Monday, August 29, 2011

Is Consignment Selling Worth It?

 “Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want.” ~Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1787

Do you remember this post?  Do you remember this picture?  Well, over 30 tubs of children clothing. (Plus, 3 small containers of toys were not pictured).

Well. I am still working on it still!! If your remember, I am NOT trying to sale all the items! I am keeping several items out of each tub for the young children. Mostly baby clothes and the nicer favorite clothes in a few of the older sizes. My goal is to go down to about 10 tubs only! (5 girls/ 5 boys)

I was able to complete the Spring/Summer break down last month.  Out of all these boxes I probably sold 8 containers full of items!  6 extremely packed containers and maybe 2 containers of toys.  If you want to find out if the work is worth the money and time, you can go to the above post link at the top and take a look at this past Spring/Summer post. I recorded all transactions from this past season there!  Here is my opinion on the issue.  The Little Ones are helping me with this project and they are learning two lessons. The 1st lesson is work ethic.  I tell them what the Bible says,  "If you don't work. You don't eat!"  Of course, that is not the case in this particular situation but it is a good principle to share with them. The 2nd lesson is about saving.  All the money from the consignment clothes is being divided and going to their little banks. So, they are watching every little penny add up quickly. They are good at doing this already but this gives their accounts a boost.

   The NOW picture: Not nearly as packed full in the tubs or on the shelves. I have several less tubs too.  And, the shelf underneath wasn't pictured because there wasn't anything on it!

Well, I am now on to doing Fall and Winter! This past Spring,  I spent so much time doing the sorting and cleaning of all the clothes for all the seasons that all I have to focus on is taking them to the consignment shops. Unfortunately, selling will be the biggest challenge  this season! 

The Fall challenges of selling items?!
1. We won't be home during the fall season. But, I am working on a few ideas in regards to selling while on the road. One is coming back home for the Military Garage Sale Weekend!
 
2. The area in which I currently live in is military and a military retirement community, and you really see the economy problems. Right now, the garage sales are more than abundant and the ladies are flooding the consignment stores with used items more than normal. This is allowing the consignment shops to be pickier and now they are over filled! Since winter hasn't started here, we still have temperatures in the 90's, none of the winter items are moving yet.
So, I wasn't surprised when I went into my favorite consignment shop and the owner said,  "Carmen, I am so full and nothing is moving. So, I probably won't be able to take much but I will look." She looked through the clothes and said, "I can give you a little bit for a few of these items."  I said, "That is fine what every you can do."  After looking through them, she said, "Don't thrift the items! Bring them back in 2 months and I will probably be able to buy the whole tub."

3. The Fall Kid Week Sales are not abundant for some reason. The ones that are going to be scheduled are not during the times we will be home. Weekly Sales are worth doing!! You just hang and tag and let them do the work of selling. Then, you just pick up what didn't sale at the end of the week.  Some one asked me about gas in taking things to the stores. This is another reason the Weekly Sales during each season is worth it. However, I rarely ever make a special trip to take things to the store. I do it when we are headed in that direction on our weekly errand day.

                                             These are the tubs I am focusing on right now.
They have already been sorted through and washed for the stores.
Just like last season, I will post the transactions on the post as they come in!

Monday, August 1st - Consignment Store - I started with a container of old style clothes with cheep brands. I know I won't get much money for them but if I get in early before the consignment stores are full and become picky than I will get more money for them. I got to my favorite consignment store and they were not picky because people had not started to swamp them with their fall/winter items yet.  (cash  $11.35)

Wednesday August 10th - Consignment Store -  A container of small miscellaneous toys  (cash $18.05)

Wednesday August 17th - Consignment Store -  The container of old style clothes with cheep brands were dropped off at another store. It has only be two weeks and the consignment stores are starting to get full and they are starting to become picky. So, I wasn't surprised that they only took 1 dress and told me that the styles were to old for what they wanted to stock at that time. (cash $1.65)

Thursday, August 25th - Consignment Store - A small container of nicer clothes was taken to my favorite consignment store.  Unfortunately they are so full they couldn't take much of anything but told me to come back in a few weeks. Not surprising. We still have 90 degree temps in this area. But, I am glad that I got rid of the older style clothes. I will make more money on the new brands when they are ready to buy again. (cash $8.00)

Wednesday September 7th-  Consignment Store - The small container of nicer clothes that was taken on August 25th to my favorite consignment store was taken to another consignment store.  At that store they looked only through 1/2 the container.  (cash $17.88)

Wednesday/ Thursday September 7th and 8th -  Preparing to hang and tag all clothes that are left over for a Weekly Consignment Sale.  I will drop them off at the Weekend sale on September 13th. The sale will go only that following Thur/Fri/Sat.   Pick up will be that Sunday.  (check 89.70)


Link to    http://www.growinghomeblog.com     http://www.aboverubies.net/

9 comments:

  1. You're lucky you can get your children to sell some of their old things and part with them. I managed to get a few things, via a couple of yard sales, away from my children that they had outgrown or never played with much, and they didn't mind having the money, but they missed their things and wouldn't let me get rid of any more. Now they are 22 and 24 (!!!!!!!) and won't let me get rid of anything that was theirs! Our garage is stacked with bins of their old toys. They DO make YouTube videos and use lots of their old stuff as props, so it does get used, but still.....
    What really put them off was the time I talked them into giving a couple of nice toys that they rarely ever played with to the neighbor kids "because they don't have anything." They reluctantly let me give the toys away, only to find them the next day busted and smashed into the dirt at the neighbor's house (kind of like Laura in Little House on the Prairie when her mother made her give away her rag doll to a kid that was besotted with it, only to find it the next day torn and in a mud puddle and they had to retrieve it and fix it up). Anyway, after that incident, I never made them get rid of their stuff any more. That was about 15 years ago.

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  2. You're doing good with your kids!

    But Carmen, I want to thank you for your comments before the hurricane - it was a big help to me to think that somebody was praying for me who's been through hurricanes, although why that should matter, I'm not sure! Still, it was a comfort to think of you for some reason. It ended up being nothing like we were afraid of. We didn't even lose power, although many did and will be without it for a while. I don't believe that the weather people over hyped it; I believe that God hears prayer, and things change out of His goodness.

    God bless you!!!

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  3. Wow great job with organizing! With my girls going to school I am hoping to sell toys and clothes possibly on Ebay. Thanks for sharing this!

    So glad your family is o.k. from Irene! What a scary time.

    Have a great week and good luck with all the consignment!

    Blessings,
    Jill

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  4. Interesting! We don't have those types of consignment shops in Australia, wish we did though:(
    Things get sold on ebay or similar websites or donated to thrift shops. I think there may be consignment shops but more for the higher end of designer clothing (as far as I know:))

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  5. Great post!

    I'm a new follower!

    God Bless!

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  6. I have all my kids clothes too. I am dreading the thought of going through them and getting rid of them. I kept them all because I didn't know when we were "done" and of course I had to make sure I really had a boy before I got rid of the girl stuff. I am impressed with your stick-to-it-ness. I am thinking I will tackle this project in the spring, too overwhelming now. Good for you!

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  7. Every winter break my husband and I go through the 6 bedrooms and organize the clothes. We donate and get a tax write off. This has allowed us a nice little "extra" come tax season. We wash, sort and divide all the clothing items before we donate them.

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  8. Oh my, I am tired to looking at all that work. I pray all the things sell well for you. Enjoy your day and God bless.

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  9. way to go w/ all the organizing! it's amazing how fast we accumulate things, eh? it was good to declutter alot when we moved. but.. it's piling back in somehow. ;)

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