A while back I took my nephew to the Tacoma Pierce County Humane Society to drop off a donation of towels I collected from friends, family, and my Buy Nothing group. While there I noticed they have a small section that is donated goods that they are selling to support the program.
I took note of a PetSafe programmable automatic pet feeder. It was tagged for $10. This sucker, you guys, this sucker was in NEW condition. I knew they retailed for far more than that.
I bought it, and explained what I was doing with my nephew. Who then got SO EXCITED about it and told me we would sell it and give the profit back to the humane society.
::Sigh:
Yes, child. We will donate the profits to the humane society.
Alright! We could work with this. I initially listed this for $35. I always assume people will talk me down and I hoped for $25. It did not sell. I listed it on both Facebook and Offerup. I believe it took almost 4 months to sell. Not ideal, but I was not doing meetups or anything for weeks after my heart surgery, so that explains some of it. But, sell it did! Last month I sold it for $20. Not what I wanted, but it was time to go.
I have an envelope here with a $10 bill in it and when covid-19 has receded, my nephew and I will go together and make the donation.
What have you flipped lately?
Disabled Girl On Fire 
I know you have to do what you have to do because of living in poverty but I really hate when people essentially steal opportunities from other people to have something they could really use/need but couldn’t afford otherwise. What if another disabled person (someone with memory issues or back issues that make it hard for them to manually feed their dog at regular intervals) came into that section after you. That dog feeder could have really improved their quality of life but there’s no way they could afford it otherwise.
It’s no different then the people who go to thrift stores and buy up everything nice and then sell it on Etsy for way more thus forcing poor people to wear low quality and ugly clothing.
I don’t want to make you feel bad or anything, I just want you to consider this and other people in the future.
And as a side note, I think it’s great you’re helping a local charity. I would be careful though to find out if all the money stays local or if they funnel it up to the big guys as the national humane society actively spreads misinformation about sealing to hurt the Inuit people of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. Learn more from the documentary Angry Inuk.
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This to me is sort of stealing from Peter to pay Peter situation? I’m disabled/chronically ill, are my needs less than another’s disabled/chronically ill person? Are you familiar with the idea of, “scarcity mindset?” I used to live in scarcity, but experience has taught me there is not a finite amount of opportunities. In terms of clothing, we are in such a disposable society with a clothing cycle of 6 weeks now! SIX WEEKS. It’s bananas. The thrift stores can’t even keep up with the amount of clothing donated.
I’m lucky to have worked with the local charity for many years – but I fully agree! Vet your charities – especially if they are nationwide. Just because the leg isn’t corrupt doesn’t mean the arm or head isn’t!
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