A few weeks ago I was at one of the larger local thrift shops in my city and everything looked normal on the main floor, mostly full of clothes. I headed downstairs and was shocked to find it almost empty. In the huge back room where they have always displayed furniture of all sorts were a few bed frames leaning against the wall, next to a rickety bookshelf and a ratty chair. I remembered this room being full of couches, chairs, kitchen table sets, end tables, desks, etc. for the last 20 years, at least. Not too long after that I stopped at a different shop and, again, there were plenty of clothes but hardly any furniture.
In the last few days I have been reading news reports about thrift shop sales going up while donations are decreasing. That did not make sense to me until I read this press release from the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops. Adele Meyer, Executive Director is quoted, “People who previously gave away clothing, household goods and furniture are seeking other ways to dispose of unwanted items during an economic pinch. Some donate merchandise to a Not For Profit thrift shop and take advantage of the tax deductions while helping a charity raise money. Others may choose to sell or consign merchandise at a local resale shop... turning their 'no longer needed' articles into CASH!"
Because of the current state of the economy people are taking items they might normally donate to a nonprofit thrift shop and are trying to sell it at resale and consignment shops. I would guess another reason for the donation slow down is people are holding onto and using items they would have normally donated because, again, of the economy. Both of the shops I wrote about above were nonprofit shops. Check out The Thrift Shopper to find charity-driven shops in your area.
Is this occurring in your area? Are you using consignment and resale shops to make some side money? Are you shopping more at thrift shops?
Showing posts with label Consignment Shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Consignment Shop. Show all posts
Friday
Selling Through A Consignment Shop
Selling clothes at a consignment shop was something I had never considered, until I found myself the owner of a wardrobe I did not buy. I needed to get rid of multiple totes packed full of all kinds of clothes, from child to adult sizes, male and female and including all seasons. Just donating them all to charity would have been preferable, but the need at the time for cash precluded that idea.
After consulting with my wife and looking through the phone book we decided to try a consignment shop that she already frequented. The shop asked for all items to be clean and on hangers and to bring in only 25 pieces once a week. In late winter they begin only accepting spring and summer items, while by late summer they will only accept fall and winter apparel.
My wife took the first batch to the shop to set up the account, and I continued to go through the totes and take 25 items a week as time allowed. The shop decides the asking price and takes 60% if the item is purchased. Once our account reaches a minimum of $25 at the end of the monthly cycle the shop mails us a check. Items that have not been sold or reclaimed by the 60 day termination date become the property of the consignment shop.
Opinion: Consignment selling is another of my recommendations for making some side cash. We have to date consigned 145 items and sold 55 of them for a total of $141.90. Currently 22 of the 145 are still active, or for sale. Looking at those figures it is easy to see how shops make their money. However, they are housing the inventory and displaying it, advertising it, and making the sale. We just take the items in and walk out with an inventory printout.
As for the clothes that are not accepted we donate them to either Salvation Army or Goodwill.
If you have not tried selling on consignment I would encourage you dig into your closets and give it a try.
Have you sold by consignment? Was it worth your time? Share your experiences!
After consulting with my wife and looking through the phone book we decided to try a consignment shop that she already frequented. The shop asked for all items to be clean and on hangers and to bring in only 25 pieces once a week. In late winter they begin only accepting spring and summer items, while by late summer they will only accept fall and winter apparel.
My wife took the first batch to the shop to set up the account, and I continued to go through the totes and take 25 items a week as time allowed. The shop decides the asking price and takes 60% if the item is purchased. Once our account reaches a minimum of $25 at the end of the monthly cycle the shop mails us a check. Items that have not been sold or reclaimed by the 60 day termination date become the property of the consignment shop.
Opinion: Consignment selling is another of my recommendations for making some side cash. We have to date consigned 145 items and sold 55 of them for a total of $141.90. Currently 22 of the 145 are still active, or for sale. Looking at those figures it is easy to see how shops make their money. However, they are housing the inventory and displaying it, advertising it, and making the sale. We just take the items in and walk out with an inventory printout.
As for the clothes that are not accepted we donate them to either Salvation Army or Goodwill.
If you have not tried selling on consignment I would encourage you dig into your closets and give it a try.
Have you sold by consignment? Was it worth your time? Share your experiences!
The Perfect Junk Storm
The hauling business was going great. We were moving appliances, furniture and household items from one place to another as well as just hauling away stuff people didn’t want anymore. As described in the previous post we were getting paid to haul, selling the nicer items on Craigslist, and selling clothes at a local consignment shop.
