Is Money Sitting in Your Closet?

By Racheal Gerron
Web Content Contributor

The other day I was cleaning out my closet and I found so many clothes that were in good condition, but didn’t fit me anymore or had outgrown the style.

I decided that I would see if I could sell them to make some money to update my own wardrobe. After going through this process, I learned a few tips that I will definitely use next time I try to sell clothes. Here is my guide to selling clothes at consignment stores.

Sorting Tips

When you’re looking through your clothes, it might be overwhelming trying to predict what they might take or not, and you might be surprised what these shops are willing to buy.

When I was sorting through my clothes, I found an old Forever 21 flannel that I almost added to the donate pile because it wasn’t really in style anymore. However, that was one of the items the store bought from me. So moral of the story, if the item is in good condition, you might as well give it a shot.

Call Ahead

Before you rush over to try to make some money, call and ask a few questions to make sure it isn’t a wasted trip. Because of the coronavirus, some stores might not even be purchasing items right now or they might have new store hours.

You’ll also want to ask how late the store buys clothes. I went to uptown cheapskate, and they have a specific person who sorts through clothes and their hours aren’t the same as the store hours. Also, make sure you give them plenty of time to look through your clothes — don’t come in an hour before they close like I did.

When You Get There

If you’re planning on shopping in the store for clothes, I would recommend doing that first. A lot of stores will offer you cash or an in-store credit, which will be higher than the cash offer.

If you do your shopping before bringing in your clothes, you’ll know if they have items you would like to buy, in which case you would want to take the in-store credit. On the other hand, if you don’t see anything you want to buy, the cash option would probably be better for you.

This is something I didn’t do, but I definitely will next time. The store offered me $18 cash or $25 store credit. Since I hadn’t shopped yet, I accepted the cash amount but I ended up spending a little under $25 in the store. Meaning I spent about $10 out of pocket when my purchase would’ve been covered if I had accepted the store credit.

What to do with Leftover Clothes

You’re most likely going to have clothes leftover that the store didn’t take. They might even ask you if you’d like to donate them to the store. While donating sounds nice and charitable, it actually means they will add it to their inventory and make a profit off of the clothes they didn’t purchase from you. I would recommend taking the clothes to another consignment store or just donating the rest of the clothes to a thrift store.

Living in Dallas, I have many resale options to choose from, but if you don’t have any consignment stores near you, bring your clothes back on campus in the fall. There is an Uptown Cheapskate on Aquarena Springs drive near Bobcat Stadium!

Featured image by Rachael Gerron.