nothing wrong with "overvaluing" an item, initially at least. You never know, you might get lucky, and while you can haggle down and it be considered acceptable, attempting to haggle up is almost guaranteed to lose a sale.

 

If they're taking a leaf out of the book of "private" sellers of second hand items, they're forgetting one thing. A private seller may well have good reasons to not want to sell unless they can get their asking price - COPE on the other hand, is more like a regular shop, its all about moving stock as fast as possible while realising the best return in the circumstances.

 

I'm not pretending to be an expert either, but I'd say in COPE's position "flexibility" should be the watch word in their pricing policy. Try for top dollar for a week, maybe two, that's fine, but if its still sitting there start dropping the price regularly until it does shift, and make space for something else which may have a better chance of pulling top dollar. Having stuff sitting for months hoping for that top dollar buyer to maybe turn up (but probably never does) is doing no-one any good at all.

 

In all honesty, they'd have learned a great deal observing a Harry Hay sale, get it shifted, even if the price was no more than 50p, or get it to Rova Head, so as make room for something better able to make money. He did okay selling second hand items, or the sales wouldn't have been around very long. COPE are catering to a section of the same market, so maybe taking tips from those who went before and made it work would be no bad thing for them.

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I did work  in a shop briefly, and the "smart" customers used to say, "I can get it cheaper on ebay! " So it became a common reference point and common useage to check the market value from ebay. A lot of  items still easily supported a 60% mark-up and some 100%.

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"I'm not pretending to be an expert either, but I'd say in COPE's position "flexibility" should be the watch word in their pricing policy. Try for top dollar for a week, maybe two, that's fine, but if its still sitting there start dropping the price regularly until it does shift,"

 

That, basically, echoes a point that I have made twiice already... If YOU think that something is overpriced, make them an offer..

 

"COPE are catering to a section of the same market,"

 

Yes, but only a section and, they don't run an auction where two or more bidders are competing with each other.  The "competition" element is, largely, missing.

 

That is also why I think that comparisons with ebay fall down.  Auction prices on ebay, generally, start low and end high(ish) and, similar items can sell at wildly differing prices whilst "buy it now" type prices do not, in the main, "set the world on fire" and (generally) apply to new goods.

 

It might also be fair(?) to suggest that a lot of the stuff that ends up in the scrapstore has no real 'value' to the person(s) that disposed of it otherwise they might have tried to sell it first or, maybe, they were to lazy to take it to the Rova Head themselves..

 

Having said that, I have picked up a couple of genuine bargains in there.   

 

Pricing on some items is an issue and, I'm sure that Cope are lookng at it but, you can't please everyone.

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Well, its 10 months since COPE received £112,312.00 to "Provide up to 15 work placements" for people with disabilities and as far as I can ascertain there has not been so much as 1 place provided. I would be delighted if COPE could correct me on that point and tell me that several new placements have been provided. What I do know is that the old Scrapstore has been 're-furbished' and that the 'pet project' soap shop have had huge amounts of money splurged on them, and to what effect? This is Shetland where we are more impressed with what you do, rather than what you have.

 

How do you go about getting clarity on how many work placements COPE has and how many have been created since the extra funding was allocated ?

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What i wonder is whether it is ethical for a small charity to hire so many friends of the board of directors and general manager, is it not a fact that the general manager and finance manager (newly appointed ) are sisters, and other family and friends have been also employed. Is this what the council grant is funding? It certainly has the ring of nepotism about it.

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if your concerned raise it wit

http://www.oscr.org.uk/

 

it can be hard in a small community to not employ relatives/ friends. as long as they interviewed equally and fairly. obviously you should not be involved in interviews if a close relative is involved. but we dont know and i would advise caution on what your implying. just speak to oscr. 

 

you seem to have an issue with cope. if your so bothered volunteer and help them change.  

Edited by paulb
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Thank you for the link, I have made good use of it. 

 

I do have concerns regarding the use of grants given to provide an estimated 10 to 15 placements, not appearing to provide any at all.  As I said earlier I would be delighted to be proved wrong.

 

 

 

The Enterprise Ready Fund award of £112,312 will enable COPE Ltd to provide an estimated 10 to 15 additional placements, while also providing opportunities for participants to move on to secure employment within other local businesses within the islands.

 

http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Over-2-million-for-third-sector-c6e.aspx

 

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When I was at Shetland Home Co today I was only aware of one participant and two staff, the place seemed empty, mind you a lot of staff have just recently left!  I then popped over to the Garden and there was 3 staff and 1 participant.  Doesn't seem to be much in the way of placements and plenty of staff.  Last I heard that there are now 6 working in the main office with no placements - what are they all doing?

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