How New York is this?
So pretty, love it.
We are at Michael's Consignment Shop,
on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.
This store has been in my family for 65 years.
So, I have literally grown up in the second-hand industry.
Shopping consignment is really smart.
If you're shopping consignment you're thinking about
the environment, 'cause it's sustainable.
They're really good on your wallet.
And, it's really fun.
The thrill of the hunt when you're in
a consignment store and you find that piece,
is like nothing else when you're shopping.
When you're in a consignment store
it's best just to try everything on.
It's very difficult for store owners
to normalize all of the sizes.
'Cause designers size differently,
brands size differently, even countries size differently.
These are both 38s, one's a French 38, one's a German 38.
But, you can see they're very different sizes.
Sometimes the thrift stores don't have fitting rooms.
It's a really great idea to come in leggings
and a tank top, fitted, so that you can
try those things on right over your clothing.
Often when you're shopping second-hand
it will be final sale.
So, you really need to make sure
you know what you're buying.
You need to inspect the garment,
look at it in different lighting,
maybe bring it near a window
so you can see what it looks like in the daylight.
You wanna check things like collars,
cuffs, the underarms, 'cause deodorant can leave stains.
Because once you get it home you don't wanna find
that you missed a stain or a tear.
These shoes have literally never been worn.
If the shoes are lightly worn,
they're a great option to shop second-hand.
You may find a whole group of shoes
that just walked through the door for a third of retail.
When you're shopping consignment at the end of the season,
you're taking a discount, on top of a discount,
on top of a discount.
Here's a great Theory coat that retails for almost $800,
that we have now for about 195.
And, this is a holiday piece and we are past the holidays.
It actually has its retail price on it,
it retailed for 595, and we have it here for 97.50.
Like I said, there's different types of stores.
So, the consignment stores are gonna be
much more well-curated.
But, when you go into a thrift store,
it's important to look out for some things.
Before you buy make sure you smell because--
Ooh!
(laughing)
So, a couple things can happen.
Ew.
There could be a lot of garlic smell in it,
there can be perfume, and certain items--
Yeah, no, that was BO and mildew.
Yeah. Or that.
But, certain smells are not gonna wash out.
The other thing to consider is,
I had mentioned in the segment,
that shoes are a great find second-hand.
And they are, if you're in a store that is gonna
curate the shoes very particularly.
If you're in a thrift store it can go either way.
You have to be careful.
Really well-worn shoes, if you can see here,
are gonna conform--
To toe marks.
Right.
And, you're toes are not gonna be like their toes.
So, you're gonna see the outline of other funky toes
around your toes. And that's not a good look.
So, how do you break down what you give to where,
or how you sell and repurpose your closet, basically?
So, we always recommend that if you haven't worn it
in a year, you're probably not going to.
So, you should figure out which items have value
for consignment, meaning that you can make money
off of them, and you can do something like a Poshmark.
Or, you can do something like--
Like if it still has a tag on it.
For sure.
If it is a designer item.
Designer luxury items definitely hold their value
in the secondary market.
Those are great places to start.
But, it's also important to do your homework
about where you're going to get
the biggest bang for your buck.
So, certain consignment stores take certain items,
whereas others might not.
So, you wanna call around.
Also, there may be a store that specializes in
mid-tier range, like J.Crew, Theory,
those are all very important labels.
But, you're not gonna bring your very high-end items
to them 'cause you're not gonna get the same--
Right, exactly.
Not gonna get the same amount of money.
Right.
So, we can look at some examples here.
So, when you're going through your closet,
it's very important to look through each item.
You may have an item that would be a great item to consign,
but you wanna give it a little bit of TLC first.
So, for example, a pair of shoes,
they're gonna sell for more money if you take the time
to bring 'em to the shoemaker and spend--
And spend a couple of bucks to put a new sole on it.
Exactly. Right, right.
However, if you find an item that you used to love
and there's a hole in it, and it's not easily
to be repaired, it may be something that you decide
should go into the donation pile.
Right.
If you have an item, like this one,
which is so cute, but you can see right here,
on the back, probably from a chair.
Where is that little area?
Oh, it got a pull, yeah.
It got a pull and the whole area--
The whole thing's just gonna fall off.
Yeah, so this whole area is all connected.
It's all gonna just.
Yeah.
And so, you just need to look very closely
if you have items like this
'cause they're not gonna be saleable.
They're not gonna sell, right.
Right.
They're gonna get returned to you.
But, if you find it early enough,
you can get it fixed and then you can monetize it.
(clapping and cheering)