This is a guest post by my reader Tanya.
I have always been a thrift store junkie. When my children were little, I made frequent trips to the thrift stores to stock up on cute clothing and toys. Once a year, I’d have a big yard sale and sell the outgrown clothes and toys, sometimes for more than I paid for them. I did this for a few years, and when a local consignment store opened, I began taking my clothing there, sometimes making a few bucks or getting store credit for future purchases. It wasn’t until I found a Dooney and Bourke purse at the thrift store for $3.97 that I began to shop strictly for the purpose of turning a profit. I took the purse to the consignment store, they authenticated it and listed it for sale for $70.00! I made half of that, which was $35.00! Not a bad chunk of change for a purse I got for under $4! I began scouring the aisles of the thrift stores in search of other items I could consign strictly for profit. While I don’t get rich doing this, it helps add to my fund and allows my teenagers to have the popular name brands without the price tag.
If you plan to start consigning, you need to know a few things first about your consignment store:
1) Know the store’s policy. Ideally, you want a store to pay you at least half of the sale price. Also, you’ll want to know when to pick up your unsold items. You may have the option of having the store donate them to charity after a period of time.
2) Know when your store accepts certain items. For example, they usually take spring and summer clothing in February and March, and begin accepting fall and winter clothing in late summer. Knowing this will keep you from walking away disappointed because they declined your items.
3) Know which items tend to bring more of a profit. Popular name brand items tend to bring more of a profit than other name brands as long as they are in good condition. Aeropostale, American Eagle, and Hollister, are some of the brands that I frequently consign.
4) Plan to consign a fairly large quantity of items. I shop frequently, but consign monthly. This way, I know all the clothing I’m taking is in the correct season, and since my store only pays out monthly, I am more likely to get checks each month. It also keeps me from having to make multiple appointments for one or two items each time.
When shopping for items to consign, there are certain things to consider such as the condition of the item. You may find a Hollister shirt, but if it has a stain on it or looks too “worn”, your consignment store isn’t likely to accept it.
1) Look for name brand items of good quality. The condition of the item is as important as the name brand. Only purchase items that are stain free and hole free, and have very few signs of wear. If you find a purse or shoes, make sure that you will be able clean them to nearly new condition.
2) Set a price limit. I am not willing to pay $6 for a tee shirt at a thrift store because I know that I will probably just break even when consigning. I try to keep the cost of the items as low as possible so I can make the most profit possible. I generally pay $2 to $3 for tee shirts and such, and will pay up to $5 or $6 for nicer items like dresses, coats, shoes and some purses.
3) Don’t limit your purchases to just clothing! Some consignment stores accept home furnishings and accessories as well. Check out those areas of the thrift stores and see if you can find something. Many times, with a little TLC those items look good as new.
Once you get home with your haul, go through it piece by piece, looking for any stains or tears once more. Wash the clothes, clean the shoes and purses and get everything as clean as possible. Iron the clothes. Yes, I said iron the clothes and put them on a hanger immediately. When you take them to the store, you want them as clean and wrinkle free as possible. The next step is to contact your consignment store and make an appointment to consign. It is important to keep your appointment time every time. This way your store becomes familiar with you as a consigner, and knows that you bring in good quality merchandise they can sell, making them and YOU a profit to add to your fund!
Tanya, a former Kindergarten teacher and mom to four great kids, decided to leave the work force in favor of staying home. Living frugally and finding creative ways to save money and make money enabled my family to maintain our two-income lifestyle (for the most part) on a one-income budget.
Our thrift stores are too expensive for that. I bought a pair of Seven jeans for $5 but realized they were the wrong size. I took them to the consignment shop and got $5 for them. Luckily I got my money back.
I don’t really like the idea of people reselling my donated items either. I think I’ll start donating my things at shelters too so I *know* they will go to families in need.
I do this also but sell on ebay and facebook.(lots of great selling pages on fb without the ebay fees) I don’t feel anything wrong with shopping thriftstores and resale so I can be home with my family. This is my job:) and I love it!!! The money I spend at local thriftstores such as GoodWill helps them raise more money for their cause. I also donate for people in need and donate at places such as shelters that give away clothes for people who need then and not charge them to raise money for a cause.
Generally in our home, any profit from resale of new end of season/sale or gently used items is to fund our clothing budget. Our annual goal is probably much more modest than most spend for a season.
For those who find a “Rembrandt” like item in a yard sale and resell in the right market, that makes an interesting story. I’m often just thrilled to find bargains on something I’ve wanted instead of paying full price.
