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Consignment/reselling: is it worth it to you?

LaPed

Veteran

Building on Theresa's recent post, I'm wondering about others' attitudes towards moving on clothes to their "next life" so to speak. For me, the effort of re-selling or consigning unwanted apparel is absolutely worth it.

I do a large portion of my consigning at a large independently owned gear shop that sells all the big outdoor brands, both clothing and equipment. the upstairs is new and the basement is all secondhand. In the past year, I've earned enough in consignment credits to buy myself a new pair of running shoes and winter boots for DS (both from the new section of the store). So, somewhere around $150. According to my account with them, I've had 10 items sell this year, so I'm seeing about a $15 return on each item (it's a 75% consignment rate if you take store credit, or 65% if you want cash, so pretty good either way). Their staff makes the process really easy, and we tend to churn a fair amount of gear in this household, so for us this makes sense. Being able to purchase brand-new with consignment credits makes it a really appealing model, though I do sometimes find great deals in the basement as well, especially for DS.

For non-gear clothes, I've earned about $60 on eBay this year (that's post seller fees), as well as about $40 in credits at the local kids consignment shop -- they do take adult stuff too, but they are always oversaturated with women's small sizes, so rarely take my stuff. Since I'm only having one kid, I don't save much of DS's stuff at all. We have several friends with kids a bit younger than DS, but he's quite small for his age, so I'm rarely able to give hand-me-downs. He's almost five but could pass for three if he weren't so articulate, lol.

I realize these numbers are modest, and I'm never expecting to recoup what I spent, but just offset my spending. I work part-time and got into the habit of selling pretty much anything I could while I was a stay-at-home mum. Once you've set up the accounts, might as well keep going.

I do donate things as well -- usually to the women's shelter, rather than to thrift shops, because the women's shelter has greater need, especially for things like kids' boots and winter accessories. And I take advantage of textile recycling programs for anything torn/stained/otherwise unwearable. It does mean a lot more sorting/organization that just dumping a bag at the thrift store, but worth it to me. Curious to know how others are approaching/managing the excess accumulations of modern fashion. First world problems, I know...

General

38 replies

Latest reply was from Sal

Sal

Veteran

Thanks La Pedestrienne. Interesting.

I do a few things.

1) Sell online (Ebay equivalent) but not clothes - mostly homewear, toys and books.

2) Donate to family or friends - mostly my son's gear

3) Donate to schools - boys gear

4) Use as rags myself - old soft clothing

5) Donate to local thrift store - Hospice - they have an up market part so better stuff goes there and is sold at $30-$70 prices....

I tried consigning once and I needed five at a time - in season.

I am a better second hand shopper than I am seller.

Molly Mac

Veteran

I don't consign for many of the reasons others have noted (so few items accepted, time it takes, having to hold on to items until seasonally appropriate). My church has a big thrift sale twice a year and I usually donate my items to them. The $ raised goes to help support important programming for the church such as homeless outreach. Anything that is too worn to be thrifted I will try to textile recycle as well. I try to avoid the big thrifters such as Good Will as I have heard some of their practices are not environmentally friendly.

lisaflex

Veteran

i dont consign anymore....i take to places that give you cash on the spot. i go through my closet/clothes maybe 3 - 4 times per year. anything higher end, i sell. worn - drop off at goodwill or cancer resale shop.

i did consign for many years....but just as easy to sell outright

Gaylene

Veteran

Like others, I use a variety of methods, depending on the the items.

First, I try to keep closet purges to a minimum. I have a small closet and try very hard to buy only what I’ll happily wear for several years. I’ll alter clothes if my body shape or style preferences change.

I don’t have a “holding” zone, so I’m quick to consign a shopping mistake or a closet orphan. I use a VERY picky consignment shop with a rapid turnover so I only take in high-quality items, in like-new condition, which are usually under a year old. If she can sell the item within four weeks, I get 40% of the selling price so $500 can net me $200–a good chunk of change!

I donate warm coats, good footwear, woolen socks and sweaters, and cold weather accessories to a charity which feeds and clothes homeless women. I donate suits and good quality business casual items to another charity which helps women in need—usually young mothers. Everything I donate is of good quality and on hangers—often high-end cashmere, leather, or wool—which I have cleaned before I donate it. I’ve volunteered at these two charities so I have a good idea of their requirements.

