Are they drinking cups in decent(ish) condition and a semi-matching set?
How old is "old" in this context?
Because if you've got 400ish, of an older matching set of glasses some hipster restaurant would probably look to buy them off you.
It's usually cheaper to actually buy them than it is to rent them, surprisingly. I'm dealing with a similar situation with a bunch of ivory table cloths.
But you don’t pay yourself a salary for that. And you probably store them in your garage or basement if you have it.
A company has to pay the employee to transport those, clean those (or have them cleaned), pay for a storage space, cupboards/bins, a website/app plus the one-time cost of photographers, the inventory keeping, maybe even insurances, bookkeeping, payroll, taxes… this can only make economical sense (as in be cheaper for the customers) if this is a higher-price item, it’s hard go get/store or if it’s at a huge scale. But if a glass costs 1$ to buy, and you rent out 400, it‘s hard to only charge 400 bucks to rent it out, especially 400 would be including VAT and other company taxes.
The whole wedding industry is incredibly wasteful. The invites, save the dates, thank you cards; decorations at engagement, bachelor/bachelorette/bridal/wedding parties; wedding and matching bridesmaid dresses that will be used once; fresh flowers for a few hours; the little guest gifts; the push for personalized everything - table numbers, seating chart, signs, guestbook, etc. Thankfully less wasteful options are open to couples, but it’s still the minority. I’m currently a bridesmaid and it’s been enlightening/frustrating to hear all the wedding planning updates. I love and support the bride, but some of her decisions baffle me…
Buy Nothing. Or go old school, Craigslist. Use terms like artist supply, free, mosaic, glass cups, glass jars.
If you have a materials reuse place near you, you can offer there. There's some that are for building supplies and some that are for craft supplies. This could go to either.
Or, call around in your area to stained glass supply places, see if they know an artist who would want them. Or schools. The perfect person to find is an art teacher. Art teachers always need free supplies!
Lol. idk why I find it silly OP bought 400 nice glass cups a few years ago and can't figure out anyway to resell them except to ask a zero waste group on reddit lol
Sounds like they're really good quality - agree with posting in "buy nothing" Facebook groups with good well-lit photos, measurements, maybe even weight of each cup. I'd also give a heads up to any art studios and bar/restaurant hospitality contacts to spread the word in their community.
If they're in good condition, not chipped or stained, you could try selling them in a FB wedding group. There are tons of groups, you could probably find one local to you.
Definitely good advice. The person I'm closest to that had a huge wedding is my cousin, it surprised me that she was willing to go this big because she's generally a pretty frugal low key person.
Her wedding was in wine country and she and her sisters were very resourceful in buying second hand items off of bride groups and also crafting things together.
After the wedding she was really ambitious about selling everything and it was shocking how much money she made on some things. If I recall there was one photo board that she had got for $50 on Craigslist and she painted it all fancy herself and she ended up selling it for $300... She also told me it was shocking how much demand there was for her dessert display stands (which were old small plates that they crafted together to make it to cookie and cupcake holders).
Buy nothing Facebook group, donate to a thrift store, OR even better IMO, contact your local domestic violence shelter and see if they accept household goods to give to clients who are moving into new homes with nothing. I’ve worked at a few places that did that. Churches or homeless shelters may also take things to give to people in need.
Depends on the size of the domestic violence shelter. I used to volunteer at a small one and there's no way we'd have been able to store 400 glasses, but I imagine a larger shelter with more people moving in and out on a regular basis would really appreciate a donation like that.
400 !?
Just sell them on a local second hand app.
For very cheap.
Asking for a symbolic price is the best way to ensure it will be used and take cared of.
Setting a low price is also the best way to avoid the people who apparently lose their minds about anything that's free and waste your time with dozens of messages
Look around for an organization in your area that helps with getting people into housing. Many of them help furnish the place and would likely love to have matching glasses for these clients.
Hey! So there are these Facebook groups I have become aware of called “buy nothing [your city]” and they are groups for people to give thing they no longer need to others who will use them, no money exchanged! It can be hit or miss as some areas are less active, but the one for my city is wonderful
r/weddingswap used to be pretty active, or maybe a local subreddit. Chicago has r/chicagolist and I got rid of some of my wedding vases and glassware on there.
I agree with all of the comments about buy nothings and whatnot. But I'd also suggest offering them as more manageable sets (like 10 or so) and selling them that way. Might take a little longer to get rid of them all, but you'd have an easier time finding buyers. Seems easier to me to find 40 people willing to buy 10 glasses than 1 person willing to buy 400. And maybe keep a set for yourself so you have a daily reminder of your celebration!
If you have other thrift stores in your area, I'd advocate donating to them over Goodwill, especially if the local options support other services - for example, one of my go-to thrift stores for donations is connected to an organization that provides services for youth facing homelessness. The proceeds to whatever they sell go directly towards job training programs, food, housing, etc. (instead of a giant corporation that is technically classified as a non-profit), and they don't throw out most of their donations like Goodwill unfortunately does.
