Read this article to see one customer’s experience with selling items to her local store. You can also see the original article with more photos at springbargains.com.
I’ve never sold or consigned clothing before, but with trying to make sure that I’m only wearing clothes I love combined with the unfortunate event of gaining weight in the past year, I had some newer clothing that doesn’t fit well and I thought I’d try consigning it. (OK, not really consigning, where you don’t get paid until the store sells it, but taking it to a place where they give you cash for it up front. But I always think of it as consigning because I always think of these stores as consignment stores!)
I chose to consign at Clothes Mentor, because it seems like a lot of the other stores in town (Plato’s Closet, Seven Status, Hut no. 8) cater towards a younger crowd and my clothing is likely not hip enough! I’d been into Clothes Mentor once, and thought that the clothing I wanted to sell was on par with what they sold.
So, I took a small box of clothing in to see how it worked and if I’d actually get anything for it. They paid me about $2.50 per item the first time, and then after realizing I really wasn’t going to fit in a few things in the near future, I sold clothing a second time and got closer to $3.00 per item. Here’s what I learned.
#1 – They are serious about the two-years-old-or-newer rule.
They really won’t take anything that’s older than about two years, even if it’s still theoretically in style (according to my finely-tuned sense of fashion – ha!). I had a couple of dresses from Banana Republic that were really cute, but several years old, and they passed on them and everything else that was older than two years.
I did figure out that you can look at the tag on your clothing to see when it was manufactured, so you have an idea of how old it is. The tag on side of the garment on most name-brand clothing has a date on it, like this:
I haven’t found that off-brand clothing has the date on the tag, but they also will not take anything that’s not a name brand, so for purposes of selling clothing, it doesn’t really matter. I personally wouldn’t even bother taking in something that’s not a name brand, no matter how cute it is, because in my experience they really aren’t going to buy it.
(By the way, if you are going off the date on the tag, I think that they have a little leeway with it, because clearly stuff that was manufactured in July for a fall line of clothing would be in stores for awhile, so I would guess that it’s probably 2.5 years after the tag date.)
Frankly, I was a little surprised at a few of the items that they rejected, because I knew I’d seen stuff in the store that was older-looking than what I’d brought in, but they clearly know how to run the shop, not me, so I wasn’t upset or offended that they didn’t take some of my items. 🙂
#2 – You need to bring in clothing without any damage.
They don’t seem to like items that have any sort of damage, even a minor thing like a pulled string that could be easily be cut off and be as good as new. So, I would definitely check your garments over well, and clip any loose threads. (I also think that it doesn’t hurt to bring in clothing that’s folded neatly and not horribly wrinkled.)
#3 – They won’t take turtlenecks.
This one surprised be, but I learned the second time I sold items that they won’t take anything with “high necks” (in my case, it was a turtleneck). I asked why and they said they just don’t sell well.
#4 – Expect to get an average of about $3 per item.
When they pay you for the items, they give you a receipt that shows what they purchased from you, but it doesn’t say how much they paid for each item. In my case, the first time I sold items, they bought a pair of shoes, some tops, and I think a scarf; and I got an average of about $2.50 per item.
The second time, I had a couple of pairs of pants and some tops and got just under $3.00 per item. I’m totally speculating here, but I think they probably paid more for the pants and less for the tops, because some of the tops were just t-shirts.
I’m sure if you brought in some really nice dress apparel, you’d probably get more per item, but I wouldn’t expect to get too much more.
One other thing that I will mention is that you drop off your clothing and then have to come back to pick it up and decide if you want to accept the offer that they give you for the clothing that they do want to sell. The first time I did it, they were really busy with drop-offs and mine wasn’t done until several hours later. (You have to pick up the items they didn’t want in 72 hours.)
The second time, they told me they’d have it ready in about 15 minutes – I chose to go run another errand instead of sticking around, but just keep in mind that it could be a really fast process or it might be a few hours, depending on how busy they are.
Overall, I’d say that consigning/selling at Clothes Mentor was a great experience. Since they pay you on the spot, it’s a great way to get extra cash quickly even if you won’t get rich doing it. 🙂 I would totally do it again – hopefully next time because I’ve lost a little weight and can sell items as I’m sizing down! 🙂
Have you sold or consigned clothing?
I’m far from an expert! Please share your tips for consigning or selling adult or children’s clothing!