I’m with you Luci!!! I regularly sell items I find at Goodwill. The profit I make off the items goes to buy clothes for my kids that I couldn’t find at Goodwill, like suits for my boys or shoes for all 3 kids. I am now teaching my friend how to do this also so she can stay at home with her new baby. The profit she can make selling on ebay will really help her family as they adjust to a single family income.
I think this is an awesome idea. There’s plenty of great items in thrift stores for everyone in there. I’ve lived off of them all of my life. I think I’m gonna try it.
I sell clothes at a local consignment shop also, and I always iron everything and put it on hangers, of which includes my plus size clothes and my 6 yr old grandaughter’s. I sell just about everything I bring. Plus size formal wear sells very well at this shop due to us being in Louisiana and there are over 45 Mardi Gras krewes of women looking for evening gowns. This ends up being about 4000 women looking for gowns. (at least), so I always make at least my money back on dresses that I have bought on the sale rack at Dillard’s. All this money funds my cruise addiction!!
I do this! About once a month I take $20 from my fund and go to yardsales. I only go to really nice neighborhoods in nearby towns (aka rich people) and get the nicest name brand clothing I can find. Then I sell it on eBay! Just this past weekend I got 13 Hollister, Aeropostale, American Eagle, and Abercrombie shirts for $10. That’s about $0.77 a shirt, and when I sell them for $4 or $5 on ebay, that’s a slow, but steady, profit!
I “hired” my younger brother so I can teach him about saving and finances. Of course, he gets a profit, but I can tell he’s learning something. When we go to the store, he pays attention to price and tries to find the best deal.
The profit isn’t going to have you living for no work, but it’s pocket money, or for me, Disney money!
I’m hoping that with our mild winter, the brand new kid coats I bought will fetch more than what I paid via ebay later in the year.
I hope you do! Our cold weather clothes didn’t get much wear, either!
This idea seems dishonest and selfish to me. People DONATE those items to places so that people who cannot afford to pay full price or are thrifty and use a budget can buy them. If we all started raiding the Goodwill for stuff to resale there would be nothing good left to buy there.
I agree with you, Audrey. Something about this just doesn’t sit right with me. When I donate items to Goodwill, I do it with the idea in mind that those less fortunate can afford something nice/decent. I do NOT intend to donate items for people who already have money, to make more of it.
I also do it for people to have clothes to wear and appliances/furniture to use, etc. I think I would be upset if I found out people were reselling my items so they could go on a cruise or to a theme park. :(
FYI: Goodwill’s purpose is to provide people with help to become a part of the workforce and to better their lives by getting jobs when they may not otherwise be able to and they do this for others for free because of the revenue they gain from selling the stuff in their stores. The more people DO buy from goodwill, the more money goes to their cause.
Regular people shop at thrift stores too and goodwill donates the profits of what people buy -because they are a NOT FOR PROFIT company and all the workers at there voluntarily. I think it’s a great idea to turn a profit! Why not?! Clearly We are not so well off if we read this blog I figure… So any creative way to make money is great to share- go girl!
I believe people donate because they don’t want the hassle of yard sales. If we all started raiding the Goodwill, the Goodwill would have more money/cash flow to do their primary work (which is not managing inventories).
It’s very sad to see that many times upbeat and encouraging blogs have high levels of ‘mommy guilt’ brought in the comments. As another reader mentioned, the Goodwill in no way is there to provide clothing for the less fortunate, but to make big amounts of $$$ so they can help in the best ways they know how. We also have a Disabled American Veterans and Council of the Blind thrift stores, and they aren’t there to help the blind or veterans dress better. It really doesn’t bother me now, but when I started reselling, it was because we were charging our groceries on credit. This is a no brainer, but it’s really sad that some have to bring a holier than thou attitude to a yard sale.
I do this rummage sailing. I buy items that I know I can resell for more. Bigger toy items, ride on cars, purses… anything that is marked pretty cheap and I know I can make money off of it. Some things I just save in a pile for when we have our yearly rummage sale or higher value items I list on Craigslist. I need to be more consistent at this because it is pretty easy money and I love yard sales!
I just started doing this! I sell items on ebay regularly but would often find items like you mention that really wouldn’t bring more than 5-10$ on ebay and weren’t worth selling, but I could easily sell at consignment. Goodwill is an excellent place to start, they usually have set prices and I found this week a like new pair of sperrys and born ladies shoes for 3$ each! I kept these, but when I’m done, they will do great at consignment!