Notes from the Consignment Frontlines
You really can’t call yourself a mom until you’ve experienced a children’s consignment sale. Whether you buy, sell or both, it’s like a rite of passage. No. Actually, it’s more like a gang initiation. And only an elite few make the cut.
The rest of you find yourselves bruised, battered, and forlornly picking through the reject racks at the Hartstrings Outlet, or getting outbid at the last millisecond on a Gymboree NWOT lot on Feebay. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about and you have kids, then honey, we need to talk.)
I wrote about the tough, closely guarded world of children’s consignment in this week’s Nashville Scene edition of Suburban Turmoil. Check out the full text of the column below…
Consigning Women
Early one Friday morning, a small crowd of women and children waits impatiently outside a church gymnasium. I’m right in the middle of them, craning my neck and wondering when those smug Mary Pats and Anne Stewarts peering out at us from the gym’s glass doors will let us in. Finally, at the stroke of nine, the key turns and we jostle each other in our haste to get inside. I deftly wedge my stroller in front of a woman who’s trying to edge by me unnoticed, but in the process my wheels clip the heels of a granny in front of me.
“Sorry,” I mutter with a hint of embarrassment. She grunts absentmindedly, and I can tell from the hard gleam in her eye that she knows the wound is all part of the game. It’s a consignment sale, baby, and only the strong survive.
Some women have a thing for shoes, others for record executives. Consignment sales, bi-annual events at which moms buy and sell used kids’ clothing and toys for a fraction of the original cost, are my particular crack. I could grasp at the tatters of my hipster cred and say that my love for consignment is an obvious outcropping of a past spent digging through Goodwill’s racks to find Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and 1940s wingtips, but I would be lying. The real reason I love the sales is that they give my inner bitch full permission to come out and play.
Any consignment vet will tell you, for example, that savvy moms bring along their bulkiest strollers and skip the kids’ naps that day on purpose. My two-seater deluxe Graco easily blocks off a good six feet of the 4T girls rack for my sole viewing pleasure. Add a couple of squalling, snot-nosed kids, and I’m likely to have the entire aisle to myself. Two hand-smocked dresses, a brand new Gymboree pants set and a Laura Ashley cardigan later, I’m well on my way to giving my daughter a wardrobe that rivals that of any polo pony-owning Belle Meade brat. Only then do I move my stroller to one side and let a few other mothers squeeze in beside me. We exchange reluctant smiles, because as much as we hate each other, we hate the sellers even more.
“Thirty dollars for a dress made out of an old pillowcase!” the mom beside me laughs nastily. I look at the rag and shake my head.
“I don’t know how half this stuff got past the organizers,” I sigh. “This Dora shirt looks like it spent a year in a Nicaraguan prison.” Like men, some consignment sales are better than others. A nearby elementary school is a perennial favorite, its barely-worn outfits coming from some of Nashville’s nicer subdivisions. A local Christian school, on the other hand, tends to offer clothing that looks like it came straight off the set of a Feed the Children commercial.
Pretending to be friendly works far better for me than direct confrontation, which tends to throw me off my game, allowing some passive aggressive Polly to snatch that hardly worn pair of navy-blue Stride Rites right out from under me. But in such a competitive environment, open warfare can’t always be avoided. Take the last sale I attended, where I was innocently sorting through a pile of picture books when, “Hell-lo!” a buck-toothed biddy spat from behind me. I jumped and turned around.
“Yes?” I asked, my fingers clenching. If this was about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, she could just forget it. I totally saw that book first.
“I was trying to look at them backpacks,” she said, pointing at some old, dirty bags stowed beneath the table.
“Well, don’t let me stop you,” I said, gesturing grandly at the backpacks. “Go on. Get back under there. Plenty of room for everyone.” A mom across the table giggled and, for a moment, I could tell Backpack Mom was thinking about punching me in the nose. I tightened my grip on the Fisher Price Noah’s Ark I was holding and gave her my patented Crazy Eyes Face. She backed off, heading for the Pack ’n’ Plays, and I exhaled with relief. I would have hated to get brains on the ark.
That day, I decided it might be a good idea to have some backup. “So um, there are some awesome consignment sales coming up next weekend,” I told my fittest friend Denise at playgroup the next week. “Let me know if you want to go and we could, like, meet there.” I blushed, feeling like I was offering her the other half of a Best Friends heart necklace.
She cackled in response. “Are you serious? Tom would die if I put the kids in used clothes.” I stared at Denise, dumbfounded. On that day, I cut that bitch off and never looked back.
These days, I make sure my real mommy friends share my shopping motto: Live by the ’sign. Buy by the ’sign. And leave The Children’s Place to the chumps.
For a listing of upcoming consignment sales, check out middletnconsignmentsales.com. Of course, you’ve already missed the good ones. It’s not like I need the extra competition.
