A white elephant sale is a non-professional group sale of donated items, often used as a fundraiser for non-profit groups. The quality and value of items vary, and profits can be low due to the cost of running the sale. Unsold items may be stored for the following year’s sale.
A white elephant sale is a type of sale similar to a garage or yard sale where used items are sold by a non-professional group. Such sales are often fundraisers for non-profit groups, and community members may donate unused items for sale to the White Elephant Sale. The items themselves can vary in quality and condition depending on what has been donated to the cause, and in many cases, many of the items are obsolete, broken, or otherwise not worth much. In other cases, however, hard-to-find items may be present at the sale and be sought after by many buyers.
As a fundraising tool, selling white elephants is exceptionally popular, although it was even more popular before the days of online auction sites and message boards. People within a given community could get rid of items that were no longer useful to them, and buyers could find old, antique, or obsolete items that might be of particular interest to them. The sale of white elephants is often seen as an effective fundraiser, but also an effective tool for encouraging community interaction. The sale is often promoted as a fun family event.
Some of the disadvantages of selling white elephants include the quality of the items, low profits, and the space needed to handle the sale. The quality of the items sold at the White Elephant Sale depends entirely on what is donated to the cause; some people may donate items just to get rid of them, and the items themselves may not even be in usable condition. In other situations, the items might be quite valuable, but the person who donated them might simply not need them. Sales of white elephants can make a decent profit, although this is certainly not guaranteed and the profits should be measured against the costs of running the sale. Many sales run over several days and take up a fair amount of space that sometimes has to be rented out, so overall profits after expenses can be quite low.
If the White Elephant Sale is an annual event, items that don’t sell in one year may be kept until the following year. This can add an extra cost of running the sale, as the group handling the sale will often need to rent a storage unit or other space in which to store items until the next sale.
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