The rest, which is usually items too worn to be re-used, gets sorted. Washed 100% cotton, wool, and linen items, along with leather jackets, are given to a local craft group to use in their projects. The rest—which is usually a very small bag, is given to a recycle shop which accepts all old clothing and footwear for a fee which varies depending on the bag size. My bag size usually costs the minimum—$5.

I’m lucky to be living in a community which takes recycling very seriously. Going through this kind of disposal process has made me a much more conscious consumer. Cheap clothing doesn’t seem like such a bargain anymore.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Here's the research I read about- also put it on Theresa's thread. https://www.businessinsider.co.....ngs-2016-4 I found the endowment effect definitely applies to me!

rachylou

Veteran

The consignment shop in my neighborhood is too hoity toity for me
and yet too conservative... could not sell my Anna Sui dress with them. The best place for me to consign with was a shop I worked at when I was in school, but honestly they were appalling people. I try to wear my clothes out and things that I’m really simply tired of and are getting no use, I give to Goodwill. I must say, I think it’s nice when you find something miraculous at Goodwill. I gave all my Manolo’s to them in hopes someone else will donate something for me to find

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

My consignment place takes almost everything I give them. Their deal is that if it doesn't sell it, it goes to a charity for domestic violence. Win-win for me. I don't make a lot of money on it but I feel good either way.

marija

There is a wonderful consignment shop in the next town over. The owner makes things very easy and I get a bit of cash for some of my clothes. Most of the clothes I donate are things that don't fit that have been cast offs from my working sister-in-law. I do like to consign because I feel like I'm giving this sweet woman a job. I get cash for the clothes and then I usually find something fun and funky to buy in the store.

My donations go to the St. Vincent de Paul society in town. It has a consignment shop which raises funds and gives clothing and money directly to people who need them.

Anonymous

I strictly donate. And I don’t do write offs. For me, it feels like a good way to help someone else.

Anonymous

However, I’d do consignment if they were donating the funds, for sure.

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

In the past I tried to consign but never got a return that was worth the trouble.

I don’t sell online because our household uses military mail, so mailing stuff to buyers becomes a big pain (and slow).

I don’t buy from thrift shops because the ones available to me are like “vintage” rather than thrift, in other words they charge high prices.

I donate a lot. Clothes and household goods. They go directly to people I know who are in need, or to our building’s trash pickers. Everything gets recycled/reused in some fashion, judging from the little carts that trundle around with piles of styrofoam, piles of electronics, etc etc. so that feels pretty ok.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I fund my clothing budget by consigning, but I am not the usual case. Thrifting is my hobby, and I do buy to resell, as well as dress me and a small circle of friends and family. (Having previously worked at a charity shop, I can say with confidence that they are only looking to get rid of the huge amount of clothes that are donated and generate cash for their charity projects, and resellers are an important part of their income.) I also donate what clothes I cannot sell. By the way, charity shops also profit from selling clothing to the recyclers, at least around here.

JAileen

Veteran

I only donate my items. I used to give strictly to the thrift store where I volunteer, but lately have been giving clothes directly to the homeless at the shelter, especially practical warm clothes.

Gigi

Veteran

I have two consignment shops that I use. One is extremely picky, the other not so much. I make about 40% of the selling price at each place. I too don't expect to come anywhere close to recouping the cost of the original items, but it's nice to get a little back to put toward new things.

I probably make around $150 a year from my consignment sales. I probably consign 20-25 things per year. It's not much of a return, but it helps support local business, and I know someone else is getting use out of my items. It is a pain to have to wash and iron everything to make it presentable, but if it helps the clothing have a second life, it's worth it.

Style Fan

Veteran

In the past, I have taken some of my higher quality "mistakes" to consignment stores. I had mixed results. One store in a town I lived had reasonable success but the other ones I used were disappointing. I then went through a period of donating everything.
I am now going to try and sell my clothes myself. I have a few ideas on how to do this. There are some facebook groups in our community that I am going to use first. That way I don't have to get into the mailing issue. Mailing is not ideal for me.
I am going to put some things on kiiji. That way I will get a larger audience. People will still have to come and pick the clothing up. We used kiiji to sell furniture before and it worked out well.
I am also going to use SLOWRE. This is through Gretchen's Closet. She has certain criteria (slow fashion) which some of my things meet.

