Consignment, anyone?

seeker

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 11:06 am

Has anyone sold kids' clothes by consignment? Is it worthwhile?
I have a LOT of baby/kid clothes that I don't need. Anything used and not in good condition I've already filtered out. What's left is:
1. A lot of things used and in decent condition but not like new anymore. Many are good brands/items though so even if they're not like new they have plenty of life left in them.
2. A bunch of items that are gently used or almost never worn, but still not new.
3. A nice-size storage bin of brand new items that were gifts and just either not my style, or fit in the wrong seasons, or the like.

All of the above is mostly not too recent, the brand new gifts range from 2-5 years ago and the used clothes mostly older than that. So it's not the trendiest but a lot of it is either classic or not too dated.

I could always use spare cash but if it will not really net me anything significant and would be a real bother or have some cost/risk then I may as well just give the things to a gemach. Though I don't know if gemachs want used things, I know when I'm buying something for a bargain I'm OK with used but if I were giving to someone I would only want the best.

So, what are the benefits/drawbacks of consigning, and does anyone know of a consignment store that will take baby/kid clothes in the NY area?

questioner

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 12:43 pm

There are a lot of online stores like swap.com and threadup and others I forget offhand that will send you a prepaid shipping box, post and sell your stuff for you, and give you some percentage.

I've bought one or two things from these sites but never got myself together to sell. It sounds like a relatively easy (just mail it in) way to make some money but I assume that they take a decent amount of the proceeds for their commission.

nyer1

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 12:47 pm

unless it's gorgeous brand name - almost - like - new baby clothes, would people really spend the money on it? I feel like usually people would either go to a gemach or get hand-me-downs or otherwise buy kids' clothes on their own instead of buying second hand unless it was something really gorgeous. kids clothes aren't so expensive to begin with. pants are what, $7 on sale at children's place? so you would sell them for $4? wouldn't be worth the haste, to me.
I dunno. I would first see if there's someone in need and try to donate it but I would definitely try to sell baby GEAR like a stroller, swing, bundle me, play yard, crib, stuff like that if I didn't need it any more but thats just me

seeker

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 12:47 pm

I would love to hear from people who have done it but my assumption is that whatever you get from that is so little that I may as well just donate and get a mitzvah.

Edit: that was in response to the post about thred-up and online consignment. We cross-posted. Re. the next post I do find that there is a niche for consignment: I am a very low-budget shopper but not poor enough to take advantage of gemachim. I appreciate getting better-quality clothes at lower prices and because I know kids will either outgrow or wreck their clothes soon enough I don't care if it's a little used. And by better-quality I don't mean fancy designer brands that are $20 even on consignment; I mean Gymboree or Gap instead of the really cheap stuff that dies too fast and doesn't fit right.

seeker

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 1:17 pm

The reason I was thinking consignment rather than craigslist is because I don't want to be bothered with taking pics, managing posts, and handling the tradeoff. Everything is nice and clean and folded but in boxes/bags and I want to just unload it all already.

amother

Thu, Jan 15 2015, 9:16 pm

I have consigned a lot of kids' and women's clothes very profitably. (A hundred dollars a shot.) There was no cost to me, except for the effort of storing things till the right season showed up (they wouldn't take our old winter stuff at the end of the winter so had to save it till next fall). Most of the clothes was very ordinary as far as brands and trendiness. Gap, Old Navy, Etc. They did pay more for the more stylish brands such as Zara's. Some of the stuff was even several years old. Their posted rules were no more than two years old but if it still looked current they took it; sometimes that was a lot longer than two years old. (Clothes that we had originally inherited from someone else with much older kids.)

BUUUUUUUUT

this was VERY VERY far from New York. There was no Zara's, for example, within hundreds of miles. So a lot of these clothes were more valuable than they would otherwise have been. Maybe as a result, the local culture was very much to buy at this resale store. Both people of lower income for whom it just made sense, as well as leftist/conserving types. I would be pleasantly surprised if it was as easy and profitable to consign in New York. I imagine the stores would be a lot more picky.

Good luck!

Just read some of the previous responses... I tried mailing to thredup one time. They took nothing from me. So that should give you an idea of how un-picky our local consignment store was, and possibly how unlikely that would be in the New York area.