Someone asked if the return is worth the time involved even if you don't have a lot to consign. My opinion is yes. Most of my TotSwap friends don't consign the number of items I do, but they are all pleased with their payment at the end. :-)
It is really easy to do the "process" to enter the items, print the tags, cut them out, and put them on your things. You will be amazed at how quickly your item count will go up!
You get a 50/50 split if you volunteer 1 shift or not at all but your split increases if you volunteer for 2 shifts so it is worth it to do the two shifts to increase your return. And, of course don't forget that you will then be one of the first folks through the door to shop on Thursday night! :-)
So let's say you end up getting 200 items into the system and dropped off at the sale. Let's say that everything you have consigned is Gymboree outfits and you've priced them all at $8 an outfit (a very reasonable price for an outfit, and likely to sell). If you were to sell everything, and volunteer for 1 shift, then you would take home $800. Even if you only sold 1/2 of your items, you would take home $400. All this for one evening in front of the computer entering items and one or two evenings tagging your items. I don't think that is a bad investment of time, do you?
So yes, in my opinion, even if I weren't going to have 1000+ items, it would still be worth my time to enter things if they are in good shape and likely to sell.
Friday, March 27, 2009
WHAT? The sale is NEXT WEEK??
Oh my gosh! I need to get a move on! I haven't even deposited my check from the Gaithersburg sale yet and the Timonium sale is in just a few days!
Well I know what I'll be doing this weekend! Step 1 is to transfer all of my remaining items over from the Gaithersburg sale. Step 2 is to enter the things I had meant to enter for Gaithersburg but ran out of time to do. Step 3 is to do a good search of the play room and see what else we've outgrown or just don't use any more and get that entered into the system. I'll save actually tagging things for Monday and Tuesday night while I'm sitting in front of the TV multitasking :-)
My husband was delighted with how much I sold, and more importantly got out of the house, at the Gaithersburg sale. I've been joking with him that by the end of the Howard County (aka Columbia) sale, I hope to have sold enough that we'll only have a bin or two to go into the attic to await next springs' sales.
BTW, because I do pick up my stuff and transfer it over to the next sale, one of the things that I find REALLY helpful is to mark my tags so I can easily recognize them whether they be on a table or on a rack. I use little stickers and I cut the tags with craft scissors so it isn't just a straight cut edge to the tags. This way a quick glance is all it takes. I've seen folks use a marker to write a line through their tags, or a stamp to mark all their things, as well as an assortment of stickers. I tend to consign a lot of books and it makes it really easy to just flip through the books that are left and see mine quickly because I can't always remember the titles I brought and there are sometimes multiple copies of the same one.
So on to step 1...
Well I know what I'll be doing this weekend! Step 1 is to transfer all of my remaining items over from the Gaithersburg sale. Step 2 is to enter the things I had meant to enter for Gaithersburg but ran out of time to do. Step 3 is to do a good search of the play room and see what else we've outgrown or just don't use any more and get that entered into the system. I'll save actually tagging things for Monday and Tuesday night while I'm sitting in front of the TV multitasking :-)
My husband was delighted with how much I sold, and more importantly got out of the house, at the Gaithersburg sale. I've been joking with him that by the end of the Howard County (aka Columbia) sale, I hope to have sold enough that we'll only have a bin or two to go into the attic to await next springs' sales.
BTW, because I do pick up my stuff and transfer it over to the next sale, one of the things that I find REALLY helpful is to mark my tags so I can easily recognize them whether they be on a table or on a rack. I use little stickers and I cut the tags with craft scissors so it isn't just a straight cut edge to the tags. This way a quick glance is all it takes. I've seen folks use a marker to write a line through their tags, or a stamp to mark all their things, as well as an assortment of stickers. I tend to consign a lot of books and it makes it really easy to just flip through the books that are left and see mine quickly because I can't always remember the titles I brought and there are sometimes multiple copies of the same one.
So on to step 1...
Monday, March 16, 2009
One Down...Two to Go !
Wow! What an amazing weekend at the Gaithersburg sale! It was SO busy, especially during the presale! In the end I didn't make my goal of having 1500 items for sale, but I came close with about 1400 :-) If I'm doing my math correctly, it looks like I sold about 58% of what I brought (or about 809 items). Of course, I bought quite a bit too, but that doesn't count :-)
By far, one of the biggest perks to volunteering is getting to shop early. I really like the staggered entry that Robyn did this season. 8 hour/8 hour+ volunteers get in at 4:30, 4 hour volunteers get in at 5, consignors get in at 6, and new moms at 7. If you haven't volunteered before, you should really consider it. Tasks aren't difficult and there is always someone to ask if you have a question. If you can't fit exactly into one of the shifts on line, go ahead and send Denise (the volunteer coordinator) an email and tell her what you are proposing and she'll work with you to sort it out. You will be amazed to see how much sells in just that first hour before the consignors get to shop!
