I recently carved out a small space in the corner of my closet where I can stack three plastic boxes. The baby is growing like crazy so every time I find he’s outgrown another article of clothing I assess its ability to sell. If it has any value I throw it in the sale bin otherwise it lands in the donation pile.
Once I gather $100 worth of stuff and/or large baby equipment that takes up a good deal of floor space I know it’s time to take another trip to the store.
This week I consigned the following items:
- 2 Gymboree blankets
- 1 Gymboree jumper
- 2 First Impressions Outfits (w/ jacket & pants)
- 2 Dr Browns glass bottles
- 2 boxes of milk storage bags (new)
- 1 Avent bottle (new)
- 2 Carters size 5 sleepers (new)
- 1 Organic sleep bag (new)
- 1 Rock and Play Sleeper
- 1 Breastfriend nursing pillow
- 1 Boppy nursing cover
- 1 cotton sleep sack
- 1 travel-sized box of Hape blocks
- 1 Polo sweater
- 1 outfit (onesie, sweatshirt & pants – new)
- 1 Gymboree sweatshirt (new)
- 1 Kids game
Last time the store processed my items quite quickly. Unfortunately, this time I came in just behind someone with loads of boxes. I waited roughly thirty-five minutes before they began processing my stuff.
If the store were closer to my house I would have dropped everything and gone home, but it’s not exactly around the corner so instead I walked around taking note of the brands they sell and their prices.
I bring in stuff that looks like new, but I saw quite a few items on the rack that were quite worn. I am happy to donate, but I do believe I could sell a lot more stuff of lower quality there.
I never receive an itemized list of prices for my goods and until I left the store I never considered asking how much they paid for each item. When they call my name they simply provide two offers and ask which one I prefer.
I was offered $53 in cash or $63.50 in store credit. I took the cash, because my youngest is primarily wearing hand-me-downs and there appears to be no need to buy him new clothes until fall. When I got home I compared each item sold to the suggested consignment sale price. When I added them all together the total earned appeared to be roughly 50% of the overall value.
Next time a consignment sale rolls into town I plan to check out the prices. A reader suggested my previous list was worth more than $100. Perhaps I am low-balling my expectations, but without experience with consignment sales it’s tough to say.
On a side note: I was tempted to purchase a toy or two for my oldest, but remembered the goal is to clean out the house, not fill it up with more stuff we really don’t need. I also found that the price of the used toys were only a dollar or two cheaper than buying new ones directly from Amazon. So I’m not missing out on a great deal if I decide to wait and add them to my son’s birthday or Christmas list.