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Preparing your children’s items for the kids’ consignment sale doesn’t need to be overwhelming. With a little planning & organization, you can turn your casual consigning into some serious cash for your family! I always suggest that moms start here. Here are a few time-saving tagging tips to make your consignment sale prep easier and more profitable.
1. Tag the Big Stuff First
Large ticket items, like baby gear or large toys, have a huge sell-through rate. Getting those things tagged and prepped early will give you time to do other things later. In addition, they take up a LOT of space. Selling them now means a better organized storage space for future sales.
2. Check for Stains & Wear
Check for stains and excess wear in a well-lit room BEFORE you start to tag any clothing or shoes. There’s no frustration quite like spending time washing, ironing and tagging something, then finding a big stain when you are dropping off your items. Your time is valuable! You don’t want to waste it on things you can’t even sell.
3. Get Organized
Get organized as the kids are outgrowing clothes or as the season is changing. It seems obvious, but it’s hard to do. School, soccer practice, dance and real laundry take priority for most of the year. If you can check and sort out your children’s clothes as they outgrow them, it’ll be easier to tag them in stages or at least enter them if your sale uses barcoded inventory. It can be as simple as adding a storage basket under each child’s bed and dropping the too-small clothes in, already on hangers. In the end, that tiny extra step means more items tagged, which means a bigger check for you!
4. Keep Current
Pay attention to current and fading trends. It seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many out-of-style items are picked up at the end of a sale. When you are time-crunched, always tag the most popular items first!
5. Be OCD & Hoard (just a little)
Invest in a container to hold owners’ manuals, spare parts and other things you think you’ll never need. Attaching the original owner’s manual adds a little oomph to any piece of baby gear (and in the resale world, that oomph can mean the difference $5-10 for the EXACT same item). Plus, f a shopper or volunteer can’t break down the pack and play or stroller, there may not be a lot of confidence in how well the item works. If someone can look in the owner’s manual and see the button they missed, it will be sold much faster. In addition, hanging on to important papers implies that the item has been well cared for in your home. Why not store all of those consignable extras in one place? Keeping all of your spare parts, like extra straps, together will save you time in looking for them later. Bonus: New mommies love to see signs of OCD (Organization, Care, Dedication) when they’re shopping for second-hand baby gear.
The amount of time you invest in an item contributes to its resale value. Why not think ahead and put these habits into practice when you’re in consigning mode? You’ll end up with a bigger bang to your buck when it’s time to cash that consignor check!
About the Author
Elizabeth Renfroe has a passion for all things consignment sale-related. She enjoys coordinating the Children’s Market Sale at First United Methodist Church, Jacksonville, Alabama.
Tag means to put a price on it?
Do you feel putting outfits together would sell faster, of cause items with the same store label and size?