Where To Sell

Do you think consignment shops are good places to sell some things?  I have a kids shop and a mens and womens clothing consignment nearby and was wondering if that would be a good place to sell things.  Also, what about pawn shops to sell used power tools?  I have a pawn shop right near my house as well and would like to devleop relationships with these store owners, but only if it would pay off.  It's nice, local and convenient.

Thanks....

put pawn shops on the bottom of the list.


try craigslist, ebay, and your local online paper. 

check ebay first to use it as a price guide.

if not found, 


type the word in the google search bar and go from there

I will hit the pawn shop for fast cash on items that aren't moving fast enough for me. But they totally rip you off. Rule of thumb around here is they sell for 1/3 of retail and pay 1/3 of what they sell for. So $100 item retail, they sell for $33 so they give you $11. 
Same item on CL or eBay will go for $30,$40...$80?

I had a $500 Snap-On socket set, brand new, latest model.  Their final offer was $70.
I sold it by just walking into a auto shop for $300.

With Todd.  Pawn shop is at the bottom of the list.

So, tell me how you really really feel about pawn shops.  Just kidding.  Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it.  I only thought of the pawn shop because it's local but i'd rather get the most money, obviously....

I do most of my selling in the following manner:

Ebay
Flea Market
Craigslist
Word of mouth

I've not yet tried but will prob start doing:

Facebook
Consignment

Most of the time any tools or things that would interest the pawn shop I end up keeping or selling at the flea.

I have a booth at a shop called Southern Pickers that is $60 a month 15% of sales.  Started in Nov. in a small one ($20) and have made profit every month   Sell Quality Items for 3 - 6 times what you get a yard sale / flea market   The owner gets requests that helps me know what to be looking for and works to help me be successful with good advice

Our CL sales not very good    Think because of our area.

Liandra looking hard at that, you have been doing well. Most of our places are $200 and up.

On the consignment side we were doing great and now not so much. Most of the consignment places charge way to much. We have been lucky only charges 20%. But now issues there.

So word of advice get references before you consign. When we were selling a lot we were at the store at least once a week. Now sales have slowed due to the code telling her she can't put stuff in front of the store. When all this happened offered to pick up some of the stuff we have down there to give her more room. NO NO I got it. Store looks good but she has taken some liberties of selling our stuff. Had a coffee table and end table set for $35. I was there when a customer only wanted the end tables, so she looked at me can I bargain? I shook my head, did not know he only wanted the end tables. She sold them for $10, so that is $8 to me.  .  Talked to her yesterday and she sold 2 of a set of 6 solid wood chairs for $10 a piece.  . Retail the chairs are $50 a piece.  She said well it got them out of the storage. We have other chairs there not as nice for $20 a piece.

We don't have the storage right now to go pull everything.....  

Also some of our items are not visibly for sale. Have two book shelves (they were selling like hot cakes) the price tag is hidden on them and she has her smalls on them.

Also I notice that her prices went up right before the code got on to her, so I think both have caused the slow down in sales. We are going to pull out all together it will just take us some time.

So do some research before you consign.

 Thinking about doing the face book thing. Tried to talk her into doing it.  

And looking at a space at antique mall this weekend. (same place we do the Flea Market so convenient).

Good luck everyone.

Update picked up $78 from the thrift. So sells picking up, We lowered a price on a table. And she said things were getting better. People know she is open even without stuff outside. So I will stop Whining. LOL

Our CL sales not very good    Think because of our area.

Liandra looking hard at that, you have been doing well. Most of our places are $200 and up.

On the consignment side we were doing great and now not so much. Most of the consignment places charge way to much. We have been lucky only charges 20%. But now issues there.

So word of advice get references before you consign. When we were selling a lot we were at the store at least once a week. Now sales have slowed due to the code telling her she can't put stuff in front of the store. When all this happened offered to pick up some of the stuff we have down there to give her more room. NO NO I got it. Store looks good but she has taken some liberties of selling our stuff. Had a coffee table and end table set for $35. I was there when a customer only wanted the end tables, so she looked at me can I bargain? I shook my head, did not know he only wanted the end tables. She sold them for $10, so that is $8 to me.  .  Talked to her yesterday and she sold 2 of a set of 6 solid wood chairs for $10 a piece.  . Retail the chairs are $50 a piece.  She said well it got them out of the storage. We have other chairs there not as nice for $20 a piece.

We don't have the storage right now to go pull everything.....   

Also some of our items are not visibly for sale. Have two book shelves (they were selling like hot cakes) the price tag is hidden on them and she has her smalls on them.

Also I notice that her prices went up right before the code got on to her, so I think both have caused the slow down in sales. We are going to pull out all together it will just take us some time.

So do some research before you consign.

 Thinking about doing the face book thing. Tried to talk her into doing it. 

And looking at a space at antique mall this weekend. (same place we do the Flea Market so convenient).

