Barbara’s Resale Shop

Over the years I have consigned many items at several different consignment shops. Barbara’s Resale Shop ranks as one of the very best. Barbara has always been extremely honest, helpful, and happy to receive my items. I consigned only nice items and always received very fair prices. Thank you Barbara for making my consignment experiences with your store the very best.

My friend has used this shop to re-​sell some items in the past and had a couple of bad experiences. Once, she left a nice leather Michael Kors handbag and asked them to let her know what price they would put on it before they sell it, because she may want to take it back if it wasn’t reasonably priced. They didn’t call her. Instead, they sold it for $ 20, when she could have easily sold it for much more. She netted $ 10 from their ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ policy (at that time). Another time, she left a very nice Coach bag and when she checked to see if they sold it, they had «lost» it and she netted nothing from that sale.
This past weekend, she took some more items for sale and was told their policy had changed. She asked what it was. Instead of a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ split, it is now ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ for the first 60 days PLUS — IF they have to do any cosmetic work to the items to make them more saleable, the split goes to ⁷⁰⁄₃₀ (70% to the shop and 30% to her). While she stood there, she watched them steam a T-​shirt! So, she asked them to show her what cosmetic work needs to be done on any of her items and she’ll take them home and prepare them herself to save the money. They refused to do that. Furthermore, after 60 days, if the item has not sold, it becomes the property of the shop completely. She asked if she could come back and get whatever items don’t sell and was told that once she leaves the items there initially, she can NEVER GET THEM BACK without purchasing them back like anyone else. So, if she accidentally left a family heirloom and went back an hour later to retrieve it (because it had not yet sold), she would not be allowed to get it back… nor can she get back any items that don’t sell in 60 days. This means that this shop can just SIT on items — not even putting them out in the shop to sell during those first 60 days, leaving them to «own» the items and sell them after the 60 days is up. And, there is NOTHING she can do about it.
Needless to say, she did not leave anything there and instead went to another resale shop with more reasonable policy without all these little ‘escape clauses’ to take profit away from the people who bring things in for sale.
Re-​sell your things there, if you want, but BEWARE of these unscrupulous practices that are simply their «license to steal» and NOT competitive with other resale shops AT ALL.