Now children’s consignment is an entirely different ball game.  There is definitely a market, and a booming one at that.  We never entertained integrating children’s consignment because that would be like trying to operate two completely separate operations as one storefront – we would have the exact opposite “problem” as men’s consignment.  We decided that we could either venture into both segments and do an ok job at both, or we could work to excel at one.  We chose the latter.

Since I rarely say “never” (as in we will never be open on Sundays – which we will never be ) I won’t say that we will never venture into men’s or children’s.  But for the foreseeable future we plan to make our mark in the women’s industry.  Now down the road if you see another shop that reminds you of ours, be sure to ask if it’s us!  ;-)

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Ty: Like Amanda, I had no prior experience in consignment or retail. I’m a licensed attorney and was actually still practicing law when Amanda opened restyle in 2007. At the end of 2009 I had the opportunity to join in this venture with Amanda, fulfilling our long time dream of working together. It’s been a wild ride so far and we still have a lot to learn, but our customers and consignors make the learning process an enjoyable one–for the most part! A lot of you have already met Zachary, our 18 month old ball of energy. As he gets older he’ll be taking on a more active role in the family business. We can’t wait to see God has planned for us and restyle!

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We opened our doors with some major goals in mind, one of which is transparency–we constantly look for better ways to communicate what’s in our heads.  The general lack of transparency today has grown into full-blown distrust of pretty much all businesses by consumers.  We strive to be open and honest with our customers and consignors about our business so that you always know you can trust us.

So, here we are.  We started this blog a couple of years ago as a way to inform you about consignment in general.  We’ve been on sabbatical for a few months and want to jump back in to the blogosphere with a few more personal posts.  Friends, family, and long-time customers and consignors often ask us questions about our perspective on our little corner of the consignment world.  So we’re reviving this blog with some of those questions and our answers.  Hopefully these posts will provide great insight into our minds as we try to provide the best consignment experience and customer service you have ever had.

And, of course, if you ever have a question please don’t hesitate to ask.  Thanks for riding along with us!

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To help you out, we’ve created a Top 3 list for why you should at least consider resale/consignment for your Christmas shopping.  So, here we go…

#1 – Brand New Items for Much Less

I would venture to say most people don’t think of resale or consignment as a viable Christmas idea.  We get that.  Who would want gently worn clothing for Christmas?  Most people want to see the retail tags on that new piece of clothing and that makes perfect sense.  But who says you can’t find those retail tags at a consignment shop?

We get TONS of items in weekly that still have the original retail tags attached.  Even designer items!  And the best part is that we typically price such items at least 60% off the original retail price!  So you get credit for shocking someone with an expensive gift that didn’t cost you a whole lot.  Tough to beat that deal!

Maybe you don’t want to go the designer label route.  That’s fine.  You can still find lots of name brand clothing and accessories–with retail tags attached–for a fraction of the price you would pay at department stores even during their holiday sales events.  So that $89 sweater Macy’s has for 40% off…you could find that same sweater or a very similar one at a resale or consignment shop for under $40!

#2 – Education and Encouragement Show You Really Care

Have you ever had a friend or family member whose New Year resolution was to lose a bunch of weight?  Who hasn’t had that friend, right?  You want to encourage them to reach their goals, but sometimes words aren’t enough.  Consignment is a great way to encourage them to reach their goals by giving them the gift of a new wardrobe when suddenly their old clothes don’t fit any more.

If they do reach their goals but don’t have a bunch of money to replace their entire wardrobe, take them shopping at a local consignment shop to educate them on how consignment/resale works.  They can sell their old clothes and buy new ones.  They feel great about themselves and you feel like a million bucks for helping them achieve their goals!  Win-win!

#3 – The Most Valuable Gift Card Around!

I don’t know about you, but I love receiving gift cards as gifts.  I can use them at my leisure and get exactly what I want.    In fact, I recently read an article talking about how more and more people would rather receive a gift card or money than an actual gift, so apparently I’m not the only one.  Find a local consignment or resale shop that offers gift cards and buy one for a friend or family member.  For $50 your friend might be able to find several pieces of clothing that they can pick out for themselves, as opposed to half of a sweater at a department store that you’re really hoping they will like.  It’s economic genius!

