After several years of consigning at Rhea Lana, I’ve learned something that would have saved me a LOT of time when I first started:
Not everything that is nice is worth selling.
And not everything that I think should sell actually does.
When you’re standing in the middle of your kids’ closets, playroom, garage and storage areas with a mountain of stuff in front of you, it is very tempting to think, Well, this is still in great shape. Surely someone will buy it.
Maybe.
But getting an item ready for a Rhea Lana sale takes time. You have to inspect it, clean it, repair it if necessary, price it, enter it, tag it, hang it or bag it, and get it to the sale. That brings me to one of my biggest Rhea Lana lessons:
The question isn’t just, “Will this sell?”
The better question is:
“Is this worth my time to sell?”
After doing this for several years, I’ve gotten much more selective.
I’ve learned which things consistently sell well, which things need a little strategy, and which things I simply don’t bother bringing anymore.
And that distinction can make a huge difference in how much money you actually make from a consignment sale and how much satisfaction you get when all is said and done.
The Best Things to Sell at Rhea Lana
If you’re short on time, I would not start by digging through every drawer and closet.
I’d start with the things that have historically given me the best combination of demand, selling price, and effort required to prepare them. You are looking to prioritze high profit items to serve as the foundation of what you are selling. Then fit in the lower profit things as you have time.
1. Large Baby Gear
Baby gear is one of the first categories I’d look at.
Think:
- Strollers
- High chairs
- Pack ‘n Plays
- Baby carriers
- Bouncers and swings
- Baby gates
- Other useful baby equipment
These are the kinds of things that can command a much better price than a $3 or $4 piece of children’s clothing, while requiring roughly the same basic process of getting them sale-ready.
And Rhea Lana shoppers are there specifically looking for these kinds of items.
Several Rhea Lana franchises specifically identify baby equipment and large items as high-demand categories.
My rule: If it is a useful piece of baby gear in excellent condition, I am much more likely to make the effort to sell it than a random $3 shirt.
2. Toys That Are Actually Worth Something
Toys can be fantastic sellers—but there is a big distinction between a good toy to sell and a pile of random toys to sell.
The things I prioritize are:
- Name-brand toys
- Popular toys
- Larger toys
- Complete sets
- Toys in excellent condition
- Toys that are clean and easy for a shopper to understand (Said differently, a disassembled Hot Wheels race track will probably not sell, even if it’s cheap and good quality. If you assemble, it has a good likelihood to sell. It must be easy to understand how it works and that all the pieces are there.)
I have also learned not to get sentimental about the toy bin.
Just because something cost $40 new does not mean it is worth the time it takes to prepare and sell for $4.
So what do I do with all the $40 toys that are worth $4 now? Batch them by theme! We have done all kinds of themes over the years – Disney, animals, STEM, dinosaurs, and more. A batch of toys will command a good price and move a lot of toys on to their next home.
3. Bikes, Scooters and Outdoor Equipment
These are another category I pay attention to.
As kids get older, you may have passed along all of your strollers, carseats and such. Bikes, scooters, large sports equipment, and outdoor toys are the older kid version of baby gear. These can attract shoppers willing to pay substantially more than they would for a pile of children’s clothes.
And because the original retail price is often much higher, there is room for both the shopper to get a deal and the consignor to make meaningful money. Not to mention the space you save when the item leaves your home.
If you have items sitting in the garage, shed, or porch that your child has outgrown, I’d put it near the top of your list.
4. Name-Brand and Boutique Clothing
Yes, clothing sells.
But not all clothing sells equally well.
The pieces I am most interested in consigning are:
- Good-condition name brands
- Boutique brands
- Special occasion clothing
- Particularly cute or current pieces
- Seasonal clothing that shoppers actually need
- Shoes in good condition
The trick is that Rhea Lana shoppers have a LOT of clothing to choose from. Anyone who has shopped one of these sales at the very beginning can attest that the amount of choices can be daunting.
Your cute Old Navy or Carters shirt isn’t competing against nothing.
It’s competing against 30 other cute Old Navy or Carters shirts.
That means condition, brand, presentation and price matter.
Don’t hear me wrong – I have sold my fair share of Old Navy, Carters, Cat and Jack stuff. But they are always batched, always priced competitively, and always offered up for the half price part of the sale. And they are included in my inventory only if there is time after the high-margin items.
5. Complete Outfits
I’ve also found that sometimes the individual pieces aren’t especially exciting—but the outfit is.
A shirt hanging by itself may be easy to overlook.
