Booming Business of Buying Used

While some parts of the economy are stagnant these days, the business of buying and selling used merchandise is thriving.

In the past year, a half-dozen new resale stores have opened up along Highway 101. And the proprietors there and elsewhere in North County say that business is booming.

They credit an economy that has people looking for values in their purchases and for earnings from their unused items. They also see the effects of an environmental sensitivity that supports re-using things whenever possible. Already conditioned to recycle newsprint, aluminum cans and yard clippings, people are taking things they no longer need to resale shops instead of the local dump.

There are scores of stores in North County buying and selling everything from used baby strollers to slightly nicked bowling pins, once-worn evening gowns and old kitchen chairs.

Although secondhand stores continue to serve those who can’t afford to shop elsewhere, they are appealing to a much broader audience these days.

Consignment shops, vintage clothing stores and thrift boutiques are springing up in some of the most affluent areas of the county, such as Del Mar and La Costa. Interior decorators search consignment shops for old art books to display on coffee tables in posh homes. Teen-agers scour vintage clothing stores looking to augment wardrobes with that special retro piece. And parents looking to save money on children’s wear consign outgrown items rather than giving them away or tossing them.

There’s little question that if an item is in working order and good condition, it can be resold. The question becomes where to take your items--deciding at first whether to earn money from them yourself or let the profit from their sale support a charitable cause.

If you’ve decided to use your items to raise money for yourself, you’ll want to decide whether you’ll fare better by selling outright to a dealer or finding a shop that will display your item and pay you when and if it sells.

If you chose a consignment shop, you can expect the proprietor to take a commission, usually 35% to 60% of the sale price. You’ll retain ownership of the item until it’s purchased by someone else.

Generally, consignors can expect to get about half of what they paid for an item in the resale market, says Mary Coleman, co-owner of the Consignment Shop in Encinitas.

Coleman and partner Richard Toohey, who opened their store in June, take 40% of the sale price and pay consignors on a monthly basis. If the item doesn’t sell after 30 days, Coleman says she talks with the owner and readjusts the price.

Coleman left an advertising job in Kansas City and moved to San Diego County four years ago. She and Toohey wanted to start a business and figured with the transient lifestyle many Southern Californians lead, opening a consignment shop was their answer.

Like other consignment shops, it has some unusual items. There is a 1928 brass and copper fire extinguisher from an Arizona schoolhouse selling for $255. Capodimonte Italian lamps from the early 1900s sell for $187. Hot selling items priced under $40 range from wood dressers to china sets. Brass teapots go for $6 while a king-size comforter is $35. The shop also has a variety of contemporary and antique furnishings, rattan and wicker pieces.

The Consignment Shop is one of several secondhand stores on a two-mile stretch of Old Highway 101. “When there’s four or five shops, people look at all of them and then they come back and buy,” Coleman said.

Consignment shopping may not be for everyone, but many openly enjoy looking over the offbeat items and paying low prices for the items they like.

Bargaining is welcomed at most shops, owners say, and almost all are willing to cut deals with customers on a sale price.

Vista resident Ted Hawkins doesn’t consider himself an antique hunter or avid collector. Yet he cruises consignment shops at least once a month--usually looking for home furnishings. He says the shops simply offer a wide variety of items for low prices.

Lucinda McKendry is also a regular consignment shopper.

“If the item is well made and in good condition, why pay full price and buy it new?” says McKendry, who recently purchased two Indonesian chairs that used to be owned by a musician.

Shelley Rice, owner of Shelley’s Designer Resale Boutique in Carlsbad, attests to the growing interest in both selling and buying by consignment. “Consignment shops have really taken off,” said Rice, whose shop deals exclusively with women’s clothing and accessories. “There’s no stigma attached to used clothing. The general rule is if you can’t tell it’s used then no one else will either.”

The economy seems to have given a boost to specialty consignment stores, according to Rice. More women than ever are bringing in their wardrobes to sell, she says. That way they can make money on their clothes then turn around and buy more and not feel guilty.

“There’s an art to resale buying,” she said. “It almost becomes a game with customers. It can be addicting. Once you get a taste of this and find out what kind of treasures you can find, you won’t go back to paying retail.”

Rice left the bread-delivery business more than three years ago to start her own secondhand shop. That store in Carlsbad did so well, she later opened one across town on El Camino Real in La Costa.

She resells clothes from the closets of some of the county’s wealthiest women, but don’t ask her to drop the names of her consignors. They are kept confidential because the same women often shop at the secondhand store and wish to remain anonymous.

Rice takes clothes that date back no more than two seasons and keeps 60% of the item’s sale price. If the clothing has not sold after three months, it’s returned to the consignor or turned over to a charity.

