Resigned To Consignment
Earlier this year, I decided to get rid of everything I own—including most of my clothes. Since making that decision, I’ve officially downsized my wardrobe from nearly 300 garments, shoes and bags—collected over the past decade—to about 60 at last count through a combination of gifting to my friends, clothing swaps, donations (both directly to local orgs and to local thrift stores) and consignment.
As of writing this, I’ve given 106 items over to consignment via The RealReal, ThredUp, Buffalo Exchange, Crossroads, and a local place called Trove. Some have sold, some have been returned, some are waiting for someone to take a chance on them.
For those unfamiliar with what exactly consignment is: it’s where a store or platform either pays you for your items up front and sells them for you, or takes your items and pays you for them as they sell. Most have a tiered payout schedule where the higher something is priced, the higher your cut, but not all.
The thing to remember about consignment is that it’s probably not your best bet if your goal is to make as much money off your stuff as possible. By outsourcing the labor it takes to photograph, list, sell, and ship items through an online platform, or taking it to a physical shop that has to pay for rent and employees, as well as storage, marketing, and, occasionally, transport for items that don’t sell—I am opting for convenience, and that convenience comes at a price.
In addition to the cost of resale-as-a-service, most of us go to sites like The RealReal or ThredUp, or walk into Buffalo Exchange or Crossroads with the express purpose of getting super cool stuff for 75-90% off retail. So, when it comes time to consign our super cool stuff, you just kinda have to accept that it’ll be priced at…75-90% off retail.
I’m not saying this to be preachy (for once). These are things I myself had to internalize through this process. Would I have preferred to make more money off my super cool stuff? Absolutely. Was I prepared to do the work to ensure I received the most money for my super cool stuff? Absolutely not. How much did I actually make? Keep reading and I’ll tell you.
