Would you buy a Jimmy Savile t-shirt on eBay in aid of Stoke Mandeville?
Just when I thought I’d seen everything on eBay, I stumbled upon a Jimmy Savile t-shirt for sale with some of the proceeds going to the hospital so closely associated with Savile and his reported activities.
Why anyone would buy such a thing, I don’t know. There are two styles available, one with a Jim’ll Fix It badge motif printed on it bearing the famous “Jim Fixed it for Me” slogan. Another shows an image of Savile with his catchphrase “Now then, now then” underneath.
In recent weeks there have been about two dozen purchases of the t-shirts with 10% of the proceeds going to the Florence Nightingale Hospice at Stoke Mandeville hospital. As the listings say: “10% of the sales from this Tee are donated to charity in memory of the Great Man himself.”
These sales are made by a third party under the eBay for Charity scheme, which is fully accredited and administered by eBay using Missionfish. Under the scheme in this case, the seller has decided to trouser 90% and donate only 10% to the hospice. So out there, someone is making a few quid on these sales.
A further cursory look around eBay also reveals a copy of Savile’s 1974 book As it Happens for sale, with 90% of the proceeds going to the NSPCC. As the description of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children says in the listing: “our aim is to create a society where children can grow up in a loving environment, free from sexual, physical, emotional abuse or neglect and to help children who have been abused.”
I am genuinely bewildered by the seller’s logic: “let’s flog that Savile book in aid of the NSPCC but pocket 10% of the takings ourselves!” The 10 day auction has a start price of £24.99, currently has no bids and 8 days to run.
It is perhaps a relief that there aren’t any Savile items for sale via eBay for Charity in aid of Children in Need out there, as far as I can see.
So, please, charities: if you let third party sellers sell on your behalf via eBay for Charity do check what’s being sold, because you might not be delighted by what you find. The t-shirts in question have been up for sale for many months. And certainly since before the Savile affair became public knowledge.
And, in that spirit, needless to say, we have contacted the charities in question to let them know,
Chris says
9:30 am on 16/11/2012
In regard to Jimmy Savile may I remind everybody that while a lot of stories have appeared in the media recently since his death. He has not been tried in a Court of Law so was never allowed to put his side of the story. So working on the basis of “Innocent until proved Guilty”. I would argue that Jimmy Savile has not been tried and so is still an innocent man so why shouldn’t items such as Tee-shirts with his name on be on sale on ebay or indeed anywhere else.
Jimbo says
10:15 am on November 16th, 2012
Because of henious nature of the crimes which are involved the items are being sold in extremely bad taste. Surely you can see that?
Gary says
10:20 am on November 16th, 2012
ebay permit sellers to sell Hitler memorabelia. There is nothing in law that prevents items that are in extremely bad taste being offered for sale or even exibited.
Who remembers mother and calf being cut in two and exhibited as art?
Jimbo says
12:09 pm on November 16th, 2012
“ebay permit sellers to sell Hitler memorabelia” – No they don’t.
rick says
11:47 am on November 16th, 2012
hear hear
I think the crimes saville is accused of are abhorrent.
though our society is based on the rule of law , Innocent until prove guilty!
You can be an Islamic cleric or, a tory grandee to get justice. though you cant be a dead yorkshire man, lol
Jimbo says
12:12 pm on November 16th, 2012
Im not sure how this has anything to do with “justice”.
rick says
12:41 pm on November 16th, 2012
it has everything to do with justice!
if it is not why is the subject even in the news?
Jimbo says
1:34 pm on November 16th, 2012
Selling the stuff on eBay is not about “justice” it is about “cashing in”. What is the story that is being cashed in on.
Did you see that Savile’s grave was dismantled on orders of his family “out of respect for public opinion”.
Chris says
3:39 pm on November 16th, 2012
My understand was the “family” were in actual fact a group of businessmen rather than his relations. I was a bit concerned about how and why it was done.
They apparently gave orders for the grave to be dismantled and then destroyed with the bits to be buried in landfill. I was surprised that it was not carefully dismantled and put into store. After all if after all the investigations were carried out it was found that in fact he was totally innocent they would want to re-erect the grave.
Unless of course the “family” know more than they are telling? However the man did raise a great deal of money for numerous Charities. He was looked up to by many. In fact a Great Star in his day.
I am of an age that I can remember him well. I only met him once(He was walking from John o groats to Lands End and I was a part of a group that walked from Penzance to Lands End with him(I couldn’t walk from Penzance to Lands End today(doubt if I could manage Market Jew Street in Penzance without having to stop for a rest a few times)
Jimbo says
6:50 pm on November 16th, 2012
Here is the family statement:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9637721/The-Savile-family-statement-in-full.html
Towards the end it seems to acknnowledge that there was “abuse”.
rick says
7:11 am on November 17th, 2012
selling the stuff on ebay is legal and it is an “injustice” to pre judge!
trial by twitter and blog ? is not
board_surfer says
9:53 am on 16/11/2012
great man..no
heck of a fund raiser…yes
Gary says
10:15 am on 16/11/2012
It is not something I feel qualified to comment on and I am slightly puzzled as to why Tamebay feel they should be involved or qualified to pass comment?
