# A  look at the business practices of iCollectClothes



## iCollectClothes (Oct 18, 2017)

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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

Well, it seems that you give a charity £200 per tonne of clothes acquired by you.

That leaves you with 800kg of "

Clothes (womenswear, menswear and kidswear);
Paired shoes;
Linen, bedding, towels, curtains;
Accessories (bags, belts, hats, scarves etc);
Books, DVDs, CDs;
Soft toys."
in a saleable and wearable condition.


It seems to me that I'd rather give things directly to charities so that they would receive rather more money than £200 per tonne.

*Edit*:_ Edited to reflect the fact that not only am I useless at sums but am also incapable of seeing what sums I should be doing. Dividing apples by oranges and ending up with elephants.     Anyway, I thought that £200 per tonne is not much at all, compared to giving stuff to charity shops to sell, or one could give the spare clothes and books and DVDs directly to someone/some organisation that needed them.

tl:dr - I was being snarky about preferring to cut out the middleman, sort of thing.

Thanks, mauvais, for pointing it out.  
_


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## mauvais (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> That leaves you with 800kg of


How did you work this out?


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## iCollectClothes (Oct 19, 2017)

I want to say again its for CHARITY not for money making.


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

What is going on with the blog section of the site?


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## danny la rouge (Oct 19, 2017)

iCollectClothes said:


> I want to say again its for CHARITY not for money making.


I can see the name of your trading arm, Mind The Groove Limited, Company reg. No 07835140, but can't find your registered charity number.  Perhaps you should add an "about us" section to your website.


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

Not a charity - an export facilitator that the smaller charities use to get some funds. Theres a quite a few of these around that play fast and loose with words like charity. The clothes will end up in Ukraine at the Lesnoy market in Kiev.

Down my neck of the weeds there is a charity shop that donates a proportion of its profits to charity apparently. never registered as a charity but uses the term quite liberally and in a non binding way to wheedle through the legalities of being a commercial setup / charity mashup. Doesn't follow that I have a problem with this, but it fools most people who take stuff in


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

not-bono-ever said:


> What is going on with the blog section of the site?



 And the thread title & first post?


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## danny la rouge (Oct 19, 2017)

krtek a houby said:


> And the thread title & first post?


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## nogojones (Oct 19, 2017)

iCollectClothes said:


> I want to say again its for CHARITY not for money making.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

iCollectClothes said:


> I want to say again its for CHARITY not for money making.


Well, that's not really the case now, is it? Your OP certainly could have lead people to *infer* that it was all for charity, but your website is a bit clearer in that regard. www.icollectclothes.co.uk - Clothing collection for charity donation info


> Please note! Your items MUST be in a clean and a suitable for reuse condition!
> 
> What we do not accept
> 
> We don’t accept dirty or worn out clothing. The test is simple: if you won’t wear it - don’t donate it!* All clothes that we collect are subsequently sold as clothes, not as rugs*.



So, it is *partially* for charity and partially for money-making. And I think there would be some profit per tonne after letting a charity have £200.


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## Silas Loom (Oct 19, 2017)

This man has cracked the missing Phase 2 of the underpant gnome business plan.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

mauvais said:


> How did you work this out?


By being a bit thick, really, and doing everything wrongly.   Sorry about that.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

Silas Loom said:


> This man has cracked the missing Phase 2 of the underpant gnome business plan.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

krtek a houby said:


> And the thread title & first post?


I reckon the OP ever-so-helpfully took it away and will probably donate a few syllables to charity.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

not-bono-ever said:


> Not a charity - an export facilitator that the smaller charities use to get some funds. Theres a quite a few of these around that play fast and loose with words like charity. The clothes will end up in Ukraine at the Lesnoy market in Kiev...



This one has connections with Lithuania, so you basically guessed right.  



not-bono-ever said:


> ... Down my neck of the weeds there is a charity shop that donates a proportion of its profits to charity apparently. never registered as a charity but uses the term quite liberally and in a non binding way to wheedle through the legalities of being a commercial setup / charity mashup. Doesn't follow that I have a problem with this, but it fools most people who take stuff in



Yep, that's sort of what set me off. Really, it *might* work out well for the charities, for all I know, but I really don't like things that are phrased in such a way that one might almost suspect they were intended to mislead.


