This was from the fall 2010 sale, but it is pretty much the same - but bigger!
What is JBF (Just Between Friends)? Well its the largest children’s consignment sale in Texas. I had been to a few sales in the past when I was pregnant but this I decided to consign a bunch of baby stuff that Lennox no longer needs. I tagged about 100 items, totaling $800! Along with consigning I volunteered for a 4 hour shift. As a consigner you are able to make up to 75% on your items – I will be making 70% as I didn’t refer anyone who consigned this time around (next time I hope to – so if you are interested, let me know and i’ll give you my consigner #). You earn 65% by default, volunteering gave me another 5%. I was lucky to be able to volunteer as a cashier as well – it was fun to see all the deals everyone was getting! It was also getting me extra excited to go shopping the next morning, as that was when my pre-sale time slot was.
So I prepped, tagged and dropped off all my items (105 items). I left the tagging to the last week – that was not my initial plan, but in the end, I got it all done in one big evening, so it worked out just fine. Some people seem to think its a lot of work for something like this, but really it’s not as long as you plan it out. Just get all your items together, wash the clothes, wipe down the toys and such. Either write down all the items and price or just sit with your computer and go group by group and enter them into the pricing/tagging system. You pick the prices, which is one advantage to doing the sale, rather than dropping them off at a children’s re-sell shop like Kid2Kid. Once I got everything in the system – I hung everything up and got them sorted into groups, printed the tags and pinned the tags on. That’s it!
I dropped the items off on Thursday evening which went pretty well – it would of been easier if you had a set of helping hands, but you can’t bring children so I was on my own without Kyle! You get all your clothing inspected for stains/wear and then you have to put all your items in the appropriate areas. They have everything marked so well, that it only took a few minutes to get everything where it needed to go.
Then on Friday evening I volunteered until 11pm and turned around at 7am Saturday morning and headed back down to Fort Worth to get in the line for the 4 hour volunteer presale (there are two days of pre-sales before it is open to public). It was great! I went in with a small-ish list of items I was looking for and found almost all of them!
The top items on my list were:
- Better umbrella stroller (we have a basic one but its too short to push around for long)
- Shoes
- Pajamas
- Smaller Diaper bag
- Toys for Christmas
I was able to find a Jeep Wrangler All-Weather Umbrella Stroller for $15 – It was just what we were looking for and had a few extra features that the basic umbrella stroller doesn’t.
I got 5 pairs of super cute shoes, one pair for now and the rest for the next size up over the winter – all for $2-4 each.
I got a good group of toys – some for now, some we are putting away for christmas time. We got a ball popper that she pushes around ($3), “My First Purse” that has a little phone, credit card, lip stick, compact, etc ($4), Pink Mega Blocks ($5), Wooden ABC blocks ($5), Tomy Pull Ducks that quack ($2), Wooden puzzle ($2) and Touch/Feel Book ($1).
After going through all the other sections of the sale, I hit the aisle and aisles of clothing – that is what takes the longest to go through. There are so many clothing items hanging up in each size section you really have to go one by one through alllll the hangers to find the best stuff. There was SO many more outfits I wanted to buy, but I had to limit myself somewhat or I would of spent ALL the money that i’ll be making from the sale. I was able to get 4 pairs of fleece Carter’s pajamas for $4-$5 each, some Carter’s, Children’s Place, Gap and Gymboree outfits for $3-7 each.
I found the cutest little cashmere outfit – 100% cashmere with little rhinestones on it – FIVE BUCKS! I couldn’t believe it was so cheap, I had to get it. It will look so cute in the winter on a chilly day.
Lastly I got a winter coat for Lennox – it’s a Starting Out Bear Jacket ($7)- She loved it when we put it on. I had to take some pictures to show, super cute – I hope we have a chilly winter!
Our cuddly little bear - yes she is in her pajamas too.
I got a few other random things, but those are the highlights. Now I just check every morning for the next week to see what items I have sold and then I’ll pick up anything that doesn’t sell and I didn’t mark as available for donating. I’ll hold on to everything else and do this again in the spring. I already can’t wait to sell, volunteer and shop the spring sale!
When I really think about the amount we spent in the 6 months of formula feeding so far has been approximately $50, and that includes a $20 tube I paid full price for!
– Normally $33 ($41 at the store) – (23 cents each) for $10!! That’s 7 cent each!
– 640 wipes Normally $20 (3 cents each) – for $4.22 (1/2 cent each)!
– Which in general i’m excited about because that means that Lennox sleeps A LONG TIME at night! (12+ hours usually). Anyway, they are the most expensive diapers since they are speciality diapers (who knew, there were specialty diapers!) – they are usually $24 for 64 diapers (38 cents each!) but with all the discounts/coupons – I got them for $2.23 (3 cent each!!)
