May

27

ConSIGNing Your Life Away!

Filed Under Shopping | 1 Comment

consignment shopMost Saturday mornings, weather and travel schedules permitting, my friend Judith and I scour the local yard sales, searching for treasures and exploring new neighborhoods, and generally having a fun girls’ day,  I have a few times mentioned my addiction to yard sales, thrift shops and the like.  Over the next few weeks we will be visiting a few of these, and we will be providing you with the best ways to find what you want and get it at the price you want.  Starting with the easy stuff, let’s talk today about Consignment shops.

 

Consignment shops are usually nicer than thrift shops and are the best place to start when you have a special occasion and want to wow the crowd. Most good consignment shops offer top-quality, barely used expensive stuff, like LV bags and CK and DK dresses, at a fraction of their original prices. Most of these items have been very gently used, and some have never been used at all, and are actually being sold because of that — maybe they never fit or looked quite right on the original owner, sometimes they’re just out of date (often by only one season, so who cares?).  Sometimes these shops are private, and sometimes they’re affiliated with charities.  Whichever way you go, you’re sure to get a great buy if the store happens to have something that’s right for you. (Plus, if they are charity-connected, you may be able to write off the purchase as a donation.)

 

A few tips:

1) Shop in good neighborhoods.  You’re more likely to find better items.  These stores usually will not accept anything that’s too out-of-date, and generally insist that items be clean and ready to wear.

2) Find out the favorite charities of your socialite neighbors, and shop at the stores that benefit those organizations. (Of course, careful if you attend their functions that you’re not wearing the chairperson’s dress from last year!)

3) Know your size and, wear proper undergarments, and as always, don’t buy anything if it doesn’t fit or needs too much work. 

4) Be prepared for high but fair prices.  These are not thrift stores.

5) Don’t get carried away by things that don’t fit your lifestyle or budget.  You may fall in love with that Versace gown, but will you really ever have a place to wear it? 

6) If you’re shopping for furniture, bring your measurements and your tape measure.  Consignment shops usually sell all items final sale, and if you snooze, you lose.  Be prepared to pay up, or at least leave a deposit, on the spot.  

Following, compliments of Readers’ Digest, are thirteen things your Consignment Shop proprietors won’t tell you. 

1. They love an economic downturn. Some shops are seeing sales up 35 percent from last year.  This makes them less open to bargaining, so be prepared — know your values.

2. Their margins are shrinking like everybody else’s: Consigners want higher prices, and shoppers want lower ones.  So again, be ready.

3. If you’re donating or selling, your items need to be in nearly new condition. Don’t bring a cookie sheet with crumb-and grease sludge in the corners.  Even you don’t want your old crumbs. (Unless it’s Big Crumbs — click for info).

4. Check out the store before you bring in your items. Make sure it’s a good fit for your stuff.

5. “Nice” and “Salable” are not always one and the same. Know the difference and don’t be pushy!

6. People shop consignment stores because they want a bargain.  While your antique whatever may be worth $250 at an antiques auction, if the dealer tells you they can get $75, take their word for it or sell it yourself.

7. If you sell it yourself, you’ll probably get a better price from eBay than craigslist. But online selling is labor-intensive (photographing and describing items, handling sellers’ questions, dealing with the post office) so measure the time/money ratio.

8. Do not bring designer knockoffs. Neither of you want  to go to jail for selling fake merchandise.

9. Charitable shops run by volunteers can pay consigners a higher percentage: sometimes as much as 75 percent instead of 40 to 50.

10. Clean out your closet before the season begins; that way, your fur coat or wispy sundress gets the best chance to sell.

11. There are some things you should never buy at these shops — children’s car seats, for instance. For all you know, that car seat’s already survived a crash or fallen off the roof of the minivan two or three dozen times.

12. Bigger sizes sell faster. If it’s a size 14 and classic, it’ll sell. If it’s a size 6 and classic, it’s harder.  If you’re a size 6 and you’re shopping, you’re in luck.

13. Avoid weekends if possible.  It’s like amateur hour for bargain shoppers.   I like Monday to Wednesday, when the weekend donations have been sorted.

