Storage Auctions
The Storage Locker => General Storage Auction Talk => Topic started by: 39shades on June 21, 2012, 03:17:44 AM
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Howdy-
I've accumulated a lot of clothing these past few auctions. Just wondered what methods everyone around here utilized to move them all? I've been eBaying like crazy on the name brands (which is great), but losing my shirt (pardon the pun) at the garage sales I've had (where they either get trampled to death, or sold for next to nothing).
I don't do fleas (we don't have decent ones where I live), so am hoping for some ideas.
Thanks!
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If you are using Ebay then you are already ahead of most people. The truth is used clothes are a "dime a dozen" in this country, pun intended. You can try consignment stores for the better quality clothes and for the rest try bulk lots on Craigslist. When you get to having a warehouse full of clothes you can condense them into shipping bales and sale them to exporters.
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Sort, bag and donate.
You can either get a tax write off or store credit at places like value village.
I usually go for credit then hold them all and "pick". Turn 100 $1 items into a $30-$40 item that sells fast.
If you don't have outlet to move them, then tun into something you can
Should add that I have 10 pair of " like new" True Religeon jeans I can't get rid of at a decent price.
Going to accept Plato's Closets offer of $22/pair......
Didn't get a single bid on eBay. I know if I keep listing they will eventually sell but I like cash in hand now
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Should add that I have 10 pair of " like new" True Religeon jeans I can't get rid of at a decent price.
Going to accept Plato's Closets offer of $22/pair......
Didn't get a single bid on eBay. I know if I keep listing they will eventually sell but I like cash in hand now
The no sale on eBay might have to do with the fact there are over 12,000 listings for True Religion jeans while there are only 200 for "Dewalt Router" and many of the router listings are for bits, etc.
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Yeah.....kinda my point.
Clothes....hard.....other avenues.......oh, never mind.
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Depends on what kind of clothes. Kids clothes seems to move fast when sorted into groups by size,and girl or boy. My Mom,and her boyfriend are in the process of setting up a warehouse to sell out of rather than just having weekly yard sales.There is a lady that is always buying kids clothes from them. The adult clothes seem to move slower,but they have purchased clothes racks from a local store,they were putting in new racks,so they got them for cheap,and don't have to worry about them getting trampled.
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I donate 95% of the cloths that I get in units to Goodwill. A few cloths that I keep for myself/kids. Jeans and shorts I attempt to sell at the flea. If they don't sell after a few tries they go to Goodwill also.
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I seem to do the best with the clothes on here. But lately sells are slow.
Ebay the best for the name brands. For me anyway not a lot of money but more than at a yard sale.
But at a yard sale cheap is best. I do .50 each on everything but jackets $3.00 and denim $1.00 (did charge a vendor more one time she admitted she was reselling them).
The clothes walk away with little effort. I know it sounds cheap but the more that walk away with cash in my pocket the better off I am. ;D. Also on a selling point at my prices people will look at them.
And on the customer side I usually get paid more for my clothes when people pay they say " Oh that is worth more than that." Only exception are the ones who are counting their pennies but they usually buy more.
If they don't sell off to the goodwill.
Alias300 wished I could trade for a credit think I would be doing that before trying to sell. ;)
Haven't tried Plato's Closet yet. Don't have a lot of high end clothes.
Oh yeah 39shades less is more. The fewer I have the better I sell. Hope that helps.
And the really bad garbage ones I bag up in black garbage bags (the ones the clothes were in to begin with ;) ) and sell as rags for $5 each.
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I've made out pretty well on clothes in a few units but overall clothes are garbage. Like others have said clothes are a dime a dozen. It can even be tough to get rid of name brand stuff like Polo for example. Certain brands sell really well, abercrombie used to sell really well, still decent. The high end brands are where its at. I found a unit with some nice lacoste spring jackets got upwards of $150 for a few of these coats. Same thing with louis vuitton, prada, gucci, and those brands.
I always stored stuff either in a small office space I rent or home and always worries about bed bugs and other bugs and all not to make much money. At garage sales I found myself literally getting paid in pennies. I pretty much bring all clothes straight to goodwill unless its good condition higher end stuff or popular brands and comes from a unit where it looks like people took care of their stuff ie plastic totes not garbage bags filled with clothes
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Alias300 wished I could trade for a credit think I would be doing that before trying to sell. ;)
Haven't tried Plato's Closet yet. Don't have a lot of high end clothes.
Try asking. I had to. Usually a donation just gives you 10% off next purchase. But if you do a quick inventory (20 jeans, 2 suits....) and add it all up using salvation army's donation list (on their website) and say its $500 of donations, can I get $50 in credit, some of the managers are cool like that.