These are just a few reasons you should consider consignment or resale as a viable Christmas gift idea.  It’s cheaper without loss of quality or style.  Not to mention these smaller shops are rarely as crowded as the mall.  You find the perfect gift and pay only a fraction of the actual value.  What do you have to lose?

Happy shopping!

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Great Expectations

Quite frankly, this is where most people hit a snag when it comes to consignment.  I’m going to be blunt here:  if you consign your items expecting to make what you paid for them originally, you’re going to be very disappointed.  The idea behind consignment is two-fold: if you’re selling, you can recoup some of your original cost; if you’re buying, you can keep your wardrobe fresh and rotating at a fraction of the cost.  Clothing is not an appreciating asset and in fact is a rapidly depreciating asset.  This is true even for items that have never been worn and still have the original tags attached!

Think about it: department stores put their inventory on sale and/or clearance regularly.  So if you bought your shirt at Macy’s for full price and take it to a consignment store to try to sell it, the shoppers there know they can get that same shirt at the department store for a fraction of the full retail price.  Logically then, they will not pay anywhere close to the full retail price that you paid for it.  At restyle, we typically price items 50-80% off the original retail price.  Items with original retail tags attached garner more than those without.  Our experience has shown this pricing structure creates a nice balance that makes the vast majority of our customers and consignors happy.

And don’t forget, you’re going to be splitting the selling price with the shop too!  So, when you’re getting half of a portion of the original retail price, you can see why someone would be sorely disappointed if they were expecting to recover most of what they paid for something.  I’m not trying to discourage you from consigning your things.  It’s a much better alternative than trying to sell your stuff in a garage sale – talk about a lot of work and not a lot of return your investment! – but I want to make sure you have realistic expectations going in.  Consignors are most pleased with their experience when they use consignment as a way to make some money off of items that aren’t doing them any good in their closets.

The Contract – More than a formality

I’m a lawyer by education and background, so this point is near and dear to my heart.  Please, please, please read your consignment contract before signing it!  I simply cannot emphasize this enough!  After reading through that contract, if you have any questions at all, ASK THEM! Is all this emphatic enough?  You should probably have some questions in mind going in, such as:

• How long is the consignment period?
• What is the split?
• What happens to my items if they don’t sell within the consignment period?
• Can I pick my clothes up if they don’t sell?
• How will I get paid?
• What happens now that I’ve left my items with you?

All of these questions should be answered by the contract.  If they are not, ask!   All too often consignors feel caught off guard by a policy that was spelled out clearly in the contract.  The problem is that they simply never read the contract.  When you consign with a shop, you are entering into a business agreement with them.  When you sign the contract, you are bound by its terms whether you read them or not.  Look at it as a partnership and be diligent to know what you’re agreeing to.

Ok, I’ll come down off my soapbox now.  Just remember: set your expectations realistically and read the contract before you sign it.  By doing these two things, you are much more likely to enjoy your consignment experience.  And that’s what we want!  Consigning is a great way to make some extra cash.  So grab your items and head to your local consignment shop ready to enjoy the process!

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Call Ahead

If you’ve never been to a particular consignment or resale shop, it’s always a good idea to visit the shop’s website or call ahead to see what kinds of items they are currently taking.  There is nothing more frustrating than cleaning out your closet and getting all those clothes and accessories in selling condition, only to have the shop tell you it can’t take anything you brought in.  And believe me–as a shop owner, we don’t enjoy saying that anymore than you like hearing it!  You can avoid a lot of anger, resentment and ill will by simply finding out what you need to bring before you bring it.  The better shops will have detailed guidelines to make things as easy on you as possible.

Sort ‘em out

After you have called ahead, go through your closet and sort out the clothes the shop is taking.  Don’t bring things they aren’t looking for unless you just enjoy doing the extra work or are planning to make another stop by Goodwill.  If you’re a shopper, you know people are only interested in buying in-season, in-style clothes.  If you bring a thick leather jacket into a consignment shop in Houston in June, the odds are pretty good the shop isn’t going to take it because no shoppers are looking for that in June.  Likewise, if you bought that jacket in 1978, there aren’t many shoppers who would be interested–ever.  Remember, fashion is changing constantly and just because you might like a certain style doesn’t necessarily mean shoppers in general would.

