Children's Resale Events

Babies are expensive. There is so much stuff out there that I think I might need or was suggested to me Some of it or a lot of it, they will only use for a few months or may not like at all.

Don't worry, at the beginning of the summer, I had the solution. Garage sales and Craig's list. Garage sales turned out to be a major bust. Despite driving around all of Michiana and sometimes dragging out of town guests with me, I found a lot of trash or no garage sale at all or overpriced items. Craig's list did give me my changing table, but there was not nearly as much merchandise as in the Chicago area and I didn't want to go to meet sellers without Adam as my big tough bodyguard.

Then I discovered Once Upon a Child, which is a consignment shop and it did have pretty great deals. It was sort of hit or miss with inventory.

Then I discovered Children's Resale Events. They are fun on so many levels. Usually a church group organizes a bi-annual sale, they recruit sellers, organize and tag merchandise and have a high level of organization among volunteers on the day of sale. The volunteers manage the crowd, tag big items for you and take them outside, help you find an area, check you out and help you load up your car.

It is so much nicer than a garage sale because you only have to drive one place to find multiple sellers. You can't negotiate prices, although, because the person checking you out isn't necessarily the seller of the items you are buying.

The first one I went to was in town and relatively small. There were 65 sellers and it was located in the gym of the Apostolic Youth Group's building. I got there 30 min early and was about 50th in line. There was a mad rush to get the big items. You had to bring your own bags or laundry baskets and try to get the best items before someone else did. It was a rush!  I spent 50 dollars and bought a really cheap bouncy seat, tummy-time mat, clothes and a few misc. items.

They gave me a flyer about other resale events in the area and two weeks later a sale in Wakarusa, IN (25 min away) with over 200 sellers was planned. I asked my sister to come with me because it helps to have two people to divide and conquer.

Last Saturday, we got up early, ate breakfast and started the drive. We took back country roads on  a cool, foggy, dark morning that felt like it was right out of a scary book. It turns out that Molly doesn't know any good ghost stories to save her life. We pulled up to the sleepy town about an hour before the sale started. We began to worry that we got here too early and this was dumb...then we turned the corner. We could barely find a parking spot on the street and had to walk past two huge lines outside the church. Everyone was sitting in chairs-in-a-bag and looked like they had been there awhile. We found out later they were the first 200 people there.

Then we turned the corner and headed to the back of the line going down the street.

We waited in line for an hour and let the anticipation build. I was a little disappointed because I knew that a lot of the big items would be taken and some of the best items would be picked over. When it was time to go, there was some confusion with the lines. They were only letting about 100 people in at a time. The confusion ended up working in our favor after the guy directing the lines somehow put us ahead of about 100 people! There were two stories with clothes in the basement and all other items upstairs (e.g., bedding, bath, feeding, toys, gear, strollers, cribs, books, scrapbook supplies, decorations, etc.) Molly and I found some good deals (like an auto mirror for 50 cents) and I spent another 50 dollars. Mostly we watched this crazy Black Friday-like frenzy of women do all their clothes shopping for the year and all their Christmas shopping (large toy and activity center). There were TONS of clothes and people were overfilling laundry baskets with clothes for their multiple children. There were definitely some cute clothes at really good prices. I had no idea home much I would need! Of course, I forgot to look for pack-n-play sheets, and when I finally remembered, the box for those darn sheets was empty.

Molly and I left in a crazy daze. We both agreed that it was something worth doing again, but maybe not until next fall. It would be best to come super early, bring chairs and breakfast, and have a predetermined list for each of us (we had a list but we didn't know who was looking for what). It seemed like a better deal for people with older children or multiple children. Next fall, I'll know if she will need clothes a little bigger, a little smaller, or right on track. I'll also know what kind of clothes we like for her to wear and which toys she prefers. I think it would be fun for Adam to come with me because I always surprised by what he picks out.


After the sale, Molly and I scoured another town for an apple festival that turned out to not be until the following weekend. Oops!

I definitely recommend these resale events if you have the time to get up early, wait in long lines, and fight the maddening crowd. I actually enjoyed the competitive feel of it all. I'll have to start working on my elbow shots for next year:)