Want to know how to make the best money at a children's clothing jumble sale? Read the tips from Kidia's flea market professionals and put the contents of your children's wardrobe to work. Remember, the secret to the best returns is careful product selection and seasonality. It's also worth investing in washing and ironing your clothes if you want to maximise your flea market returns. It's also worth calculating the price tag for your working hours.
1. Decide first: are you investing your time or your profit?
The very first thing you need to do is choose the right sales channel for you. How much of your time are you prepared to spend on selling and what kind of return do you expect on your goods?
The cheapest and most lucrative way is of course to sell the products yourself, for example in Facebook flea market groups. However, photographing, posting and communicating with buyers can be surprisingly time-consuming. But some people actually enjoy it!
Time is also money. Think about how much you value your time.
Fortunately, if you don't want to do the selling yourself, you can turn to the professionals at a flea market. You can sell your unwanted items at your local flea market, second hand shop or online flea market. There are many types of flea markets and they offer a wide range of services.
Self-service shops are a cheaper option, but self-service sales always require more hours of your own time. So consider how much of your time you want to spend selling and what your enthusiasm is for organising a flea market.
If you don't want to spend any more of your time than you have to, you can also opt for an all-inclusive model. All you have to do is select the products and prepare them for sale. A flea market professional will do all the rest. Compared to self-service, you are likely to save several hours of your own time. Naturally, this service costs more, because you have the expertise of the professional and a lot of time is spent on providing you with the service.
2. Sell at the right time
Many of the best-performing children's clothing retailers time their sales cycle closely to the seasons. In many cases, even the most valuable garment may go unsold or be reduced in price if it is on sale out of season. On the other hand, seasonal outdoor clothing and other equipment sold at just the right time can make a big difference to your sales.
When you sell at the right time, you can even double your returns.
Once you have made an inventory of the clothes that need to be recycled, sort them roughly according to the appropriate selling seasons. What can you sell right now and which clothes are best left for later? For example, the best time to sell summer clothes is in May - not later in the summer. The most lucrative season for outerwear is September. Read more in our article about the flea market seasons!
3. Only sell clothes that are in demand - weed out the outdated and otherwise faulty ones
At a flea market, you should only sell saleable products for which there is a demand. The overall appearance of a flea market really makes a difference to sales! Nobody wants to go through a shabby selection. If there are a lot of clothes in poor condition, even the gems among them may not sell.
Go through each garment in a good light, as stains are good at hiding! A good rule of thumb is that the lower the selling price of the garment, the greater the impact of stains and other small blemishes. Shirts and trousers costing a few euros should have hardly any stains or other defects or they will not sell.
Would you buy an item in similar condition at a flea market?
Keep a close eye on each garment for any possible defects that could prevent it from being sold. Preferably, move age-stained and broken clothes to a separate pile, and consider recycling them separately. These should not be brought to the flea market for sale.
- Has the garment turned grey?
- Is the garment wrinkled?
- Is there a snag or lint on the garment?
- Has the garment stretched?
- Are the seams twisted?
- Are there loose threads hanging from your clothes?
- Is there animal hair on the garment?
- Has the print on the garment worn off?
Please note that broken and stained clothes are no place for charity! If you want to donate clothes to charity, they must be in as good condition as the clothes you are selling.
4. Sell immediately when you no longer need it
In children's clothing, fashion has a big influence on demand, so it's a good idea to recycle your children's clothes as soon as you can when you no longer need them. It is not a good idea to store clothes to wait for "better days", but to recycle them immediately for the next user.
Long storage in an attic or warehouse will depreciate the resale value of the garment. The fashion ages and the clothes take on a musty smell.
Selling outdated clothes is a challenge. If your child is already of school age, it's very likely that the clothes he or she wore as a baby or toddler are no longer in high demand. What was in demand and trendy then may no longer be of interest to buyers today
5. Fan, wash and iron - don't skip this step!
This is the stage of the flea market sale you should not compromise on! At Kidia, we see thousands of garments a week, and we cannot overstate the importance of carefully preparing clothes for sale. Wash, air and iron - that's our main advice!
An ironed garment always looks cooler and invites the buyer to touch it. You can also put a higher selling price on a clean ironed garment and it is more likely to find a buyer. Ironing also means that you sometimes notice stains that you didn't notice before.
Ironing your clothes is an absolute must if you want the best return at a flea market.
Wrinkles and musty smells are real barriers to purchase and affect the overall appearance of products. If you use perfumed detergents and rinse aids, try a deodorised vinegar rinse to wash your sales items. To your nose, detergents may not smell, but to others the smell can be very strong.
