Charity hell

[wooly]

this is partly a sound-off and also a topical question. i don't rant on here too much usually, so bear with me one time

today i hit a few charities, nothing happening, so when i got to the final stop on my journey and thumbed my way through several copies of 'rod stewart's greatest hits' and 'the world of mantovani', i walked up to the counter and said something i don't usually say...

"excuse me - got any more records lying around?"

the woman behind the counter answered "if we've got any more they'll be round the back, hang on...*shuffle* yes, we've got some here...hang on...joyce? JOYCE?"

joyce appeared. a woman in her 60s, in lurid make-up and a face that obviously had been sucking lemons too long. she started whispering to the woman on the counter furtively. the woman returned to me...

"sorry love, they've not been priced up yet. you can't see them. we've got a system, you see".

it's at this moment that it occurred to me that something funny must be happening - all the records in the box on the floor had been priced up - a sign said "all records - 75p" attached to the front of the box.

so i replied - "ah ok - it's just that i'm only here for today and all your records there are priced up at 75p each. i just assumed..."

"sorry, can't help you. goodbye"

the woman showed me the door. i left genuinely bemused - i didn't think i was out of order, asking if there were any more records going. i'd been polite enough. the woman had looked through me as though i was a complete shit or something.

what's the score with this? are these old dears simply filing through the albums looking for elvis and beatles albums that they can price up for £15 in the front window? or are they meticulously booking the vinyl and putting copies of 'the hanged man' aside for professional dealers to shove in their racks at £70?

[mundayschild]

Ah, the return of a much loved topic fer me, now i've been gettin' a bit belligerent nowadays, A, cos i cannot beleive how fookin' rude some people are, and B, cos it gives me a fookin' laugh. Now a classic case history along the same lines as Wooly here, happened to me this weekend just gone, i was in some arse end fookin' hole of a town (Dorking), doin' the rounds of the charities there, i'd left it a little late and as it was a saturday, the charities close about half four ish, so the staff can go score thier weekly fookin' Sanatogen/Viagra supply. O.k with me so far? good, right, i was in the last shop, i think it was the Heart Foundation, and there was this fookin' old doris leanin' over the counter lookin' bored and non interested, theres me at the back of the shop lookin' fer the black stuff, i couldn't see any, fook!, was just about to ask the old dear, when out the corner of me eye i spotted a box of rekkids in the back of the shop, just inside the doorway waitin' to be sorted. Now, the cheeky bugger that i am, i bent down to have a shufties through said box, there was fook all in it anyways, all of a sudden there's this voice from behind me "excuse me, EXCUSE ME!!", "yes" i replied in me most fookin' shweetest voice coupled with a shit eatin' grin plastered across me visage, "NO" the lady says to me, "no what" i says to her "no looking in there please", (no point explainin', my work was done, time fer some payback&#33 on hearing these words i turn and start walking towards the front exit,
but make a point of passing the counter whereapon i loudly exclaimed "o.k love fair enough, but thier all a load of fookin' shite anyways!!" and walked calmly an' fookin' serenely from said shop still smiling the fookin' mother of all grins, leaving devastation in my wake, customers and one middle aged lady aghast. Ah well i treat as i find really and once again i was looked down upon by some middle aged dried up old bird who probably hadn't had a good shag since 1976, so i pity 'em really, but hell, not for too long!.They make yer so it's not fookin' true. So Wooly my sympathys are with you, now you know what i go through every other week!. urrgghh!.

[LDJB]

Yeah - I've had that ridiculous conversation too (can I look at those records? no. why not? there not priced. but all your records are 50p....etc) but on the other hand I've been ushered into store rooms, gone through shelves in offices and on one memorable occasion got to look through a box of very nice jazz stuff in the staff toilet.

Swings and roundabouts?

