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- Consignment
Shopping Pays Off
- by RACHEL
PAXTON
Is your closet
full of clothes you never wear? You can bet there are a lot of
people who have a closet or dressers full of clothes they never
wear. I did too, until I started consignment shopping. A clothing
consignment store sells your clothes for you and gives you 30
to 50 percent of the selling price. Pretty good deal, when no
one is wearing the clothes that are just collecting dust in your
closet.
The first thing
I did was go through my closet and dressers and took out all
of the clothes I never wore. (This was a hard thing to do considering
I had no money and was terrified of not having any clothes to
wear.) I took a couple of grocery bags full of clothes to a local
consignment store and within a month or two had at least $50
is my hands. I couldn't believe it! Now that I actually had the
money in my hands, I didn't feel as badly about giving up my
clothes. I spent some of the money on new clothes at the consignment
store (for about 1/3 or less of regular retail prices), and went
home to find out if I really had gone through all my clothes.
As the seasons changed and I brought out other clothes that were
stored away, I found other clothes I had I wouldn't ever wear.
I still had some clothes I had worn in high school!
I always sold
my daughter's outgrown clothes. The money I received for her
clothes I usually spent on new (consigned)
clothes for her. I also took in her outgrown toys and baby accessories.
Some of the money I received I spent on her, and I spent a little
on clothes for myself (my wardrobe was starting to fill up with
clothes I actually wear!), and the rest was just extra cash!
What a deal! None of my hard-earned money (I was a single mother
at the time) was going for new clothes anymore! My daughter and
I had all the clothes we needed and I had extra cash besides!
Of course I had other problems to deal with in my life, but trying
to find the money for clothes suddenly dropped off the list!
I have found that many people won't ever bother with consigning
clothes.
Either they
aren't willing to part with their clothes for any number of reasons,
or they just don't want to take the time to take them to the
consignment store.
Many people
will give their clothes away to other people or Goodwill before
they will make the effort required resell them. I have personally
never understood that way of thinking, but you can benefit from
those people.
When friends
and family saw that I was "trading" in used clothes
for new clothes, they started giving me clothes to take in! A
few, like my mother, started to take her own clothes in, but
I found for the most part people would rather give their clothes
to me, even when they didn't have extra money to buy new clothes.
So I started taking in other people's clothes and profiting from
their decisions to clean out their closets. Then I started shopping
at garage sales. Many people practically give unwanted clothes
away.
You can find
very good deals at garage sales, especially if you go right before
they close up for the day. You can buy clothes there, either
for yourself or your children, or you can buy them solely for
the purpose of re-selling them. I only recommend doing this,
however, after you have been taking your own clothes in for awhile
and find out what types of clothes the consignment store will
accept.
The consignment
store reserves the right to not accept clothing that do not meet
their standards. The store I shop at will donate unwanted clothes
to charity for you, if you wish, if they will not accept any
of your clothing. You also have the option to take the unwanted
clothing back. It has been my experience that they will take
most clothes that are freshly washed, folded or hung neatly.
They will not accept clothing with unraveling seams or holes.
They also will not accept any clothes with any obvious stains.
Occasionally they will not accept outdated clothing. But in the
10 years that I have been shopping at consignment stores, the
only items they didn't accept were a coat that was at least 20
years old and the color wasn't in style, and clothes that were
out of season (you can't sell a winter jacket during the summer).
Usually most
of the clothes you take in will sell easily, depending on the
size and location of the store. Most stores keep clothes on the
rack for 3 months. If the clothes haven't sold in that length
of time you can either take them back or they will donate them
to charity.
Even though
I'm married now, we still have a tight budget and can't afford
to spend much on clothes. Even if I had the money I still don't
think I would spend a lot of money on new clothes, after everything
I have learned. It's just not worth it. You can do this just
for the money, some people I know never buy at consignment stores,
but they do sell things there occasionally, you can do it just
for the clothes, which I did for a long time just out of sheer
necessity and it didn't occur to me to try to make a profit,
or you can enjoy the benefits of buying low-priced quality clothing
and also make a small profit besides! Whatever you choose to
do, the experience is well worth the effort. In these times of
recycling and trying to conserve the Earth's resources, it only
makes sense to "trade" clothing with other people instead
of buying new clothing. Almost everyone has clothes they don't
wear, for whatever reason, that other people would be thrilled
to wear.
Author:
© Copyright
2002
Rachel Paxton is a freelance
writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook
containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For more recipes,
gardening, organizing tips, home decorating, holiday hints, and
more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.
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