Our hospice eBay site celebrated its 14th anniversary back in March, with over 15,000 items sold since its inception and thousands of pounds raised for local patient care.
Laurence Carr from Whaley Bridge began supporting the hospice several years beforehand, and spearheaded an initiative to set up the online shopping outlet on behalf of the hospice. Since then, he has personally raised over a quarter of a million pounds for hospice care.
Here, our dedicated volunteer shares in his own words, how he came to be involved – and how the site has grown so significantly over the years…
It’s strange how we get from one place to another in life. This story is about Blythe House, volunteering, raising money for the hospice by selling antiques and collectables on eBay, and how it all came about. But, it all starts in a strange way leading to unexpected life changes.
Back in 2006, I was doing quite well in life, owning and managing a medical equipment supply company. Work was quite hard; stressful but exciting. I was travelling a lot including trips to China, Japan and Taiwan.
I can still remember one day, quite suddenly feeling quite ill for no obvious reason; just a general feeling of being unwell, loss of appetite and similar symptoms. After a few days of gradually feeling worse, I went to see the GP who seems unconcerned (‘It’s just a virus!’) but who arranged for a set of standard blood tests just to check everything was OK.
The next day, I had a telephone call: ‘The doctor needs to see you about your blood test results!’ I was asked to come in straight away, and I will never forget the shocked look on the doctor’s face when he read the blood test results. He was quite blunt: ‘Your test results for liver function are at very dangerous levels, you need to be in hospital now!’ And later that day, I was in a hospital bed which was to be my home for the next four weeks, as doctors worked on preventing my liver from failing.
In fact, I was in and out of hospital for the next six months with hepatitis. Not because of drinking too much wine or anything like that, just bad luck that I was apparently suffering from a rare autoimmune disease. Eventually the condition was brought under control, but it left me feeling tired and unable to work for more than a few hours a day at best. I had to give up running my business and essentially retire to try and recover my health and fitness. In my mid-fifties, this was all totally unexpected and quite a shock.
After a few months, while still being treated for my now chronic (but fairly well controlled) liver condition, I was feeling a bit better and wondering how I could reintegrate myself into life. I was walking along Whaley Bridge High Street and passed the Blythe House charity shop (at its old address, not the current location). My eye was caught by a large, rather battered, model of a British World War Two destroyer ship in the window, HMS Cossack. I remember this clearly because my uncle had been the First Officer on this destroyer in 1940 and had become quite famous for leading the boarding party in what was known as “The Altmark Incident.” My immediate thought was: I ought to buy this model and refurbish it in his memory, and to give me a project to help my recovery. I went into the shop to find out the price.
The shop manager was at the till and when I enquired about the model she told me that unfortunately someone else had already bought and paid for it, and was going to collect it in a day or two. This was a disappointment but as I turned to leave, I saw a sign asking for volunteers to help in the shop.
I had never considered volunteering but suddenly it seemed to me that it might be a useful way for me to start doing some organised, routine and not too stressful work to help with my recovery. In addition, I had many years of sales experience which might prove useful in a retail setting. I honestly wasn’t thinking too much about volunteering to help the hospice, more about helping myself by doing something useful.
As the shop manager was still at the till I made an enquiry about volunteering and she seemed quite pleased that I could give some time to work in the shop, maybe twice a week for half a day. She gave me an application form to complete and about a week later I found myself working in the shop.
My routine was quite quickly established; sorting donations, pricing and helping on the shop floor. I really enjoyed the role as it was really very varied and I found my experience in business was quite useful and the shop manager quickly had me handling the cash and taking it to the bank.
One day, we sold a piece of glassware or pottery to a customer who paid a pound or two and then immediately told us: ‘I can sell this on eBay for £60 easily! I love this shop; your stuff is so cheap!’ I found this strangely annoying as she seemed so proud of making money from a charity shop purchase. I rather flippantly suggested to her that she might like to donate some of the profit to the hospice which was met with a slightly abusive response and the customer left the shop.
This incident made me think. The customer was probably right, the item she bought was quite possibly more valuable than the price we had placed on it. She probably would be able to sell it on eBay for £60. Why didn’t we do this ourselves?