Must admit though I would feel uneasy wearing one of those T-shirts at this time. Good thing the eventual buyer will be anonymous. Could be that ebay are the only online selling platform where buyers are anonymous and therefore ebay attract this type of controversial sale.
Stuart says
12:16 pm on 16/11/2012
I think the post is more about the fact that these items are being sold for charity, well only partly.
There is tons of Jimmy Saville stuff for sale in many places on the net, just search for him in google shopping. A lovely item I found there http://www.redbubble.com/people/whitecurl/works/9596885-jimmy-took-me-up-the-gary-glitter-jimmy-savile-t-shirt?country_code=GB&p=sticker&utm_campaign=shopping&utm_medium=google_products&utm_source=google
I think the hole thing is getting out of hand, if he really did do all the things people are saying why did no one come forward before he died. He is dead now and there is naf all we can do about it. We should be concentrating on stopping it happening in the future, not bleeting on about the past all the time and we should also stop the finger pointing until there is proof, this can really damage peoples lives!
Darren says
3:12 pm on 17/11/2012
The ultimate bad taste, grab yourself some attention t-shirt. Yeah I would get one.
There are loads of shell suit fancy dress Savile clothing on ebay with loads of bids on…
Rich says
8:11 pm on 17/11/2012
Would I buy? no, bad taste in my view. And if someone wants to walk down the high street in one, well I doubt I’ll rush to pick them up off the floor either when inevitably someone takes offence.
But, ironically, yes there are some basic human rights issues here: the person under such scrutiny has not been convicted of a criminal offence. And I’m not sure financial effects and keepsakes should be banned, or for that matter even his bank accounts as the gains are not subject to fraud or money laundering in any way.
Two wrongs do not make a right!
Chris says
12:00 am on 18/11/2012
I have no idea at all if Jimmy Savile did any or all of the things being alleged. However he has never been tried and so is innocent until proved guilty.
However I have worked in places where somebody leaves and for months or even years everything that goes wrong or is found to be wrong automatically is blamed on them. I wonder if there is a bit of that in all the allegations. Plus a bit of “Jumping on the Bandwagon” in the hope of getting compensation from such as the BBC?
I note that other usually dead people are also being tarred with the same brush. I saw Cyril Smith being mentioned and there are probably many others.
Certainly let us hope that there is a full investigation and a report issued either confirming that Jimmy Savile and/or others did some or all of what has been alleged. However if it is found that he and others are totally innocent then their names are cleared.
Jimbo says
12:18 am on November 18th, 2012
“innocent until proved guilty” would you be saying that if he had his hand down your shorts? innocent until proved guilty is just a convention. It is not some kind of ultimate truth,
rick says
7:23 am on 18/11/2012
if it were you that were being accused your attitude would be different?
Jimbo says
8:16 am on November 18th, 2012
I guess that might depend on whether I was “innocent” or not.
rick says
1:29 pm on November 18th, 2012
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty not just you! LOL
Jimbo says
5:08 pm on November 18th, 2012
innocent until proven guilty doen’t actually mean you are innocent it just means you haven’t been convicted. It is a legal convention not some kind of ultimate truth. Do you think Saville is innocent? Do you think those who have spoken up a gold diggers (like Chris implies)?
rick says
6:41 pm on November 18th, 2012
saville may be guilty ,though none of us knows the facts, or the truth we only have supposition force fed by media
Tony says
5:10 pm on 18/11/2012
Ok so he’s not flavour of the month, but some could argue that the whole thing reeks of jumping on the bandwagon, and mass hysteria.
If the news media say jump, we jump. In its very essence, this vilification campaign against Savile – guilty or not – is not all that different from what the Nazis did to their ethnic minorities (and not just the Jews) in 1938.
That rational people can be whipped to such a feeding frenzy by the tabloids (and the BBC!!) tells me that actually human nature has not changed all that much since then. What he has been alleged to have done is of course monstrous, but to me it shows that society always needs a scapegoat and a target for their vitriol. I will have no part of it.
And the other thing is that if it were not for public pressure to the contrary, any charity would accept any money; dirty or not, it’s all the same colour to them. The only time they don’t accept it is if their accepting that money is in danger of being discovered; then they of course drop it like a hot potato. But only because the public know about it. If they could do it secretly they’d never mention a thing!