Recycling, regifting and repurposing previously- cherished…

Need a holiday poster for your consignment, resale, thrift shop?
Here’s one for you, from me, to wish you a happy holiday and a Merry Thrifty one too!
Download the full-size file

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Hiding your (holiday) lights under a bushel.

Okay, so you’ve planned a Local Artist’s Fair for the Saturday before Thanksgiving in your consignment shop.
Great! Count on me!
I’ll be there. Look at those terrific offerings in the email body text. What resale shopper in her right mind wouldn’t

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Why Consignment & Resale Shops Shouldn’t Give Up the (Christmas) Ghost

I hope you’re knee-and-elbow deep in Christmas (Holiday, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice etc) planning this weekend. I hope your expectations for the holiday selling period in your consignment (resale, thrift etc) shop are great.
But I suspect they are not. And worse, I suspect that your very expectations are going to be self-fulfilling.
If you do not

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Stop Giving Cash Off in your Consignment Shop NOW

No more $5 off a $35 purchase or $10 off a $50 purchase or whatever you have been doing; STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
Really.
At least for now.
Here’s what you do instead:
You give

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Pumpkins all put away? Ready for a Merry Recycled Holiday?

For Consignment and Resale and Thrift Shops, a special Product for the Professional Resaler: Find out how to make November and December months that you’ll love!

 
Yes, [...]

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Christmas is Past.

Nothing sadder than the picked-over remains of holiday goods.  We just started the policy that the consignment period for holiday-specific goods ends the day after the holiday, no matter when in the preceding 60 days the item came in. We’ve done this now for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and yesterday, Dec. 27, was clear-out day for [...]

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Christmas Budget Getting Low but still one shopkeeper to go?

So, Spouse/Offspring/Progenitor of Resale Royalty or Consignment Countess, is your holiday gift budget shot, and you have NO idea what will make your loved one’s secondhand shop even more of a joy to her/him than it already is?
And you want to honor her/his motto Clever ReUse? And to acknowledge that straightening stock is an [...]

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So many Christmas marketing ideas, so little time…

If you haven’t written your holiday marketing in stone, or if you haven’t even thought about it, or if you are going to roll over and play dead in your consignment, resale, or thrift shop this year…. a list of some past ideas from here on Auntie Kate The Blog that might, just might, draw [...]

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Have yourself a Polka-Dotty Christmas!

May your days be polka-dot…
and may all your Christmases be dotty….
and yes, the polka dots are real. And yes, people laugh when I drive down the street. Isn’t it grand? That I can bring such happiness to them?
I’m thinking of getting a clown nose to wear while driving. And getting a whole slew of [...]

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Look what I found!

My light-up Santa is the new light of my life. You can’t see it in my excellent photo, but St. Nick is gently faded around the edges, as befits a gently-used treasure.
I found the chubby Chief Elf at my local consignment shop, Woman’s Exchange in Sarasota.
Santa’s wielding an upside-down candy cane, all the better to [...]

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Such gay holiday wrappings… such disgusting trash!

So, it’s almost Christmas. You just have to run out and get some colorful paper, some ribbon, those cute little name tags and some tape to wrap everything up, right?
So your gifts will look pretty under the tree…until an hour later, when you

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The Ebb and Flow of Merchandising

One of the most exciting things about secondhanding, for shopkeeper and shopper alike, is the incredible ebb and flow of goods. Sometimes this is due to style and fashion (what housewares shop hasn’t experienced too many George Forman grills?), sometimes it’s season (too many coats in November, too many shorts in [...]

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