You know that I
comPLETEly dis-recommend
that consignment shopkeepers limit the number of items a consignor can bring in.
And get me inside the one shop I know that not only limits the consignor to ten items, but only allows them to bring things in once a month and I am driven, no kidding, into a
slathering rage.
But for those who simply wish to run their shops with numerical consigning limits regardless of Kate’s Best Tactics, here’s
three little letters
which I think would help calm the wild beasts within your clientele. Read it.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
We’re doing pretty much the same as Loren. Our limit is 30 and we have had no problems like we use to with tons of items. No complaints from our consignors either.
Great, Vikki… with your limit of 30, and Loren’s 25, there are not so many potential consignors who would have to worry about bumping up against your rule. My concern is that setting a limit, even if it’s high and is unlikely to affect the actual consigning procedure, is just one more “no” we have in our policies, paperwork, and conversations with potential consignors.
We’ve tried it BOTH ways. When we opened we had a “no limit” policy, no appt’s., no nuthin! We learned that this just wasn’t practical (for us anyway). What we found was that people would back up their car, open the trunk and unload! And I mean UNLOAD! We had people bring in dozens of items, the great majority of which were always NTY’s! The store looked like a Goodwill drop off station! There was simply no way to handle all of the clothes, unless, of course, I hired more help or moved to a larger store and we could not afford that!
So, what we do today is LIMIT the items to 25ish/day and on a DROP & RUN basis only. No appointments required and you can drop off any time 7 days a week! Our consignors are in and out in a minute and they love it! Our guidelines are posted in the store, on our website, on our Facebook page and of course we have a flyer too. So chances are that even new consignors know what we’re looking for, brands we accept and that items need to be wrinkle-free and on hangers.
At first we were concerned that we might be missing out on the “good items” but that simply has not been the case. Instead of having ones closet dumped on our counter, we now have 25 carefully selected, wrinkle-free, items neatly hung on our incoming rack. The truth is that 90% of our consignors don’t have more than 25 items to drop off anyway. Remember that the consignor wants to sell her items so she’s likely to bring in her BEST items. And, for the most part, that’s what we get in. Sure, we still have NTY’s like any store but nothing like we use to!
So, for us anyway, the 25 limit drop and run system works great! We’ll never go back to the “no limit” system.
That’s great, Loren! You’re using the 3 little letters!