Top Tips for Consignors
1. Price your items to go half price on Saturday.
We understand this is a controversial topic for new consignors, but consignors who allow their items to go half price on Saturday earn much higher checks than consignors who do not. Saturday is our biggest day as far as sales. Our customers are very loyal shoppers and they know that Saturday is the day to get the bargains. If your tags says Discount: No, then there is a very good chance the shoppers will not even consider it. All of our top consignors allow their items to go half price on Saturday.
On average, items that are discounted will outsell items that are full price by a margin of 3 to 1. I can’t tell you how many shoppers we’ve had at our sale during a discount sale that will put something back on the rack because “No Discount” is on the tag.
2. Price your items to sell.
One rule of thumb for pricing is to price your items 25-35% of retail. For example, if you paid $100.00 for an item, you may choose to price it at $25.00. Then on half price day it will be $12.50. If you have any pricing questions, you are welcome to contact us.
3. Prepare your items so they will be accepted in the sale.
The key is to make your items look as beautiful to a shopper as possible, and it’s all about 1st impressions. Presentation definitely counts! For the most part there are 5 main reasons we reject clothing: stains, excessive wrinkling, worn, dated, brands we don’t accept.
- Stains: Your best bet is to freshly launder your items, then check them over carefully for stains in natural light. We have found that small stains come out easily with a Tide To Go stain stick.
- Excessive wrinkling: We definitely understand that wrinkling can occur when you are bringing your clothes to the sale. That’s not a problem at all. The clothes that we cannot accept are ones that have excessive wrinkles. Shoppers simply don’t want to try on an item that looks like it has lived in the bottom of a bag. Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes in the dryer with a damp cloth to get out the wrinkles.
- Worn: Signs your item looks worn might include the color is faded; it is stretched out of shape; collar, edges, or sleeves are frayed; whites are yellowed; there’s pilling; or it simply looks old and worn.
- Dated: There are classic, timeless items that we will accept, but we do not accept items that are out of style and dated.
- Brands we don’t accept: If your items are from Wal-mart or Kmart, we cannot accept them. For our full list, please see the Consignor Guidelines found on the Forms page.
4. Do not attach your clothing (or tags) to the hangers for any reason.
Shoppers love to try on the clothes, and if they have to go through extra steps, they might just pass over your items. Nothing screams, “Don’t try me on” like a piece of clothing that is zip tied or pinned to the hanger.
To keep tops from slipping off of the hanger, try:
- wrapping a rubber band around the end of the hanger to create a non-slip surface.
- zig zag your hot glue gun on the end of the hanger to make a non-slip surface.
If you do not have the clip style hangers that we require for all skirts and pants, we have some you may use. We do have a lot of pant hangers, but they are on a first come, first serve basis.
5. Check your email during the sale
Because we are unable to sell items that are tagless, we do our best to keep everything properly tagged. We have an amazing team of volunteers who help lost tags find their way back to the correct item. However there are always some tagless items that customers want to purchase. When this happens, we send out emails with photos of the items so that we can find the consignor. You’d be surprised at the number of shoppers who are willing to make several trips back to the sale for an item they’ve fallen in love with.
6. Ask questions!
If you aren’t sure, please ask us. We promise you are not bothering us, and we are never too busy to answer your questions. We want you to have a great experience with Designer Consignors and we are here to help you every step of the way.
