I have always been a huge fan of consignment shopping and thrifting. I used to spend hours browsing at my favorite consignment shop Battery Street Jeans when I was a teen and my love for used clothing is still alive. Now I seek out consignment shops, sales and thrift stores to find baby clothes for Edith. As we all know babies go through clothes so quickly and they can be messy so as much as I’d like to buy cute outfits at full price that just never happens.
The other day I went to a big kids consignment sale, the first one I’d ever been to and I had dreams of finding inexpensive clothes and gear for Edith that we might need for her over the next few months. I had just read Caitlin’s post about finding lots of great deals for Henry and I was jazzed to find my own deals.
Well I arrived early and was ready to go, cash in hand and as I made my way to the girls clothing section I was pretty impressed by just how big the sale was. Well then I started looking through the racks of clothes and started to see that so many things were just way overpriced. My personal philosophy based on my many years of working in retail is if I can buy it brand new on the sale for the same or less than what it cost used than it’s a no go. Most of the clothing was just so over worn that I couldn’t imagine who would want to buy them especially the over worn leggings from target that I often buy on sale for $2.50 that were being sold for $5-6 (crazy right?).
Well I ended up finding a few good deals and moved on to the gear section of the sale which was just terrible. So many things were so over used and over priced (I should say right now that this was only the 2nd day of the sale that goes 4 days). Again if I can buy it on Amazon for less than what you priced it I am obviously going to buy it new.
Overall I would say bigger isn’t better. I found a few clothing items but for the most part things were over priced and over used. I actually have found the best second hand clothes at small consignment shops and church thrift stores. Have you ever been to a mega consignment sale? What was your experience?
My purchases totaling $25:
I am going to my first big one tomorrow with low expectations. We have a small consignment store for kids clothes that we’ve been to several times already and I doubt the big one I’m going to is going to top that (they also do Groupons, it’s like I’m stealing from them!) But we shall see 🙂
Sorry you had a bad experience! I love mega consignment sales… my town does a big one biannually… I just went, spent $67, and got my daughter almost all the clothing she will need from 9-12 months. Your right about the pricing though… it just depends. I found a shirt that I really LOVED in 9 month size, but they wanted $8 for it which was just too much… but down the rack I found the exact same shirt in 18 month size for $4! I also got quite a few good pieces for between $1 and $3. I made sure to volunteer so I could shop before the public sale and get the first pick of the merchandise, and I reserved a whole evening for shopping so that I could go through the racks piece by piece and find the good stuff. At least you came away with some really cute outfits!
I have been with my sister, who has a 5 year old son. The ‘best’ stuff is usually long gone when we get there, because people who are consigning their things get in earlier, if you volunteer to work at the sale you get in earlier, and the day care owners are usually first in line and buying up a lot of the good toys/educational materials. We do still enjoy going, and she generally finds at least a few pieces of clothing for him, and I find fun, auntie-type educational things such as the magnetic marble track that’s currently attached to the inside of my front door.