Mention buying shoes second-hand and a lot of people cringe, but here’s the thing: buying shoes second-hand doesn’t have to mean buying used shoes. Check out all of these brand-new shoes that I picked up at Habitat the other day for $1 a pair:

Born sandals

Naturalizer sandals

Sketchers sneakers

Clarks loafers

Timberland sandals

Lands End boots

If $6 can buy shoes like this at a thrift store, why bother with retail stores?

I’ve held my share of yard sales, but I’ve never participated in a kids’ consignment sale. That’s about to change. This week I’ll be taking around 200 items to a church consignment sale to see how I fair. Will I make more money? Will I sell more stuff? I don’t know, but I’m about to find out.

Here’s a look at what I’ll be taking:

Everything is tagged and ready to go. Clothes had to hung and sorted by size. To make things easier, I snagged this portable wardrobe from a thrift store for $6.74 (after coupon).

Consignors are limited to 10 stuffed animals, so I picked out the ones that I thought would do best.

This box contains a little bit of everything – books, toys, board games, bedding, towels, purses, accessories.

I’m working on thinning out my kids’ clothes, so I have everything from newborn all the way to size 10 represented here. Juniors clothes are allowed at this sale, so there are even some things from my closet.

My Out of Pocket Costs

I spent $5 on the registration fee, another $3 for tags and $6.74 on the portable wardrobe. I already owned a tagging gun, and I managed to get all of my hangers for free, so my total cost for participating in this sale comes to $14.74. I plan to participate in kids’ consignment sales on a regular basis now, so I’m considering the wardrobe to be an investment. As soon as I drop off the stuff for this sale, I’ll start loading it up with stuff for the fall sale.

Sharing the Profits

At this particular sale you get 70% of the profits, if you work a two-hour shift; 50%, if you don’t. Needless to say, I signed up for a shift. I’ll drop my stuff off in the morning. Then, spend two hours helping them set up.

Added Benefits

If you consign at least 25 items, you get three tickets to the early sale, which takes place tomorrow night. This will be a great chance to cherry pick the things that I’m currently looking for.

How I Did

I just picked up my earnings this morning, and I netted $167.30 from the sale. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Out of the 192 items that I brought, I sold 112 of them (some at full-price and some on the half-price day). I also picked up some nice stuff for my family at the early sale (a nice perk of participating):

I’m definitely in for the fall sale, and I’ve already started to set stuff aside.