MandMDirect are a leading fashion retailer and are set to give a significant boost to the Teenage Cancer Trust by donating 20 percent of sales from their Onfire clothing range through eBay for Charity. This isn’t a new cause for MandMDirect, Mike Tomkins, Chairman of MandMDirect and Patron of Teenage Cancer Trust explained that “During the past seven years we’re managed to raise over £860,000 for the charity through employee fundraising events and product donations, and we’re now looking to hit the one million pound target with this latest partnership“.

Teenage Cancer Trust help provide specialist facilities for young people with cancer across the country. With the latest news of high earners reducing donations to charities due to the government changing the tax rules and at a time when charities are feeling the pinch and fundraising is being cut, the MandMDirect partnership with eBay will see one fifth of the sale price of selected Onfire branded item listed in their popular eBay store, go to the charity.

Through eBay for Charity eBay’s 17 million UK visitors have already raised over £33m from buying and selling which has already been raised for 6,000 UK charities. Lorin May, eBay Head of EU Charity and Sustainability said “We’re thrilled to be working with them on this ground-breaking partnership to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust“.

Whatever your thoughts of large retailers trading on eBay I like this new partnership (and I know all the arguments from both sides about how they attract a new breed of buyer to eBay, as well as the opposite view that eBay has changed from it’s roots of individual auction sellers and are now aiming to be a leading fixed price new retailer blended with the unique auction items). Large retailers giving something back is always good news and too often the accusation is justifiably aimed at them that it’s all about profits for management and shareholders. This new MandMDirect partnership isn’t a one off publicity stunt, it’s a large retailer continuing their long term support of a charity in a new unique way on an ongoing basis.

You can support Teenage Cancer Trust by buying the Onfire clothing range either by browsing the MandMDirect eBay shop or directly from the Teenage Cancer Trust eBay for Charity page. Alternatively you can also raise funds for your favourite charity by selling on eBay or by donating at checkout when you make any eBay purchase.

You might be mistaken for thinking the likeness at best needs a fair amount of imagination, but just so you can’t be mistaken the seller has carefully labelled the image to bring out Washington’s features.

Happy bidding, it’s only up to $3,150 but the seller is hoping to raise $15,000 for their local Family Worship Centre. Don’t plan on eating the McNugget though, eBay have already pulled the auction once for selling food past it’s expiry date, but they’ve relented and allowed it to be relisted.

Shame they’re not using eBay Giving Works (the eBay.com equivalent of eBay for Charity) though, then we’d be assured the money was going to a good cause.

There’s no doubt that many charities have big advantages over regular eBay sellers. Firstly they often are selling donated items so they don’t have any cost of goods to worry about and secondly with MissionFish they’ll not be paying eBay fees on successful sales. Not paying fees makes a big difference and saves anything up to 12% in final value fees.

If you are a charity you should be seriously considering selling on eBay, especially if you have retail high street shops. The reach of the Internet is far greater than any single outlet and it ensures that the most valuable items get seen by as many potential buyers as possible.

If you’re not a charity the good news is that (in the main) charities probably aren’t competing directly with you in many categories and are certainly less likely to be selling new products. However they do also compete with businesses off eBay, for instance the FT article reveals MillRace IT as the biggest charity seller on eBay turning over £580k in the last year.

MillRace are in the computer refurbishing business and compete directly with other refurbishers for business. When it comes to selling on eBay they’re getting the eBay fee advantages as well as financial charity status as a business. That gives them a big financial advantage both for winning clearance contracts and when selling.

The charity sector will continue to grow on eBay but in reality, at the moment, charity sales are a drop in the ocean as far as eBay UK’s overall turnover goes. eBay are predicting $8bn in mobile sales alone for 2012 – that makes the £6.25m in charity sales pocket change and most sellers won’t even notice charities are there.

eBay enables charitable giving through it’s Giving Works platform in the US and Canada, which launched in August 2011, and eBay for Charity in the UK. You can donate to a charity by selling on eBay and donating a percentage, by buying items where the seller has chosen to donate a percentage of the selling price to charity, or simply by donating a £1 at checkout when buying any item on eBay.

You can also choose your favourite charity and it will be suggested to you when buying, selling or donating at checkout.

Currently one of the highest profile charity auctions on eBay UK is Starlights for Starlight, launched at The Langham, London by Tamara Ecclestone. eBay host many sets of auctions like this throughout the year and not only do they drive traffic to eBay but they help raise millions of pounds (or dollars!) for thousands of good causes in the UK, US and Canada.

