Consignment sales

I participated in my first (and probably last) consignment sale this weekend. I was pumped to get rid of some extra kid's clothes that we no longer had a need for. I spent several hours last week retrieving my "gently used" goods from the attic and the spare closet, putting the items on hangers and tagging the items for sale. Plus I made four trips over to the church where the consignment sale was located (about 10-15 minutes away one-way) to pick up my bar code labels, to drop off my consignment items, to shop the consignors pre-sale and to pick up my check and unsold items. All during a week when there was NO GAS in Nashville! So, when I made my fourth trip to the church to pick up my check, I was very disappointed to see that it was a whopping $62.30. That is not even enough to cover my gas for my 4 trips to and fro. Plus, I had to take about 2/3 of the items I brought to sale back home with me. IT WAS SO NOT WORTH IT! Not only did I not sale very much (or make much money), the consignors pre-sale was just not fun. I bought David a fleece jacket by Hartstrings for $10 (new) and a smocked Christmas outfit for $10. Plus, I bought Claire 5 large hairbow for $3 each which was steal.

There was so much stuff, without really having any shopping agenda, I was completely overwhelmed. Plus, Will kept calling me to see when I was coming home since I had to swing by there on my way home from work. Considering what I spent at the pre-sale, I made a net profit of $23.30. Again ... SO NOT WORTH IT. Now, I have to spend more time finding a place to put the stuff I had to bring back home until I can figure out what to do with it. Next time I participate in a consignment sale, I would like to suggest a few rules:

(1) No children under the age of 13 should be at the sale. They just get in the way.

(2) No strollers should be allowed at the sale. This place was packed already without people pushing around their empty strollers loaded with items to buy. Plus, the kids who should be in the stroller are now running loose.

(3) You should not be allowed to grab an armload of clothes from the rack in your child's size and sit over in a corner and sort through it to find what you want. You should have to shuffle through the racks and lose your arm circulation like everyone else.

Over all, I can't complain too much. This sale was expertly run and drop-off and pick-up were a breeze. Plus, all of their profits go to the youth group's summer mission projects. So ... maybe I made a little more money after all with my charitable contribution deduction.