Wednesday, August 15, 2007

WFMW: Just Between Friends consignment

UPDATED: I should note here that when you consign with JBF, you get 65-70% of your selling price. I've checked a couple of kids' consignment stores in my city and they pay less than that.


Today's tip: check out the Just Between Friends event in your city to consign kids' clothes, toys, equipment, etc.

I've recently started selling my boys' outgrown clothes and baby equipment at my local Just Between Friends sale. It is so nice to let someone else do the selling! I don't have to store all their outgrown items for a garage sale I'll never have, and I make a little money. Donating to a worthy cause is nice, but so is the check I get from JBF.

Warning: the requirements for selling and tagging are intimidating at first. Your first sale will seem like a lot of work. However, I got the hang of it quickly, and learned the following along the way:

-- Read all the instructions for selling and tagging before you get started. I didn't my first time, and ended up doing a lot of rework on the tags. These guys are picky about their tagging requirements.

-- Designate a spot in your kids' closets for JBF items. Tag as you go. Use the new online method for barcoding your tags if it's available in your area. Then you can "watch" your items online. You'll be able to see what items sold and at what price.

-- Be discriminating about what you put in the sale. JBF is trying to maintain they have higher quality items than a garage sale and they'll reject things they don't think are up to par.

-- Pricing: I'm still learning how to price things effectively. The upcoming JBF sale in my area will be my first with barcoding so I'll be able to see what sells at full price (items are discounted as the sale ages).

-- Designate something specific to do with your profits. Putting it into the general household fund isn't nearly as fun as telling a very frugal hubby: look what we got with our JBF dollars!

Selling at Just Between Friends works for me! For more great tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How incredibly cool! I'll have to look into this.

Lori - Queen of Dirty Laundry said...

I'm going to try this for the first time next month. I was so relieved when I found out about the barcode system, as it seems to eliminate a lot of the tedious work.

Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

I went to my first one this past spring - it was fantastic! I already have the Fall sale on my calendar.