Consignment Shops Sell a Select Clutter of Bargains

Heaven for bargain hunters can be found in the cluttered interiors of a consignment shop.

For those lost souls who have yet to discover these gardens of Eden for the thrifty, imagine a garage sale that never ends, a flea market where anybody can put his unwanted possessions up for sale.

Better than thrift stores because they’re more selective about their merchandise, cheaper than antique stores, consignment shops have popped up all over Orange County.

Just about anything can be had at these secondhand shops: antiques, furniture, china, chandeliers, crystal, paintings, kitchen utensils and myriad knickknacks. One shop even carries used sporting equipment.

Shop owners describe the consignment business as a win-win situation.

“It’s not harmful,” says Becky Factor, spokeswoman for Leisure World Consignments Inc. in Laguna Hills. “The people disposing of things are happy, and the people buying them are happy.”

Those with castoffs can sell them through the shop, saving themselves the hassle of holding a garage sale of their own or advertising the item and inviting strangers into their homes.

The stores typically keep merchandise for 60 to 90 days and receive 30% to 50% of the sales price. If grandma’s rocking chair doesn’t sell, the owners can retrieve it or in some cases agree to have it donated in their name to a charity.

A smart buyer can end up the biggest winner of all.

Jackie Haworth, owner of On Consignment in Laguna Beach, had one customer buy a painting at her shop for $50, then turn around and sell it at auction for $20,000.

Just visiting the shops can be a pleasure, much like digging through an old attic.

A sample of Orange County’s consignment shops:

Newport Harbor Art Museum’s Consignment Shop, 333 E. 17th St., No. 19, Costa Mesa, (714) 645-6426. Esther Quick loves coming to work in the morning, and who can blame her? As volunteer manager for the Newport Harbor Art Museum’s Consignment Shop, she’s constantly surrounded by the most amazing treasures.

Fine china, silver and crystal are the shop’s specialty.

On a recent expedition, one could find a Lenox china set for 12, each piece wreathed in 22-karat gold, for $900, or a 122-piece set of Gorham sterling silverware for $1,500--both bargains by today’s prices.

The shop is filled with rare finds: A 19th-Century copper brazier, used to cook food while warming a room ($585); an antique wedding kimono adorned with gold embroidery ($350); a 1904 music box that plays “My Old Kentucky Home” ($800); a 17th-Century English Bible box ($1,100) and a 17th-Century black walnut chest from the Hearst estate ($1,700).

The shop’s inventory changes daily, so Quick--and the customers--are never bored. Recently the shop volunteers had to sort and catalogue 174 items from a single estate. The shop’s proceeds go to support the museum.

The Sporting Outlet, 31654 Rancho Viejo Road, Suite A, San Juan Capistrano, (714) 248-5175. Kay Verity’s consignment shop is filled with good intentions--exercise bikes, rowing machines, weights and assorted used sporting goods which their previous owners allowed to gather dust.

“Usually when they get tired of (a machine), it’s still in excellent condition,” Verity says.

She opened the store Feb. 1, and since then she’s acquired all kinds of sporting goods--pinball machines, skis, bowling balls, tennis rackets, fishing tackle, skates, weights, wet suits and even a double-sailed sailboard.

Recycling sporting goods makes sense on several scores: Sellers can make money on equipment they’ve outgrown or neglected, buyers can try their hands at a new sport without spending a lot of money.

The sporting goods sell for no more than half of their retail price. On a recent visit, Verity had bicycles for $50, ski boots (one pair never worn) for $48, skis for $32 and poles for $25.

She won’t sell equipment that’s damaged, rusty or broken.

“I don’t want this to look like a garage sale,” she says. So many of the rowing machines and exercise bikes look new that her shop looks more like a gym.

Leisure World Consignments, Inc., 23595 G Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, (714) 770-7626. Visiting Leisure World Consignments is like going to your grandmother’s house and peeking in her old trunks and drawers.

There’s fine china and crystal, paintings, antique furniture, silver tea sets, gilt mirrors and assorted bric-a-brac--virtually anything you would find in a real home.

Many antiques found here come from estates in Leisure World. Often, the shop purchases entire households.

Visitors must study every nook and cranny for hidden treasure. Curios cabinets and china hutches are loaded with porcelain figurines, silver, Depression glass, vases, crystal and candleholders.

The back room is a favorite haunt for bargain hunters. There, the less expensive odds and ends are stacked up high--silver plate pitchers, rugs, musty books, tea cups, vases, statuettes and even porcelain poodles. Plan to spend a couple of hours working your way through the shop.

“I could go out of my mind here,” an elderly woman says happily.

On Consignment, 1190 Glenneyre St., Laguna Beach, (714) 497-3700. Jackie Haworth used to lament the lack of places in Laguna Beach where people could buy inexpensive things. Most shops were either for tourists or the wealthy.

“It’s not fair,” she said back then. So in 1974, she and her husband Ray opened On Consignment. Now people make special trips to the community to take advantage of low-priced, mostly used furniture and “a lot of unique items that come out of little old ladies’ cupboards,” Haworth says.

“So many people in Laguna Beach have been here 50 years. They’re paring down to move into rest homes or Leisure World,” she says. Others just want to redo their decor.

One Newport Beach woman stocked her entire $6-million oceanfront home with furniture and knickknacks she found in the shop.

“She came here every day for three months to buy things as they came in,” Haworth says. “All of her friends think she went to antique stores.”

The shop carries armoires, china hutches, end tables, couches, lamps, dinettes, wicker chairs, framed artwork, chandeliers and coffee tables. Recent inventory included an oak armoire with oval mirror for $395, an end table with white marble top for $225 and an old wicker rocking chair for $95.

Customers have come to appreciate the craftsmanship of the older furniture, Haworth says.

“They’re getting tired of particle board,” she says.

Consignments, Etc., 7251 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach, (714) 841-0048. It’s hard to classify the odds and ends that find their way into Consignments, Etc. “I like one-of-a-kind, individual things,” says Ron Soares, sales manager for the shop.

Nearby are carved ostrich eggs and bronze Deco sculptures, a 19th-Century English butler’s table etched with knife marks and an old steamer trunk that traveled with the Ice Capades, still bearing stickers from ice rinks around the world. There are plenty of practical furnishings as well.

The shop opened in January as a place for people to buy furniture others no longer wanted. The shop recently offered an oak chest with oval beveled mirror for $400, a Deco-style vanity for $3,000, a solid mahogany highboy for $799, a country French triple armoire made of carved walnut for $3,200, an 1890 china cabinet from Vienna with hand-carved grapes and acorns adorning its four doors for $1,600.

“Instead of having a garage sale, they can sell it here and hold out for the price they want.”