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

I predict a long and fruitful relationship between urban and i


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> I reckon the OP ever-so-helpfully took it away and will probably donate a few syllables to charity.


I've altered the title to reflect the thread. And here's the link www.icollectclothes.co.uk - Clothing Donation for Charity
I agree. Something doesn't seem quite right here.


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

I think Lithuania acts as a clearing house for Europe and North American clothing/ goods from collections - its pretty big business out there from what I have seen. I think much of the stuff at the Lesnoy market in Kiev arrives via Lithania actually


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Well, that's not really the case now, is it? Your OP certainly could have lead people to *infer* that it was all for charity, but your website is a bit clearer in that regard. www.icollectclothes.co.uk - Clothing collection for charity donation info


Even the website suggests that it's a charity.


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

Yup, that what gets me really,. I understand that charities offload the vast majority of their clothes to processors for onward sale but that is for the charity to decide, not a commercial organisation to piggy back some possibly naïve regional charity logo on the basis of chucking them a few quid now and then

The one in my area proudly announced it had the approval/ support of *a local charity* IIRC but were asked very quickly afterwards not to use the charity name in their advertising as there were concerns about conflating the charity and the commercial operation


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

Note that the stories in the blog section are made up as the images are from a stock photography library.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

Just thought of something and I'm confused. It's the detail of how likely it is that lots of £200 lumps of money go to these charities, of which there are six plus a "no preference" option.

OK, I am probably missing something here, but the deal is that one gives clothes and books and stuff to this Icollectclothes thing and chooses a charity. BUT, I really doubt whether, if I gave them, for example, a rucksack full of clothes etc, they would then give "my" charity £200, because that might be lovely for the charity, but not much good at producing a profit for this company or even the other companies with which it seems to share the same "Unit 12, Clipper Park Industrial Estate, Thurrock Park Way, Tilbury RM18 7HG" if they gave out dosh just for a rucksack or suitcaseful of stuff.(Are units on an industrial estate very big? Big enough for 3 or 4 companies  to share one? Might be the case - I genuinely don't know.)

So do they mean that the donor can choose a charity and IF/WHEN that individual donor's books, clothes _etc _amount to a tonne, THAT is when the charity gets its £200?    Because I think it would take a very long time for me and for most people to have a whole tonne of stuff not wanted any more.

To be fair, I'm not *really* supposing that the charites seldom get to see any money at all: I think it might have been just a careless bit of writing, but it's all a bit odd. 

I don't exactly care now, the charitable new member having wandered off, but it's now in the department of "odd things to wonder when you should be doing proper stuff".


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

A look at their industry: The great charity collection scam


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

For reference:






Conman made thousands claiming to collect unwanted clothes for children¿s charity but misspelled its name as 'Bernhardos' | Daily Mail Online

*Edited


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

boom!


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

editor said:


> A look at their industry: The great charity collection scam



Yeah; depressing stuff - which is why I always brought my stuff direct to the stores themselves. Just to be sure.


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

editor said:


> His profile pic is small but there could be a resemblance, do you think?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Hm. He's a bit more weight on him in the profile pic...


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

krtek a houby said:


> I predict a long and fruitful relationship between urban and i


 You sod! I was already grumbling "it's 'urban and ME", you ungrammatical fool, then I realised what you meant. Felt stupid. Serves me right.


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

krtek a houby said:


> Hm. He's a bit more weight on him in the profile pic...


It's probably not him, but the speed in which he tried to cover his tracks once people started asking questions certainly raises an eyebrow or two.


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> You sod! I was already grumbling "it's 'urban and ME", you ungrammatical fool, then I realised what you meant. Felt stupid. Serves me right.



Aye


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Just thought of something and I'm confused. It's the detail of how likely it is that lots of £200 lumps of money go to these charities, of which there are six plus a "no preference" option.
> 
> OK, I am probably missing something here, but the deal is that one gives clothes and books and stuff to this Icollectclothes thing and chooses a charity. BUT, I really doubt whether, if I gave them, for example, a rucksack full of clothes etc, they would then give "my" charity £200, because that might be lovely for the charity, but not much good at producing a profit for this company or even the other companies with which it seems to share the same "Unit 12, Clipper Park Industrial Estate, Thurrock Park Way, Tilbury RM18 7HG" if they gave out dosh just for a rucksack or suitcaseful of stuff.(Are units on an industrial estate very big? Big enough for 3 or 4 companies  to share one? Might be the case - I genuinely don't know.)