Good luck everyone.

Doing storage auctions consistently is pretty much a "turn and burn" operation. You are just going to have to get use to selling things for the price that will move them instead of what the research says their value is. Remember, most of the items you sell are going to turn up again in your possession anyway if you continue to do storage auctions. I haved started to laugh at myself for getting upset about not getting the money I wanted out of a particular item, then have two more just like it show up in the next unit! The point being, if you really think you can make more money on certain items then go ahead and try to find the connections and outlets for selling those particular items because many of these items are going to show up again and again and again....Until then, just move that inventory and make that money!

I will hit the pawn shop for fast cash on items that aren't moving fast enough for me. But they totally rip you off. Rule of thumb around here is they sell for 1/3 of retail and pay 1/3 of what they sell for. So $100 item retail, they sell for $33 so they give you $11. 
Same item on CL or eBay will go for $30,$40...$80?

I had a $500 Snap-On socket set, brand new, latest model.  Their final offer was $70.
I sold it by just walking into a auto shop for $300.

With Todd.  Pawn shop is at the bottom of the list.

I have taken several items to the closest pawn shop to my house just to flip something quick and get some money, but each time they didn't even want to buy what I had. I just avoid pawn shops all together. The employees at the one by me act like such snobs and if they did make an offer they would be doing ME such a BIG favor!

Doing storage auctions consistently is pretty much a "turn and burn" operation. You are just going to have to get use to selling things for the price that will move them instead of what the research says their value is. Remember, most of the items you sell are going to turn up again in your possession anyway if you continue to do storage auctions. I haved started to laugh at myself for getting upset about not getting the money I wanted out of a particular item, then have two more just like it show up in the next unit! The point being, if you really think you can make more money on certain items then go ahead and try to find the connections and outlets for selling those particular items because many of these items are going to show up again and again and again....Until then, just move that inventory and make that money!

yes We know funny how you get the repeat items over and over again. Not really upset with the price just the liberty of not a phone call to ask if she could sell them for that price. She gets more out of it than we can at the Flea or yard sales. So just ranting (Whining) about the slow sales.   

I don't know anything about furniture/household consignment, but I've consigned clothing for years and actually worked at a consignment shop in high school - you don't get typically get instant cash - but you usually get a lot more than you would at a yard sale or flea market. And it's so EASY - you just wash it and drop it off. Most clothing consignment shops price things at about 1/4 to 1/3 of retail, and you get 50% of the selling price. Most pay out once a month, some charge $1 or so if you want them to mail you a check instead of you picking it up in the store. Most will mark it down each month until it sells, and usually you can pick it up if it hasn't sold after a certain amount of time - but some just donate things after a while.

Most shops are pretty picky about what they take - it has to be in good condition (absolutely no tears or stains), fairly recent styles (but some take "vintage" too), some only accept certain brands/designers. If there's more than one in your area, check them all out - some tend to specialize in higher-end stuff and more "career" type clothes, some cater to a younger, trendier crowd with more mall-chain type name brands. The picky part does seem like a pain - and some can seem a little snooty as they are going over the things you bring in - but being picky does help them get higher prices which helps you in the end.

At the shop I worked at, we had one regular who was a yard sale fanatic - she would regularly buy things and bring them in. She was typically paying 25 cents to $1 per piece - when you figure our prices on even a basic piece were $6-$10, she was making a really good return on investment. She was actually one of our favorites - we could even let her know which sizes/styles we were running low on and she'd look for them.  I'm sure any shop would be happy to tell you what sells best - they're making money when you do!

Not sure how much good clothing is found in storage, but if you like yard sale picking, I'd think it would be a great way to make a little extra money. When I cleaned out my closet after having a baby and leaving my office job, I took probably a garbage-sack bundle of clothes (nothing too expensive because I'm a bargain shopper!) and made about $225 within two months. Defintely better than a yard sale!   

I've tried a few clothing consignment shops and the ones I spoke with only wanted high-end retail items.  I even had some of the Justice cloths from when my girls were younger and they didn't want those.  So I've not tried one since.  90% of the cloths I get from a storage unit are your normal Walmart, JC Penny, Sears cloths.  Or they are rip/stained/crap ridden piles of cloth.

Cobia - I agree with you on the turn and burn.  I do that with the majority of my items.  However, on some items of furniture I'll sit and wait on it then sell.  Had a drop leaf table for $50 that I would have people offer me $10 many times at the flea.  I kept the table instead of selling it.  Two months later I put it back on CL and sold it for $50, with multiple people being interested in it.

Talked to one of my auciton buddies today.  He asked what furniture did I have as he needs more to sell.  Where I can't sell anything in my area he can't keep up (live 30 miles away).  So I'll either sell him my stuff cheap or go 50/50 with him.  So don't discounty your competetion as a resource also.