Tag Archives: Just Between Friends

Consignment Sale Finds!

Last week I shopped at Just Between Friends in Fort Worth. You all know how much I love these sales. I once again found some great deals. I wasn’t able to find the top 2 items (toy box or video monitor) but I found pretty much everything else on my list.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite finds! The best deal I think was the Lily Pultzer dress that retails for close to $100…I got it for $4! I don’t know if most people in Texas even know who Lily Pultzer is…but being a beach girl, her clothes are everywhere during the summer on Cape Cod. I couldn’t pass this up!

I also found this cute Whale Watching Club sweater from Gymboree w/ Anchor shorts. I mean really? How cute is this. It will be perfect for our summer whale watch trip when we go up to Cape Cod for summer vacation. The back of that sweater has the sailor square collar too!

I found some other pretty dresses, including the flower one in the middle for our annual Texas Bluebonnet pictures! I think the colors will go well in the bluebonnet fields this spring.

Lots of other clothes were found as well. I got a number of skirts, uniforms, pajamas, and tops. All brands that I don’t usually buy, so I was happy to find them at a fraction of the price!

Swimwear is another good find. Float suit, pool/beach coverup and bathing suits — all $4? Deal!

Other than clothes, shoes are always a must have. I hate paying $15-$30 at the store for shoes. I just can’t do it. So when JBF comes around, I try to get everything I can. I was able to get 6 pairs. Sneakers, 3 sandals, 1 sparkly shoe (because every girl should have sparkly shoes, right?) and some swim shoes for summer vacation, the spray park and the pool.

My favorite shoes? The Minnie Mouse Adidas. Lennox loves Minnie Mouse and was very excited to see these come home!

Up next? Toys! I got some books, a few board games, Melissa & Doug kits and the best deal in toys? Lalaloopsies! Lennox loves Lalaloopsy (we are even planning on that being her birthday theme). If you aren’t familiar with their toys, they do NOTHING, they are plastic and they just lay there. But they are so cute! But.. expensive. One Lalaloopsy can cost anywhere from $30-$50! I was able to find 5 Lalaloopsy’s ranging in price from $4-$7. SCORE! I even found her favorite.. Pillow Featherbed. She is discontinued and wayyyy too much money on eBay, so for $4 that was a great find. I have only given her 2 of them, one for a potty training reward and the rest will come out over time (a long with a lot of the other toys) or for her birthday. Books, Lalaloopsy and Melissa and Doug Toys So here is the breakdown and total price:

Bjorn Potty
Potty Ring
Bjorn Potty Chair
Potty covers
Barbie Guitar
4 Dresses
6 Pairs of Shoes
4 Swim Wear
2 Sets of Arm Floats
3 School Uniforms
4 Skirts
3 Shorts
3 Pajamas
4 Tops
1 Sweater
1 Jeans
2 Hair clips
Bag Play food for kitchen
11 NEW potty training underpants
2 My Little Pony’s
5 Lalaloopsies
2 My Little Pet shop
2 DVDs (blu-ray)
7 Books
2 Bags
4 Melissa & Doug items
Wonder Pets Toy

Total Items: 78
Total Price: $265

I think I did pretty good! I have also sold more than I spent, so I would call that a success! If you shopped a consignment sale lately, what was your best deal?

Shopping Tips for Consignment Sales

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With this week being the week of kids consignment sales here in Fort Worth, I figured a Top 3 Shopping Tips for Consignment Sales post was in need!

If I was asked, what are your top 3 shopping tips for going to a large kids consignment sale, my answer would be easy.

Shop Early. Have a GOOD list prepared. Have lots of Time.

It’s as simple as that. I absolutely love consignment sale shopping, but really, only twice a year! I have my sale chosen already, Just Between Friends Fort Worth, and I just love them. The sale is HUGE. I always find what I am looking for and I have had great luck selling the majority of my items. It’s a mini (ok maybe large!) shopping spree!

So more on my three consignment shopping tips.

Shop Early.

Personally, I consign and volunteer my time. These sales are run on volunteers. They couldn’t happen without them. You may be thinking, well… I have to work all day, why do I want to go work again in the evening or on the weekends? Because, It’s fun! I have had a blast volunteering for them. You get to check out all the great finds everyone is buying. It’s like you are vicariously shopping through everyone else. And to me, there are two great benefits to volunteering. I get a higher percentage of money on the items I am selling myself. For example at Just Between Friends, I get an additional 10% – That makes a difference when my sales total up to over $200-$500! I also get to shop EARLY! Consignment sales have a number of pre-sale hours before the sale is ever open to the public. Sure, there are still a TON of great items left when it is open to the public, but you should see some of the deals during the early pre-sales! This year I will be shopping one of the earliest pre-sale I ever have, and I’m really curious about what other types of deals I will find!

Prepare a GOOD List.

In the past, I have always brought of list of items I was looking for, but it was unorganized and I always have felt a little frantic when entering the sale. Where to go first? Second? Third? So this year I have put together a much better list (ok, some of it is still in my head, but it will be on paper by the time the sale happens). I will list out the items by priority and section. Toys, Equipment, Shoes, Clothes, etc. This sounds a little silly, as I write it, but when you have over 75,000 square feet of space… there are thousands of items to look at! I am also going to be writing down some rough prices for the large items I want. For example I want a video monitor and toy box. I will write down their average NEW price, so I know if this is a good deal or not. Having the amazon price checker app is great when you come across an item you don’t know, but sometimes it takes up a lot of your time looking all your items up as you shop (with full hands!). So, we will see how this works out this sale, but I have faith it will make my life easier while at the event!

