Children's Consignment Sale Season Is Upon Us!

A year ago after having a baby, I was talking to my friend, Stephanie, who runs a blog called Raising a Family on a Budget.  She was passing down bags of baby girl clothes to me for my new little one, Amelia, and I felt quite proud of myself.  Not only was this the "green" thing to do, but it also was saving me a boatload of money.  If you have children, I'm sure you're all aware of how quickly babies outgrow clothing and how between clothing, toys and other paraphernalia, it can all add up to some serious money.

Stephanie mentioned how she planned to put the rest of her children's castoffs into a consignment sale to sell them and make a little money back on her past investments.

Consignment sale?  This sounded like a fantastic idea!  I had already sunk a significant amount of money into newborn clothing because it's oh-so-cute on the rack and I just couldn't resist.  Some of those oh-so-cute items no longer fit my ever-growing Amelia.  Regaining some of my money on those practically new items sounded like a great idea!  Saving some money on my future purchases sounded even better.

I found websites that itemizes the local sales (Consignment Mommies, Kids Consignment Sales), plotted out a few weekend sales and away I went!  It was amazing!  Sales generally happen in the spring and fall.  Imagine 200 to 400 people getting together for a weekend to host a large, well organized and clean children's yard sale.  

Clothing is sorted by size (generally newborn to size 12), gender and other items by type.  Then to make it even better, on the last day of the weekend sale, most items are discounted to 1/2 price!  I'd walk out of one of these sales with an Ikea-sized bag filled with 20+ items, some complete outfits, for $50.  I will warn you that these sales are so incredibly addictive.  Pricing is generally 25-30% of normal retail price and then with 1/2 price day, you really can save yourself significant money over buying new in the stores.

This spring, I signed up to participate as a consignor in my first weekend consignment sale.  It was $10 to register and I get 65% of the money from my sales. Those costs and percentages vary by which consignment sale you choose.  It may sound like a lot but the places who host or conduct the sales do all of the advertising, pay for the venue, staff the event and attract the customers year after year so I'm ok with them taking their fair share.  

The work I have to do to itemize, price and tag everything is a little daunting, but if I make back a little bit of money and clear the clutter out of my home, it will definitely be worth it.  Also, since I bought most of these items at consignment sales, while I know I won't break even in the end, every little bit helps.  

Since there are so many consignors at these sales, the variety in clothing makes those social faux pas moments at daycare where your child walks in wearing the same outfit as another child practically impossible.  So my added bonus is that I have one of the best dressed children around, in my not-so-humble opinion, of course!