Lately I have been getting a lot of questions about how to sell clothes at consignment stores. It is one of the ways I featured in my blog post Declutter and make money! I am sure many of you like me are looking for ways to get rid of your stuff and make some money too especially in this economic environment. However, I know many of you may not want to do all the heavy lifting yourself when you sell things yourself such as taking pictures, posting the items, responding inquiries, mailing the items, and the list goes on.
Resale of your items yourself is a lot of work, and know especially this week as I will be doing another Facebook Live Sale on the Thrifting Divas Facebook group, so I have been pricing and tagging my items in preparation, and after the sale will have to invoice, collect payments, and ship the items. My last sale I sold over 100 items, so it was a lot of work, but well worth it because I made over $1000 on items that were sitting in my closet or basement. There is a lot of work required when you are reselling your items yourself, but consignment stores are such an easier option because they do all the heavy labor for you.
Here is what you need to know if you plan to use consignment stores to make some money off of your old clothes.
1. Find consignment stores in your local area. Stop in and try not to shop, lol. Stop in and look to see what items they sell and even look at the prices.
2. Determine the split meaning when the item sells how much so you get. For example, the split may be 50/50, so 50 % of the selling price to the consignment store and 50% to you. You may think that is steep, but they are most times small businesses which provide a retail space to sell the items, posting the items online and shipping the items.
3. What items are they looking for. For example, are they looking for certain designers, or a certain season, vintage, furniture, luxury items etc.
4. Requirements to bring in your items.
Check to see if you can walk in with the items or is an appointment required.
Do the clothes have to be dry cleaned (I recommend the use of those cheaper cleaners that have one price for all items like $2.50 an item because a traditional cleaners can be quite expensive. You want to maximize your profit, and not spend all your money dry cleaning the items.)
5. Know the consignment period, i.e the time frame the item is required to sell. There are some consignments that give you cash on hand when you bring the items, but you typically do not make as much, but you drop the item and there is no checking to see if it sold or not. Other consignments, after a certain period if the item does not sell, you are required to pick up the item otherwise it becomes property of the consignment shop.
6. Be careful when you drop off items. Consignment stores typically have very affordable and cute clothing, so if you don't want to buy anything have tunnel vision and a pep talk before walking in to avoid buying something.
I live in the Maryland area, and these are some of my favorite consignment stores to shop/sell:
Check out my Summer Consignment Haul from my finds at New Digz! Click the picture!
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