Plato's is real picky. I've brought them brand new Levi's with tag and they jut pushed to side.
They really know their niche and only buy with-in that.
Men's clothes seem to be top line name brands that most guys don't buy themselves but wives like.
After that its name brand business casual. Golf course stuff.
And pretty much if it doesn't have a logo showing they don't buy.
Had a bunch of Kenneth Cole dress pants that run $100 even at discount stores and they didn't want them.
The clientele not only wants name brand, they want people to know they are wearing name brand.....
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F$$K Plato's closet n the dbag kids that work there! I would burn all the clothes I had before selling them a thing! Just my opinion ;)
and yes, I have tried to sell there, what a con job!
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I sell my on my local website caled www.ksl.com The site gets an average of 368,000 hits per day. And its owned by the church LDS and in Utah thats huge. Pleople seems to trust a church website more than say the CL website. I can put some on ksl and its sold with in a few days. Every state should have a site like this. Its great. Here is a sample of the classifieds looks for your self. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=13. Also this is same place auctions are published. Its a all in one place site.
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Go to a lower income preferably hispanic area. find a good spot with heavy foot traffic and shade.
get urself either a portable clothes hanging system or folding table and spend the day there
Working.
sell tshirts for 2-3 bucks jeans for 5 or three for 10.
Ull be out in two trips
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Ull be out in two trips
Must vary by state or regional area anyway.
I have a friend who got a HUGE amount of clothes (all good quality) and he did well with the best pieces from $3 to $50 but when all THAT was gone he took a break from clothing and went with "the usual" stuff.
Then a few weeks later he came back with the leftover clothing. He has 18 tables and maybe 10 "z" racks for clothing to hang.
He put up 10 signs mounted to all his upright shade verticals. "Clothes...50 cents each". He sold what he claimed was $600 worth of those. Note I say "claimed"...that's 1,200 pieces at 50 cents each. Have any of YOU ever sold 1,200 pieces of anything (aside from box lots of 50 of something) at a flea.
He's a nice guy, but I don't believe him for a minute...not to mention the following:
OK, I'll mention them...
1) he said customers then said "how about 25 cents each?"
2) he still had a ton of stuff when I went by later in the day.
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I only sell jackets in the wintertime....athletic team logo jackets, work jackets (Carhardt, etc), raincoats (dressy), ski jackets, hunting jackets, etc. That works for me and and I can't go further. I sell garbage bags of clothes (cheap) to other dealers and let them mess with the "ropa, ropa, ropa !". (Remember, central California is also known as Mexico North).
Just my 2 cents.
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I had all of my cloths for $.50 each at the yard sale. I sold about $10 worth. I had jeans, shorts, leather skirts, etc. Only thing that sold were the shorts and a few shirts.
I pulled out all the shorts and took a full truck load of cloths in boxes/totes to Goodwill. Just tired of them.
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I'm having a yard sale tomorrow and Saturday.....first one in a long time. Anyway, for some reason or another, I've ended up with a fairly large amount of name brand clothes.....way more than usual. Usually I pick out a couple of the nicest things and throw them on ebay, but this time I'm going to run them through the sale and see how they do. After that.......off to Goodwill......I'm tired of storing them!
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Thanks to everyone for a lot of great feedback and information. I've got some new tricks to try now. I surely do hate to toss out money.
And to The Teacher... how did you do at your sale yesterday?
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For me, selling clothes successfully is really about three things, 1.Quality, 2.Customer base, & 3.Exposure.
1.All clothes with any kind of holes, rips, & stains get donated.
Only name brand, department store quality clothes are sold (Wal-mart, K-mart brands get donated).
No undies, socks, jammies, wife beaters, or sweats at my sale.
2. Atleast in my area, you got to find a place where the immigrant community is shopping, or get them to come to you. At the flea market we get
a lot of foot traffic but also a lot of competition. Try to find a way to be around large crowds with little competition.
3. How often are you trying to sell clothes? Once a month yard sale, you will sell X amount of clothes, twice a week flea market (depending on traffic & competition), you will sell X more clothes, find a way to have your clothes for sale everyday of the week, and you will move even more clothes.
I left out price because frankly you just can't beat the marketplace on price. There is always somebody at the flea market or at a yard sale selling off their personal clothes for .25 cents .50 cents, all you can put in a bag for 1 dollar, etc. I have tried the mass pushing of product on customers & it really doesn't work, they are going to buy exactly what they want or need, and it doesn't matter if you are selling them for .25 cents each or 2 dollars each. I have NEVER seen someone start grabbing up piles & piles of clothes just because I was selling them for .10 cents each, just doesn't work. What works is getting MORE individual BUYERS in front of your clothes.