Here’s another 13 from Readers’ Digest’s website:
1. This usually isn’t the place to make a fast buck. Some shops issue checks quarterly—and pay you only if your item sells.
2. Some of the merchandise is brand new: Besides the private donations, when a boutique goes out of business, the stores often pick up the inventory to sell it to you.
3. The recession means times are changing, and so is inventory. Women’s suits and formal wear aren’t selling the way they used to, but smaller furniture for smaller houses is in demand.
4. The stores are not testing toys for lead. Retailers have to, but re-sellers are exempt. Buyer beware.
5. If you get belligerent with any seller, they will not want to build a working relationship with you.
6. Please don’t leave “donations” outside the shops .
7. A Wedgwood urn with a little chip? The stores can probably work with that. They do need complete sets of buttons, working zippers and the rest.
8. If the store says, “That’s adorable, but I don’t have a market for it,” take the hint. They’ve probably been doing this a long time, and they know what will move. It’s not personal, it’s strictly business. 
9. Don’t donate what you wouldn’t use yourself.  They don’t want your garbage, they want your good stuff!
10. Consignment shopping is probably the only consumption that’s environmentally friendly: When you buy an item you’re keeping it out of the landfills, where an estimated 85 percent of used clothing winds up every year.
11. Sometimes it’s a fine line between “vintage” and “hideous.” Jodi Miller of Designer Renaissance asks herself, “First, is it icky? Some materials of old just seem flammable and you can’t see anybody ever wearing it.”
12. Ask about the store’s markdown policy. Designer Renaissance in Nashville puts merchandise on sale every Thursday: If an item hasn’t moved at full price after five weeks, it’s marked down 25 percent, the next week it’s reduced 50 percent, and the week after that 75 percent.
13. Sometimes it is personal: We get to know you through what you buy and what you discard due to boredom, bad karma, or your metabolic ups and downs. “I’m growing old with some of my customers,” says Miller of Designer Renaissance. “When they’re dating they get all these hottie clothes, then they get married and you don’t see them for a while, then in their later 30s their sizes start changing every year, so I get them again. We discuss medical problems, emotional problems, who the good divorce lawyers are. This job’s a blast.”
For more ideas on shopping, please click here.  Keep reading here for more detailed info on garage and yard sales in the coming weeks.

May

21

A Moving Tale

Filed Under Saving Money | Comments Off

for rent signAlmost a year ago, the hubby and I needed to rent a new apartment, so we started hunting.  The goal, of course, was to get the best possible apartment for the best possible price.    You may have heard that there’s something of a housing crisis, and it’s worse here in Sunny Fla. than in most other places.  But of course, the other side of crisis is opportunity, and the word was that there is a big gap between asking prices and selling prices, and rental prices too.  And with all the new building going on, there were TONS of rentals.  

 

So here’s the upside of the real estate downturn: so many landlords have so many homes and apartments that they’re trying to keep afloat that they’re often VERY negotiable on price.  And other things as well. 

 

We looked around at many of the new buildings in and around Miami, and were surprised to see that many of the asking price for rents were nowhere as low as we expected.  But, simply by asking “can you do any better on the rent?”  a great percentage of them said yes.  We got offers for free months, gift cards for furniture and design stores,  free cable and internet, even upgrades.  But  the newer buildings we saw didn’t even have room for all our stuff, and that was the deal breaker. Do they think that everyone has multiple homes? 

Anyway, after seeing probably 20 apartments, we found one that definitely fit our parameters:  A newly renovated apartment in a very well-run older condo building on the water, with huge rooms and tons of closet space, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, open kitchen, 7 closets, lots of amenities, and the clincher, a wrap around terrace with a million dollar view.

 

But, the apartment was fully furnished, and the entire great room, living room, kitchen and hallway was painted a jarring Pepto-Bismol-Pink.

 

All workable, with just a request — the furniture was removed, and we got a credit on our rent for painting the apartment a beautiful, soothing beige the color of coffee ice cream.

 

So here we are in a beautiful waterfront apartment for far less than we would have paid a year or two ago.  My biggest problem now is that, as a native New Yorker, I am great with living in small spaces — this was the first time I had to figure out how to fill all these big rooms. Not a bad problem, huh?  It took a few tries and arrangements, but it’s done, and it’s so fun to be able to have a room where you can actually walk between the furniture and the wall. 

 

Here’s another Moving Story: My friend Judith was moving at the same time, and found a new, really big loft apartment on the Miami Bay.  But after less than a year, the apartment they were renting went into foreclosure. Asking around in their building, they found an almost-identical apartment two floors above them, on a corner, with extra windows, which had never been lived in and was not quite ready to go.  Judith’s husband, the ever-handy Randy, offered work in exchange for rent, so exchanged three months’ rent for painting, buffing the marble floors and putting up window treatments.  And did I mention that the rent was $450 less per month? 

 

The apartment we live in now has just been sold, and the new owners want us to stay.  But it has come to my attention that we can find something nearby, not quite as nice but not bad, for slightly more than we’re paying now.  So when they take over, we will start negotiating. I will report on the progress.  So remember, always ask!  Meanwhile, enjoy the view!Million Dollar View

 

 

For more about decorating on a budget, click here.

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