Last weekend, I participated in a consignment sale. Do they have these huge, weekend consignment sales in other parts of the country as well, or just consignment stores? Either way, I’ve been going to the L.A. Kids Consignment sale for a couple years, but this past weekend was the first time I’d ever signed up to be a consignor.
It was pretty fun. And I made some money!
Basically, it’s a like a GINORMOUS garage sale, only everything is baby/kid related and everything is clean and in good condition. I’m a pretty big garage-saler, and while you can usually get cheaper deals at garage sales, overall, the selection and quality at this consignment sale makes it far worth it.
This time, as a consignor, not only did I make some a couple hundred bucks and get rid of some stuff, BUT I also got to shop the pre-sale and get in early at the Sunday morning discount sale. Which meant I got some of the prime pickings of other people’s consigned items.
In the weeks before the sale, I decided to see if I could hit up some garage sales for some cheap kids items and resale them at the consignment sale. I totally felt like a “picker”, thumbing through things at sales, strategizing to score them for cheap. It probably helped that I have a very obvious belly at this point, so I think people were more willing to make a good deal for me…either that, or I’m just really awesome at negotiating, ha ha! I often found that my best plan was to ask prices on many individual items, then bundle a bunch of things and ask if they’d give it all to me for a certain price. They usually would say yes and then I’d walk away with an awesome deal! 
Everything you see here I bought at garage sales. While I did sometimes throw in stuff for myself into the bundles I bought, I think I probably spent around $50 for everything shown. I ended up keeping the play tent/tunnel for myself, and the leather purse and the Leap Frog phonics magnets didn’t sell, so I got them back. But for everything else, I ended up selling it all for $138.50, of which I get 70%, or $97.
So hey, my little investment earned me $47 and a leather purse/diaper bag, a play tent/tunnel and a set of Leap Frog Phonics magnets. Not a bad investment!
The next one of these consignment sales will be in April sometime, but I’ll be huge and pregnant and I’m not going to risk it. But I definitely think that I might consign again at the next one and scoop up stuff at garage sales beforehand again! It’s kind of a fun way to make a tiny bit of money!