East Side Re-Rides

How Does Consignment Work?

Incoming Consignments RE-OPENED with a different COVID-19 -mindful method

Details over here:

Consignment – The Pandemic Method

Let’s say you have a Thing you’d like to sell

Let’s pretend this is your jacket.

You loved this thing, there’s nothing wrong with this thing — but now you want something smaller, or bigger, or brown, or with less zippers, or with more zippers, or with more armor. Or you ordered it online and it came out of the package shaped like a human being who is completely dissimilar from you. Whatever the reason, here’s this thing, and you’re not wearing it.

You can always try putting a classified ad up yourself. Sometimes that works really well! But sometimes people are (ahem) less polite than they could be. And sometimes it’s hard for someone to travel a distance to a stranger’s house and try on their clothing in front of them. Awkward.

That’s why we’re here.

We take your Thing and give you a Contract

  • You come into East Side Re-Rides with your Thing or Things
  • We have a good look at them, and make sure they’re clean and all the functions are… functional
  • We have a discussion with you about which items we can take and the starting price of each
  • We agree on the consignment percentage and any other details like cleaning fees
  • We take your contact info
  • We type each item, carefully described, into our giant database
  • We print a contract listing all your items and all the terms
  • You go home and relax while we get to work selling your thing

We sell your Thing

We’re open five days a week, and lots of folks come here to shop. Your Thing will be seen and admired by lots of people. Overwhelmingly often, people buy Things here. Let’s say we sell yours! Hooray! What happens now? Paperwork! In our giant database of Things, yours gets marked as SOLD. And then comes the fun part…

Once a month, we do the accounting.

Once a month,  after each month-end, we merge the whole preceding month’s point of sale info, check and double-check our data, then hit the buttons to shake up the database. The database then takes the prices each single Thing sold for, apply the consignment percentage for that Thing, and gives us a total amount that we’re going to send you. Basically, all the preceding month’s sales turn into a huge pile of data itemizing which Things sold that month from your collection, and how much we’re sending you. This initial part takes from 3 to 5 days, depending on how busy we are and whether weekends or holidays are in the way.

Once again, we do the month-end accounting merge after month end, so if you call us on the 29th, we don’t know anything yet. Give us a ring on the 3rd instead.

Payment time! We make out a cheque for you, or send etransfers.

Or Etransfers! We’re flexible!

Once we have all the data cross-checked & ready, we run report letters for folks who are getting paper cheques, and then we start writing the cheques. All of them. So. Many. Cheques. Those cheques and letters go into the Big Accordion-File-of-Picking-Up, and if you don’t drop by to get it that month, we stuff it in an envelope and send it to you by Canada Post. Do we have your current address? Better keep us up to date!

For folks who have opted to get etransfers–Do we have your current email address? Better keep us up to date!– we send out emails in advance, saying something like:

“We’re sending an etransfer soon! Be ready! Here’s your password if you need it!”

Then we log on the the bank, and we send the first payment. Then the next, and the next, and so on, until the bank’s universal etransfer-sending-per-day limits are hit. Then we start the process again the next day. We do this until all are sent. Depending on how many sales we’ve made in the preceding month, and thus how many payments we’re sending, this can take up to five days after we’ve sent out the “Here it comes” letter.  If you don’t see anything from us after that, check in with us!

We appreciate your patience with this process. 

ps: We also do PayPal or Electronic Gift Cards, for folks who have opted for that method.

That’s it!

FAQ

But what if I want my Thing back?

It belongs to you until it’s sold. If you want it back, you can come get it. (IF there’s been a cleaning fee assessed, it’s a bit more complicated, but that’s all spelled out in the contract)

But what if the Thing doesn’t sell?

It belongs to you until it’s sold. After at least three months trying on our part, it may become apparent that your Thing is NOT in hot demand. One of two things may happen:

  1. We call you and discuss the price. Maybe it’s just priced too high and we can adjust? Or…
  2. We call you and ask you to reclaim your item. We’ve tried selling it, and given up because we see people are not interested.

When I bring in the Thing, how do we determine the selling price?

It’s sort of a balancing act between getting you what it’s worth, and offering it at a price which will make buyers happy to purchase it and take it home.

On our side, we consider what the item would have cost new, what a similar item is now fetching new, what that type of item is fetching currently in the North American secondhand markets, how old the thing is, how much wear there is, or how many major or minor faults it may have, how collectable the brand is, whether it’s vintage-just-old or vintage-must-have-it, and whether that class of items is much in demand (cafe racer-style jackets) or not at all in demand (90s-style lambskin jackets). We also may know from experience (and statistics!) that a particular thing in this store sells best at a certain best range.

On your side, you think about whether you want to hold out for the highest return, or whether you want to price a thing attractively so its delighted new owners will take it home as fast as possible (which gets you your consignment payment sooner).

Does it sound complicated? Yeah, it kind of is.