Clean ‘em Up

Hypothetically, if you walked into a clothing store, picked up a shirt and found a stain, pet hair, sweat stains, or smelled something not so pleasant, would you buy that shirt?  I didn’t think so.  A lot of people have a major misconception about consignment that goes something like this: “People who shop consignment are only shopping there because they don’t mind buying used stuff in not-so-great condition.”  False!  Consignment shoppers are looking for bargains–the exact same item you could find in a department store, but at a much better price.  If it’s only cheaper because it’s in really bad shape, it’s not really a bargain, is it?  In our store, we inspect items thoroughly to make sure everything looks brand new.  If it doesn’t, we either don’t take it or donate it because it won’t sell.  If it won’t sell, what’s the point of bringing it in?

This seems like a good stopping point, so we’ll leave it there.  Next time we’ll talk about expectations and the all-important contract.  Stay tuned!

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So, take your short list of shops, pick one out and hit the road!  When you get there, we’re going to focus on a few areas to give you a good sense of how this shop operates.

Look and Feel

First and foremost, you want to come away with a good gut feeling about a consignment shop.  You should just feel comfortable and relaxed–like the guy to the right in the pool float.  The first place to start is to take a look at the inventory (brands, styles, sizes) as well as how items are organized and arranged and the general appearance of the shop.  Does it look like a place you would like to shop?  If not, turn around and walk out the door because chances are your clothing will not sell well.  Organization is huge!  How happy and relaxed are you when you walk into a store and can’t find anything you’re looking for because the organizational scheme makes absolutely no sense?  Do you stay and shop?  Do you ever go back?  If you walk into a shop and it’s not organized well, that’s a red flag and a good indication the shop will have trouble selling your stuff.

Pricing

Next, take a look at the prices.  Do they seem too high or too low for certain brands?  Consignment shops walk a very fine line with pricing.  Too expensive and shoppers don’t feel like they’re getting a good deal.  Too cheap and the shop attracts the wrong clientele and consignors aren’t happy with their return.  At restyle, our practice is to price items 60%-75% off of the original retail price.  Our experience has shown this practice keeps both our consignors and shoppers happy (which is the goal, right?).

Process

Finally, ask an employee how the consignment process works.  Do they have a process?  Were they able to explain it to you in a way that makes sense?  Do they have a contract spelling out all the terms and conditions?  We’ll talk more about the contract later, but if there is no contract, leave immediately!  No contract means no accountability and that’s a recipe for disaster!

Now that you’ve taken a look around and talked to an employee, how comfortable would you feel leaving your clothes with this shop?  It seems like a simple question, but it’s very important.  If you don’t have a good feeling or just don’t feel like you can trust the shop, you’re experience is not going to be a good one and you should keep looking.

In the next post we’re going to talk about the drop off:  what to bring in, how to bring it in, and questions you should ask ahead of time.  I’ll tell you all the questions we love to hear as shop owners!  Use the comments section if you have any questions.

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The first thing you need to decide is if you want to do consignment or resale.  Lucky for you, we’ve already done a post–Consignment or Resale–on the differences between the two.  As a brief recap, with resale you get money upfront, but probably less than you would get with consignment.  With consignment, you don’t get any money up front, but if your stuff sells, you’ll probably get more for it.  So it boils down to whether you want money now or later, and how much you want to get for whatever you’re selling.

Once you’ve made the consignment or resale decision, it’s time to start checking out websites.  Websites tell you a WHOLE lot about a business beyond just its consignment terms and policies.  At the most basic level, it’s a good indication of just how committed a business is.  In the digital age we live in, a company that chooses not to have a website is screaming lack of credibility and commitment.  Not to say that all companies with a website are good or credible companies, but I just think it’s incredibly difficult to operate in today’s world without a website.  So, if I search for a business and it doesn’t have a website, that’s a huge red flag for me.  Maybe not for you, but it is for me.