I donate my things to the Emergency Department of hospitals (I worked in a hospital that had clothing for people that needed things.) I also donate to other places that I know about (animal shelters for resale).

nemosmom

Veteran

I consign, donate and recycle as well. Thanks to a handful of major lifestyle changes, (going from a corporate job to tech startup then stay-at-home-mom to working from home, plus moving from coastal Northern California to the snowy Midwest in the span of 6 years), I've generated WAY more than my fair share of excess clothing.

All of my worn/faded/damaged items go to the textile recycling. It does involve extra sorting, but it is worth it to me. I keep a bin going throughout the year and drop it off when it gets full. Old towels and sheets are taken to the local animal shelter. I donated the majority of my corporate clothing to a local org similar to Dress For Success; I was able to successfully consign a few higher-end items. I haven't had much luck with local consignment shops, so I try to sell my boys' clothes and my "holding zone" items online through ebay or poshmark. Items that don't sell I will either send to an online consignment store for credit, or drop at a local thrift store. I don't get much money for any of the items that I consign or sell, but it helps offest my spending a bit. I have also started to shop secondhand more often, especially for the kids, and have found some great pieces at really great prices.

Jules

Veteran

Everything goes in a bag for donation which gets picked up regularly from my doorstep. It's a life simplification thing that works for me.

When my kids were younger we did the hand-me-down thing in my circle but it dwindled as they got older. It doesn't tend to work out any more based on lack of storage, differing taste, size, etc - although now that my oldest is a teen, her friends hand things down within their circle on their own, so I guess we modeled that well.

Both grandmothers shop thrift stores as a hobby so they still get and wear some second hand items. But both kids have their own taste now so not every grandma pick will get worn. The nice thing about not using that stuff is that we know it didn't cost much and don't feel guilty about putting it back into the donation cycle.

Vintage is in with the kids, so my daughter wears an old LaCoste sweatshirt that was my brother's, and a pink & blue polo she found at a thrift store I dragged her into looking for housewares. I don't think recycled fast fashion has the same appeal. I don't hold too many illusions about the consignment or donation value of my own items either.

Anonymous

Most things i just donate. The things in good condition go to the local disabilities fundraiser shop, the others i toss in the bins-assuming they're just sold for rags. Housewares/furnature get donated too most of the time. Especially now that the standard deduction is 12k, its not worth getting a receipt for the write offs.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I will sometimes try to sell things that seem to command a good price (researching eBay sales, for instance, lets me know if that pair of Frye boots are selling for $20 or $75, which can make a big difference in my motivation). But lately I just don't feel much like messing with the photographing, writing descriptions, listing, collecting payment, and packaging and shipping. If I add up the time invested in doing all of that, the money I get back is usually pretty paltry in comparison. I usually end up donating (I do make a list with estimated values for the tax write-off). Or giving to my niece or a friend who I know would appreciate the item.

Anonymous

I'm a donator, and fine with that. This past summer, I did sell some of my better handbags on Facebook, and did well with that little experiment . I also sold some of my better clothes at a garage sale we had last month, and it was worth getting maybe $100 for a few pieces of clothing I would have otherwise donated. But that was a one-off occasion. I recycle old towels and sheets to save for painting jobs. Local consignment stores - I did it many years ago and made good money doing it for a year or two , but I don't have enough of the high-end stuff anymore to be able to participate in that market now.

Bijou

Veteran

All of my son's clothing goes to my nephew who is 2 years younger and loves to get my son's clothing. My son is really funny - I will buy him a number of items, but he only wants to wear certain ones and so those get worn out and the hand-me-downs that go to my nephew are basically new...My nephew loves to get these items, so it is nice to know that they actually get worn. My sister-in-law has a circle of friends that appreciate the clothing too - so it gets recycled yet again.

As for my clothing I deliver it to a number of stores as donations. Unfortunately if you leave the items in donation bins, they often get stolen from the charity - I have seen people shamelessly taking items. So I deliver it to a number of charities if friends and family don't want it first. My best stuff goes to the RSPCA store, but I do try to split my donations (that when I get around to editing seem to be large in number) to a number of charities. I always make sure that worn out clothing and shoes are thrown away. Apparently charities often incur high costs in discarding worn out clothing. I am pretty strict in making sure that the item is worth providing to the charity in the first place.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

You have better cast-offs than I do. I had a couple ikea bags of our stuff that I took around to several consignment shops. One of them had me leave it there, then wanted me to come pick up the things they weren’t buying and the money for things they did want right away. I wasn’t planning to be in that area again for 2 weeks, couldn’t see driving down there for something like $8.80. They said they’d donate the rest, so I let them. Otherwise I would have taken them to a donations place myself.

