Find a Shop | All About Resale | Start Your Own! | About 

Rather show off your savvy than your spendy? Like more zing & less cha-ching in your wardrobe & home decor? Consignment & resale is for you! Find a Professional Resaler near you on our Resale Shop Directory.

If you want to tread lightly upon the earth, if you appreciate more quality than your budget is comfortable with... then secondhand is the first-rate choice for you! Find a Professional Resaler near you on our Resale Shop Directory.

Why buy cheap, when you can buy inexpensively? Explore the gently-used selections at consignment, thrift and resale shops, and you'll discover a world of unique options. Read our articles and our blog, find a Professional Resale Shop on the Resale Shop Directory, and follow us on social media. We guarantee you'll love resale shopping as much as we love presenting it to you! If you're a resale shopkeeper, join our Resale Shop Directory.

The 10 Things you should ALWAYS Buy Used

There are things that simply aren't worth the price new. And then there are things that are actually better used! Here's what resale shopkeepers across the continent, who see all the mistakes coming out of their clients' closets and cupboards, suggest you should ALWAYS buy used.

1- Special occasion dressing. If you'll be wearing a ball gown for four hours, a mother-of-the-bride outfit for three, or, heaven help you, a clown costume for two hours, why buy new? You can save enough buying such outfits gently-used to have a much more special occasion!

2- Holiday photo attire. Same reasoning here: Sure, little Emma or Aiden would look adorable posing in that red velvet concoction, but face it: it only needs to be used for 30 minutes. Buy an outfit second-hand and save enough to order extra prints for the family!

3- Holiday attire of any kind. Sure, that Halloween sweatshirt's cute, but you'll wear it what, 3 times? Buy it used for a few bucks, and it's not frightfully expensive. Buy it new for $40 or $50? And pay $15 per wearing? Enough to scare the daylights out of your budget!

4- Books. As one resale shopkeeper said: "The words do not get read off the page! Let someone else pay the new price!"

5- Toys. Children's interests change so fast, chances are the toy you find in a consignment or resale shop has barely been played with. (Or maybe not at all, if Great-Uncle Joe didn't understand little Kelly's interests...) And chances are also good that when it ends up in the bottom of your child's toy box, there will be another child eager to play with it, so you can reconsign it!

6- Home accent pieces. Artwork & other home decor items rarely show wear but do show the homemaker's tastes and interests. Interesting pieces from exotic lands or other times, are readily found at reasonable prices in resale shops of all types.

7- Kids' clothing. Just about anything you could put on your child is better bought secondhand: Newborn clothing abounds in resale, especially because an infant simply grows too fast to wear all the darling outfits purchased as gifts.

7a- Then there is toddler clothing. One resale shopkeeper says, "My toddler will wear an outfit to preschool once and it comes home covered in finger paint and glitter glue, ground-in dirt from the sandbox or grass stains from the yard, and cranberry juice or other remnants of lunch. When I buy it already used, it's no problem when it comes home in a shambles."

7b- Older children adore costumes and make-believe clothes. Fill their dress-up boxes with fun items purchased at resale shops and let their imaginations take wing!

8- Jeans. They ALWAYS fit better used. Women's, men's, kids'. Someone else gets to have them shrink after the first washing.

9- Anything seasonal. A green vase for pine boughs, a pastel tablecloth for your spring party, a windbreaker for vacation or snow boots when you live in Georgia. Why buy new, accumulate enough that you have to rent a storage place... when you can buy used, enjoy it for the short time you need it, then reconsign, resell, or donate it back and let someone else use it?

10- Accessories of all sorts. Who wants to look like they bought their jewelry at the local department store? Their belt at the same mall store everyone in town goes to? Quality accessories show your style and taste. A gently-used authentic designer piece costs little more than the cheap illegal knock-off bought from dubious sources.

Note: Unless noted otherwise, all content copyright HowToConsign.com, 2010-present. Please limit external use to single image files or excerpts of less than 100 words, cite HowToConsign by name, and direct-link HowToConsign.com. Copying and pasting in any other way, for any other reason, is a copyright violation.

HowToConsign is presented by TGtbT.com The Premier Site for Professional Resalers

List your resale shop on HowToConsign.com