“The woman that wants to dress in designer fashions that doesn’t want to go to Nordstroms and pay the high price will shop here,” Rice said.

Bargains at Rice’s stores range from $22 Liz Claiborne slacks that retail for $80 to a Bob Mackie cocktail outfit for $500, (full price is $900, Rice says).

On the other side of the spectrum is This N’ That in Solana Beach, a store that offers secondhand merchandise for cut-rate prices in a no-frills atmosphere. Here the budget conscious can select from women’s dresses, toddler outfits, costume jewelry, pillow cases, candle holders, even perfume bottles.

If you’re looking for clothing, accessories and unusual trinket at bargain prices, Recycles Thrift Store on Diana Street in Encinitas may be your answer. Nothing here costs more than $50, says owner Lisa Swift, a 24-year-old Carlsbad resident who tired of being a cocktail waitress and opened the store last April.

On a recent visit, it looked as though someone cleaned out a closet from a previous decade. Cowboy boots, snake-skin belts, Hawaiian shirts, athletic gear, baseball hats and even Halloween costumes are packed into this tiny tore.

A small supply of sporting equipment was stacked below a rack of boys’ shorts and slacks. A set of Rossignol skis with Look bindings went for $15. Ski boots were marked at $10 and golf bags started at $5. (Sorry, no clubs). A $2 bowling pin stood by the door and a $45 taffeta wedding dress packaged in a box was mounted on the wall.

Although Recycles is a thrift shop, Swift purchases items brought in--usually for a third of its original cost. She also scours local garage sales to fill her store.

Antique dealers and people looking for an unusual coffee table piece are among the regulars at Marianne’s Consignment Shop in Del Mar.

A 19th-Century Austrian bread box sold for $1,500 recently while a china plate went out the door for a buck, said Zus van Thillo, who owns the 15-month-old shop with her sister, Marianne.

Marianne worked for several years at friends’ consignment shops in Orange County. She loved the business so much she talked Zus, a Del Mar resident, into quitting her computer programming job to open the store together.

“We told everyone we knew before we opened about it and began storing items in a garage,” Zus said on a recent morning visit. “Before we knew it we had a ton of merchandise to sell.”

The Van Thillos accept items in good condition and take 35% of the sale price. For items priced less than $20, their commission is 50%. When items have been in the store for two months, they are marked half price, a real bargain for those who find items they like but are willing to chance that it won’t sell until the price comes down.

Like most consignment shops, Marianne’s offers a mix of modern and traditional items in all price ranges.

“If people need a dining table and can’t afford to spend $5,000 they come here and spend $900,” Zus said.

Reproductions of turquoise-colored Shaker chairs sell for $65 a piece and contemporary end tables can be had for under $100.

More unusual items here include six teaspoons that belonged to the first mayor of Del Mar, Tom Douglas, which sell for $90. An 1875 walnut wood pump organ sells for $750 and an 1899 issue of Life magazine goes for $10.

Sterling silver baby spoons from the 1920s sell for $22, a Stetson cowboy hat is priced at $35 and wicker shelves fetch $15. Fiesta ware from the 1950s start at $6 per plate and Swiss-Miss candlestick holders painted in red, white and blue fetch $20 a piece.

For the price of the item, the Van Thillos also throw in the history of the item as told to them by the owner.

“When people bring things in we try to get to know who had it, where it came from and any other information they know about it,” Marianne said.

At the Stiletto vintage clothing shop in Encinitas, a young girl with purple hair wearing a plaid shirt, cut-off Levi’s, black fishnet stockings and black shoes flipped through a rack of vintage dresses. The girl and her conservatively-dressed mother sifted through leopard-print jackets, sequined cardigan sweaters and mesh swing skirts.

The secondhand shop north of Encinitas Boulevard is crammed with used hats, Tony Lama cowboy boots, red velvet pants and “boyfriend” sweaters circa 1930 to 1960. But the most popular item here is used Levi 501’s starting at $11.99, says owner Shinji Tanaka. For the kind that come worn with bullet-size holes, the price is $17.99.

Tanaka, who bought the store from the original owner five years ago, says most of his customers, mostly high school and college-aged youths, weed through the racks and stacks and end up purchasing items other than what they came in searching for.

The ties, probably among the widest and tackiest in the county, start at $4 and the silk scarves are priced at $2.95. Hand-beaded pocketbooks, Jackie O pill-box hats and 1920s toasters and clocks can also be bargained for, Tanaka said.

Tanaka operates this vintage shop different than a consignment store. He purchases the items brought in before he tries to resell the merchandise. That way he deals with the owner once, he says.