What to Expect When You’re Consigning – Part 3 – Results

“Well, it’s better than a kick in the pants.”

That’s what my father told me (to cheer me up) when I said how much I made at the consignment sale last week.

I recently participated as a consignor at a local 4-day consignment sale. To read about how it all happened, click on parts 1 and 2:

• What to Expect When You’re Consigning – Part 1 – Getting Organized
• What to Expect When You’re Consigning – Part 2 – Volunteering

As I said in the previous articles, I had somewhere around 30 hours of setup invested. That was largely due to not having a system in place – as I do now. By the time volunteering was over, I spent over 40 hours involved with this sale. So a full time “work week”.

I registered and tagged 111 items. It totalled $438.00. After volunteering, I would earn 75% of whatever sold.  Seemed pretty worth it.

Here’s what went wrong

1. Several items were rejected at inspection (tiny stains I’d overlooked, winter vs. summer, stuffed animals – they don’t sell stuffed animals). I knew I was testing the waters to see what they would accept or not. Still, all together I lost $55.00 of earning potential.
2. In the hustle and bustle of hauling everything, I left a baby gate valued at $8.00 at home.
3. Several of the clothing tags were attached but not very visible, so they didn’t sell. Doh.
4. Nearly everything that sold could have been priced 10% higher, at least.

Here’s what went right:

1. All of the toys, puzzles and baby equipment sold very quickly.
2. All of children’s shoes and hats sold
3. Nearly all of my women’s clothing sold
4. Nearly all of the boys’ clothing sold

So the grand total of merchandise sold came to: $238.00

My take-home pay:  $178.50

Yeah…

Like dad said, better than a kick in the pants. Or as Dontae said, “It’s $178.50 we didn’t have before.”

Kudos to the men in my life.

Summary

I had an expensive learning curve being new at consigning. However, the information I learned was valuable. Since writing these blog posts, I have learned of another resale in my area that is one day long, $5.00 registration and consignors earn 85% whether they volunteer or not.

If you are new to consigning, I would start there.

If you are selling less than 200 items, I would start there.

Come to think of it, you should probably just start there.

Will I ever do consigning again?

YES. I’m definitely not giving up on consigning. My friend Kelly suggested storing bags for the fall/winter sale – which I have done. Huge time saver. Carla suggested shopping for deals at garage sales to “upsell”.

Ever have a sale and have it flop? Ever win big?