>We have a bi-annual consignment sale like this around here too, and I LOVE it. This year, I was able to snag an “early bird” pass to shop 2 days before the public sale, and oh, it was fabulous!Although I don’t have any crazy mommy brawls stories, it is definitely an exciting time, as I stare down that other mommy who happens to look over my shoulder at the brand new Thomas the Train set I have in my hand…back off! It’s mine! I get it…
>Where I live we have very few sales like these. I actually do much better shopping online at TCP when they are having their end of the season sales. Nothing beats $3 sneakers and $2 tees! 🙂
>LMAO, Lindsay. Oh how I relate. I JUST finished tagging 5 huge bin-fuls last night — clothes, toys, videos, books, and baby gear for our area’s humungo sale. I have my volunteer shift at consignor check-in tonight. You can bet your southern behind I’ll be scoping the scene… because as a volunteer, I get to shop tomorrow’s preview sale.At the spring preview sale, I made a beeline for the 4T coats. Our sale has a wishlist section on its website. One of my wishes was a 4T rain slicker. When I got to the pre-sale, there were two rain coats – one skanky, and one pristine, lined, Lands End rain coat. Some bitch had it in her grip and was studying it closely. I asked if she was going to buy – she said she wasn’t sure. NOT SURE? It was tagged at $5! I meandered nearby ready to pounce. And the second she put it down, that puppy was MINE!There’s nothing like a good sale. I hit my first huge church rummage sale of the season last weekend — and scored a beautiful Columbia winter coat for my son. For $3. I think I’m STILL high from that find! ;-)Yeah, this stuff’s my crack too!!!
>So, I’m new to the consignment thing and I’m addicted. I work our church sale so I can have first dibs on the smocked dresses and barely worn Gymboree. This year my four-year-old wanted a hideous Lilly Pulitzer dress, but it was brand new with tags for $5. How could I say no?
>Lilly Pulitzer? Lucky bizatch. Just kidding. I love Lilly, but I’ve yet to find any for my daughter at a reasonable price (not that I’ve been looking very hard, but still). I’m always the early bird, there as soon as the doors open, but this year I went to a half-price day for the first time and OMG!!! It was AWESOME. I will totally do that again! All the stuff that was passed over as too expensive was suddenly affordable, and I ended up with a ton of designer and boutique dresses, not to mention plenty of sweet $1 polo onesies for Bruiser.
>I don’t suppose this is really a brawl, but more like stupidity at its finest…I had about 300 items at a consignment sale (yeah, it took me a LONG time to tag all that stuff). A friend asked if she could include one or two items, and I didn’t care. She had a Classic Winnie The Pooh crib set, complete with mobile, and still had the original bag to go with it. It was all clean and packed nicely. She marked it at $100, since it had the mobile in it and originally the set cost well over $250. The list on the front included the fact that it had a mobile in it, too…and you could see the mobile as well. So, it was really a bargain. There were at least 4 other sets JUST LIKE IT, but minus the mobile. None was bagged in the original packaging. Every other set was marked at $125 to $150. My friend’s was the only set NOT to sell. On the last day, I was shopping the 50% off sale (that item was not on the 50% markdown), and I saw a lady with one of the other sets (also not on 50% markdown). I asked her why she took that set, it was more expensive, didn’t have the mobile, etc. She said to me, “well, there HAS to be something wrong with that other set…it was just priced too low. There’s no way that it’s in good condition.”Apparently, if you underprice yourself, you’ll get screwed. Who knew?
>We have a bunch of great thrift stores in my area but my favorite place to shop is Once Upon A Child which buys gently used children clothing and other items. I’ve gotten some more expensive brands for just a few bucks. Plus there is always hand me downs. My sister in law only dresses her kids in the best, so when they grew out of it, she’d give me clothing for my youngest. Other than that…it’s Walmart .
>I experienced my first consignment sale recently… I think I’ll stick with CraigsList, the outlet mall, and second hand stores 😉
>I LOVE consignment shopping! It’s totally a sport!I don’t know what store you took that picture at but oh how I wish the stores I go to look like that! I end up going into what looks like concentration camps and coming out with my precious treasures of Osh Kosh and Gap. I think the contrast makes the victory oh so much sweeter
>I’ve never been to a consignment sale. Or shall I say, I’ve never *bought* anything at one. The women act nuts and the consignment shops in our area see everything as “vintage” as opposed to “used”. So even on sale their stuff is more expensive than just going and buying it new. and I’m serious. there is someone in Hubby’s family who has one and after being touted the cheapness I went.$8 for a onesie. Need I say more?
>I don’t understand the consignors either sometimes. Like for instance, one person wanted $4.00 for “2 pairs of new Target socks”. WHAT. Oh wow, gee thanks, what a deal. I think they are $1.50 a pair at Target.
