Discussion: ARCs - Giveaway? Donate? Sell?

Ok, so I might be newish to book blogging but I found out right in the beginning that selling ARCs is wrong (ARC = Advance Readers Copy) - and that makes sense to me. This isn't really about selling an ARC that you receive, I think everyone knows that its wrong. 

Let me tell you the situation that has me wanting a discussion with you all about ARCs and what you do with them. 

For those that don't know, I was at the Lifeline Bookfest last weekend. Lifeline are a charity organisation here and they get donated books which they sell at their Bookfests. While browsing through the books on sale I came across a 'Uncorrected Proof' of Cynthia Hands' Unearthly. For those that don't know, these aren't "pretty" like most ARCs you see out there. This is an Uncorrected Proof of Level 2 that I received from Allen and Unwin. 

Front

Back

See, no pretty cover. =)

When I first saw the ARC of Unearthly that was on sale at Bookfest, I was shocked and didn't know if I should, or could do anything about it. The question was - What? The people running the bookfest are volunteers and I doubt that they would have cared (they didn't care - as I found out today, but I'll get there in a minute!).
After considering my options I decided to leave it there and figured if someone was desperate enough to pay $4 for a uncorrected copy with no proper cover - then so be it. ..............

Until today. 
I went back to Bookfest today to see what other goodies I could get for mum, hubby, my son, and of course myself. I found Unearthly was still there, but then I found another uncorrected proof, and then I found an ARC. Who knows how many more there are there. I'll be honest, I bought the ARC, but I complained too. I'm still mad about it. When I went to pay for the books I wanted I held on to Froi of the Exiles because I wanted to point out that it was an ARC - for review only, not to be sold, and that I didn't think it was right asking that kind of money for ARCs either. I got told what I thought I would get told the first day - they are just volunteers and it's for charity anyway. She did say to maybe speak with Lifeline themselves. 

Sticker on the ARC I got

I've been thinking about these ARCs at bookfest the whole way home, which thanks to the traffic took an hour. That is when I decided to put this discussion post up. 


Personally, I don't like it. I don't believe people should pay to have a book that wasn't "published and sold" normally. I don't like the fact that bloggers work extremely hard to get the publishers to trust and provide them ARCs in the first place - I have only received one (Level 2 mentioned above) (edit: actually I received another one today but you'll have to see my Saturday book haul post to see what it is. hehe. ). I would never think to donate my ARCs. 


Your thoughts:
Is it wrong for ARCs to be donated and then sold by the charity? The person who got the ARC obviously didn't get money in exchange for them, but does that make it right? What do you do with your ARCs? 

I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment below.