Ballin on a Budget – The Anatomy of a Consignment Sale
I don’t know about you, but it’s hard out here for a mom trying to keep a kid strapped with style without taking a second mortgage out on your house. Just kidding, kinda. Between rising consumer costs, spills and stains and growth spurts, I feel like my house is a constant revolving door of tiny clothing items. As a new mom, I loved buying every cute item I saw at a store, every pair of brand name shoes or trendy outfit, but as much as I loved that, my wallet did not. It wasn’t until about a year into the pandemic that I saw an FB ad for a local sale, and everything changed. Enter, consignment.
I stepped into my first sale with Just Between Friends – Tacoma and was immediately blown away by the quality of items that I could get at a portion of the cost, and I’ve sold and shopped 3x a year ever since. But why?
Cost reduction: Shopping is expensive. Full stop. Sales like JBF encourage consigners to sell their high end and high-quality baby and kid items for 50-70% off of retail – everything from clothes and shoes to toys, gear, diapers and furniture! I mean it when I say that I wish I had discovered this sale when I was pregnant, I would have been able to get all my dream baby registry items that I couldn’t bring myself to splurge on for next to nothing! Last year I found the main item on Kamden’s Christmas list, brand new still in the package for 90% off of retail – talk about a score!
Make a little Moolah: Sales like JBF put a lot of power into the hands of parents that consign their kid’s items. JBF gives their consigners 60-70% of their sale profits which makes the shopping experience pretty guilt free, at least on my part. Add on the fact that I can typically resell the items that I bought at previous sales once my kid grows out of them and you really can’t beat it!
Keeping things out of the landfill: What I love about consigning is knowing that I’m giving new life to something that may have just been thrown away or tossed in a landfill somewhere else while simultaneously reducing my carbon footprint. I’m no scientist or environmental genius but giving second, third or fourth uses to items keeps them in sustainable use longer, reduces pollution and results in fewer wasted resources - I had no idea that on average a single pair of jeans takes about 1800 gallons of water in the manufacturing process.
Support your community and local charities: JBF Tacoma gives their consigners the option to donate their unsold items to a local charity partner each year with the perk of lower consigner costs, early shopping benefits and the appeal of not having to pick up your items at the end of a sale. JBF’s charity partner is the Wishing Well Foundation that serves local foster families in the area with the essentials they need. Over the years, I’ve been able extra high-quality items through this method, and I love knowing that they’ll become part of a shopping experience that will directly benefit foster kids and parents in my area.
The thought of shopping second hand might not be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s all good in the hood, but I highly encourage you to look into the local sales in your area – I know I was pleasantly surprised and who knows, you might be too!
JBF Tacoma is holding their Fall sale October 17-20 at the WA State Fair SHOWPLEX - Get Free Admission Tickets at tacoma.jbfsale.com/tickets and Park FREE in Blue Lot (on Meridian)!