I started working in the resale industry spring break April of 1997 for Bonnie Kallenberg, owner of Finders Keepers Consignments. This was a simple week long spring break gig that I only got because my mother begged her to allow me to work for the break. What is most notable about this is that she didn’t ask once but multiple times. If you have ever met my mother you know the word tenacious is an understatement. Needless to say Bonnie relented and thus began my life long journey in the world of consignment. Did I know that as a arrogant teenager NOPE, could I have guessed what would have followed – not in a million years!
What started as a spring break job quickly turned into a fun after school and summer job I carried on for almost 5 years in between the other 3-4 jobs I also worked. Yes I came from the generation that worked several jobs at once while in school and it was totally normal because everyone I knew was doing the same thing. We would all laugh and see who had been up the longest without going to sleep – I think my record was shy of 3 days, youth man I miss that energy some days.
While working for Finders Keepers I distinctly remember being intrigued by all of these people who would come in and have hundreds of items to sell and it obviously wasn’t their items. They would come in once or twice a week drop off a large load of random assortment of items and then pick up rather impressive weekly checks. I asked the store manager at the time Betsy what they were doing and she informed me that those were pickers. A picker was someone who searched out items for a low price to resale, often at yard sales or thrift stores. Remember it was 1997 thrifting wasn’t cool then and people often shyed away from “those” stores since they smelled funny and only poor people shopped there. My have times changed.
I was intrigued by the whole process and wanted to try it but with such limited funds I found that I couldn’t afford to buy items for $5-10 a piece with the hopes that they would sell. I quickly found my niche in children’s clothing. I could buy it in bulk at yard sales form $.25-$1.00 a piece and resell them for $5-$10 which was giving me a huge return for my investment. I found most of my items at yard sales- waking up early in the morning 3am, 4am and hitting the road. Most days I would be done by 8am and have a car full of items. I would then head head and my mother would help me wash, fold and sew anything that needed to be fixed and on Saturdays I would go in before the store opened and before I clocked in to price and hang and process all my finds. The store split was 50/50 so it was imperative that I find items I KNEW would sell.
Eventually what later became my selling platform. My store moms Betsy and Patsy would come in early with me and price, sort and hang the clothing so we would put out hundreds of pieces before the store even opened. I did this for years eventually getting to the point where I would yard sale Thurs-Saturday for 3-5 hours and then go to my normal jobs. I expanded my business by storing off season bins of clean and ready to process clothing in my mothers garage. (this was a big risk for me because it was sitting money I was banking on) I credit this whole process with being my ground floor roots of really learning the industry, the hustle and pricing. To this day I hardly looking at items of any kind and don’t immediately add up what the resale value is. The last summer I did this I made over $10,000 from the consignment store from stored items alone. It was the school of hard knocks and I loved it – thrived on it in fact. I remember being in my tiny studio apartment I rented from my collage professor and my boyfriend “who later become my husband” coming in and asking me what all the piles of clothes were in my room. I used to say “investments”.
The biggest haul to date was a massive estate sale I came upon and knew I could triple my profit on. I called my mom and borrowed $1500 to buy what I knew would sell – which was designer purses and at the time vintage mink wraps. It was well worth the payoff. That one haul netted me well over $7000 and was exhilarating. Less than 6 months later I was a store owner.
More to come on that subject later.
MAM 