To think second hand baby clothes markets are a scam?

[Pollaidh]

I had a load of nice baby and child clothes, equipment etc, all sorted to be excellent condition, good brands like Jojo, White Company etc. I paid for a table at a local children's second hand sale, for what was supposed to be a well-attended market. Only a handful of people came. We made less than £5. Clothes were fairly priced (checked other stalls, and other sites where these things are discussed). The organiser said it was very unusual to have so few people, we were unlucky etc, and to try again because normally people are stripping the tables bare.

We did, reduced the prices further, and this time made £3 profit once the table was paid for. Again very very few people came. Most people there went home with tons of stuff.

I've given up now and am giving it all away (I'd already given a lot away but don't know that many people with DC the right age).

Does anyone have a good experience with these places, or is it always bad like this?

I have yet to find a baby sale where clothes sell well. I think they just don't. Equipment does much better

I offloaded a lot of stuff at a well regarded local primary school's fundraising Nearly New. And a lot more at an NCT Nearly New. But most of this was surprise profit - I would have handed over the things to any charity at that point, needed them out house.

My profit at the primary school's Nearly New sale did put yet another tick in its box when it came to choosing a school a couple of years later though. It was brilliant and well worth the extra distance.

Clothes and soft toys make nothing. In fact don't even bother with soft toys. Equipment can do very well though.

The only kids clothes I’ve been able to sell have been Joules, I could have sold each item 10 times over, but anything else I couldn’t give away, White Company, JoJo Maman Bebe & Kath Kidston some of it only worn once and even the charity shops round here won’t take baby clothes so they’re just sitting in a bag in the spare room.

OP yes clothes are accepted in refuges.

Do you have a local buying and selling page on Facebook? I sell individual items from John Lewis, Boden, Joules etc on eBay and then the rest in bundles on Facebook for say a fiver a bag.

do you have any left? I have a preschooler and would be interested

I love in london and have a lot of very expensive baby clothes companies like jacadi And Rachel Riley (where dresses are about £60) and a lotof similar clothes from Spain, all very specific in style. Then I have labels attached ralph lauren and loads of babygros a lot of which were only worn once, mostly John Lewis some next and assorted other brands as well as other stuff. I want to do an BUT sale and w/o deter if anyone could suggest the best London one for my type of stuff and where on earth to start with pricing? All my items are immaculate. I wouldn't sell them if they had anything wrong at all.
Any suggestions?

When the dc were smaller, I sold (also bought and volunteered) at NCT sales several times, autumn and spring. I made around £40-50 profit each time. Our local sake has stopped now, as we couldn’t get enough volunteers to run it.

I've just joined a Facebook group called pay as you feel kids clothes. It's great people pay you what they can afford to pay or what they think your stuff is worth, plus post and packing so say £3 + whatever they pay. I've kitted my DD out for winter for about £30. Helps mums out who are skint and clears your clutter and doesn't take any effort apart from going to the post office. Sold three pairs of kids shoes for about 1.50 in total but also bought stuff for dirt cheap. There's pay as you feel adults clothes too, it's brilliant

TeachesOfPeaches since you weren’t there when OP went to the refuge, maybe give her a break? I tried to find a refuge or domestic abuse charity to donate my (excellent condition) baby stuff to but they wouldn’t/couldn’t take it. There is no refuge in my town of 130k population and the OP wants to make a bit of cash and free up some space, not drive around the country looking for a place to do a good deed.

I sell brands like you mentioned on eBay. The app has made it very quick to post on there and I schedule all my listings to finish on Sunday evening as apparently that's the best time for selling. I also try to sell seasonally as find I get the best prices. So at the moment I'm selling last year's autumn clothes.

I think you need to know your market. Outside of MN many people have not heard of WC and Jojo and I personally find their clothes really boring and drab so they wouldn't catch my eye unless you had a sign saying "3 items for 50p" The Spanish style clothing again is very marmite so I would sell those on specific groups online. I used to buy at car boot sales where new and as new baby stuff was on average 50p an item and it always sold really well. I remember once a woman was selling items for £5 and £6 and people were laughing at her, then I realized the clothes were all mini Boden but no one had heard of that brand so thought she was a scammer!

If you want to make money with branded items you should go on eBay.

I can sell a pair of boys next jeans for £9 when I originally paid £11. No idea why people would pay it but they do!

Nov/Oct is the best time to put on old toys as people start buying for Christmas. I often joke with DH I should quit my job and go around buying up the stuff people let go for 50p at charity shops and markets and resell on eBay for profit. I'm convinced if you really want for it you could make £200 a week +

I sell all of our old clothes on Facebook in bundles. They sell for buttons but I don't mind really, clears out the clutter and we put the cash in the kids money box.