When you dive into the content on the website, what you’re really looking for are consignment terms and policies.  You should be able to find something that says what brands and styles are accepted and not accepted, what season is currently accepted, etc.  What you would really like to find is a page dedicated to this with maybe a FAQ section.  A good shop will have all this information readily available so you’ll know exactly what to bring in.

I strongly suggest you look for a shop that limits what they accept to certain brands, styles and seasons.  These are the shops that are tuned in to what their customers are looking for, and as a result will most likely do a better job of selling your stuff.  Shops that take anything all the time either don’t know what their customers are looking for or don’t care.  Both are bad.  Remember, your consignment period will only last for so long.  During that time you want your items to have the best chance to sell.

This post is getting a little wordy and I don’t want to lose those of you with really short attention spans, so we’ll take a break here and continue this thought in the next post.  Your assignment is to create a short list of shops that meet the criteria above and in the next post we’ll get hands on and start visiting some of these shops.  See you shortly!

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The Consignment Experience is going to be a multi-part series aimed at two groups of people:  those who have never consigned but want to know what it’s all about, and those who have tried it but gave it up because of a lack of understanding about how it actually works.  If you try to navigate the consignment world without at least a decent idea about how it works, it can be at the very least overwhelming and at worst an extremely negative experience.  We want you to have the right expectations and a good arsenal of knowledge ahead of time so you can get everything you want out of the experience.

This series will address the major consignment concepts.  We’ll start with finding a good shop to take your stuff to.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you have multiple options near you, there are certain characteristics to look for as well as red flags to avoid.  From there, we’ll take you through figuring out what to consign.  Next we’ll talk about the consignment contract–common pitfalls, important provisions and good questions to ask.  Once you’ve handed your stuff over to the consignment shop, we’ll explore what exactly your expectations should be and how to avoid major disappointment.  Finally, we’ll talk about what to do at the end of your consignment period.

Some of these topics will have lots of information, so we’ll try to break them down into bite-sized chunks for you.  As always, we welcome comments, questions and feedback in general.  We hope this series will be enlightening and will get some of you off the consignment fence and others of you back into the game.  Consignment is, after all, a really fun game if you know how to play it!

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Restyle operates as a consignment model.  What that means is that when you bring your items in for us to sell, we don’t take ownership of those items.  For example, if you bring us a Banana Republic dress, we’ll take it from you, price it and enter it into our system, and place it for sale in our store–all without ever actually owning the item.  When someone comes in and buys that dress, we’ll split the proceeds with you.  At Restyle, we split the selling price with you 50/50.

The resale model is slightly different.  When you take your dress to a resale shop, they will purchase it from you outright.  Then, when someone comes in to buy that dress, the shop will not split the proceeds with you.  The shop takes complete ownership of the dress when it buys it from you, so you are not entitled to any proceeds when the dress is sold.

Clearly there are pros and cons for each.  With consignment, there is a little more risk to the consignor (the owner of that lovely Banana Republic dress) because no money changes hands immediately.  You only get paid if your stuff sells.  But the reward for that risk is that the payout is typically more because the shop doesn’t have to hedge its risk as much–the risk being if your stuff doesn’t sell.  With resale, you get money up front, but it’s typically less because the shop has to cover its risk for items that may not sell. It all boils down to who owns the items during the consigning process.

The decision about which model to use is generally a heavier decision for the shop owner.  How much risk are you willing to take on?  In my opinion, resale is riskier because you not only have to have a really good idea of how much particular items will sell for, but you have to put your money where your mouth is when it comes to assessing the likelihood that something will sell at all.  Consignment shop owners must have a good idea of the likelihood of something selling before they accept it because there is only so much floor space to put items.  However, the price at which items will sell is not quite as important because no money changes hands until the item is sold.  That’s not to say there is no risk in consignment.  The consignment shop owner still invests in the items upfront through overhead costs.  But that initial investment is not as great as the initial investment for the resale shop owner.

The shop owner, whether resale or consignment, should also be concerned with the overall look and feel of the shop, and only take items that fit well with that criteria (more on this in a coming post).

So, which method do you prefer?

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