[lemoncat]

i never had anything like that happen to me much i've always found the biddies pretty friendly...
today for instance they even made me a cuppa,and the best bit for 49p each walked out with
soundtrack to the film dark star.. top film haven't seen it for ages..
some thrilling stories from the tv show elephant boy (windmill
hash brown and his ignunt strings...crazy cover
an instant tour of london record from 1961 with some great naration and sfx
and all night long for my dad who's a big jazz buff
but with tracks called ...blue shadows in the street...skin fever...the chase...frenzy
with loads of superb drumming, vibes,horns..great crime jazz
and a nice cover maybe i'll keep it ::

[TOWNY]

Yep Wooly i get that nearly everytime i do the charities these days, happened to me yesterday !
I'm also getting really pissed off with being treated with massive suspition just cos i'll walk in to the shop, smell out the vinyl and then leave pretty sharp if i ain't found anything. We are definately starting to get bad press at the moment.
I mean what about all the fookers that are in there hawking the colectible books (me Dad &#33 that often fetch way more than a fusty bit of vinyl !? Do they when they get to the counter get the "You found the rarest one then ? Is it worth a fortune then ?" !!!!!!!!!&# 33; Please !!!!

It's a breath of fresh air when i get the good old "oooh can you still buy record players for these !?" type old dears.


Anyway, went into a charity yesterday that has never had records, but has just unveiled 3 crates !!! £1.50 each, shit i thought, that generally rules out easy LP gambles for me but -

ROCK & DRUMS - FREE lp (Jap CD4 JVC) !!!!!! Awesome !!!!!!!

[peter sundae]

Go back in there next week and tell them you've just sold a record you'd bought there last week for 50p to a dealer for £200,they love that.

[wooly]

thanks for all your input on this thread. it seems i'm certainly not the only one who's experienced this kind of treatment from time to time. it's certainly an interesting one!

towny - yes, the old suspicion thing happens quite a lot too, but that's not quite as full on as the bad attitude you sometimes get for asking.

mundays - that is a classic story, mate. i bet the old dears were talking about you for days after that one! "so uncouth!"

[MystDrF]

Slightly off topic, but still a 'Charity Hell'. Sometime ago I was indulging in frenzy of low level 7" checking in my local charity . On rising I inadvertantly went head first up the skirt of one of the fragrant ladies of Oxfam, who was reaching over me. Strange thing is I can't remember what i found, maybe sharing with the world will act as some kind of therapy!

[Mr_Hopkinson]

Quote[/b] (MystDrF @ Sep. 09 2003,21:13)]Slightly off topic, but still a 'Charity Hell'. Sometime ago I was indulging in frenzy of low level 7" checking in my local charity . On rising I inadvertantly went head first up the skirt of one of the fragrant ladies of Oxfam, who was reaching over me. Strange thing is I can't remember what i found, maybe sharing with the world will act as some kind of therapy!

I think that image is going to haunt me now every time I go through a box of charity shop 7"s !

[Lord Thames]

Quote[/b] (MystDrF @ Sep. 09 2003,21:13)]Strange thing is I can't remember what i found,

Well, what do you expect to find up an Oxfam lady's skirt??

[wooly]

come on chaps, this is getting out of hand

[vibra]

Again, on a different tangent, I was wanting to have a bit of fun with a thread called "Charity Shop Cliches", but this seems as good a place to post this as anywhere, so here goes:

1) Very poorly tuned in local station on radio as background ambience. In fact sometimes plain old dead radio air/interference seems to do.

2) That mischievous 'Kensington' board game masquerading as a record yet again!

3) Odour de toilet.

4) Lurking customer near the records (not actually looking at them) suddenly decides to take an interest in looking through the vinyl as soon as you start looking through them.

Any more for any more?

[wooly]

Quote[/b] (vibra @ Sep. 10 2003,01:28)]2) That mischievous 'Kensington' board game masquerading as a record yet again!

vibra - all very valid points, but especially this one - i must have flicked through several copies in the last week!!!

[TOWNY]

Quote[/b] (vibra @ Sep. 10 2003,01:28)]4) Lurking customer near the records (not actually looking at them) suddenly decides to take an interest in looking through the vinyl as soon as you start looking through them.

Any more for any more?

Or -

5) Old doddery couple looking at the books, who even when your in their peripheral vision don't/can't/don't want to see you (the records are at their feet).

6) The Old geezer who pulls every record out in slow motion and reads the liner notes. He also has no directional order to his browsing ! Aaaaaagh.......

[theeman]

i had a funny one not too long ago in a larger charity down here. standing looking at the records near the counter and the woman behind the counter says to one of the regulars 'we've just had a few records in, some really good ones...' starts rattling off a few decent jazz bits. anyway, the regular says he'll give 'em a miss so i go up to the counter and ask to see them, to which she replies 'sorry, we haven't got any other records in at the moment' !