Need Help Selling My Kids Clothes

Hi W.
I have my own website and let me tell you it's a LOT of work. There's NO WAY we'd be doing this if we didn't desperately need the second income. My husband and I both run it. He does the technical side and I do the buying and selling. Also - the main key to success is updating it EACH and every single week. Go one week without updating and you lose half your hits the next. We've been doing this for 6 yrs - first in Britain - now here and most of my business comes from out of the state. Austinites (I have to say) are the biggest timewasters on the planet. They say they're coming to pick up and never show and never let you know. Also - keep in mind that doing a website costs money too - it's a BIG commitment. You need to pay for the domain site, pay for the paypal fees, pay for the webhosting. And it's very very time consuming. My husband spends the majority of his weekend (really!) taking photos, adding "buy it now" buttons, taking off pics, uploading pics, minimising pics, putting the new pics onto the website with the headings, keeping track and making note of which order numbers have been used etc etc. It's not a hobby - it's a real part time job that consistantly has to be kept up. What you need to consider is what you'll do once these lot of clothes has sold. Are you going to get more? Because if you're not and you just want to shift these then a website is not the way to go about it. Plus - you'll be competeting with people like me (and there's a few of us out there) who have been doing this a long time - look at it as a job and sell brand new Gymboree sets for prices such as $14.99 (really). To be honest - what I find is people don't care whether it's brand new. They want something super cute for as cheap a price as possible - and as long as it's great condition they don't care if it's used. Why pay 60% less than retail from you (plus shipping) when they can go to the store and get it for 50% less and not have to pay shipping? AND they can see what they're getting. 60% off isn't enough off. People won't buy it. I've got $100 dresses on my site that arn't going at $19.99. But I've just lowered the price to $14.99 and I know it will go. Like I said - I've been doing this a LONG time and so I do know what I'm talking about. My advice is - cut your loses and either consign it or sell the lot to someone like me at a loss just to be shot of it all in one whole lot and at least have some cash in your hand rather than it taking up house space, gathering dust and going out of style. Gymboree is time sensitive too - any lines over 2 yrs are going to get harder to shift. Good luck.
T. - www.allaboutgirlsclothing.com

I've done the Mommy and Me consignment sale at the Palmer Event Center twice. They have one in the spring and one in the fall. You have to do some work as far as entering all your inventory online, printing price tags, etc. Go to www.mommyandmesale.com. Good luck!

I think the idea of having your own online store is great. It sounds as if e-bay is not working for you. Also, by publicizing your clothing on this site, I bet you will get several inquiries about the clothes. For example, I am interested in buying clothes for my grandkids from you. Are you willing to have people come to your home to have their kids try on the clothes and buy them? If your prices are 50-60% off retail, I am sure many of us will be interested in buying the clothes. Good Luck. J. K. Do call me at ###-###-####. J. K. :)

Hi W., I have been selling on eBay for several years and I also tried the kids clothes thing. I have tried having sales IN my home, going through resale stores and even considered opening my own resale store (bought the racks, took a class). After all is said and done I think eBay is still the best way to sell your newish, nice label items. One of the keys to eBay, though, is that you have to have LOTS of that type of items listed in your store and you have to have some auctions going at the same time to draw people in. I do better when I have 10-12 auctions going in different categories and about 250-300 individual items in my store. I use the subtitle to tell people about my store and ask them to check it out. I try to have several items in stock that I can just RELIST a duplicate of that will sell for what I need to get out of it.

It is much more about marketing than about the actual items lately. I had some dolls that I had been trying to sell for quite a while and eventually took them off. When I put them back on I did it with a title of 'Top 10 reasons for buying this doll'. They have sold steadily ever since.

Several years ago I bought a guide to selling children's clothes on eBay. The best months for clothes according to that guide are February for spring, August for back to school and October for Holiday items. Ebay will also show you which sizes are doing best if you print the HOTlist from the seller resources.

