Consignment Extravaganza

For a long time I've listened with interest as women from my church talked about a consignment sale held by an area church twice a year. It is all children's items - clothing and toys and books and the like - so until now, I never had a reason to consider being a part of the mayhem that ensues when coveted items are marked at ridiculously low prices. Now, though, needing to build up a "layette" for our little girl, such things have new appeal.

As such, when I heard the sale was coming up soon, I marked my calendar and made plans to go.

Friday morning, I was out early and was there when they opened the doors. (I had to battle soccer moms in the parking lot and a stampede of strollers to get to those doors, but I made it. Finally.) When I stepped inside, I was breathless.......the entire church gymnasium was full of clothes. Row after row after row of clothes, starting at newborn size and going up to much older kids' sizes. (I didn't pay any attention to those racks. There were onesies to find.) Another room was filled to the same extent with toys and baby equipment (think strollers and car seats and swings and walkers). Breathless though I was, there was little time to consider the magnitude of what lay before me. I had to dive in.

An hour later, I emerged with my treasures. And they are treasures. Excellent baby items in excellent condition for excellent prices.

It was so good, in fact, that Mom and I went back Saturday for the 50% off sale. That's right. 50% off the already awesome prices. I didn't think there would be much left at that point (day 2 of a two-day sale doesn't always promise much) and thought that I would have to battle more soccer moms and strollers to get what was there. To our delight, though, there was still a lot there to look through, and there were few others there to search through the inventory.

An hour later, we emerged with many more treasures, gleefully stating and restating how little we had spent.

Over the course of two days, this is what I managed to accumulate:


Because I know it really just looks like a pile of junk on a kitchen table, I've done an inventory:

~ 16 outfits (By "outfit" I mean ensembles of two or more pieces, be it a jumpsuit and a hat, or pants and a shirt, or skirt and onesie, or whatever.)
~ 17 sleepers (including gowns, sleepsacks, and footie pajamas)
~ 11 onesies
~ 3 pairs of pants
~ 16 bibs
~ 8 hats
~ 17 pairs of socks
~ 2 pairs of shoes
~ 3 blankets
~ 1 diaper bag

The amazing thing - and I do mean amazing - is the price at which I managed to steal it all away.

$84.

It sounds like a lot of money, maybe, but I've done some research and found that outfits are somewhere between about $10 and $25 at stores like Target and WalMart, while outfits at specialty stores like Baby Gap and Gymboree run about $50. Several of the outfits I found were from Baby Gap, and several items were from Gymboree. I think I did pretty well, especially considering the range of sizes I was able to get.

Here are a few of our favorite items:

Recognize this pattern? Yup. It's a "Guess How Much I Love You" sleeper.........

...........with bunny feets!

A brand new Gymboree hat - .50

baby Keds - $1

Gap overalls - $2

3-piece purple hippo outfit....with hat! - $1

The moral of the story: Consignment sales are good. Very, very good. I'm no pro at this whole "bargain hunting" business, but I feel pretty good about all of that.