How to prepare your items for the sale

When preparing your items, please be mindful of the condition that you would want to find that same item in if you were considering purchasing it. The more time you put into making your items look perfect, the more money you will earn.

• If your clothing items have been stored in boxes for some time, run them through a cool dryer with a damp sock to remove the wrinkles and make them more sellable.  Downy Wrinkle Releaser spray is another good option.

• Sneakers that are still in good shape, but have a few scuffs clean up nicely with a Magic Eraser sponge.  Try cutting one sponge into smaller pieces to get the most use out of it.

• Wipe down toys with baby wipes or antibacterial wipes, and if necessary a quick wipe with a Q-tip helps get dirt out of small places.

• Place any items you are grouping together into a ziplock bag and tape it shut.  Tape your tag to the outside of the bag.

All of these tips will help you make your items more appealing to buyers.  Better presented items will sell first, instead of being left to sell on half price day.

Tagging

Follow these simple instructions for tagging all of your items.  Your tags will include barcodes and will be generated through our online tagging system.  Supplies needed for tagging are:

• WHITE CARD STOCK- Card stock is a heavy weight paper (size 8 1/2 x 11″) which can withstand the many hands that touch the tags each sale. Please do not print your tags on regular printer paper, your tags will most likely not remain on your items throughout the sale. Please use white… no blue, green, yellow, or anything but WHITE. Card stock is readily available at WalMart, Target, or office supply stores. DO NOT PRINT ON TEXTURED CARD STOCK – IT MUST BE SMOOTH FOR THE SCANNERS TO READ IT.

• scissors

• clear packing tape

• safety pins (clothing found with straight pins, staples, or clothes pins at drop-off will be sent home)

• hangers (we accept all types of hangers)
  

• ziplock bags (depending on what you are selling)

• hole puncher

• cable ties (AKA zip ties)

Tagging will go quicker if you prepare a quick list of your items along with their size and price you would like to sell them for.  You will need to log in to your Consignor Homepage with your consignor number and password before you can begin entering your items.  Once logged on you may go to “work with consigned inventory” to enter your items.  This system  will allow you at the end of each sale day to log in and see what you have sold. We have a detailed guide to help you navigate your consignor homepage under the Consignor Tab on the Printable Forms page.

• Hang all clothing with the top of the hanger facing like a question mark.  Do not fold pants over a hanger, instead, pin them to the top part of the hanger (the part that looks like this – Λ ).  For two piece outfits pin the pants to the hanger first, then put the shirt over the hanger.

• Punch a hole in the top center of the tag and pin it to the upper left chest area of shirts, and to the left waist area of pants (if the item is facing you the tags go on the right side). ALWAYS choose the location on the clothing item that will do no damage to it, as long as it is on the proper side of the garment.
  

• Make sure all removable parts of the toys are securely taped on so little hands won’t separate them.

• Please do not use packing tape on books, or anything else that will be ruined when it is removed.  Use scotch tape instead.
  

• Please don’t ever tape over the barcode.

Securing  your tags and your items

When participating in a sale of this size it is extremely important that you go the extra mile to secure all of the pieces of your items together, as well as making sure your tags are as secure as possible. The VERY BEST WAY to secure tags on non-clothing items (other than books & games) is to:

• Print and cut out your tag

• Place clear packing tape over the top of your tag (put it over the top half of both the front and back of your tag)

• Punch a hole through the taped area (this creates a strong reinforced hole)
  

• Use a zip tie/cable tie to attach the tag to your item (please leave us enough room to get a scissors through the zip tie to cut it off)
  

This method will keep it from accidentally falling off while being handled, and will also keep it  from being switched with a lower priced tag on a similar item (sad to say, but it does happen). This packing tape/zip tie trick is an excellent way to tag shoes, toys, baby gear, or anything else you can loop a zip tie through. We’d suggest that if a zip ties can be secured to your item, then you should tag in this way whenever possible.

If you’d like to make sure your clothing tags are extra secure, you can take small pieces of packing tape and tape over the pin making it difficult to open.

A Note about Tagging Guns

We understand that tagging guns make prepping for the sale quicker, but PLEASE be mindful of where you place the barb. A barb put in the wrong place can ensure that your clothes won’t sell! Use the tag that is on the clothing or a seam to place your barb. You do not want to damage your clothing and make it unsellable.

The pictures can be clicked 2 times to enlarge them. The first enlargement will have a description of how to hang that item.

Can I use my tags from previous sales?

If you have previously participated in one of our sales, then any unsold inventory that you still have can be found in your INACTIVE inventory. If you’d like to bring any of those items to our upcoming sale, all you need to do is “work with my inactive inventory” on your homepage, select the items you’d like to bring, and click “make these items active”.  That will activate those tags for our upcoming sale. It’s that simple! IF you are going to make any changes to the item (price, discount, or donate) then the tag will need to be reprinted.

 

Pricing Guidelines

While the prices you set for your items are completely at your discretion, here are a few tips to help get all of your items sold. You can also check this Pricing Guideline, provided by ConsignmentMommies.com.

• We recommend 25-30% of retail on most items.  Boutique and designer names may be priced higher, as well as items still with tags.

• Remember, getting a few dollars for a shirt is still better than getting nothing for it, especially when you’ve got a lot of them!

• It is very important to use the item description field to list the brand name of your item. This is very helpful in enabling us to replace a missing tag during the sale, and getting you paid for your item.

• Price to sell!!  Your items will sell on full price days if they are reasonably priced, instead of being left to sell on 1/2 price day. If you do plan on allowing your items to go 1/2 price on Sunday, consider perhaps lowering your full price, even just by a dollar, to make it a great deal at full price.
  

• Let your items go 1/2 price on Sunday.  It’s better to take home 1/2 price than to have to take back items to the closets you just cleaned out!! The goal, of course, is to sell your items on full price days, so again… price to sell!! Please note that our system will automatically mark for “discount” any items that you have marked for “donation” (So if you’re willing to donate it if it doesn’t sell, we’re going to try to at least sell it for 1/2 price on Sunday!).