They suggested I attend a first time seller seminar, but I was unable to make it. Instead, I went by their suggestions and priced my items at a half price minimum, some of them I priced quite a bit lower than half price. I printed off the first set of tags and realized that I had used all caps, so I went back and used all lowercase like they said. It pained me, because I have quite a fondness for capitalizing proper nouns when available. Once again, I printed off my tags. I cut them up, and went gangbusters on my stash of safety pins. Yes, I completely obliterated it. I MIGHT have 1 remaining. Anyway, off I went to take my 8 items. The night before and that day, I deliberated over and over whether to consign Mari's bathing suit from Janie and Jack. I, myself, had purchased this suit at a consignment shop. This was one of the first things I'd bought her. Actually, it was the first thing I bought for her to grow into, size 6 months. Eventually, I decided to part ways with it, because it was so stinkin' cute that another new mom needed to own it and share in the love that I felt with that suit.
Because I was a consignor, I had the opportunity to shop at the presale. I took my BFF with me and Don willingly stayed home with the little ones while we had a girls night out shopping. We both joked that once upon a time, we wore wristbands for entry to a club. Now we sported our wristbands for Saturday night shopping at a consignment sale. My, my how the times have changed. :)
After I ran in to see if they still had the princess castle available, and just missing out the wooden dollhouse I wanted to buy by mere seconds, I went off in search of the items that I had made available for consignment. Initially, I didn't find a thing. Then, I had a temporary moment of panic. You see, when I printed off my tags, they printed off 2x3". All of the rest of the tags were 4x6"!!! Immediately, my heart sank and I was certain that I received my 1st strike. You are only allowed 3 strikes before you are no longer to consign. How did I miss that???? Both times I'd printed the tags, they printed off teeny tiny. I had no idea! But then, I checked one other item and found it still on the rack. And then it hit me that the others items must've sold! BUT THEN...it really hit me that the other items had sold, including the bathing suit. They had a melancholy song playing over the radio and I had to hide by an empty rack of clothing in the mass labyrinth of clothes composing myself and fighting back tears. And just as I was about to let myself have a nice cry lamenting my regret, a friend came up and teased me about the the dress I had in my hands. He said he had it first and immediately, I was grateful they were there to tease. I appreciated my initial decision and remembered that we had lots of footage of her in her bathing suit, with both photos and video. As a result, I scored 4 other AMAZING bathing suits. Yes, I plan to be at the pool quite a bit, and hopefully we can save some money to head out to the West Coast so Mari can become that much more familiar with the taste of the Pacific.
I also scored several dresses a couple of pairs of shoes (the tap shoes are too small, boo!) and a sweet tricycle. I'll be getting some shots of her in it soon enough to share with all of you. The best part of it, spending time shopping with my girlfriend. They have an inspection table where you can lay out your haul and immediately discard anything you don't want. She has a very discerning eye and can spot out stains and wears much better than I can. After getting the thumbs up from her, I was super excited about my haul. (have y'all seen those teenage haul videos on youtube? maybe I should do one for this here blog. LOL) I was happy with what she walked away with. I was once again affirmed that boys clothes are less expensive than girls clothes. But you know what, they make some really cute boy clothes and shoes!
Did I break even on my consigning? Um...no! Far from, actually, but I did alleviate the blow and gained a wealth of knowledge for my next consignment. Yep, I'm ready to jump back in and this time, I hope to have more than 8 items. Maybe I'll even try to put in 20. :D
sidenote: I visited an adult consignment shop today: The Buffalo Exchange. I'd been in one before, but back then I was much heavier than now, so I didn't even look at anything except shoes, and at the time, they didn't have a lot of choices. Well, this time, my aim was to check out the jeans. Everyone was super friendly in there, albeit original and eclectic. So much creative and free-flowing energy, I made a mental note to visit this place more often. I browsed through my typical size and nothing jumped out. As I rounded the corner, a pair on the end caught my eye. It was in the size 8 category and I just rolled my eyes. I've not seen a single digit number since I was 13 and even then, I was a 9 (soo junior size). Something told me to look at the size tag on the actual jean. Whaddya know, I MIGHT could squeeze in. I grabbed it and another pair that seemed more modern. I scurried to the back to try them on, hiding my find so no one would laugh at the thought of me trying to stuff my body in them. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to get the jeans to my knees and be ready to be faced with the the inevitable truth. Well, 'lo and behold, not only did the jeans go up past the knees, but then went around the thigh and fit!!! These were the modern skinny jeans that were marked 50% off. They were a little snug, but I reminded myself that they are supposed to be and that's how the kids are wearing 'em nowadays. I didn't mind being in them, because it didn't feel like the circulation was being cut off. Next up, Citizen of Humanity jeans. Those of you who know jeans know that they retail more than $100 (more like $120 - $170). I put them on and WOW! No really, WOW! They fit like a glove. I loved them! No, I mean I loved, loved, loved these jeans. I didn't want to take them off. But I did, because Primo was waiting for me in the car with cupcakes from Society Bakery. I whipped 'em off and ran to go check out. I was verifiably giddy. No need for a bag, so they gave me a token to place into a charity box to donate 5 cents instead of using the plastic sac. SCORE! $40 later and I left with 2 pairs of jeans. That's another thing I haven't done since I was 13.
What a wonderful day for shopping! Now I think I will make that haul video.
No comments:
Post a Comment