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,
25 Responses
RT @tamebay: Would you buy a Jimmy Savile t-shirt on eBay in aid of Stoke Mandeville?: https://t.co/euOkqx7R
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.
great man..no
heck of a fund raiser…yes
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.
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 https://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!
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…
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!
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.
if it were you that were being accused your attitude would be different?
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!