>You’d hate our local sales. They don’t let strollers in. 🙂
>Our local sales are no children/no strollers. Hard core, man. The good one is run by the Mothers of Mulitiples, so you always know there will be another outfit (or two!) around if you see someone with something good.I love finding Icky Baby stuff or other boutique stuff that other moms pass over. I feel like I have scored big time!
>Hi Lindsay! I have a friend who lives in Alpharetta who said to me the other day, “My neighbor has a daughter who just turned 2 in March and she has some really cute clothes she is going to sell on ebay. I will ask her if she wants to sell them to you….perfect for Polly who turned 1 in March”. Fast forward…..I now have 7 smocked outfits for the summer that look brand new!!! In fact, the Orient Expressed smocked bunny dress Polly wore for Easter had only been worn once!! This is the way to go!!!
>I may have to move to Nashville. I have checked, there is nothing like this in NY where I live. Not only do I need to get rid of some of my daughter’s barely used crap, but I would love to buy second hand crap that she’ll play with for 2 days and be bored with.
>Luckily, I do not have a brawl story. In our area, we have the awesomest sale ever. The lady who runs it takes no crap items–I even had one of my items sent home because it was slightly stained. Then she organizes to perfection with the help of volunteers, who will get into the sale a day early. Instead of paying for expensive ads she pays her sellers $5 each for consignors they refer! Her dad is a retired police officer and guards the door/handles crowd control, so I feel like my consigned items are safe and won’t get stolen. I got a ton of stuff at the last one and still made money, even though a lot of my stuff didn’t sell. For the stuff that’s left, you can request it be donated and you can print an itemized receipt for taxes off the website. It’s mommy heaven! http://babyfingers.blogspot.com/2008/03/upstate-moms-take-note.html
>You described it perfectly. I always volunteer 8 hours so I get in the door with the first batch of people. The doors open at noon and I always send my mom to get in line at 6 a.m…and she is NEVER the first one there. I work the shift before the sale so I can always scoop out the stuff. You’ll always hear volunteers asking, “So what time are you getting here in the morning?” They’ll answer, “Oh, I don’t know 8 maybe.”…and then you’ll get there at 6 a.m. and they are already there. I won’t deny it…I’m talking about myself. :)You’ll stand in line and ask people what size they are shopping for and if they say the same size as you, you panic a little bit inside. 3 seasons ago I thought I was having a heart attack right before the doors opened. I couldn’t catch my breathe and my chest was killing me. I ended up going to the doctor the next week and he said it was anxiety. I wasn’t shocked. Also, I can never sleep the night before just dreaming of the deals I’ll find. Sad to say, other moms admit to sleepless nights, too.
>OH man, the comments make me realize that I’m just not up for consignment sales like this. There’s a big one locally near me, but I haven’t gone.I blogged recently about the exciting experience of trying to consign some stuff at a children’s consignment shop. Equally bad experience. http://tinyurl.com/2jxcs2Count me among those who vote Craigslist, eBay, or DONATE to someone who really needs it.
>I help run a Nashville consignment sale and I always come home with interesting stories of over-eager shoppers. For this Spring’s sale we had a pregnant woman and her 6 other children come at 8am and stay til noon thinking she could slip into the 1/2 price hours that same afternoon without having to put any of the stuff she had been hording back on the racks. That wasn’t a pretty situation. And her children were AWFUL! Of course, as a child, I would be pretty awful too if I had to hang out at a consignment sale for over 4 hours.
>Just last night, I managed to spend $90 and got 23 pieces of clothing BRAND BEW for my daughter. She rarely gets anything brand new cause I get everything on Craigs.list!
>We have a bi-annual consignment sale and as a consignor, I get to go into the preview sale the day before, so always get some great stuff. The consignors themselves price everything though, so the prices are all over the map – most is reasonable for used stuff, especially as they are picky about what they take, but some stuff is WAY overpriced! I was a bit disappointed this year as they are getting SO picky about what they accept that over half of my stuff was rejected and there was nothing wrong with it. And I can’t even shop this year because we’re going on vacation during the sale!
>It’s that season. I just participated in my second round of consignment sale and I love it. Last fall was the first time a children’s consignement had ever been to my town and there were 2. There are not huge yet but I still have racked up. I chose one in the fall and stuck with it this spring. It seems to be the better of the two. Not more expensive but just better choice and she is more particular on the condition of the items. I volunteered to work 3 hours on Saturday to get first shopping priveleges. If you can that is the way to go. There weren’t many of us shopping the day before but one mom did walk through the door and grab this cool caterpillar ride on really fast. She knew I had a little one too so she snatched it. It’s fun and I think it is a great way to buy and sell your children’s things. I sold enough to cover everything new I bought. I think that’s pretty good.
My son is 13 and it’s a good thing since I’m getting twitchy just reading this!
Check out http://ConsigningTime.com for sales these days. Not sure if your link still works.