How to Sell Children’s Clothing on Consignment
I love selling children’s clothing at consignment sales because they generate between $200-$600 in income each season for about the same amount of work as having a garage sale. You can actually make a decent income on the side from consignment sales, get rid of some stuff, and/or have enough money to get your kids some “new to them” clothes.
With that said, depending on the sale, you may find the instructions for selling to be a little overwhelming at first. I hope this article will help ease your mind and help you jump into a little extra money in your pocket.
Basic Supplies You’ll Need To Prep To Sell Children’s Clothing:
Note: this totally depends on the sale in your area so check their guidelines.
- Band-aids
- Between safety pinning everything and using a packing tape gun, it always gets bloody at some point.
- Wire Hangers (apparently you may be able to obtain these for free or little cost at a local cleaner.)
- Safety Pins
- Tip: I get em’ cheap at Walmart.
- Tip: The ones I have bought at a dollar store in the past were kind of dull. My mom showed me a trick though, get out a bar of soap and stab the pin into it and it helps it go through the fabric.
- Light Colored Card Stock (white is the easiest).
- Printer Ink
- Printer
- Computer
- Scissors
- Zip Ties (for shoes)
- Zip-lock bags (for loose items or linens)
- Packing tape (having a packing tape gun helps keep the tape in order so you don’t end up throwing it.)
- Good Lighting
- Some stains are hidden in plain sight unless you’re in good light.
Advanced Supplies: (these are nice to have things)
- Magic Erasers
- Tip: These get most hard to clean dirt, scuffs & marks off toys.
- Bleach Pens
- Stain Remover
- Fabric Shaver– cleanly removes those weird “balls” you get on clothing that makes them look worn out. Sweater Fuzz Buzzer
- A piece of foam
- I learned while working at a high-end woman’s clothing store that you can get a lot of surface dirt or deodorant out with a piece of foam.
10 Steps to Prep to Sell Children’s Clothing at a Consignment Sale
Step 1: Find a local consignment sale.
- Use this consignment sale finder to find one near where you live specifically.
Step 2: Sign up for the local consignment sale.
- Usually, the sign-ups are on the website. In some cases, you may have to stop by the community center, organization, or church and sign up.
Step 3: Find out what children’s clothes, toys, and equipment you can and cannot sell.
Most programs have a list of items that you cannot sell. Most of the time it has to do with recalls, safety, or the ability to clean the item. If you are selling bigger toys or infant equipment I would recommend popping onto a recall list website like Safe Kids so you can see if your product has been recalled at since you bought it.
Step 4: Gather your “Basic Supplies” from list above.
Step 5: Pull all the stuff you wanna get rid of.
- Some people struggle with step 5. If you do, I highly recommend that you read my post, Are You Organized or Just Hoarding Clutter?
- If you want help figuring out how to purge your kid’s toys, I gotcha! Read this post: Strategically Purging and Organizing Kids Toys.
- Think on this: Some things have sentimental value, but it all can’t be that special. Keep the “come home from the hospital outfit” or the “dedication gown” and make some money on the rest so you can buy stuff they can be cute in now!
Step 6: Look over your consignment sale items in good lighting.
- If you see stains, treat them with stain remover or bleach pens.
- Use your fabric buzzer to see if you can get it looking new again.
- Go ahead and wash the items after you have treated them.
- Clean all your toys with a magic eraser to get them looking new again.
- Also, be sure to search the web for recalls on your toys/equipment.
Here is a quick video on how to use a fabric shaver:
Step 7: Get out the iron & hangers.
- The more pride you put into your clothing, the more likely they will sell.
- Make them look new by ironing them.
- As you iron hang them on the hangers.
- You may find for infant clothing that you have to bend your hangers to fit them, but it’s okay cause if they are wire they will bend back.
- Follow any safety pinning instructions that the sale gives to help you keep your items on the hangers neatly (like shorts and pants).
- Also, look for the correct hanging direction. I always forget this and end up having to twist my hangers hook to make a question mark shape so my hangers and tags are all going the same direction.
Step 8: Log-in to your consignment sale account and start adding the items to your inventory.
- Pricing- I have found this kid’s consignment sale pricing guide from consignment mommies website to be very helpful in knowing how to price my items. They have a simple chart broken down my brands.
- Pricing Toys- When it comes to toys, I look the original price up online and then charge 30% of the retail price.
- I try to think like I would think. What would I pay for this?
- Give a good detailed description of your item to prevent “tag swapping”.
- Also remember, that you are only getting a percentage of that price, so make sure you pricing it to get what you really want out of the item.
- Decide if you want to have your item be priced at half price the last day
Step 9: Print & attach your consignment sale tags.
- Follow the tagging instructions from your sale.
- I attach them with a safety-pin on clothing and put a small piece of packing tape over the pin to deter people from switching my tags.
- I attach the tag to toys in an inconspicuous place.
- I use zip ties to attach keep shoes together and safety-pin on the tag.
- I put linens in zip lock bags and packing tape them up.
- I put sippy cups and other loose toys or feeding items in zip lock bags and packing tape the tag onto the bag.
Step 10: Drop off your items, shop and sit at home and wait as the sale does all the selling for you!
- The consignment sale I participate has a way to check my sales online each night after the sale ends so I can keep tabs on my items!
Participating in consignment sales is easy and fun.
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Kim Anderson is the organized chaos loving author behind the Thrifty Little Mom Blog. She helps other people who thrive in organized chaos to stress less, remember more and feel in control of their time, money, and home. Kim is the author of: Live, Save, Spend, Repeat: The Life You Want with the Money You Have. She’s been featured on Time.com, Money.com, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, and more!