A complete outfit can make the shopper’s decision much easier.
Instead of thinking, What would I put with this?, the shopper can think, That’s cute. Done.
When it makes sense, I would rather create a compelling outfit than put several mediocre individual pieces on the rack.
6. Shoes in Excellent Condition
Shoes can be worth bringing, particularly when they are:
- Name brand
- Gently worn
- Clean
- Still look current
- In a desirable size or style
But shoes are one of those categories where condition matters a lot.
If they look like they’ve been through 400 miles of childhood, I don’t care what brand they are.
I’m not bringing them.
What I Quit Bringing
This may actually be the more useful part of the article.
Because after you’ve done a few sales, you start realizing that decluttering for a consignment sale is not the same thing as decluttering.
You don’t have to find a way to sell everything.
1. Cheap Clothing That Isn’t Special
This was a big one for me.
There was a time when I would look at a perfectly decent children’s shirt and think:
Someone will buy this.
Maybe they will.
But if I have to spend time washing it, inspecting it, entering it, tagging it, hanging it and transporting it for a couple of dollars, I’m asking myself a different question now:
Would I do all of that work for the amount I’m likely to make?
Sometimes the answer is no.
And that’s okay.
2. Clothing With Visible Wear
I don’t care how much I loved it.
If it has:
- Pilling
- Fading
- Stains
- Cracked graphics
- Significant wear
- A stretched neckline
- Missing buttons
- Anything else that makes it look tired
…it isn’t going to become more desirable because I put a Rhea Lana tag on it.
This is one of the easiest places to get overly optimistic.
You see the history of the item. The shopper sees the item.
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
3. Random Toy Parts and Incomplete Sets
This is where the playroom can get you.
You find a giant pile of pieces and think, Surely somebody could use these.
Maybe.
But if I can’t confidently tell a shopper what they’re getting, I am much less interested in spending my time preparing it.
Complete, recognizable toys are one thing.
A bag of mysterious plastic pieces is another.
4. Things That Require Too Much Explanation
This is another personal rule I’ve developed.
If I have to stand there and explain:
“Okay, so this piece goes here, and then you need this other thing, which I think is in the bag, and…”
No.
I am probably not selling it.
The best consignment items are often the ones where the shopper can immediately understand:
What is it?
Is it complete?
Is it clean?
Is it worth the price?
If the answer is obvious, that’s good.
5. Items That Are Technically Sellable but Barely Worth Anything
This is perhaps the hardest category to let go of.
Because technically, yes, you could sell it.
But if something is likely to bring you $2 or $3 and requires the same amount of preparation as something that could bring $20, the economics aren’t great.
Remember: your time has value, too.
And this is where I think experienced consignors have a major advantage over first-timers.
You start learning to look at a pile of stuff and think:
What deserves my time?
rather than:
What can I possibly get rid of?
What I Would Prioritize If I Only Had Two Hours
If you are staring at your house thinking, There is absolutely no way I can get all of this ready, don’t panic.
I would start here:
- Large baby gear
- Bikes, scooters and outdoor equipment
- High-value or name-brand toys
- Complete toy sets
- Excellent-condition shoes
- Boutique or name-brand clothing
- Complete outfits
- Everything else
And I would stop before I got to the bottom of the list if I ran out of time.
Because a smaller batch of good items can be much more worthwhile than a giant batch of mediocre ones.
The Rhea Lana Test I Use Now
Before I bring something to a sale, I try to answer five questions:
Would someone want this?
Is it in genuinely excellent condition?
Is it worth enough to justify the work?
Can I make it easy for a shopper to understand what they’re getting?
Would I buy this myself at the price I’m asking?
If the answer to several of those questions is no, it probably doesn’t belong in my Rhea Lana pile.
And that is one of the biggest changes I’ve made over the years.
I used to think the goal was to sell as much stuff as possible.
Now I think the goal is to sell the right stuff.
That means fewer items.
Less work.
Less stuff coming back home.
And, ideally, more money for the effort.
Final Thoughts
Rhea Lana can be a great way to turn outgrown kids’ stuff into cash—but only if you remember that your time is part of the equation.
The best item isn’t necessarily the thing that originally cost the most.
And the best consignor isn’t necessarily the one who brings the most items.
For me, the sweet spot is finding the things that shoppers actually want, that are easy to present well, and that are worth the work it takes to get them there.
After several years of consigning, I’ve gotten much better at knowing the difference.
And honestly?
Learning what not to bring has probably saved me just as much time as learning what sells.