The list of gadgets, which went on sale today, include a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, HP TouchPad (now a collector’s item after HP ceased production), Kobo eReader, HTC Flyer Tablet Computer, Nokia Lumia 800 and HTC Sensation

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There’s a whole lot of art up for grabs including Wallace and Grommit, Shaun the Sheep, Simon’s Cat and Roger Rabbit. If you fancy getting your hands on some original artwork from a well known animator take a look at the other pieces up on auction. The auctions run until the 11th November.

The team of Really Nice Pinks experiment will see how much money they can raise on eBay on by 3pm today for Breast Cancer Awareness. Trading as “A Kiss From A Pink” there are some weird and wacky items including Lunch with Clare Gilmartin EU Marketplaces Vice President, lunch with Markus Scheuermann, Director Business Sellers, lunch with Angus McCarey, eBay’s Senior Director Seller Experience and meeting Miriam Lahage, Global Head of eBay Fashion (If you sell in apparel you really want to win this one to get some advice from the top!).

Theses eBay listings not only support some great charities, but if you want to bend the ear of some top eBay execs or to pick their brains this is an ideal opportunity. Alternatively they’ve got some cutesy items up including White Panda Novelty Earphones, Yellow Ducks Novelty Earphones and the star of the show, A Kiss from a Pink signed postcard.

Remember – its all in a good cause, and the Really Nice Pinks are going to try and put themselves out there to make a bit of money for a great charity, so be gentle on them if you spot any policy infringements in their listings (but feel free to dish their listings on TameBay and let us know what you think of them). More importantly dig deep in your PayPal account and support the Really Nice Pinks to raise some funds for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Be quick though, you’ve only got until 2.30pm today to make your offers or click the Buy It Now button!

This morning I received an email from an apparent ‘Charity’ representative asking if I could give a special discount on a number of items. This is not the first such email I have received and I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter.

Firstly I personally support several charities and believe that giving by either donating or fund raising is a good thing. My favourite charity shop gets all my unwanted stock and returns and I will continue to support those charities which have significance to me.

I don’t donate a percentage of sales income to any of the charities available through eBay because I prefer to keep business and my charity work separate.

One American customer who I communicated with sent me $100 via my Paypal selling account for one of my charities which he also supports. The money was very welcome but it created a minor blip in my accounts and although not currently VAT registered I wouldn’t want to reach the threshold because I had combined business and charity fund raising.

I also didn’t want to engage in emails back and forth with this apparent ‘Charity’ representative to verify if they were legitimate, and to be quite honest their record of feedback left for others put me right off the possibility of dealing with them.

I believe that although business should support charities there should be clear distinction between the two.

Editors Note: Glenn is correct about the complications of charity fund raising/donations from a tax perspective. If you want to make charitable donations from your business you will need to read up on the HM Revenue & Customs documents “Gifts to charity made by companies” and “VAT implications of Giving to Charity by Businesses“. In fact any disposal (including giving away) of business assets is normally considered as supplying goods and you will have to account for VAT on the disposal.
 
It is often simpler, as Glenn suggests, to make a personal donation with Gift Aid or to specifically list items on eBay with a donation through eBay for Charity listed on your personal eBay account, not your business selling account.

Harvey Nichols are working with celebrated fashion blogger Disneyrollergirl, on this “Secret Tees” project. Disneyrollergirl launched in 2007 as an ‘anonymous fashion insider’ blog whilst a full time fashion director on a magazine in London. She thought about her favourite designers whose work she loves and has invited each of these to create a one-off exclusive design.

There are seven designers and seven T-Shirts, but which “Secret Tee” was designed by which designer? There are some clues in the auctions so you might be able to figure it out, but in the meantime if you want to choose your favourite and bid on one of the Secret Tees all proceeds will go to support Kids Company though eBay for Charity.

Nike is only releasing 1,500 pairs of the Nike Mag and the only place you’ll be able to get them is by bidding on eBay. The Nike MAGs feature an electroluminescent outsole, space-age materials and a rechargeable internal battery good for 3,000 hours.

Prices look like rocketing into the $1000s, if not 10s of $1000s, and size 10 appears to be the most sought after attracting the highest prices.

All proceeds from the auctions will go to benefit Marty McFly actor Michael J. Fox’s charity – the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease which Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with in 1991.

Sadly you can only bid on these auctions if you’re based in the US, but for those that are there will be 150 pairs of Nike MAG shoes auctioned each day from the 9th – 18th September.