Once upon a Child

Hi L.,

the Once Upon a Child by me in Bolingbrook is awful. I dont think anything has been cleaned. I saw toys with food gunk stuck in crevices and some gunk that wasn't stuck in hard to reach areas. bleh! I mean, I know any mother would clean it before letting their child use it, but I can't shell out money for something purchased at a business that is dirty and nasty like that.

If you are looking for used items to purchase, I would consider craigslist or hit the garage sales, which should start up soon with nice weather coming.

I have used craigslist to sell a few items. Our snowblower - I got 350$ for it. And I re-homed our ferrets there as well to a nice 13 yr old girl who already had ferrets.

I do plan to also go there when we sell our appliances (we're redoing our kitchen and replacing with stainless) and I have a Barbie collection (seriously - my famly took the barbie thing way too far when my kids were little and now I have close to 200 Barbies still in boxes). And when it's time to get rid of our baby gear, I'll be hitting there as well.

Good luck to you!

I've bought items from the one in Joliet and like the store alot. The Bolingbrook and Naperville stores aren't top notch. They are both kind of gross and they aren't nearly as organized or clean as the Joliet store. You could probably get better money selling through a garage sale but if you don't have the time for that....

I have sold some things to and bought some things from. Generally what they do is go through your items and if they think that it is something they we be able to sell they will make you and offer. In my case it has not been a lot of money. For example I purchased a swing from them for $21 and when I sold it back they gave me $11. So it seems that they give about half of what they mark it for. Everything they buy and sell is either new or gently used they say they prefer to feature items that have been in retail stores within the past five years.

check out their website at www.ouac.com

I have sold to Villa Park, Orland Park and Joliet. You take in your stuff, they look it over (really closely) and pay you cash on the spot. Villa Park used to give you more for your stuff if you took store credit over cash but I don't know if they still do. The return isn't a ton of money but you do avoid the hassle of a garage sale. What I've done also is sell them what they'll take and then sell the leftovers at a garage sale. I sell to them a lot...I figure my time dealing with the hassle of a garage sale is so high that it is worth just selling the stuff to Once Upon a Child outright.

try www.kidscloset.biz to consign in April 2010. You make 70% of your selling price. =)

You bring stuff in and they "appraise" it. They only give you half of what they will sell it for. They only wanted to give me $18 for a double stroller that was literally used 2 times! I haven't sold anything to them. I think a garage sale might be better. But if you don't want the hassle, at least it is something. Good luck!