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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.
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.
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