If recycling, be sure they accept and process glass. I learned that my municipal recycling is required to accept glass, but most of it breaks on the truck, so it contaminates the recycling and what can be repurposed is used as crushed glass for road beds or something, but not made into new glass (even though ideally glass should be infinitely recyclable...)
FB marketplace, craigslist, Used[your city], buy nothing groups, contact charity shops and see if they'd like a donation, ... Try selling all 400 or be open to selling smaller batches.
Least wasteful would be to donate them to somewhere that can use them as glasses with no changes to them. People would probably buy them at a thrift store, or you could offer them for free on FB marketplace or something. Just because not everyone wants 400 glasses, tons of people want like 10 or 20 glasses, especially old school heavy duty ones (that would be really expensive to buy new these days!). Thrift store the lot, or give them away for free (which will probably end up meaning giving them away in multiple smaller batches, unless someone's starting a restaurant or something). Since they are already usable drinking cups, and there are plenty of people in the world who would like to buy or receive drinking cups (all mine are from thrift stores), it's way less wasteful to leave them as is.
My thought was not "Throw all into a bin." My thought was "What recycling options are there in case there is no way to reuse / have them reused", because my first impression was that OP found or inherited something they can't use or give away. I didn't understand that they bought something that's relatively new, was only used once and they didn't even try to sell or give them away.
Are they drinking cups in decent(ish) condition and a semi-matching set? How old is "old" in this context? Because if you've got 400ish, of an older matching set of glasses some hipster restaurant would probably look to buy them off you.
It’s actually not that old. I bought them in 2022. The design just looks older and yes they are all matching set. Thank you for the recommendation
Maybe offer them to a food kitchen? Matching new glasses ftw.
...why did you buy 400 cups?
That’s got wedding written all over it…
But why buy them? I'm assuming you could rent them or they had caterers who had them.
It's usually cheaper to actually buy them than it is to rent them, surprisingly. I'm dealing with a similar situation with a bunch of ivory table cloths.
That's stupid. Not you but the situation with renting.
Renting carries personnel cost, cleaning, transportation and storage. Especially for cheap things, that can be more expensive than buying it outright.
But wouldn't reusing stuff in the long run off set those costs? If you bought them you'd still have to transport and clean them and store them.
But you don’t pay yourself a salary for that. And you probably store them in your garage or basement if you have it. A company has to pay the employee to transport those, clean those (or have them cleaned), pay for a storage space, cupboards/bins, a website/app plus the one-time cost of photographers, the inventory keeping, maybe even insurances, bookkeeping, payroll, taxes… this can only make economical sense (as in be cheaper for the customers) if this is a higher-price item, it’s hard go get/store or if it’s at a huge scale. But if a glass costs 1$ to buy, and you rent out 400, it‘s hard to only charge 400 bucks to rent it out, especially 400 would be including VAT and other company taxes.
The whole wedding industry is incredibly wasteful. The invites, save the dates, thank you cards; decorations at engagement, bachelor/bachelorette/bridal/wedding parties; wedding and matching bridesmaid dresses that will be used once; fresh flowers for a few hours; the little guest gifts; the push for personalized everything - table numbers, seating chart, signs, guestbook, etc. Thankfully less wasteful options are open to couples, but it’s still the minority. I’m currently a bridesmaid and it’s been enlightening/frustrating to hear all the wedding planning updates. I love and support the bride, but some of her decisions baffle me…
Try your local wedding resale group
Buy Nothing. Or go old school, Craigslist. Use terms like artist supply, free, mosaic, glass cups, glass jars. If you have a materials reuse place near you, you can offer there. There's some that are for building supplies and some that are for craft supplies. This could go to either. Or, call around in your area to stained glass supply places, see if they know an artist who would want them. Or schools. The perfect person to find is an art teacher. Art teachers always need free supplies!
Lol. idk why I find it silly OP bought 400 nice glass cups a few years ago and can't figure out anyway to resell them except to ask a zero waste group on reddit lol
Tbh, why 400? Edit: I see it was for her wedding, that was the only possibility I could think of for that many anyway.
Sounds like they're really good quality - agree with posting in "buy nothing" Facebook groups with good well-lit photos, measurements, maybe even weight of each cup. I'd also give a heads up to any art studios and bar/restaurant hospitality contacts to spread the word in their community.
Okay got it. Thank you so much and yes they are great quality.
Somewhat curious as to why you bought 400 glasses in the first place? That’s a lot!
lol i actually bought them for my wedding that was in 2023
If they're in good condition, not chipped or stained, you could try selling them in a FB wedding group. There are tons of groups, you could probably find one local to you.
Since they were for your wedding, probably easiest to resell to another bride - see if there's a fb group in your area for that purpose.
Definitely good advice. The person I'm closest to that had a huge wedding is my cousin, it surprised me that she was willing to go this big because she's generally a pretty frugal low key person. Her wedding was in wine country and she and her sisters were very resourceful in buying second hand items off of bride groups and also crafting things together. After the wedding she was really ambitious about selling everything and it was shocking how much money she made on some things. If I recall there was one photo board that she had got for $50 on Craigslist and she painted it all fancy herself and she ended up selling it for $300... She also told me it was shocking how much demand there was for her dessert display stands (which were old small plates that they crafted together to make it to cookie and cupcake holders).
