Selling and Recycling Gear

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 Desie 09 May 2020

Hello all,

Like many I’m eager to get back out in the hills once things settle down.  I’m sorting my kit out and trying to figure out what I need and that perhaps I have a gear addiction! (I’m trying to justify to the boss why I need 3  one man tents and 4 sleeping bags)

Some of the kit is coming to the end of it’s useful life like a Exped down mat who’s chambers have burst. Is there anywhere to recycle this kit?
Also does anyone know of some good charities that would benefit from clothing and other bits of kit either here or abroad. 
 

Finally there’s some items I wouldn’t mind selling but eBay’s fees are horrendous. Does anyone have any positive experiences of other means of getting rid of kit? 
 

many thanks

Des

 LastBoyScout 09 May 2020
In reply to Desie:

Only 4 sleeping bags? Amateur

Any charity shop will benefit from clothing sales - you might want to give them an indication of rough value, though, so they don't undersell it. Some may refuse certain items, but Oxfam seem to take pretty much anything, as far as I can tell from the local shop window.

eBay is ok if you pick your moment. I've been selling a lot of my F-in-L's old stuff on there, but wait for a weekend where they do a £1 selling fees cap, to avoid the 10% usual charge - saved a packet doing that, although you still get stung for PayPal's fee, but better than nothing.

You could also try Facebook Marketplace, but I've been messed around on lots of items by people asking about them, arranging to collect and then not turning up and not replying ever again - at least with eBay, a bid is a sale, so you could justify it as paying for that security and no time wasters.

Post edited at 15:52
OP Desie 10 May 2020
In reply to LastBoyScout:

Thanks for the reply, I’ll keep an eye out for the eBay deals. 
I was hoping to recycle some of the kit as it seems a waste of material and down especially the Exped mat. I  think mountain equipment used recycled down is some kit, might give them an email. 
 

In reply to Desie:

The for sale forum on this site, and outdoor gear exchange on Facebook are both good for flogging kit.

 Mark Stevenson 10 May 2020
In reply to Desie:

Unfortunately, there seemsto be a pattern with sales channels, either:

A - they are really good, they increase in popularity so get overly commercialised and then end up becoming utterly useless...

or B - they are pretty good, but other channels appear, users migrate there and they end up being less and less effective... 

Transformation A happened with eBay many years ago and it's now utterly appalling and best avoided.

Transformation B happened with the For Sale Forum on here. 5-6 years ago it was pretty good, however it now just doesn't get the amount of traffic that Facebook etc. do now. It's still worth posting here, but for generic items the amount of interest may be fairly low. 

That leaves the Outdoor Gear Exchange group on Facebook which unfortunately is currently under going transformation A as we speak. About two years ago it was amazing but every "improvement" Facebook has introduced has been anything but. It's also now rather too big for it's own good. However, at the moment, it's probably the best option for anything still worth a bit.

I use the OGE group on a monthly basis mostly to sell climbing related books. For that, it still works well enough and I don't get too many time wasters. Unfortunately, it seems that for more generic stuff or anything that is harder to sort out delivery for, it's a bit more hit and miss.

For recycling low value items, I think it probably varies a bit more by local area, so I can't really comment. I often manage to give away stuff via the local Mountaineering Club's Facebook page. 

 MisterPiggy 10 May 2020
In reply to Desie:

Hi Des,

Can you not start with the buy/sell listing of this site? I bought a pair of ice axes from a chap who still had them in his attic months after his advert had appeared; I'd found him by searching for the product and just messaging him in case they hadn't sold... A good result for us both. And I put up a sale advert yesterday and got a result within the hour.

In the last few days, UKC has dropped its fee for sales over GBP 100. So give it go, you never know. And at the very least you can have an exchange of messages with a fellow fellow enthusiast.

Regards, julian

 peppermill 11 May 2020
In reply to Desie:

For me the first port of call is whether there is someone I know getting into the outdoors and selling it to them cheap or just giving it to them if it's really beaten up. No other reason than plenty of people have done the same for me over the years!

OP Desie 11 May 2020
In reply to peppermill:

Thanks for the replies everyone much appreciated. I’ll have a look at the suggested options. 
 

I emailed a company called Re:down that recycles down equipment and they have a partnership with Mountain Equipment. Waiting for a response on where stuff can be sent or dropped off. 


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