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Consignment Shopping Pays Off
by Rachel Paxton - rachel@creativehomemaking.com
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Is your closet full of clothes you never wear? You can
bet there
are a lot of people who have a closet or dressers full of clothes
they
never wear. I did too, until I started consignment
shopping.
A clothing consignment store sells your clothes for you and
gives you
30 to 50 percent of the selling price. Pretty good deal,
considering
no one is wearing the clothes that are just collecting dust in
your closet.
The first thing I did was go through my closet and dressers
and took
out all of the clothes I never wore. (This was a hard thing
to do
considering I had no money and was terrified of not having any
clothes
to wear.) I took a couple of grocery bags full of
clothes to
a local consignment store and within a month or two had at least
$50 is
my hands. I couldn't believe it! Now that I actually
had the
money in my hands, I didn't feel as badly about giving up my
clothes.
I spent some of the money on new clothes at the consignment store
(for
about 1/3 or less of regular retail prices), and went home to
find out
if I really had gone through all my clothes.
As the seasons changed and I brought out other clothes that
were stored
away, I found other clothes I had I wouldn't ever wear. I
still had
some clothes I had worn in high school! I always sold my
daughter's
outgrown clothes. The money I received for her clothes I
usually
spent on new (consigned) clothes for her. I also took in
her outgrown
toys and baby accessories. Some of the money I received I
spent on
her, and I spent a little on clothes for myself (my wardrobe was
starting
to fill up with clothes I actually wear!), and the rest was just
extra
cash! What a deal! None of my hard-earned money (I
was a single
mother at the time) was going for new clothes anymore! My
daughter
and I had all the clothes we needed and I had extra cash
besides.
Of course I had other problems to deal with in my life, but
trying to find
the money for clothes suddenly dropped off the list! I have
found
that many people won't ever bother with consigning clothes.
Either
they aren't willing to part with their clothes for any number of
reasons,
or they just don't want to take the time to take them to the
consignment
store.
Many people will give their clothes away to other people or
Goodwill
before they will make the effort required resell them. I
have personally
never understood that way of thinking, but you can benefit from
those people.
When friends and family saw that I was "trading" in used clothes
for new
clothes, they started giving me clothes to take in! A few,
like my
mother, started to take her own clothes in, but I found for the
most part
people would rather give their clothes to me, even when they
didn't have
extra money to buy new clothes. So I started taking in
other people's
clothes and profiting from their decisions to clean out their
closets.
Then I started shopping at garage sales. Many people
practically
give unwanted clothes away. You can find very good deals at
garage
sales, especially if you go right before they close up for the
day.
You can buy clothes there, either for yourself or your children,
or you
can buy them solely for the purpose of re-selling them. I
only recommend
doing this, however, after you have been taking your own clothes
in for
awhile and find out what types of clothes the consignment store
will accept.
The consignment store reserves the right to not accept
clothing that
do not meet their standards. The store I shop at will
donate unwanted
clothes to charity for you, if you wish, if they will not accept
any of
your clothing. You also have the option to take the
unwanted clothing
back. It has been my experience that they will take most
clothes
that are freshly washed, folded or hung neatly. They will
not accept
clothing with unraveling seams or holes. They also will not
accept
any clothes with any obvious stains. Occasionally they will
not accept
outdated clothing. But in the 12 years that I have been
shopping
at consignment stores, the only items they didn't accept were a
coat that
was at least 20 years old and the color wasn't in style, and
clothes that
were out of season (you can't sell a winter jacket during the
summer).
Usually most of the clothes you take in will sell easily,
depending
on the size and location of the store. Most stores keep
clothes on
the rack for 3 months. If the clothes haven't sold in that
length
of time you can either take them back or they will donate them to
charity.
Even though I'm married now, we still have a tight budget and
can't
afford to spend much on clothes. Even if I had the money I
still
don't think I would spend a lot of money on new clothes, after
everything
I have learned. It's just not worth it. You can do
this just
for the money, some people I know never buy at consignment
stores, but
they do sell things there occasionally, you can do it just for
the clothes,
which I did for a long time just out of sheer necessity and it
didn't occur
to me to try to make a profit, or you can enjoy the benefits of
buying
low-priced quality clothing and also make a small profit
besides!
Whatever you choose to do, the experience is well worth the
effort.
In these times of recycling and trying to conserve the Earth's
resources,
it only makes sense to "trade" clothing with other people instead
of buying
new clothing. Almost everyone has clothes they don't wear,
for whatever
reason, that other people would be thrilled to wear.
Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For recipes, tips to organize your home, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.
Visit
Showroom Finder, a web site that profiles hundreds of consignment stores around the
country.