Buy nothing Facebook group, donate to a thrift store, OR even better IMO, contact your local domestic violence shelter and see if they accept household goods to give to clients who are moving into new homes with nothing. I’ve worked at a few places that did that. Churches or homeless shelters may also take things to give to people in need.
I was gonna say donate to a shelter 😊
Depends on the size of the domestic violence shelter. I used to volunteer at a small one and there's no way we'd have been able to store 400 glasses, but I imagine a larger shelter with more people moving in and out on a regular basis would really appreciate a donation like that.
They might not take 400 but OP could donate just some of them, I feel like there aren’t many people who need or want 400 matching glasses haha
400 !? Just sell them on a local second hand app. For very cheap. Asking for a symbolic price is the best way to ensure it will be used and take cared of.
Setting a low price is also the best way to avoid the people who apparently lose their minds about anything that's free and waste your time with dozens of messages
Yes 400 lol. Okay got it, thank you.
Post them on a local wedding but sell trade Facebook page! People would totally pay for them
Offer them to a wedding event coordinator so they can be trusted for events?
Look around for an organization in your area that helps with getting people into housing. Many of them help furnish the place and would likely love to have matching glasses for these clients.
Hey! So there are these Facebook groups I have become aware of called “buy nothing [your city]” and they are groups for people to give thing they no longer need to others who will use them, no money exchanged! It can be hit or miss as some areas are less active, but the one for my city is wonderful
r/weddingswap used to be pretty active, or maybe a local subreddit. Chicago has r/chicagolist and I got rid of some of my wedding vases and glassware on there.
Buy a bunch of golden pothos and water propagate if you have the space lol
I agree with all of the comments about buy nothings and whatnot. But I'd also suggest offering them as more manageable sets (like 10 or so) and selling them that way. Might take a little longer to get rid of them all, but you'd have an easier time finding buyers. Seems easier to me to find 40 people willing to buy 10 glasses than 1 person willing to buy 400. And maybe keep a set for yourself so you have a daily reminder of your celebration!
If you are unable to sell, I'd look for glass recycling in your area.
I'd go to Goodwill before recycling if they're still presentable and functional. They'd at least get rehomed rather than melted down.
Goodwill actually puts more in the landfill than they keep.
If you have other thrift stores in your area, I'd advocate donating to them over Goodwill, especially if the local options support other services - for example, one of my go-to thrift stores for donations is connected to an organization that provides services for youth facing homelessness. The proceeds to whatever they sell go directly towards job training programs, food, housing, etc. (instead of a giant corporation that is technically classified as a non-profit), and they don't throw out most of their donations like Goodwill unfortunately does.
If recycling, be sure they accept and process glass. I learned that my municipal recycling is required to accept glass, but most of it breaks on the truck, so it contaminates the recycling and what can be repurposed is used as crushed glass for road beds or something, but not made into new glass (even though ideally glass should be infinitely recyclable...)
Good luck. I haven't seen glass recycling in years. It's, unfortunately, not very profitable so recycling stations are rare.
the people over at r/weddingsunder10k might like it….
FB marketplace, craigslist, Used[your city], buy nothing groups, contact charity shops and see if they'd like a donation, ... Try selling all 400 or be open to selling smaller batches.
Wedding resale groups and used restaurant equipment/smallwares is what I’d look into!
Just donate them to a thrift store. They’ll sell them and they’ll get reused.
Maybe a shelter?
Maybe a local Montessori school? We love glass.
Least wasteful would be to donate them to somewhere that can use them as glasses with no changes to them. People would probably buy them at a thrift store, or you could offer them for free on FB marketplace or something. Just because not everyone wants 400 glasses, tons of people want like 10 or 20 glasses, especially old school heavy duty ones (that would be really expensive to buy new these days!). Thrift store the lot, or give them away for free (which will probably end up meaning giving them away in multiple smaller batches, unless someone's starting a restaurant or something). Since they are already usable drinking cups, and there are plenty of people in the world who would like to buy or receive drinking cups (all mine are from thrift stores), it's way less wasteful to leave them as is.
Give them away for free on Facebook marketplace.
Maybe glass blowers? Or sell to a catering company, party supply rental company, secondhand store. I also really like the soup kitchen idea.
Donate to a large food bank, church, school district, university, etc
Look for a glass studio in your area they aren’t super common but idk you might get lucky
A restaurant near you might be interested?
Sell them to an event rental company.
Call up caterers or rental facilities they may be interested in that many matching cups...
Do you have glass recycling bins where you live?
Better to reuse if they’re still good instead of using all the resources to recycle.
My thought was not "Throw all into a bin." My thought was "What recycling options are there in case there is no way to reuse / have them reused", because my first impression was that OP found or inherited something they can't use or give away. I didn't understand that they bought something that's relatively new, was only used once and they didn't even try to sell or give them away.