I'm not sure what the proper term is but...Does your community have a website where individuals gift items, or ask for things???? Where we live there's a site where people can gift items they no longer want, or they can also ask for things. I'm so glad we're a part of ours!!! Instead of going through the hassle of a garage sale, we post items on the site, put the person's name on it, and leave it on the porch for pickup!!! We have gifted tons of clothes, books, and sporting equipment. My wife has also received baseball and soccer equipment for our son!!! Last week I was gifted a men's Coach leather briefcase. I picked it up at a home about 2 minutes from my house. The owner handed it to me stating that there was paperwork inside showing that it was authentic. I thanked him and home I went with a slightly "loved" but fully intact beautiful item. An hour later, and after an hour of black shoe polish treatment, the briefcase looks like brand new!!! I contacted the previous owner and thanked him again, and thanked him again for breaking it in for me!!!
We have Freecycle in the UK (well London anyway). We gave away lots of things on it. The last few years we've just been taking things to the various, local charity ships instead.
Craigslist in Canada plays some of this role, but giving away “good quality stuff” seems more the goal of what you are talking about. Gives me something to think about
We have a freecycle site for our city, and we use it pretty regularly to give things away. It's amazing some of the things that people really want.
I hear you!!! I've seen beautiful dining room sets, a riding lawnmower, a complete patio set, wardrobes, really nice clothes, complete dish set....you get the picture. It's amazing how generous people are. It should be noted that it's made perfectly clear from the moderator on the site that these items are NOT FOR RESALE!!! How that is enforced would be up to an individual's morality I guess. There's even a guy who's father is retired and enjoys tinkering with lawn equipment. People will gift him non working lawn mowers, blowers, edgers ect, he fixes them at no charge, and re gifts them back on the site for people who are in need. Amazing!!!! His son did an "Ask" for his father who is into classic cars. He asked for classic car magazines for his father. I've been decluttering during the covid 19 situation and was able to gift him stacks of Hemming Motor Classic car magazines. Sure beats throwing them in the recycle bin. I also rounded up about 100 Classic Boating magazines. These are really beautiful magazines with really nice photography. I googled wood boat clubs in the area and located a club in nearby Akron, Ohio. I got in contact with the president of the club and he picked them up. He wanted to pay for them but I asked his to just distribute them to his club members at his next meeting.
Those are really nice gifts, but I was actually thinking about the other extreme. I have offered some things that I never expected people to want and then got messages almost immediately from a handful of people. Sometimes it made me so suspicious that I would ask why they wanted it, just to try to avoid enabling a hoarder. My favorite example was a huge plastic tub that blew into my backyard during a windstorm. It was an insert for a two-level water feature, a little pond you would put in your yard using a pump to recirculate water. I kept it for almost a year, using every possible opportunity to ask all of my neighbors if they had lost it, but I could never find out where it originated. I was at a loss, and then it just hit me that I should put it on freecycle. Within hours, I was contacted by several people who all provided interesting details about why they wanted it. I gave it to a woman who was going to build a backyard pond for her pet turtles. Another time, I had finished off a bunch of projects around the house and had collected too many small cans of paint and stain that I had used to test colors. I felt horrible about just taking them to the transfer station for disposal, so wasteful. So I put them on freecycle, and a woman who lived just a few blocks away was eager to have them for some sort of crafting that she does. I do think that some people may be hoarders, and others may try to resell. But if that concerns you, I've often found that you can figure that out pretty quickly with a short phone call. Some people have a really clear and detailed reason that they want the item, and that usually shines through immediately. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the hoarders than the resellers.
Our site has about 75% of the same people receiving as giving, you kind of get to know the people. Messaging is done through the site, no phones are used. I hear what you're saying about used paint, especially with indoor paints. What are the chances of the paint not being old and being the same shade as what you want??? Now if we just had a site like this for watches!!!