Shipping is always a pain but after I got a scale and started printing labels from my computer it got a lot simpler and more streamlined. I 'employ' my 16 year old to help with shipping. My 10 year old likes to help also.

If you would like to contact me through eBay, my seller id is mommietreasures. I sell mostly doll and costuming items at this time. I list a few clothes but it's mostly doll items and patterns right now. I will probably list more clothes when the kiddos are out of school and want to make some money helping me.

Hakuna Matata, R. in Round Rock

Try a site called GumdropSwap (http://gumdropswap.com). You can swap from anywhere in the US by sending the clothes your kids outgrow to this kids boutique in CT. It's instant gratification instead of waiting for an annual event lik e"Mommy and Me". As long your things are in good condition they don't turn down anything because of brand, size or season. They take everything unlike resale store like Once Upon a Child! They give you points to shop on the website and send the clothes that fit your kids. It's great if you don't have time, patience or know how to do consignment, Ebay, craigslist, tag sale, etc.

Hello:

I don't really know how to sell clothes but I wanted to throw out the suggestion that if your not making enough money to make it worth it, why not donate to charity? Teaches a great lesson to your children, improves the lives of other children who are in such need and maybe you get a tax write off? I'm not talking Goodwill (where some less than needy folks go for resale), I'm talking about local groups like the women's shelter, Any Baby Can organization, Salvation Army, and other groups through church. Just a thought. Have a great day.

This is a bad time to sell on ebay and try to make money - recession and all.

I would advice you dump the store (and the monthly fee). Wait until ebay offers a listing discount (they had a $0.01 listing special not too long ago). List only a few things (in season and in demand. Like now's a great time to start listing beach wear, 4th of July stuff, summer). Try to list in groups of same gender and general sizing as people will shop other items to save on shipping. If you have the popular name brands (Gymboree and Gap are better sellers - baby clothes in sizes 0-9 months don't sell as well. 24 months - 4T is a great size range to sell within based on ebay's research - you can check that out for yourself on ebay's website), you can start the listing lower because people will bid and raise the price significantly - these pieces always do. Plus listing it a little lower saves you on fees. Sometimes placing larger lots of NWT collections is a better way to go - when I do this, I start low (0.99) and put a reserve on it (also, my reserve is not a secret, I disclose it in the listing). It'll help you clear out more at a time and people won't be guessing what the combined shipping discount might be. The best lots to do this with are those that have a similar season (IE, all summer), same gender and size (obviously), and that you've boxed and weighed to give an exact shipping quote. Gymboree sets of the same line with accessories are perfect for this - they will sell very well! There was one I was bidding on for my daughter that had a disclosed reserve of $50, started at 0.99, ended at over $100! It had 20 pieces from the same line, including accesories and shoes.

You can clear it out - just be patient and smart when it comes to listing.

Craigslist is good for bulky items and hard to find items, but is hard to get a return on NWT items or EUC items as people are expecting garage sale discounts. Also, the baby and kids section is saturated with clothes.

Hi W.,

I know exactly what you are going thru. The fact is you can't get 50% back no matter how nice you have maintained your kids clothes. However, you can take them to another reseller.

Both Tamara C. at www.allaboutgirlsclothing.com and Zoe at Rock-a-Bye Baby have given me a fair price for my top of the line items in the past. They both have been very nice to work with and you also might find some great deals at their shops.

Contact info for Tamara: she supplied in her response.

Contact info for Zoe: Rock-a-Bye Baby resale shop - Braker Lane HEB shopping center, Braker & 183. Give her a call to set an appointment ###-###-####.

I go through my items and only take the very best to the resellers and I donate the rest.

Good luck - K. J.

Hello W.,
Look into the Mommy and Me Sale that happens twice a year. If you put that much into your inventory, this is the place to sell it at!! Consignment stores do not offer what the clothes are worth, at least you can put your own price on them and I promise you, people will buy!! www.mommyandmesale.com is the website and the next sale is in October. I hope that helps.