I’m tired just watching them make jeans.

Posted by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

**Jeans. Seems like most everyone loves ’em. But have you ever pondered how much work goes into making them?**

This boutique New Zealand brand has actually posted step-by-step photos of how theirs are made. You’ll love it. (Be patient, the page loads slowly.)

Okay, now that you appreciate all that those jeans went through to get to you, don’t you feel bad about letting them hang around your closet without being loved and worn? If you have some that are less than your favorites,

liberate them today

at your Professional Resale Shop, whether it’s consignment, buy-outright, or donation to your local thrift store.

Everyone loves jeans. Click the picture for Glambistro’s best advice on jeans for short women.

The best way to shop resale.

Posted by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Which type of shop should you choose to pass on your gently-used goods?

Posted by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

WHICH TYPE OF SHOP SHOULD I CHOOSE TO BE MY PARTNER IN RECYCLING UNDERLOVED POSSESSIONS?
* A shop that offers consignment services?
* Is it better to sell outright?
* When and where to donate?

It all depends on what you want, in addition to cleaning out your closets and cupboards.

ARE YOU WILLING TO SHARE IN THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF CONSIGNING?

Since a consignment shop doesn’t make money until you do, participating in the process by placing your items on consignment is, in effect, profit-sharing. You do your best to offer stylish, clean, appealing merchandise, and the shop does its best to showcase them in a proper manner, draw potential buyers to the shop to buy, and operate in a professional manner so your goods return the maximum reasonable price to you and to the business.

Now, the key in pricing is reasonable. No professional shopkeeper, and no reasonable consignor, will insist that something in a consignment shop be priced too high. The consignor risks having her items remain unsold, and the shopkeeper risks not making the rent! So when you’re looking for a shop to best represent you, look for one whose prices and selling policies will draw buying customers.

WOULD YOU RATHER JUST DO IT AND BE DONE?

If you prefer just passing on your items and not worrying about whether they will be sold before you get any money, you might enjoy a shop which buys things outright from the general public. When the shop takes all the risk of merchandise selling, though, it must buy for a price reasonable enough to allow for profits. Therefore, a buy-outright shop will give you instant cash…but it may (or may not!) be less than the potential income if you waited and shared the risk as you do when consigning.

Selling, rather than consigning, might be a good choice if you are moving, or if you simply don’t wish to wait for your cash. Some shops will offer both options, so be sure to ask.

WOULD YOU PREFER YOUR ITEMS BE SOLD TO HELP OUT A CHARITY?

If it’s important to you not only to clear out your closets, but to make sure your items help others in many ways, think about donating your gently-used good items to charity. Charitable shops, run by non-profit associations, can do double good: they help recycle and they raise money for their mission. If the shop is run by a true charity, you can receive a donation slip that you might be able to use to reduce your income taxes.

Another, and often more lucrative, way to help a local charity is to ask them if they maintain an account in the charity’s name in a consignment shop. This is the perfect blend of expertise: the charity can get on with doing what it does best in fulfilling its mission, while allowing the consignment shop to use the retailing and marketing talents it has to gain maximum income for the charity. The sharpest consignment shops will have available a list of charities who welcome your consigning to their accounts.

6 Reasons why resale is good for you, your wallet, and your world.

Posted by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Resale, no matter how the business operates, means cash in your pocket:

You get cash for your underloved items, or your favorite charity turns your cast-offs into cash for their mission, which benefits your community

You save cash and keep your family budget healthy when you shop resale before you shop the malls and megastores

You find goods you truly love, rather than those with an affordable price tag, because everything is so much more affordable resale. That means you don’t clutter up your life with things that will just “do.”

Most resale shops are local shops, which means that shopping in them supports your neighbors who work there and the consignors or sellers who use the shop’s services

Shopping resale helps local businesses as well, when the money earned at the shop supports other businesses in your community.

Buying already-manufactured goods means less pollution created from manufacturing, which saves your tax dollars, local, state, and federal, spent on monitoring and cleaning up our environment.

85% should have been tossed.

Posted by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Just got word that one thrift chain, with four stores, has to throw away 85% of the clothing contributions it receives.

Eighty-five percent. That’s 8 and a half out of every 10 items that are donated which are not saleable. That’s very distressing.

Why? Because receiving, processing, and disposing of clothing and accessories that cannot be marketed eats up a lot of the money that these charities make.

Think about it.

Now this chain, they aren’t overly picky. Nor are their customers. They sell stuff for a dollar… a lot of stuff. Belts for 25 cents, things like that. So what is wrong with the 85% that makes these goods unsaleable?

Boots with wear right through so toes would hang out. Rips that appear to have been made by denizens of Jurassic Park. Smells and soil and stains.

Not only are these things not pass-on-able, but they are sometimes dangerous. Every thrift shop staffer can tell you of the hidden razor blade, the corpse of something small and squishy, the stiff-with-sweat prom dress. What were these donors thinking? Endangering (or at least disgusting) workers, many of whom are volunteer and none of whom earn enough to deal with that. Not helping the nonprofit’s shop, but costing them trash fees, wasted energies and payroll expense.

So next time you’re deciding that “well, SOMEone can use it”, think twice. Is that actually true, or is what you’re shoving in that bag something which should, realistically, go in the trash?

If it’s not good enough for you to run it through the wash and smooth out the wrinkles

before you fold it neatly as a donation… it’s simply not saleable. You’re doing no one any favor by filling up the donation box with unsaleable clothing.

Graphic from yourdictionary.com