**To enter my giveaway for a FREE early shopping pass for you and a guest (this gets you in FIRST before most of the crowds – Saturday at noon), all you have to do is share this blog post and send me a screenshot of your share. That’s it! 5 people will be chosen at random**  

Hello there!

Have you ever heard of Rhea Lana’s Consignment sale? It happens twice a year and all around the country. We’re coming up to one in September, so I’ve teamed up with the Chicago area sale and am going to do a post for you to learn how to consign and shop with them.

Rhea Lana’s was created by moms and for moms. It helps moms make a little extra money by consigning and it also helps moms to be able to buy good clothes in great condition at a lower price.

I shopped the sale last year and picked up a ton of stuff. A car wash for my son for $5 and a pair of perfectly good Nike’s for $6. They looked like they had never been worn. They are his “super fast gray shoes.” 🙂

If you want to see a list of all the sales in the US in August, September and October, click here.

I met up with my good friend, Melissa, who is a mother of 3 and fellow Etsy shop owner (shameless plug – Molly Rose Quilts! She does custom quilts including t-shirt quilts) who consigns with Rhea Lana’s usually for both sales each year (Chicago does one in April in addition to the September 13th – 19th). I asked if she could explain the process to me and a little bit about how she organizes.

Whenever her kids grow out of things, she brings those items down to her basement into a bin designated to the sale. When the sale gets closer, she starts to set everything up. Before she goes, she organizes everything by gender and then size, because when you get there, you have to put the clothes on the racks and that’s how they are organized in the shop. You create a sign in on the Rhea Lana’s website and enter all of your items. You get to price them as you wish, but they give you guidelines based on their condition and brand. They recommend to price them 30-40% retail. (Something to keep in mind, you get 70% of the sale and you have to give your first $10 back to the company.) You get specific tags to label all of your items. The tags are safety pinned to the clothes. Melissa gets hers on Amazon because sometimes they will sell out in the area as the sale gets closer. She likes to have everything ready to go as much as possible when she drops everything off. Once you are there to drop everything off, you give them your consigner ID (found when you create your account on their website) and they print out your barcodes to stick to the tags. They will also go through everything to make sure they are in good enough shape to sell. No rips, stains or holes. They also only accept fall and winter for the fall sale and spring and summer during the spring sale.

Here is a video and more info on merchandise prep:

http://wchicagoland.rhealana.com/cssmerchandise.asp

Clothes are requested to be $3 or more. So, if you have 2 shirts that are going to be listed for $1.50 each, they need to be pinned together and sold as one. Bundle together outfits! Moms love whole outfits.

They also take toys, cribs, books, baby bouncers, nursing items, car seats (under certain rules), maternity stuff….if you purchase something on the larger size, you have to come around to the back and pick it up. They are crazy organized and everything is so easy to find. It’s amazing.

A really cool aspect of this sale is you can log on and track your sales. If something sells, it will tell you when you log in and you can see how much money you’ve made so far. At the last day or 2 of the sale, you can choose to make all your items 1/2 price. When the sale is over, you can choose to donate your items that didn’t sell or come pick them back up. Your check is usually cut 1-3 days after the sale.

Also, if you sell, you get a pass to shop early which is huge. They take volunteers as well and you also get an early shopping pass for that.

I stopped by a few days before the sale to chat with Christine, one of the co-owners. When you show up to turn your clothes, toys, strollers etc in, they print out your stickers and your inventory list. You match up the stickers (they ask you to bring the items in the order in which you entered them into the system because that’s how the stickers print out – and they are all about getting you in and out quickly) to the item and your inventory list. Before you put on stickers,  they go through them to make sure they are sell-able. No rips, tears or stains. If they find something that they will not sell, they take that sticker and place it on a piece of paper for you. Because each item is guaranteed (meaning they will pay you for it if it is lost or stolen), they want to keep track of the ones that they wouldn’t allow in the sale so no one can say it was lost or stolen.

Then they ask you to place out the items. This sale is crazy organized. When I stopped by to chat with Christine, they had so much stuff already out and still a few days left for people to drop off items. Huge sellers for the fall sale are winter boots, winter coats and Halloween costumes.This is where you want to be next week! You do NOT want to miss this – as long as I haven’t had this baby, I’ll be there! They are already posting items on their facebook page, so go “like” it- and start getting your items together for the Spring sale!

Rhea Lana’s of West Chicagoland

Sneak Peeks of some of the items….
Rockers / Gliders

Play kitchen

Bikes

Strollers

This is just a few!

Christine also gave me some advice – bring some clothes that fit your child well so you can compare (they respectfully ask that you leave children at home) and trace your child’s foot / shoe before you come. There are so many different brands and as we all know, brand sizes are so different.

Here are the hours to shop: Hours (without early passes, public sale starts on Sunday)

**To enter my giveaway for a FREE early shopping pass for you and a guest (this gets you in FIRST before most of the crowds – Saturday at noon), all you have to do is share this blog post and send me a screenshot of your share. That’s it! 5 people will be chosen at random**