Preparing Your Items

Clothing

All clothing is to be clean, pressed, smoke/odor free and hung, with hanger facing left.  See picture below. 

Clothing will hang & look better (which means it sells better!) if all snaps/zippers/buttons are fastened. 

Please give your items a "slip check"! This means that your clothing will not slide off the hanger while shoppers are going thru our racks. Remember that we have hundreds of shoppers looking at YOUR things & NOTHING sells off of the floor!  If necessary, use safety pins to secure items onto hanger (also a great deterrent for shoplifters). 

Pants must be hung securely on pant hangers that have clips or by safety pinning the waist to the "neck" of the hanger (see picture below).  DO NOT HANG PANTS BY DOUBLING THEM OVER A HANGER, we will not accept pants hung this way...they WILL fall in the floor. 

Try to make sets of clothing instead of single items, as matched outfits sell better and tend to bring a better price.  You can also sell 2 shirts as a set.

REMEMBER, everything must be priced $2 or more. 

Tags should be safety pinned to right side of clothing (see picture below).

 

Make sure you are pinning in such a way that will not pull or damage clothing. If pinning to the right side may cause damage, then pin tag to the size/brand tag in the neck of clothing. 

Place safety pin thru the price tag in the area that says www.myconsignmentmanger.com.  This is just above the price.

Group clothing by size & gender with hangers rubber banded. 

Check and then double check your items for stains....especially white or light colored infant clothing (*we are very picky about spit up stains, we WILL NOT ACCEPT CLOTHING WITH SPIT UP STAINS*). 

Count your items and make sure you have a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 250.  If you have more than 250 items, go ahead and tag them and schedule a restock appointment to drop off your additional items.  Contact Beth@thepickychick.com or at 865.789.7525 to schedule Restock, this schedule is not available online.

* A note about sizing, we size clothing on the sales floor by the first size on the tag.  In other words, if it is a size 6/7 garment, we would put it on the size 6 rack.  If it's 18-24 months, we would hang with 18 months and so on...use this same reasoning when entering your tags.  On items that are size S, M, L choose a number size that corresponds best to it's size.  We do not organize the sales floor with S, M, L sizing...only number sizes to make it easier for shoppers to find what they need!*

Be sure to check our list of acceptable/unacceptable items.  That way you don't waste time on items that we do not accept & it may remind you of other items to sell that you may have forgotten.

**Remember to "ribbon-tag" your Boutique Brands!**  More info here.

 

Click Here to Login & Create Your Tags

 

Shoes

Please look at your shoes with an "outsider's view", not how cute they looked on your child when they where NEW or how expensive they were... if they look dirty or "worn" they will not sell.  Shoes must look practically NEW in order to be accepted...they simply WILL NOT SELL if they don't look Great!  Tie shoes together with zip-ties or use safety pins on cloth infant shoes.  If you have the original shoebox, use it…this is preferred (shoes should still be zip tied together inside the box).  Depending on the shoe type, attach tags with pins or packing tape.  Remember that children will be trying on shoes at the sale...tags can come off and shoe mates can get lost.  Consider this and be sure shoes are securely bound & tagged.

 

Toys and Misc.

Attach tags securely to toys and equipment with packing tape.  Battery operated toys must have working batteries.  Gather loose pieces in a Ziploc bag, tape top of Ziploc bag closed and attach it with tape to the main toy.  Clear packing tape works best, scotch tape does not hold for the duration of the sale.  Insure that the item will not be damaged when the tape is removed.  Remember that children attend these sales and they tend to play with the toys....if pieces can be easily accessed, they will get lost!

Please check your toys against the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's recalled toy list.  Due to the many recent toy recalls, we are checking toys closely and cannot accept any item that has been deemed unsafe by the CPSC.  To make sure your children's toys are safe and find out more info, go to   http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html

Important Note:  Do NOT put tape over the barcodes on your tags!  This makes it difficult for the barcode scanners to read the codes.

 

Pricing

The best advice I have about pricing is to put aside your emotional attachment to your items & try to price items FAIRLY.  Consider what you would be willing to pay for a similar item at a consignment sale.  Also consider that most of our shoppers are very SAVVY, they shop sales & like to get a good deal!!  Who doesn't?!  Our current economy has retail shops offering deep discounts on new merchandise....so keep this in mind when pricing your quality "pre-washed" items.  As a general rule, we have suggested pricing at 1/3 of retail.  With the current environment you may consider a tad less than the general rule.

