Selling Your Stuff

We want our customers to know how things work at Grow With Me. We’ve been customers at resale stores ourselves, so we understand the frustrations of selling. That is why we try to make the process as clear and easy as we possibly can. And we try to ensure that we give both those selling and buying get the fairest deals we can possibly can. So I thought some of you might want a better idea of how we actually go about buying items from our customers.

When you bring your things in, we first presort them. We check the items for any stains, tears, missing pieces, or broken parts. I personally have brought many things into the store that I thought were in almost perfect condition only to find something wrong with them once there. Every little stain shows up under our fluorescent lights! Many of our customers who buy from us expect our merchandise to be in like-new condition and for that reason we are very particular about what we accept.We also check the brand and size of the items you bring in. Some brands sell better than others for us, and that can sometimes depend on size. For example, Hanna Anderson clothing sells very well in smaller size, but not so well in the tween or teen sizes. And, of course, we make sure no toy or piece of equipment has been recalled.

After we presort your items, we price the things that we are able to accept. Pricing can vary greatly depending on brand, size, and condition. We do have a pricing matrix for clothing, but even then, we might price something a little higher if it is brand new with tags or a little lower if it is one of our favorite brands but has a little wear. When we price toys and equipment, we generally check the retail cost of the item and then price that item at one-third to one-half of the current retail value. Then you would get one-third to one-half of our price. So, yes, you would earn more if you sell your things on your own. But you would also have the hassle of doing that. The pricing we use is competitive with other resale stores. We would love to be able to give you more for your things, but we have to keep prices low enough for our buying customers, and we have to make enough of a profit to keep the store running and our employees paid!

Then we total everything up and give you a cash offer or 30% more if you prefer store credit. If you have dropped your things off at the store, we will then give you a call to let you know we’ve finished processing them. We really cannot tell you what we are paying out for each item, but we would be happy to let you know the pricing on one or two specific things. We do ask that you pick up those items we were not able to accept within a few days if you do not plan on donating them. We try to be flexible about the pick up of No Thank You’s, but we do have limited space in our backroom for storage. If for some reason you can’t get back to the store in a few days, we ask that you call and talk to us about the situation. If after a couple of phone calls we do not here from you, we would donate those things to our Autism Account.

We hope we’ve taken some of the mystery out of our buying process. You are always welcome to ask questions. And we hope to see you and your stuff soon!