There's at least one other non-charity company with the same business model operating from the same address.

Intersecond Ltd


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

Make that three - Collective Commercial Ltd


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## krtek a houby (Oct 19, 2017)

Urban Watchdog at it's frikkin' finest!


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## editor (Oct 19, 2017)

So to sum up: what they're doing is not illegal, but if you really want to help a charity (and not line the pockets of private entrepreneurial types) give your clothes directly to a charity shop.


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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2017)

I see they (intersecond)  have lumped £300k to the Do not delay breast cancer project - not a charity - I hate to be suspicious, but how much of this cash is actually going to a real project as opposed to some front project as a money laundering exercise.


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## stuff_it (Oct 19, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Well, it seems that you give a charity £200 per tonne of clothes acquired by you.
> 
> That leaves you with 800kg of "
> 
> ...


You're doing it wrong - I suspect the OP sells the donated items by weight as rags. Cash 4 Clothes pays £4.50 for a 10kg bag of clothing, for example. That would mean that the OP gets £250 for a ton, and the charities get £200. That's actually quite a high rate in the clothing donation industry, where in fact those donation bins are all privately-run and give thefor the i named charities on the bins around 10-20% of what they get.


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## Chilli.s (Oct 19, 2017)

Thread of the day. A fascinating eye opener.


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## Celyn (Oct 19, 2017)

stuff_it said:


> You're doing it wrong - I suspect the OP sells the donated items by weight as rags. Cash 4 Clothes pays £4.50 for a 10kg bag of clothing, for example. That would mean that the OP gets £250 for a ton, and the charities get £200. That's actually quite a high rate in the clothing donation industry, where in fact those donation bins are all privately-run and give thefor the i named charities on the bins around 10-20% of what they get.


I'm not sure. The OPs website does say





> We don’t accept dirty or worn out clothing. The test is simple: if you won’t wear it - don’t donate it! *All clothes that we collect are subsequently sold as clothes, not as rugs*.


www.icollectclothes.co.uk - Clothing collection for charity donation info

It looks a bit tricky to know how much is made per tonne. Here's one that seems very high:


> The price fetched by second-hand textiles fluctuates (in a similar way to other commodities such as oil, wheat and coffee). The price fetched by second-hand textiles fluctuates (in a similar way to other commodities such as oil, wheat and coffee).  As at *mid-2013*, virgin clothes (see definition below) were fetching just over *£1,000 per tonne*.  This was three times the price of seven years before..


 TEXTILE RECYCLING (eg charity shops, recycling centres, charity clothing collections - including bedding, towels, curtains, linen)

and I don't know what to make of this one.


> 2017: £ per tonne July August September October November December
> Textile banks 220 - 310 220 - 310 220 - 310 - - -
> Shop collections 325 - 425 325 - 425 325 - 425 - - -
> Delivered to Sorting plant (Charity rags) 485 - 540 485 - 540 485 - 540 -


https://www.letsrecycle.com/prices/textiles/

If Cash4clothes pays £4.50 for 10kg, that would have to be quite a low rate, as it will then sell the clothes on at a higher price. So they really would want to keep the price they pay to get stuff as low as possible, just as the OP wants to. Just a different approach - either pay to get the clothes or get them free on the grounds that some money will go to charity, but both of them will be selling the stuff on for more than £0.45 per kilo.


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## ViolentPanda (Oct 24, 2017)

Companies like this, do what charity shops do - they sort the clothes into stuff they can sell to "vintage" shops, the books into stuff they can sell to shops that deal with 1st editions and VGC non-mass market hardbacks etc.  The whole thing is based on filtering out the good stuff for themselves, and then passing the rest of the stuff on to a dealer, or acting as a middleman for the sort of bulk-weight dealers who deal with the markets N-B-E is talking about.  They make plenty enough out of it that IF (and it's a biggun) they are passing on £200 per metric tonne to real charities, they can afford to.


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