I was very upset during my move that College Hunks Hauling Junk’s Service that purports to take your things to donation centers of your choice (from their list) and discard the rest does nothing of the sort. I found out after the fact that they had loaded up very usable furniture and gone straight to the dump with it. Financially, I know it is the same to me, but thinking about it makes me sick.

Ginger

Veteran

I usually donate to a local crisis pregnancy center; they have a large thrift store and have gladly taken everything I've had to donate, including furniture and housewares. I've also successfully sold a fair number of boots and shoes on Poshmark. Vintage I sell on a Facebook group.

I looked into consigning once, but basically nothing I have is from the "right" name and certainly not recent enough. From what I'm hearing the returns are far less than on Poshmark or other platforms, too. So if I'm going to sell it will be online. But mostly I donate, because having items listed and not selling is a big mental burden.

Christina F.

Veteran

I definitely don'r have high end enough stuff to consign in my area. If I needed to part wit some of my bags, I might have some luck, btu I usually just pass them on to my mom.

I have done ThredUp and Ebay in the past. ThredUp's wait times and payouts started getting too long. Ebay is a lot of trouble, because in my area the post offices are difficult to deal with, and packaging is more expensive (I could buy online in bulk, but then I'd have to deal with storage issues). The few bucks I made these ways became not worth the trouble.

I have a donation box i my apartment building's basement. The charity is one I support, and I even had my wedding reception at their used bookstore. (Fantastic event space.) I'm at peace with donating. I do have a J Crew Lady Day Coat I need to pass on. It's in great condition and was a gift, but no longer fits well. I'm contemplating trying consignment for that. Most of my other coats go to a local annual coat drive, run by another charity.

AviaMariah

Veteran

I find that it's really rewarding to immediately remove purged items from the house so it's not worth it to me to list on eBay or anything else that's time consuming. I do donate all my kids clothing to a couple different friends but they are willing to take it all and purge out the too worn items themselves which makes it easy. I used to pass on my clothing to nieces but they have all outgrown me. The only thing I do occasionally is send nicer pieces to Threup because I feel like I'm at least getting

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I do zero consigning. I have a much better-for-me way of passing on great wardrobe items. Not negatively judging those who like to consign at all. I simply prefer to do something else. It's a choice, and respect our varied choices.

I pass on many of my items to Dress For Success Seattle who sells them at their quarterly Closet Treasure Sales. That way I know that the money is going to an excellent cause, and it's another way of making a donation. Plus I love how appreciated my items are. Like gifts that keep on giving.

I also have a group of friends who wait for me to pass on my bags.

The less than perfect items are dropped off at clothing recycle points.

Laurel

Figuring out the "right" (perfect?) destination for excess clothing from a closet edit can be a HUGE stumbling block to tackling the task---and I've finally made peace with the process. The "cream" of the crop (maybe 5% of things) which are seasonally appropriate go to the consignment shop, where I may eventually get a check large enough to cover lunch out. Then, I sort the rest into a few bags---one for a smaller thrift store where they aren't so overwhelmed with donations and I believe there's a good chance they'll get to a person who needs them, one for Goodwill, where I'm not so sure they can handle the MASS of donations. I recently discovered a local store that collects bras for a shelter, so I take bras there. And, lastly, if I have any Eileen Fisher items, I take them to the store and receive a $5 credit per item, which I convert eventually into a new garment. My shoes are almost always either sports shoes that get recycled at the running store, bike shoes that I donate, or in style shoes that go to the consignment shop. Or, rarely, just TRASH. Oh, shoes.

Flytigress

We were cleaning out our attic, and I took some of my 65-year-old husband's high-school clothes to Buffalo Exchange. (Think Johnny Carson sport coat, etc.) The young girls there went crazy for his stuff, and I walked out with about $100 cash.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Christine’s reply reminds me that I did Thredup once. Not sure how much i made, because notices of small amounts (a couple dollars) trickled in for quite a while. But this summer, they weren’t buying. Had I known what was going to happen, I would have had them send bags for donations

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