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Health & Fitness

How to Find the Best Deals at a Children's Consignment Sale

Want to get the best deals at the next children's consignment sale? Then volunteer your time so you can be one of the first shoppers.

How do shoppers get the best deals at a Seasonal Children's Consignment Sale? 

---Getting Involved. Period.

There are trade offs with everything in life, including consignment sales.

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Trading some of your time to help during a children's consignment sale will gain you many advantages. And the time you lend to the sale is what allows the sale to succeed.

It is a win win for everyone who gets involved.

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Most children's consignment sales need volunteers for their sale to operate. The volunteers are needed from helping to advertise before the sale as well as assisting consignors while dropping off their items prior to the sale, maintaining the sales floor, working the check out lines, checking shoppers at the doors, preparing meals for the workers,  sorting consignors items at the end of the sale and so much more.   

Volunteer shifts are usually three to four hours per shifts and most sales will allow you to sign up for numerous shifts. The more hours you volunteer, the earlier you get to shop. 

That means if a sale allows volunteers to work up to 12 hours, then the volunteers who are signed up to work/volunteer 12 hours get to shop first. After they have had some time to shop, then the nine-hour volunteers would get to shop, and so on.

So what are the benefits to shopping early? 

It's simple, the best deals come to those who shop first. For instance, double strollers are a hot item that shoppers are always on the hunt for. 

At the begining of the sale, there could be three Graco double strollers all brought in that are all alike and in similar condition. One is priced at $45. The next is priced at $65. And the last is priced at $90. 

May I remind you that at a seasonal children's consignment sale all the items are priced "by the consignor" not by the owners, which means there will be great fluctuation in price.  

Lets assume a 12-hour volunteer will take the $45 stroller. A three-hour volunteer takes the $65 stroller and the most expensive stroller goes to a shopper who came to the general public sale and had no idea that two of the same strollers sold for $25 to $45 less then what they paid. 

Do the math, the 12-hour volunteer saved $45 from the high price, in essence getting paid about $4 per hour in savings to volunteer. And that was just on one item. 

What other great finds on toys, clothes, shoes did they find?

So, if you aren't sure if volunteering is for you, you might want to think again. Get a few friends to volunteer at the same time. Enjoy some time with other adults and look at it as "cash back in your pocket" while having some time away from your kids.

Looking for an upcoming sale, then check out the Sunflower Sprouts Sale which is coming to the former Value City location at the Northway Mall on McKnight Rd from April 12th-20th.

 Visit www.sunflowersprouts.org for full details.

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