I never had any interest in shopping at consignment before I had children. I actually avoided them as if my life depended on it. That all changed with my first pregnancy. All of sudden I found myself seeking out consignment shops for expectant mothers and babies. During my first pregnancy we happened to visit some friends in Minneapolis and I looked up all the consignment shops in the metropolitan area so that I could do some maternity shopping. A few months later, I was in Austin for my students’ art competition and I used my free time to go consignment maternity clothes shopping. I also found a few items for our unborn son at the local children’s consignment shop. After he was born and after all the “shower gift” clothes were too small, I went back to the consignment shop to buy him clothes and shoes. I purchased most of his clothes and all of his shoes at consignment. Most children’s consignment shops only accept gently used items and a lot of the items I purchased seemed practically new for a fraction of the cost.
With my second pregnancy, I tried to find maternity clothes at consignment but our new city did not have very many options for maternity consignment. As soon as we found out that we were having a girl, I found myself seeking out children’s consignment shops in our new city. There were a few. The difficulty with our new city was that it also had my favorite baby boutique and I could easily find numerous clothing items for either child but the prices were a bit steep. Still, I was able to find some things that I liked on sale. However, the consignment shops were the way to go. I frequently found really nice clothes from said baby boutique for a much more budget friendly price.
Perhaps I just have really good luck with consignment shopping, but I always seem to find exactly what I am looking for (almost always anyway) from clothes to shoes to larger baby items. Even though I had a bouncy seat from when my son was infant, I wanted to get something more girly. So I went to the consignment shop and found a nicer slightly bigger bouncy seat than my son’s blue one. On a different occasion, I had decided I needed to get a mini co sleeper. I had never seen a co sleeper before at the consignment shop but I wanted to check. Surprisingly they had just gotten one in before closing the day before. Aside from it being blue (I was not going to complain) it was exactly what I wanted. Most recently at a play date, my daughter was sitting in their bumbo. I had looked at purchasing one of these nifty seats new but was unwilling to spend the fifty dollars on what is essentially a piece of plastic/rubber. I thought I would check the consignment shop even though I had never seen one there (I was going almost weekly). As I walked up the side walk I saw a pink bumbo through the window (what are the odds?). I bought it for twenty dollars. I probably could have gotten one for less through craigslist but the consignment shop convenience was well worth the cost.