THE internet could be costing Dorset's charity shops dearly as more people opt to sell their possessions online than donate them to worthy causes.

Charity might begin at home but it now ends on the home computer, according to several British charities who claim they are losing thousands of pounds every week to the increasingly popular eBay auction site.

Medium sized charities are facing losses of up to £50,000 a year, often as much as a tenth of their revenue from charity shops, and they have also reported a five per cent drop in high-quality donations.

Founded in 1995, eBay has 9.31 million British users. It sells £1 billion worth of clothes and accessories a year while charity shops in Britain flog about £300 million worth of goods annually.

A spokeswoman at the Sue Ryder Care shop in Charminster Road, Bournemouth, said: "I have definitely noticed a drop in donations and the standard of donations since I came here six-and-a-half years ago.

"It could be because people are selling more items on their home computers and also the popularity of television programmes encouraging them to cash in on selling their junk."

But Kate Hardyman, temporary manager at the Tenovus Cancer charity shop in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, said donations to the local cause had been unaffected by the online auction site.

"It hasn't had any impact on us at all," she said. "We have had an enormous amount of donations recently.

"More and more items are being brought in - sometimes what people haven't been able to sell at car boot sales. I don't think the internet is any threat to us at all."

Hazel Walker, Chief Officer of Age Concern in Bournemouth, agreed with her sentiments.

"I don't think eBay is affecting us," she said. "People are still bringing in items the way they always have been and we haven't noticed any drop in donations. People may well decide to sell their mink coats via the internet but not the sort of clothes we sell at our shops," she joked.

First published: August 20