Every six months or so, I get motivated enough to do a purge-style sale online and sell my kids’ old clothing. I should do it more often, but the fact I’ve managed to do it once or twice a year is miraculous. It takes a lot of energy to make it happen: energy spent procrastinating, energy spent rationalizing, and the energy spent resenting the floor space the boxes are eating up.
But a few weeks ago, I decided I didn’t want to do another purge. And I contacted Kidizen to get a Style Scout to do it for me. A Style Scout has curated over 200 garments for me so I don’t have to sell them myself.
But let’s back up.
The Thought of Doing a Purge Makes Me Sad
I didn’t want to do a purge because, I’ve decided, the process is sorrowfully odious.
The process involves:
- Scrutinizing dozens of garments for quarter-inch stains.
- Taking well-lit photos (multiples of each item).
- Listing the garments online in a Buy Sell Trade (BST) group. Usually in one post (purge style) with each comment a different photo of a different item.
- Dealing with buyers, potential buyers, and low-ballers.
- Chasing after payments and non-payers.
- Shipping. (Inevitably, my printer won’t work.)
- Finding a tiny stain on at least a couple of garments after you’ve sold them. Then having to contact the buyers to reach a mutual resolution.
- And above all, answering all the enquiries.
What detergent did you use – and where did you purchase it? (A lot of third-party sellers sell fake Tide.) Can you measure it for me? What does NWT mean? Can you check the care tag? Ever put it in the dryer? What about the previous owner? And previous previous owner?
Most of the questions, of course, are quite reasonable. Fielding follow-up questions for a handful of garments is no problem. But when you’ve got dozens of garments to clear out, I no longer have the energy (or urbanity) to cope.
The thought of doing another purge makes me so bone-crushingly sad.
I’ve sold lots of garments on clothing re-sale apps before: Mercari, Poshmark, Kidizen, and more. Sales take longer, but you can sell items for more money and at a slower clip. It’s more manageable. But then you have to hold onto boxes for longer, and rifle through every week or so when you make a sale as your stack of old clothes grows larger.
So I Decided to Get A Style Scout to Sell the Clothes For Me
Since I’ve bought and sold clothing on Kidizen, I knew of the option to have a Style Scout consign. They take care of listing, organizing, storing, selling, and shipping your clothes. You just get paid your cut.
So using a Style Scout on Kidizen is free – but the Style Scout takes a commission.
In a Facebook group I belong to (for local moms with an affinity for high-end kids’ clothes), I asked if anyone was a style scout. Turns out there are a handful in my area, and two of them in the group who responded.
My Fairy Scout-Mother Andrea Came and Hauled It All Away
Andrea, a Style Scout nearby, came and picked up all the boxes of clothes. All 264 garments are no longer my problem to store, list, and sell. 264 garments from 75 different kids’ brands.
A solid chunk of those garments are items I was going to resell for other moms. And while I still love a good hustle, I’ve lost my passion for the purge.
Typically, if getting rid of clothes, I would have shoved everything into garbage bags (they’re water-proof!) and sat them on the front stoop. But, seeing as now Andrea is in the mom group with me and I have a blog and stats I wanted to track, I decided to do some pre-organizing.
This is one page (out of four) of notes I scribbled out in my planner. How many items am I handing off to be sold, and in what brands and sizes.
The Signup Process
Before my Style Scout whisked everything away, there was a signup process.
Style Scouts are interested in working with sellers who have high-end children’s brands. With Cat & Jack or Carter’s, the garments do not have a high enough re-sale value to be worth a Scout’s time. Also, a buyer isn’t going to want to spend $5 shipping on a used Cat & Jack garment on top of a $5 re-sale sticker.
- I chatted over email (or rather DM) about the brands I had – all brands that re-sell well in a consignment type market.
- We negotiated rates. The Style Scout gets a commission (percentage rate) on the the garments they sell for you. From talking to other moms who use Style Scouts, my understanding is the rate can range from 30% to 45%.
- I signed an Agreement. The form was sent to my Kidizen handle, so I had to log into the app.
- Andrea came and picked up my garments a few days later. All. Of. Them.
If you subtract the few days where I forgot to follow up to one of her DM’s, this whole timeline went rather quickly – just under 1 week.
How Much Money Do I Make on Kidizen Using A Style Scout?
I don’t have a solid answer for you – yet. I’ll need to wait a few months to see how garments sell. Thus far, my Style Scout has listed 22 of the 264 garments she is selling for me. (You can check out those listings on Kidizen here.)
Andrea let me know she had a customer ahead of me whose garments she needed to list, and then she’d start listing mine. It’s been 3 1/2 weeks, and the items are starting to go live.
Most of the garments are listed for at least 50% more than what I could get selling them in a BST group. For some of the items, the price is set at about double. Of course, any of these garments could go for less than the list price. (For bundle discounts or prices lowered over time.)
But the pricing seems reasonable and in line with what I would expect for these brands and styles in a children’s consignment app.
One of my garments has already sold (it’s in pending sale mode). My cut will be ~ $11 for a used Hanna Andersson dress. That’s about 20% to 25% less than what I could get selling it myself in a BST group (at $14 or $15). But for 100% less stress.
At any time, I can see how my stuff is doing by going to “My Style Scout” in my profile settings.
While I don’t understand the sorcery behind Andrea’s organization (she sells for dozens of families on Kidizen), I trust it. Everything she sells for me has a specific hashtag, and there’s a note to shoppers to see my other clothes.
It’s More Money Than Once Upon A Child
I love Once Upon A Child and a morning spent visiting a few store locations in my metro area is a glorious occasion. I find so many well-priced treasures.
But when selling at Once Upon A Child you get 15% of whatever the store will list the item for. So if the store is going to sell your used Hanna dress for $10, you’ll get $1.50. Their “cut” is 85%. On Kidizen, the Style Scout’s cut is around 50% or less – again, it’s what you negotiate based on brands and volume.
I sell often at Once Upon A Child, but for brands that don’t make sense to consign in a high-end setting. (Tip: You can sell rejected garments at a different Once Upon A Child store location. Or even at the same store on a different visit.)
Why Don’t I Just Donate the Clothes?
I’ve been asked this question. Certainly, it would be the easiest way to shed this glut of garments. And lately, I’ve been trying to be more intentional with clothing for my kids and myself. I’m doing the 100-day dress challenge (where I wear the same garment everyday for 100 days in a row). And I’m making a big effort to acquire clothing and dress for the day I want to have, not the life. This mind shift has been transformational. I feel more intentional, more cared for, and more in-control.
But I do love kids’ clothing. And my kids are growing. We churn through a lot. And I need to recoup some of the money. I am making more of an effort to buy from sustainable, ethical brands, and that costs more money upfront. It’s an investment in a garment my daughter, and then my son, can wear. Knowing I’m going to re-sell the clothes motivates me to take better care of them. And it motivates the next owner to take better care of them too. People value what they pay for.
Final Thoughts
I am optimistic about selling on Kidizen with a Style Scout. The process has been easy for me. The rates are fair. But I will have an even brighter outlook once I know how the whole process (all items listed and selling) shakes out. I’ll be posting updates!
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