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I first heard of Rhea Lana a few months after my son was born. Rhea Lana is a large children’s consignment sale that lasts about 9 days. They have everything from books, toys, clothing, bedding, cribs, walkers, strollers, utensils, and nursing items. I usually find some good pieces of clothing, infant swimwear, utensils, and breastmilk supplies. I especially like shopping on half-off days when almost everything is 50% off. There aren’t many things left at this point but I usually find a couple of things that my son needs. Last Fall, I wanted to try consigning but I thought it was too much work so I tried selling our stuff on facebook marketplace and found that I didn’t sell as much as I wanted to. This Spring, I decided to try Rhea Lana. I would go through the whole process and, if I didn’t like it, then I won’t do it again.
The first step in participating in the Rhea Lana consignment sale was gathering and organizing all of the stuff you want to sell. I actually started doing this every couple of months since my son was born. Each time my son outgrew something, we’d set it aside in our second bedroom to figure out if we wanted to sell it, keep it, or give it away. This is why our second bedroom is such a mess!
You also have to make sure you have enough supplies such as children’s hangers, tags, and zip ties to organize the items in the way that they require. Between me, my husband, and our wiggly toddler, it took us 8 hours to get all of our things organized. I collected and bundled stuff I wanted to sell together. I then had my husband take pictures of each bundle and size so I can input it later.
It took me about an hour to input everything on the Rhea Lana website. Figuring out the price took the longest time because I was mentally calculating my portion of the sale (each consignor gets 60% of a sale). It also took me another 8 hours for me to add the tags, zip tie shoes, put the stuff in plastic bags, and hang clothes on hangers. Even though I inputted 153 items online, many of them were bundled together such as a set of hats, onesies, and bibs so we really had a couple hundred of pieces that we organized.
Finally, we packed up our bags and boxes and headed to the venue where they were having the sale. With all of our stuff, we barely fit in our Prius but at least it only took us one trip! At the venue, I attached the bar codes to my items’ tag, confirmed that they were sellable with one of the staff, and placed them on the racks or tables. This took me 3 hours to complete but I was finally done! In total, the whole process took 20 hours of work and about $30 worth of supplies.
I liked that I was able to see in real time how much I was earning. It was pretty exciting seeing what pieces sold on my Rhea Lana account. On the first days of the event, we sold a lot of things, especially our big ticket items like a walker and pack and play. It was probably because it was the weekend and a lot of parents were excited to shop.
From Monday to Thursday, our sales stalled a lot. There were barely any purchases. Then it started again on Friday with the 50% off days and continued on the weekend but it wasn’t much. In total, we sold 94 out of 153 items and got $474.95. Most of what that didn’t sell are going to be donated to local foster families and children in need as I’ve indicated in my online account, but I was able to pick out a couple of things that I wanted back if they didn’t sell.
Overall, it was a pretty good experience as I didn’t expect to get this much money. My husband actually thought we were only going to get $200 from the sale! It took a long time to get organized but I got the hang of it after a while. I’m just super happy to get rid of all of the stuff we don’t need anymore. What a great way to start 2020!
Have you tried selling at consignment events like this? Comment on your experience below!
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