December of 2007 slowed down considerably, being cold and snowy and close to Christmas. Not much hauling at this point, but still plenty of items from previous jobs to sort through in Toby’s garage and clean and sell on Craigslist.
Then it came. A clean out request from the owner of a duplex. It was now January in Iowa, and the owner had seen our ad on Craigslist and called Toby. It was urgent, he said, to get this place cleaned out and back on the market. Could we help? Toby went to visit the duplex and gave a bid. Another hauler had bid less, but the owner really liked Toby’s attitude. Could Toby match the other, lesser bid? If so, he would sure like to hire us. Toby said yes, and we were hired.
We showed up a couple days later to do the job and walked through the duplex. The renters had skipped out, taking their essentials and leaving basically a full house behind. Our bid had been based on the amount of pickup truckloads it would take us to clean the place out. After the first two pickup loads it became very apparent that there was no way this was going to happen with our two trucks and in one day. The owner was showing the duplex to prospective renters that night and we had told him we could handle it. What to do?
We decided the only way out was to get a bigger truck. Off to the local U-Haul where we rented a 14 foot truck. Back to the duplex where for the rest of the afternoon we worked on the clean out. The basement was the worst. The previous renters had accumulated so many clothes that they had to store them in gigantic totes. We took turns up and down those stairs, carrying the giant totes, boxes and miscellaneous junk.
Into the U-Haul truck it all went, including two washers, a dryer, a huge couch, kitchen table, chairs, small tables, dishes, the entire contents of the duplex. Finally, the U-Haul was full, from top to bottom, front to back. It was packed so full we had to struggle to pull the back door down. But the duplex was still not empty, and the landlord called to tell us he was on the way over with the prospective new renters. I backed my truck up and we finished the job filling it up, while the landlord was showing the duplex to some people that were eyeing us and the situation rather suspiciously.
The job totaled three pickup truck loads and a packed to the gills 14’ U-Haul. He paid us the $200 we had WAY underbid for the job. Minus $100 for the U-Haul this backbreaking job brought us each a whopping $50 each. There was no way we could just take all of this stuff to the dump. We had to keep it, sort through it and sell what we could to recoup at least the cost of the U-Haul. We drove the perfect junk storm over to Toby’s double garage, unloaded it and stood there staring at a now packed garage, wondering what we had gotten ourselves into and how to begin getting out.
December of 2007 slowed down considerably, being cold and snowy and close to Christmas. Not much hauling at this point, but still plenty of items from previous jobs to sort through in Toby’s garage and clean and sell on Craigslist.
Then it came. A clean out request from the owner of a duplex. It was now January in Iowa, and the owner had seen our ad on Craigslist and called Toby. It was urgent, he said, to get this place cleaned out and back on the market. Could we help? Toby went to visit the duplex and gave a bid. Another hauler had bid less, but the owner really liked Toby’s attitude. Could Toby match the other, lesser bid? If so, he would sure like to hire us. Toby said yes, and we were hired.
We showed up a couple days later to do the job and walked through the duplex. The renters had skipped out, taking their essentials and leaving basically a full house behind. Our bid had been based on the amount of pickup truckloads it would take us to clean the place out. After the first two pickup loads it became very apparent that there was no way this was going to happen with our two trucks and in one day. The owner was showing the duplex to prospective renters that night and we had told him we could handle it. What to do?
We decided the only way out was to get a bigger truck. Off to the local U-Haul where we rented a 14 foot truck. Back to the duplex where for the rest of the afternoon we worked on the clean out. The basement was the worst. The previous renters had accumulated so many clothes that they had to store them in gigantic totes. We took turns up and down those stairs, carrying the giant totes, boxes and miscellaneous junk.
Into the U-Haul truck it all went, including two washers, a dryer, a huge couch, kitchen table, chairs, small tables, dishes, the entire contents of the duplex. Finally, the U-Haul was full, from top to bottom, front to back. It was packed so full we had to struggle to pull the back door down. But the duplex was still not empty, and the landlord called to tell us he was on the way over with the prospective new renters. I backed my truck up and we finished the job filling it up, while the landlord was showing the duplex to some people that were eyeing us and the situation rather suspiciously.
The job totaled three pickup truck loads and a packed to the gills 14’ U-Haul. He paid us the $200 we had WAY underbid for the job. Minus $100 for the U-Haul this backbreaking job brought us each a whopping $50 each. There was no way we could just take all of this stuff to the dump. We had to keep it, sort through it and sell what we could to recoup at least the cost of the U-Haul. We drove the perfect junk storm over to Toby’s double garage, unloaded it and stood there staring at a now packed garage, wondering what we had gotten ourselves into and how to begin getting out.