I talked to the manager who didn’t seem to be excited by the idea. She said it seemed complicated and might be difficult to do for a whole range of reasons and anyway nobody in the shop understood how to sell items on eBay or how to handle the process of identifying suitable items, pricing them and shipping them to customers. However, after a few weeks of gentle nagging she finally agreed to allow me to try it with a few selected items.
I honestly don’t remember the very first item I sold on eBay; I think it was probably an old camera. I had my own personal eBay account and used this to list and sell a few items on behalf of Blythe House; this would have been in 2008 I think. The process was quite straight forward. While doing my normal work in the shop, I would pick one or two items that I thought might sell well, cleared them with the shop manager and took them home to photograph and list on eBay. I was really quite surprised by the money we started to make as some of the items I found got surprisingly good prices.
I think we continued with this for about a year. At this point other people in the hospice became aware of what I was doing. I had a meeting in early 2009 at the hospice and we agreed to try and see if we could start to sell even more items on eBay and raise even more money. We decided to set up a Blythe House eBay account and to make the eBay selection and sales process a bit more business-like.
I was asked if I could organise this until someone else could take over on a more full-time basis and I agreed. I didn’t realise the temporary arrangement would last for over ten years! I stopped working as a general assistant at the shop and became the first ‘eBay volunteer,’ although I still spent a lot of time at the Whaley Bridge shop, as well as Buxton and other shops, looking for treasures.
I now started selling on eBay at a much higher level. I quickly found myself managing the whole, rapidly growing process and from a personal point of view, it felt as if I was back running a proper business (even though it was voluntary!) It was a great help to me in recovering from my illness and getting me back to feeling like I was doing something important again.
Over the next few years the sales grew rapidly, and I found I was selling tens of thousands of pounds worth of donated items on eBay, in fact my total sales on eBay came close to quarter of a million pounds between 2008 and 2020. We found many interesting objects to sell over the years; the 16th century bible that sold for over £1,000; 18th century silver, rare stamps and coins, antiques, prints and paintings, rare first edition books and many more items too numerous to mention.
Many other people became involved in the eBay sales. I had a huge amount of help from volunteers including Archie Gillespie, who found many rare and exciting books and Tony Barratt, who provides tremendous expertise on model railway items. Many other people have provided long-term and invaluable support, and I want to thank them all!
We now have a professional online and eBay sales organisation which I feel very proud to have played a part in getting to where we are today. I still have the report and presentation I submitted to Blythe House management some years ago which described and recommended the organisation we essentially have today.
I’m still involved as a volunteer with eBay. Only a few weeks ago a small, battered, old model railway engine arrived from one of the shops. It only had three wheels, didn’t work and looked ready for the dustbin, but I asked Tony to have a look at it as it seemed quite old. Tony suggested it might still be worth a few pounds so I listed it on eBay. It fetched £310 and showed that these things still have the power to surprise!
In summary, I’m not sure who gets the most of my volunteering, me or the hospice. I should thank Blythe House for giving me the opportunity to volunteer, for supporting me over the years as I recovered from my illness and for providing a business opportunity (even if unpaid!) to start and grow a new and exciting business. In addition, I have learnt so much about antiques, collectables, and similar treasures that I can now walk into any charity shop and spot a rare or under-priced item at 100 metres in seconds. I think I got more out of this than the hospice, although on the other hand I had raised nearly quarter of a million pounds so maybe its 50/50!
Rosie Aston, ecommerce coordinator at the hospice eBay unit works closely with Laurence and said: ‘The time that Laurence has spent and the amount of money that he has raised for the hospice is almost incomprehensible. He has done an amazing job in founding our eBay business and after so many years continues to raise vital funds for the charity, selling many of our antique and vintage finds.
‘On a personal level, it is wonderful to have Laurence’s knowledge on tap. Valuing and selling antiques and vintage items can be a minefield and there is so much information to trawl through which can differ wildly! It is always a pleasure to have a chat with Laurence and gain something from his encyclopaedic knowledge. We benefit immensely from his expertise and dependability. I have learnt so much from him over the three years I have been selling items on eBay and feel so much more confident when valuing an obscure piece.’