Lots of Time.

And I mean LOTS of time. If you have to get a babysitter, be prepared. I am always amazed by how long I am there. It is easy to get lost in the aisle of goodies for hours (say, 4 or 5 hours)! Between shopping, sorting through all the clothing racks, sorting through all your items and standing in line (especially if you are shopping in at prime time), it tends to take quite some time. You don’t want to feel rushed, is my main point. It is also nice to have some mommy time! During the pre-sales, no children are allowed, so it’s kind of peaceful in a way!

I do spend a lot of time looking through all the clothing racks. At JBF Fort Worth, they have endless rows of clothing racks, all with double rows. There are so many items, you have to look through everything to find the best deals and items!

….

So those are my top 3 consignment sale tips. Hopefully you will find them helpful when heading out to your local consignment sale. I can’ t wait to go shopping on Friday! I will have to share with you all of my great deals!

Do you have a sale scheduled this season? What are your top 3 shopping tips?

Consignment Sale Clothing Prep Tips

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With everyone’s consignment sales quickly approaching, I thought I would put together another post, but this time about Consignment Sale Clothing Prep Tips. When I started the consignment sale for the first time, it was a little overwhelming, I didn’t know where to start. So I thought I would share the 7 steps I go through when getting all our sale items together. When you break it down into these steps, it seems a less overwhelming!

Get your supplies together; here is what you will need:

Zout Stain Remover
White cardstock
Safety Pins
Tagging Gun (optional)
Child Size Hangers (Wire are preferred but plastic tubular work too!)
Tape
Iron / Wrinkle Release Spray (optional)

1. Gather all the clothes that are for this seasons sale. Make sure to check your local consignment sale rules, as the types of clothes vary from each sale, region and season! For the spring sale at Just Between Friends Fort Worth you can sell Jeans, light weight long sleeve clothes, shorts, short sleeve tops, bathing suits, etc. Pretty much anything you can wear in the Spring/Summer in Texas + Jeans!

2. Pre-Treat & Re-Wash: Once I have sorted out all of my clothes I take a close look at each item and apply stain remover to any and all stains. Even though I put the clothes away clean, stains can appear overtime, especially from formula! Zout is my recommendation for stain remover. Zout is my best friend! I have been able to get 99% of stains out for clothes I’m selling!

3. Wrinkle Release: After everything is freshly washed, I iron anything that is wrinkled. Presentation is one of the top things to keep in mind when selling clothes at a consignment sale. The little spring dress or cute pair of shorts may be a great deal and in perfect condition, but if its a wrinkly mess, many people will skip over it. Take the time to iron everything that it needs. It gives everything a much better chance at selling. Note: Some people have mentioned using Downy Wrinkle Release but I haven’t actually tried this so I don’t know how well it works, has anyone tried it?

4. Create outfits (outfits sell better than single items in my opinion) and start hanging them! Make sure you make a question mark with the hanger, so that all the clothes are going the same direction when hung on the long racks at the sale! Note: Make sure all the pieces of the outfit are the same size!

5. Pin everything! Make sure to pin all your clothing to the hanger so that no matter how much it is moved around, it doesn’t fall off the hanger! Clothes that fall off the hanger usually get ruined and then pulled for non-sale When pinning everything together, make sure to hold the hanger up and make sure all looks ok. You don’t want it to fold over so it hides a cute design or makes the item look bad.

Make sure to pin pants on the TOP of the hanger, rather than the bottom. When you pin to the bottom, they just slide all over the place and get lost in the racks, pinning to the top, allows them to stay in place on the racks.

6. Price & Tag: One everything is hung and pinned I enter each outfit into the tagging system online. After all the tags are in the system I print them out and start tagging! You can either use another safety pin and pin the tag on the right shoulder (this is what JBF Fort Worth requires at least)

NOTE: If you have dress that does not fall of the hanger easily, then you won’t need to pin the shoulders. What you can’t see in this picture is that the bloomers are pinned on the back, hence the pins in this picture! If the item falls off the hanger, make sure to pin!

OR you can use a tagging gun. I started using a tagging gun last year and it was much quicker. If using a tagging gun you have to be careful to make sure you tag on a seam on the inside neck tag so that you don’t ruin the garment! Be careful! Note: I place a small piece of tape over the pin or barb on the tag to make sure they don’t disconnect from each other. As far as price goes, price everything at 25-35% of the original price and by brand. JBF has a good consignment sale clothing sample price list that I like to go by. Remember, better brands + outfits = quick sales!

Examples (high-end brands = higher prices of course)
2 Footie Pajamas: $5
Spring Dress: $3-$6
Jeans: $3-$5
Gymboree Outfit: $6-$10

7. You are ready! Once you have cleaned, hung, pinned, priced and tagged everything you are ready to go! I try to separate all the hangers by size so that it is easier to put out on the sale floor during drop off, but everyone has a different method to that madness! This year I will be trying to use a rolling garment rack to speed up the process and reduce wrinkles!

So now your turn - What are some of your clothing prep tips for children’s consignment sales?

Terrell Family Fun

Adventures of Raising a Toddler