Why charity shops don’t take magazines

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/23/why-charity-shops-dont-take-magazines

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I am sorry that Patrick Russell (Letters, 22 October) was upset that his local Oxfam shop would not take his National Geographic magazines. After 10 years in an Oxfam bookshop I can tell him that this is because they are completely worthless, as are most magazines, in that nobody will buy them. There are a exceptions such as a Strand Magazine with a Sherlock Holmes story, but they are few and far between. A quick phone call would have saved him a journey – the shop would likely have advised him to put them straight in his recycling bin, as I have just done with about 20kg of Model Engineer magazines. John HurdleyBirmingham

• I am sure that most charity shops will take books if they have room. When I closed down my secondhand bookshop I had 205 polythene bags full. The people in the first shop were delighted, but after about 12 bags said: “Thank you, that will be enough.” There were then 16 charity shops in my town and the adjoining one, and I had to hold back a few bags for later delivery. Bearing in mind that these were all books that had survived a three-month closing down sale at cost price, and that I had run everything through the computer and was only giving away books available at less than £1, I think I was lucky to offload so many. And by the way, I never accepted National Geographic, because the only people who bought them were mothers for primary school projects, and the projects hardly ever coincided with the countries covered.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, Fife

• Patrick Russell could donate his National Geographic magazines to art groups. The highly pigmented ink, printed on the clay-coated page, makes fantastic altered papers for mixed-media art. It is amazing what one can create with Citra Solv concentrate cleaner, and also with Brasso (Nevr-Dull in the US). Google it.Jennifer HenleyLondon

• I work as a smiley, always grateful (for donations) volunteer in one of the busiest Oxfam bookshops in London. We will only decline donations, with a smile and thanks, on publications that we know will not sell as recycling costs us money. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Please don’t be offended and keep bringing your books/music.Chris Goodyear London

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