A few years
back, a friend told me about something called Just Between Friends (JBF).
Basically, it’s a consignment sale that happens once or twice a year per
location and is organized by a franchise owner. Consignors bring their new and
gently-used children’s and maternity merchandise to sell, and shoppers can then
browse and purchase items—from clothes, to strollers, to toys, to books, to furniture and
more—generally for 50 to 90 percent off retail prices. Consignors make 65 to 70
percent of the asking price they set for their items.
Sorting outfits
I’ve visited
the JBF sale as a customer for a couple years now, and I have brought home
like-new toys and name brand clothes for my son (seriously—a Ralph Lauren polo
shirt for 5 bucks?! Don’t mind if I do!), but I sold items as a consignor for
the first time at this year’s spring sale in my area.
Let me just say
that this is no garage sale. It's an organized, upscale event so it does require some prep time.
Clothes must be stain free, in season and in good condition. They ask that children’s
clothing be hung on wire, child-sized hangers and then pinned to the hanger to keep everything neat and hung. Step one was sorting the clothes I wanted to sell by
size and decide what would be sold as an outfit. I also sold shoes, brand new
toys, a bouncy seat, a stroller, bottles, and other baby accessories.
Next, I made a list of all the items so I could enter them into JBF’s online tagging website. It was free to use and a really ingenious system. The consignor provides their own item description, size and asking price. There’s also a place to indicate whether you’d like the item to be donated if it doesn’t sell and if it should be included in the half-price day or remain full price for the entire length of the sale. Once the tags are all entered, all I had to do was print them on cardstock, cut them, and attach them to my items with safety pins or curling ribbon. Each tag was automatically coded with my unique consigner number, so when the item was purchased I would get credit.
I had quite a few brand new items to sell
I dropped
off my items on the designated day—which only involved signing a simple release
form and then placing my items in the appropriate areas—and the next night the
fun really began. I was able to log in to JBF’s online tagging system and see
which of my items sold that day. It was
ridiculously exciting and made the hours of prep time totally worth it. In all,
I sold about 45 items and made nearly $200. I had a check in my hand the week
after the sale ended and was one happy lady!
I’m already
setting clothes and toys aside for the fall sale, which is a small miracle considering
my solid reputation for being a packrat who has a strong, STRONG aversion to
parting with things.
But once I
began to see old stuff as a way to make money to buy new stuff, it was a lot
easier to come to terms with getting rid of the clutter!
