Eleven Essential Tips for Selling Your Childrens Outgrown Clothing

Are you in the mood for decluttering your home? Kids have loads of clothes that no longer fit? Are you tripping over toys? Perhaps it’s time to consider selling at your local seasonal consignment sale.

Have you shopped a consignment sale, but never attempted to sell your stuff? It can be a daunting task, but I’ve put together my most valuable hints and ideas, in order to help you handle the huge ordeal with a little less stress.

1. Start Early

I can’t stress this step enough. Unless you want to alienate your husband and give yourself a stress ulcer, I’d plan on starting at LEAST 6 weeks before the sale is scheduled. Any later, and you’ll truly make yourself and everyone around you crazy. Before my second sale, my husband BEGGED me not to participate, since I’d been such a bear on the first go round. Happily, I think he will agree that I’m getting it down to a science.

2. Get Prepared

The Boy Scouts have it right with their motto: Be Prepared. In addition to the stuff that you’re planning to sell, you also need supplies.

Here’s the basic list:

• wire hangers – do NOT buy these! Simply stop by your local dry cleaners and pick up a handful or two, every few weeks. Soon, you’ll have a plentiful stash. No dry cleaners nearby? Ask your friends.
• safety pins  – vital for hanging clothes and tagging items
• packing tape – for attaching tags to items, sealing Ziploc bags
• Ziploc bags – You’ll need Sandwich sizes, Quart size, Gallon size, and possibly the XL bags. Perfect for shoes, puzzle pieces, socks, toys and more.
• Scotch tape – I use this to reinforce over my safety pin, so that tags won’t come off.
• White Cardstock – You’ll need this if you are printing your own tags.
• Big Plastic Totes – These are crucial to storing your items by categories.
• Magic Eraser – This makes taking crayons off toys a piece of cake.
• Goo Gone – Ever tried to remove a price tag off plastic? Takes seconds with Goo Gone.

3.  Sort and Separate

I sort my clothes into categories, by size and gender. In other words, I have totes filled with boys newborn, 3 months, 6 months, etc, and the same thing for the girls. This way, when I’m working on things, it’s easy to set a goal of getting through all the girls size 2 T clothing. Make sense?

Also, when you drop items off at a consignment sale, most ask that you have things sorted this way. If you start out like this, it’s one less step in the end.

4. Check and double check

Look for stains, missing buttons, broken zippers, and any flaws in the clothing. If you find any of these, toss these clothes in the Goodwill basket. All of the sales I’ve worked with (I’ve now participated in five!) will NOT take stained items. They want to keep their quality high.

Decide what pieces go together – matching outfits, sets of onsies, etc. Have a Gymboree outfit with matching hair pretties? Make sure you have everything together.

Check games and puzzles to ensure all pieces are present and accounted for, and that electronic baby gear and toys actually work. If something requires batteries, make sure you put them in the item. Otherwise, you’ll probably be picking it up after the sale.

5. Hang it Up

I think most people hate wire hangers, but they really are the way to go for consignment sales. They are cheap, easy to work with, allow for pinning items to hangers, and sales are able to utilize their space more efficiently. Plastic hangers can break, and things will fall off.

Believe it or not, there are proper ways to hang items to prevent things slipping off, and to best display your items. Set up an area in your home – spare closet, the rafters in your basement, or create a rope line so that you can get all of your things hung up , ready for pricing and tagging. I also like to tie a bright ribbon or piece of yarn to the hanger, so that I can spot my items quickly after the sale is completed.

6. Pick a price

Now we get to the fun part. It’s time to price your items. I’ll be honest – there are times I’ve struggled with this, but with a few sales under my belt, it’s getting easier and easier.

Check your local sales’ website, as they may have a pricing guideline there. You’ve gone through all the work of sorting, organizing, and hanging your items, so you really don’t want to bring them back home again! There’s a trick to pricing items correctly, in order to maximize your profits, yet avoid the no-sale zone. Take a post it note, small sticker, or even a notebook, to jot down the price you’re planning.

As a general rule – there is usually a glut of items, both boys and girls, in the newborn to 12 month size ranges. If clothing is bought as a gift for an expectant mother, it’s usually in the newborn sizes. Couple that with the fact that babies grow like gangbusters the first few months, and it’s not hard to see why these sections are crammed full of clothing at the sales.  Key to selling? Low prices, and quality items. You may also find that grouping items together is helpful — like a set of three sleepers, for example. Take a look at your outfit, and think, “What would I pay for this?”

For more information, check out The Consignment Sale Queen’s pricing guide. I poured over her website during this sale, and learned so much!

7. Time to Tag

If you’ve made it this far, you’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Depending on how your sale is set up, you should have two systems available. You’ll either select have blank tags, to which you add barcodes with your seller ID and price, or you’ll enter your items into a database, which will then fill in your tags with your description, price, and seller barcoding. With the latter, you’ll have to print your tags at home, or take a PDF to be printed.

Some moms love tagging guns, but I prefer using safety pins. I simply pin the tags to the clothing, and add a piece of Scotch tape over the tag. Maybe a bit more work, but it doesn’t damage my clothing, tags do not fall off, and I don’t have to deal with the frustration of a jammed tagging gun.

8. Load it up!

Once you’ve got everything hung, tagged, and ready to go, it’s time to travel! Unless you’re She-Ra, this would be a time to enlist your husband’s help. Secure childcare, and load up your vehicle. (This is an actual picture of my van, loaded with items ready to be sold.)

9. Follow the Rules

When you bring your items in to be sold, they will be inspected before going out on the racks or shelves. Please do not give the inspectors hassle. A good inspection process ensures that the merchandise is quality, not junk.

10. Helping Out Helps You, Too!

Don’t forget to volunteer! With most sales, if you sign up to help with the sale, you’ll be allowed in for a special pre-sale. You’ll get to shop before the general public, which guarantees you the best selection.

11. Sit Back and Relax

Congratulations! You’ve made it through your first sale! Pat yourself on the back, pick up your check, and don’t forget – it’s never to early to start for next season!

Do you have more tips for successful selling? Did I leave something out? If you’re not ready to sell yet, be sure and check out my tips for the best ways to shop the sales in your area. Be sure and leave a comment, so we can learn from each other!

Related posts:

1. Twelve Timely Tips to Shopping a Children’s Consignment Sale
2. Clothing, Cooking, and a New House! Small Successes
3. Clothing, Cooking, and a New House! Small Successes

Tagged as: children's clothing, consignment sale tips, frugal