Saturday
First Attempts
I worked for over 18 years for the same employer for pretty good pay. Like many of us I hung on, year after year, figuring at least I was paying the bills and, yawn, saving up some money.
I got along well with my coworkers and my boss. My job with customer service and administration had been very fast paced and stressful. When I took an IT position it turned out to be a boring, behind the scenes job. I was ready for a change, but not one I would make all on my own. Then came the news that we were being outsourced. Read the previous post for that story.
Once it was over, I had to decompress from the 9 to 5 routine. It was strange at first not getting up to go to work. Then it was really nice. Then it got boring. It was now in the fall of 2007 and I needed to figure out what I was going to do.
My nephew Toby came over for a visit one night and we brainstormed about what we could do together to make some cash. It had to be something with almost zero overhead and start-up costs. We both had pickup trucks, and I had discovered craigslist.org. The light bulb went off! Let’s use the trucks we already have and advertise on craigslist to provide hauling services.
I went to the website for our landfill to find out what they accepted and what they charged for dumping to give us an idea of what to charge our customers. We decided that in most cases we would just double what the dump charged. We now had a quote sheet.
I wrote up some short, to the point ad copy and got a free Gmail account with the name of our service as the address (ourservice@gmail.com). I opened a free account with Craigslist using the gmail address as our email contact and Toby’s
cell number as our phone contact. He would take any phone calls and I would handle the email inquiries. We would split all costs and profits 50/50. We were ready. I posted the first ad on craigslist and we waited for a response.
It came pretty quickly, and within a few weeks we were scheduling several jobs a week. We noticed right away that occasionally people wanted us to get rid of some pretty nice stuff along with the junk. Usually they were tired of looking at it and just wanted it all gone, the good with the bad. We decided that what ever we didn’t keep personally we would store in Toby’s double garage to sell…on craigslist! I got another Gmail address, took some photos of our newly acquired treasures and began to post them. We were now selling online. We would also come across boxes, sacks and totes full of clothes. We sorted them out, opened an account with a local consignment shop and began taking the nicer clothes there while donating the rest to Goodwill or Salvation Army. We now had three streams of income and had reduced our landfill expenses by making fewer trips. This was working great! Too bad we didn’t see what was looming in front of us, just waiting to mess up our system.
Next: The Perfect Junk Storm
I got along well with my coworkers and my boss. My job with customer service and administration had been very fast paced and stressful. When I took an IT position it turned out to be a boring, behind the scenes job. I was ready for a change, but not one I would make all on my own. Then came the news that we were being outsourced. Read the previous post for that story.
Once it was over, I had to decompress from the 9 to 5 routine. It was strange at first not getting up to go to work. Then it was really nice. Then it got boring. It was now in the fall of 2007 and I needed to figure out what I was going to do.
My nephew Toby came over for a visit one night and we brainstormed about what we could do together to make some cash. It had to be something with almost zero overhead and start-up costs. We both had pickup trucks, and I had discovered craigslist.org. The light bulb went off! Let’s use the trucks we already have and advertise on craigslist to provide hauling services.
I went to the website for our landfill to find out what they accepted and what they charged for dumping to give us an idea of what to charge our customers. We decided that in most cases we would just double what the dump charged. We now had a quote sheet.
I wrote up some short, to the point ad copy and got a free Gmail account with the name of our service as the address (ourservice@gmail.com). I opened a free account with Craigslist using the gmail address as our email contact and Toby’s
cell number as our phone contact. He would take any phone calls and I would handle the email inquiries. We would split all costs and profits 50/50. We were ready. I posted the first ad on craigslist and we waited for a response.
It came pretty quickly, and within a few weeks we were scheduling several jobs a week. We noticed right away that occasionally people wanted us to get rid of some pretty nice stuff along with the junk. Usually they were tired of looking at it and just wanted it all gone, the good with the bad. We decided that what ever we didn’t keep personally we would store in Toby’s double garage to sell…on craigslist! I got another Gmail address, took some photos of our newly acquired treasures and began to post them. We were now selling online. We would also come across boxes, sacks and totes full of clothes. We sorted them out, opened an account with a local consignment shop and began taking the nicer clothes there while donating the rest to Goodwill or Salvation Army. We now had three streams of income and had reduced our landfill expenses by making fewer trips. This was working great! Too bad we didn’t see what was looming in front of us, just waiting to mess up our system.
Next: The Perfect Junk Storm
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