Now I'm getting geared up for Timonium! Transferring items over in the system is easy and takes almost no time so hopefully I'll fine a few minutes to do it this weekend. Sure it is a bit further for me to drive to Timonium, but it is worth it because historically I've sold even more at Timonium than I have in Gaithersburg! This weekend I'll scour the house to find more things to sell (have I mentioned that I have a shopping problem? (LOL) I figure I can come up with another 100 items between the toys, puzzles and books we have around the house...
And what doesn't sell in Timonium will head on to Howard County!
By far, one of the biggest perks to volunteering is getting to shop early. I really like the staggered entry that Robyn did this season. 8 hour/8 hour+ volunteers get in at 4:30, 4 hour volunteers get in at 5, consignors get in at 6, and new moms at 7. If you haven't volunteered before, you should really consider it. Tasks aren't difficult and there is always someone to ask if you have a question. If you can't fit exactly into one of the shifts on line, go ahead and send Denise (the volunteer coordinator) an email and tell her what you are proposing and she'll work with you to sort it out. You will be amazed to see how much sells in just that first hour before the consignors get to shop!
Now I'm getting geared up for Timonium! Transferring items over in the system is easy and takes almost no time so hopefully I'll fine a few minutes to do it this weekend. Sure it is a bit further for me to drive to Timonium, but it is worth it because historically I've sold even more at Timonium than I have in Gaithersburg! This weekend I'll scour the house to find more things to sell (have I mentioned that I have a shopping problem? (LOL) I figure I can come up with another 100 items between the toys, puzzles and books we have around the house...
And what doesn't sell in Timonium will head on to Howard County!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Even the best laid plans...
Okay, so I've mentioned that I work full time. Which means, in real terms, that I only have the weekends to plan big blocks of time to focus on TotSwap. I can squeeze an hour or two out at night but my big chunks of time come on the weekends. Well, last Saturday we were involved with an examination at the martial arts school where my husband and I train and all the activities of our kids which left only Sunday for my TotSwap time. So the plans were laid...my husband was going to take the kids out to a movie and to lunch and I would get a good solid 3 hours and maybe more. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. My poor husband woke up with a kidney stone and spent most of the day in the emergency room. He still hasn't passed the stone and he is doing all he can to help out, but it has been a LONG week of trying to get all the routine things done around the house never mind trying to do TotSwap things on top of it.
Well, my husband decided that he was going tough it out and give me some time today to do my TotSwap stuff. I started early, as soon as Consignment Manager had finished their daily maintenance at 8:30. The system was SO slow that I finally gave up and rebooted my computer thinking that it was a problem with my system. Nope, it looks like it is the Consignment Manager system that is having issues because I just got a message that it is down for maintenance when I just tried to get back in.
That's okay, I can roll with this... Instead of putting things in the system now, I will start collecting things to sell from the basement playroom and moving them into my guest bedroom (my staging area). Of course, this plan will have to work a bit around the kids who are playing in the basement right now :-) I planned to get down there one night this week anyway to pull things so I might as well start now.
It dawned on me a couple of days ago that there is only 1 1/2 weeks to go before drop off begins on Wednesday the 11th! Is it bad that I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow???
Well, my husband decided that he was going tough it out and give me some time today to do my TotSwap stuff. I started early, as soon as Consignment Manager had finished their daily maintenance at 8:30. The system was SO slow that I finally gave up and rebooted my computer thinking that it was a problem with my system. Nope, it looks like it is the Consignment Manager system that is having issues because I just got a message that it is down for maintenance when I just tried to get back in.
That's okay, I can roll with this... Instead of putting things in the system now, I will start collecting things to sell from the basement playroom and moving them into my guest bedroom (my staging area). Of course, this plan will have to work a bit around the kids who are playing in the basement right now :-) I planned to get down there one night this week anyway to pull things so I might as well start now.
It dawned on me a couple of days ago that there is only 1 1/2 weeks to go before drop off begins on Wednesday the 11th! Is it bad that I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow???
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