Nine Lives: Women's Clothing Consignment Policies and Procedures

Nine Lives has Women's Clothing Consignment "Wired"

It's true. When you consign with Nine Lives, your clothes are available for shopping on the Web within 30 minutes. As a consignor, you can review your account from the Web, 24 hours a day. Your reimbursement checks are mailed to you automatically (you never have to ask!!), and Nine Lives will document everything for you. You won't find better marketing of your valuable garments, service, and access to your account information at any other consignment store. Why consign anywhere else?

Since Nine Lives opened in February 1993, over $500,000 has been paid to consignors as their share of the proceeds for the sale of their valuable clothes. Over 80% of the garments taken in by Nine Lives sell. It takes proper merchandising, hard work and careful selection of garments to make Nine Lives and you, the consignor, successful. The purpose of this brochure is to save you time and money by helping you choose and prepare your clothing for consignment.

Policies and Procedures

First, check the Best Sellers & No Thanks list for the kinds of items that we handle versus those we do not accept at all. (We're a small shop and can't do everything!) If any of the things you have are listed in the No Thanks category, give us a call and we'll be happy to refer you to a store that can help you with those items.

We require a minimum total of $100 of sales price (in Nine Lives) to open a consignment account. There is no minimum number of garments.

Also, we take items only on season, so focus your selection on items for the current season.

Take a Good Look

Then, take a good, long look at each item you're considering for consignment and ask yourself, "Why am I interested in consigning this item?"

If the answer is, "It's a beautiful garment and I love it, BUT..."

it will never fit me again
it's just not my color
my lifestyle has changed and I'll never wear it again
I've had it for a while and the tags are still on it
it was an impulse buy and just isn't 'me'

You're on the right track! Keep going!

If the answer is:

it's more than 3 years old
it's worn out
it needs repair
it looks dated or out of style
it's not very good quality
I just want all this old stuff out of my closet

STOP!! Shoppers would feel the same way you do about these things so it's unlikely Nine Lives will accept them. You might consider making a charitable donation of these garments.

Preparing Your Garments

Clean, well pressed and fragrance free sells the best! The cleanliness and appearance of your garments is crucial. All garments must be freshly dry cleaned or laundered, fragrance free, pressed and on hangers to be accepted!!

We recognize that good dry cleaning is costly. To avoid unnecessary expense, we urge you to check each garment in bright daylight for

soil/stains especially around collars, cuffs, underarms and in crotch areas
missing/loose buttons and closures
torn/stained linings
moth holes
faded or uneven colors

If you see anything that does not appear to be correctable - STOP! Again, making a charitable donation of those garments might be appropriate.

Do the Math

It is our goal to achieve for you a 10 - 15% return of your original investment in your garments. It's a good idea to take a minute and think through just how much will actually be in your pocket at the end of the consignment process.
Keep in mind the cost of dry cleaning or laundering each garment before consignment.
We will price your items at approximately 75% lower than full retail price.
If you deduct the cost of preparing your garments from your proceeds, what will be the net amount you have realized?

Make an Appointment

Consignments are accepted by appointment only, Tuesday through Saturday prior to store hours.

Write up and Pricing

At the appointment, we will complete an intake form for you, with a description of each garment, its suggested selling price, and the agreement for the terms of the consignment. Then just relax and wait for the checks to arrive! Remember, you can check the status of your account anytime on our Web site.