If there are furry members in the family, it is a good idea to go through the clothes with a depilatory. Hairy clothes are left on the shelves by shoppers, and the hair also sticks to other products in an unpleasant way.
Remember not to wash and pack your clothes too early, as they are prone to wrinkles and musty smells when stored.
6. Put your money where your mouth is
Whichever sales channel you choose, it's worth investing in an attractive presentation that makes it easy for buyers to find your products. Shoppers want to be able to make easy bargains in their own size category and see the condition of the product for sale at a glance.
If you're selling online, take good quality, beautiful sales photos - it's guaranteed to pay off. Always iron your clothes for photography. Find a location with a calm, monochrome background and good natural light. It's better to take photos during the day rather than at night in good lighting. If you are selling sets, don't take a picture of a pile of clothes, but take clear pictures of all the clothes. If there are hidden defects in the clothes, it is a good idea to take separate photos of these.
If you sell at a self-service market, the most important tip is not to overcrowd your own table space at once, but to bring more items in batches. If possible, you should hang up all your clothes or use baskets to sort them neatly. A messy table that is too crowded will scare away buyers. Buyers will certainly be grateful if you put a note on the table telling them the sizes available and sort the clothes by size. It's a good idea to clean the table thoroughly - almost daily. If you can't clean the table yourself, it's worth investing in a cleaning service, which many self-service shops offer as an extra service.
With a full-service flea market like Kidia, you don't have to worry about presentation at all. All inclusive sales service the price includes all the work from hanging to shelving. You won't find any piles or boxes to rummage through in Kidia's shop, as all the clothes and accessories are neatly displayed by size and type.
7. Price wisely - or let a professional do it for you
If you price the products yourself, price them reasonably. Unfortunately, the emotional value is not visible to the buyer. If the product has a high sentimental value, you should think about selling it at all. The best way to find out the price level is to visit your chosen flea market a couple of times. This way you can see directly what the prices are.
Make a realistic assessment of the condition of the garment and its impact on the price. It is easy to put a price of up to 70% of the price of a new garment in prime condition. If the overall appearance of the garment is no longer as good as new, the selling price should be lower.
The selling price should not be decided solely on the basis of what you have paid for the product. The same product may have been on sale since then at a significantly reduced price.
The pricing of branded clothing is a whole new story. It's worth actively following clothing enthusiasts' groups and social media channels to keep up to date with the current prices of the clothes you're looking for. These can change quickly! The sales channel also has an impact. It's rare that you can get the same price for a branded item at a live market as you can in a dedicated Facebook group.
Overpricing could cost you in the long run. If you put 100 items on sale at a slightly inflated price, you may only sell half of them, and after the sales period you will have to think again about what to do with the rest of the clothes and perhaps pay again to sell them. On the other hand, if the products are priced at an appropriate low selling price, you may even achieve a sales percentage of 90% and get a better return on your sales.
If you sell the same clothes several times at a flea market, you pay for the sale each time.
Prices that are too low are not profitable either. For example, if you sell 50 bodysuits at 50 cents each, the profit is €25. And that's after deducting the flea market. Even basic clothing in good condition can have a reasonable resale price!
Full service is a great choice if you don't want to fiddle with prices yourself and want to be sure of a good return on your goods. A flea market professional knows exactly what prices your items will sell for and can assess their condition at a glance. Fair pricing is definitely a competitive advantage at a flea market, and when the price is reasonable (and right), buyers are happy. At Kidia, the average sale percentage for items put up for sale is currently over 80%!
8. Reduce prices if necessary
The price is not always right on the first try. Potential buyers have seen the product for sale and may be interested, but no one has made a decision to buy yet.
If your garment doesn't sell, it's likely that buyers will give your product a different value than the one on the price tag.
This may be due to the condition of the product, the supply of similar products or a lack of demand. A common reason is that the price is not in line with other similar products on sale at the flea market. If a similar shirt is available for €5, it will not be bought for €10.
If you can't find a buyer for the product at the original price, you should consider lowering the price. It's probably worth it! Shoppers also love the sale sections at flea markets. At Kidia, automatic price reduction is always part of our service package!
INTERESTED IN KIDIA'S HASSLE-FREE FULL SERVICE?
At Kidia, we are happy and professional to sell your children's clothing and accessories for you! You can rely on our service, as we have years of experience in children's clothing flea markets. We'll take care of your items and find them a new home. All you need to do is book a sale period in our online shop, read the instructions and bring the items to us. We'll take care of everything from pricing to display.