Nothing should be priced below $2.  Put 2 or more items together to make a set in order to raise the value to $2 or more.  Prices should be in whole or half dollars meaning $2, $2.50, $3, $3.50, and so on.  Items priced below $2 or priced in odd increments will not be accepted.

The last day of the sale, is 50% off day.  As you enter your items, you can choose which items you want to allow to be discounted or NOT to be discounted.  This is done by checking the discount box.  If you place a check mark in the discount box, then that item's tag will print 1/2 OFF ON SAT.  If you do not check the discount box, it will say nothing about a discount & will only sell for FULL PRICE.

*** NOTE: We have used RED DOTS in the past, we no longer do this!! ***

Some consignors did not have color printers & it caused unnecessary problems....soooo going forward, the tag either says 1/2 OFF on SAT  or it says nothing!  Better?? I think so!

If you donate your unsold items (this is done by checking the donate box) THEN you should definitely ALLOW your items to be sold at 1/2 OFF on SAT.  It will be more lucrative to sell everything at a cheaper price than to only sell half of your items at a higher price & then give away the rest to charity. Make sense?

 

Tagging

Welcome to the wonderful world of electronic tagging!  Once you have created your user account and registered as a consignor, you will be able to create and print your price tags using our easy, self-guided tagging system.

Click Here to Login & Create Your Tags

Some tips to remember when tagging....you may want to go ahead & create a few tags then come back and read this...it will make more sense then!

• Do NOT use all CAPS when entering descriptions on tags....this may cause you to overrun the tag borders and you will have to edit & reprint tags.  NOT FUN!
• Placing a check mark in the Discount box means it is OK to sell the item for 50% OFF.  Placing a check mark in the Donate box means it is OK to donate the item at sale end.
• There are 2 Description fields on each tag.  Type the NAME BRAND in the first field and description in the second field...EX:  Gymboree ....in first field.  Pink Dress w/Cardigan-worn once ....in second field.  If your item is new with tags, point that out on the tag!  Or if your item is a unique Boutique brand, you can type this on the tag with how much you paid originally....(Matilda Jane-cost $56 new) this might help justify a higher price AND educate a shopper who may not be familiar with the brand!  Don't forget to put curling ribbon or any kind of ribbon on the hanger neck of boutique brands!! =  Sort your items by GENDER, then SIZE before you sit down to enter them online.  This will save you time when entering items.  The system will "remember & pre-fill" your size and gender fields so you can save time and keystrokes!  * A note about sizing, we size clothing on the sales floor by the first size on the tag.  In other words, if it is a size 6/7 garment, we would put it on the size 6 rack.  If it's 18-24 months, we would hang with 18 months and so on...use this same reasoning when entering your tags*
• Use the Edit Item key instead of the Delete Item key.  Deleting an item also deletes that item number.  When you have deleted item numbers it throws your item count out of whack!  EX:  the system automatically numbers your items for you (0001-0100)...that way you don't have to keep counting how many items you've entered.  If you do delete an item, just remember to account for that in your item count!

 

Printing Your TAGS

VERY IMPORTANT!  Please read in entirety!

• Remember that your tags will have BARCODES printed on them.  It is very important that you follow directions regarding print quality so our scanners will be able to read the barcodes on your items.  When the scanners can't read the barcodes, then we must manually enter the numbers, this is when errors can occur...help us eliminate that by printing nice clear barcodes on your tags!! : )
• Use only 60-67# Card Stock in light colors such as white, ivory, off-white or pale yellow.  Bright colored paper does not allow enough contrast for the barcodes & therefore will not be accepted.  No regular copier, fuzzy or patterned papers will be accepted.  Regular copy paper is not thick enough to hold up against our crowd of shoppers, it will tear and fall off the safety pin.
• Use an ink jet printer and be sure you have sufficient ink before you begin printing.  Dot matrix printers will not print the barcodes well enough for the scanner to read them.
• Use NORMAL or DRAFT print setting.  The best quality setting is usually too dark and causes the barcodes to bleed.  Test print one page of tags to make sure the barcodes are crisp and clear.  You should be able to see white lines between the barcode.  If lines bleed together, then reprint using a lower quality print.
• Once tags are printed, cut them apart & secure to items with safety pins or packing tape.  DO NOT TAPE OVER BARCODES, the scanner cannot read barcodes that have tape over them.  Pin tags through the area that says www.myconsignmentmanager.com, this is just above the price.
• TIP:  Tags print 8 to a page.  To conserve paper, be sure to print in increments of 8!