Volunteering
Why One Afternoon of Help Can Cost an Organisation Two Days
Short volunteering placements carry setup costs that fall entirely on the host. Whether they are worth it depends on the type of…
Manas Chaurasia
Contributing writer, Goodwilly
Manas writes about second-hand markets and what holds its value.
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21 articles
Volunteering
What a Volunteer Coordinator Does All Day
The role sits between people who want to help and work that needs doing, and most of it is not what either side imagines.
Volunteering
Why Volunteering Starts With Forms, Checks and Waiting
The gap between offering help and doing anything useful is often several weeks. Most of it is legal requirement rather than…
Volunteering
The Corporate Volunteering Day, Honestly Assessed
A team day out at a charity produces real work about half the time. What separates the useful ones from the decorative is decided…
Volunteering
Trusteeship Is Volunteering, and Almost Nobody Calls It That
Charity boards are staffed by unpaid volunteers carrying real legal responsibility. The role is chronically hard to fill partly…
Secondhand & Thrift
Why the Same Jumper Costs Three Times as Much Three Streets Away
Charity shop pricing varies wildly between branches of the same organisation. The causes are structural and mostly have nothing to…
Secondhand & Thrift
Used Furniture: What Repairs Cheaply and What Never Will
The difference between a bargain and a burden is usually the joint construction and the presence of a label. Both are visible in…
Secondhand & Thrift
Reading Wear on Clothing Before You Buy It
Most of the remaining life in a used garment is visible in four places. Checking them takes less time than trying it on.
Secondhand & Thrift
Why Used Electronics Are the Riskiest Thing on the Shelf
Electronic goods fail in ways that are invisible at the point of sale and expensive afterwards. A few categories are exceptions…
Secondhand & Thrift
Vintage, Retro and Just Old: Where the Premium Comes From
The same object can be described three ways at three prices. The words are doing commercial work rather than describing age.
Secondhand & Thrift
What a Cheap Used Item Costs After You Get It Home
The purchase price is frequently the smallest number in the transaction. Counting the rest before buying changes which bargains are…
Secondhand & Thrift
Buying a Used Bicycle Without Buying Someone Else's Problem
A used bicycle is one of the best value purchases available and one of the easiest to get wrong. Most of the risk sits in three…
Secondhand & Thrift
Children's Gear Is the Strongest Case for Buying Used
Almost nothing children use is worn out when it is outgrown. A few categories are exceptions, and they are the ones with safety…
Secondhand & Thrift
When to Buy Used and When to Wait: Reading Depreciation
Every category has a shape to how it loses value. Buying at the flat part of the curve is where second-hand stops being a…
Volunteering
Why Volunteer Roles Have Descriptions and Why That Is Not Bureaucracy
A written role outline looks like paperwork imported from an office. It is mostly a device for preventing the two arguments that…
Volunteering
Remote and Online Volunteering: Which Roles Genuinely Transfer
Some volunteer work moved online and improved. Some moved online and quietly stopped working while continuing to appear on the rota.
Secondhand & Thrift
Auctions, House Clearances and Estate Sales: Where the Trade Buys
The used goods that reach a shop floor have usually passed through two or three hands first. Knowing those channels explains most…
Secondhand & Thrift
Buying Used Tools: The Category Where Old Usually Beats New
Hand tools are one of the few things where a fifty-year-old example outperforms a new budget one. The reason is metallurgy rather…
Secondhand & Thrift
The Charity Shop Pricing Decision, From the Other Side of the Counter
Prices in a charity shop look arbitrary because the shop is solving a different problem from the one shoppers assume. It is…
Secondhand & Thrift
Smells, Stains and Mould: What Cleans Out of Used Goods and What Does Not
Some contamination is a cheap fix and some is permanent. Knowing which is which before you pay is the difference between a bargain…
Secondhand & Thrift
Consignment, Auction and Marketplace: Choosing Where to Sell Your Own Things
The right venue depends on how much your time is worth and how quickly you need the space. Value is only the third consideration.