Just Between Friends Sale

For those of you that haven't heard about the Just Between Friends Sale, you will be so happy you read this and hopefully go find one in your area and save LOTS of money on items you would have bought anyway.

It's a children's consignment event held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. You can find clothes, shoes, toys, cribs, strollers, car seats, bedding, play-sets, highchairs, books, room decor, Halloween costumes, swimsuits, athletic gear, maternity clothes.....the list could go on forever. Just wait to see the pictures below and you will get a better idea of what I'm talking about. You can get all of these items for a fraction of the cost compared to retail prices. I'll show you what I bought this year and give you the retail price versus the price I paid. Your mouths will seriously hit the floor. The Tulsa JBF sale that I go to is held in the Exchange Center with over 58,000 sf of space.They had over 1500 consignors this fall and more than 200,000 pieces of clothing. IT'S HUGE!!! I started going to this sale in the spring of 2008 after my son was born in the fall of 2007. I couldn't believe all the bargains I found. My only regret was not knowing about it while I was pregnant. It seriously made me kinda sick to walk around and see the EXACT same items I had paid full price for just a few months ago now on sale for a fraction of the cost. I've now been to the sale six times as just a buyer and I think that next spring I am going to sign up to be a consignor. Consignors set their own prices and make up to 70% on the items they sell. It's a win-win for everybody. You get to clean out your closets and attic and make money and then use that money to buy new stuff you would have probably bought anyway but now for a fraction of the cost.

I know some of you are probably saying, "Used clothes and toys? That's not for me." or I don't want to have to dig through a bunch of junk to find a few good items." Well let me try and convince you otherwise. I too had that mentality originally when I first heard about this event. I didn't like the idea of buying used stuff to give to my child. I think I felt this way because I had this picture in my head of dirty, worn out crap that nobody else wanted. I also pictured it being a bunch of bins you would have to dig through to find maybe a couple good items. I won't even go to the Victoria Secret Semi-Annual sale because the thought of digging in little plastic bins for my size bra and panties while other women try and grab them away from you makes me crazy!!! I'll take my Wal-Mart and Target panties thank you very much! =) This event is NOT like that. It is so well organized and laid out, some retail stores I shop could learn a thing or two, and its held in a clean, air conditioned facility. It has all the clothes organized by sizes and hung on double bar racks in perfectly lined rows. (My OCD side loves this!) All the shoes, costumes, swimsuits and maternity clothes are also organized by size. The toys are organized by age and the larger toys are organized by outdoor or indoor use. All the baby gear items are grouped together by type-strollers, bouncers, car-seats, bedding, jumpers, walkers, etc. They only allow gently used items to be sold. Clothes can't be stained, ripped or torn up. Many items I've found still had the original tag on them. Shoes are all inspected carefully, they don't allow worn out, scuffed up or unwashed shoes into the sale. All toys that take batteries are required to have batteries in them so you can test to see if they actually work. Anyway, I could go on and on about all the wonderful things but until you go to your first sale you won't be able to fully grasp the big picture. They currently have sales in 23 states and are always expanding. Hopefully you can find one near you and start saving money this fall.

Here are the items I bought this time at the sale:

Little Tikes Desk & Chair, Crayola Double Sided Art Easel, Black and Decker Jr. Power Workbench, Little People Race Track, Lite Bright, Touch & Feel Flash Cards, Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera & Case, Little Tikes Digital Camera.

Clothes. All of these are from Gap, Old Navy and Children's Place. 

I went to Amazon.com and was able to find the exact same items for everything except the clothes and the Little Tikes desk which I found on Ebay. Here are the retail prices with the price I paid next to each one.

1. Little Tikes Desk and Chair: Ebay: $99.99 I Paid: $25
2. Crayola Double Sided Easel: Amazon: $61.99 I Paid:$14.00
3. Black & Decker Jr Power Workbench: Amazon: $69.99 I Paid: $10.00
4. Little People Race Track: Amazon: $38.99 I Paid: $6.00
5. Lite Bright: Amazon: $17.14 I Paid: $6.00 (Brand New-Never Opened)
6. Touch & Feel Flash Cards: Amazon: $9.95 I Paid: $4.00
7. Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera & Case: Amazon: $83.97 I Paid: $20.00
8. Little Tikes Digital Camera: Amazon: $34.50 I Paid: $5.00
9. The Clothes totaled $18.00 at the sale for all five shirts and one pair of pants. Retail they would have been probably around $80.00 at least. 

That equals a retail price (w/o tax) of $496.52. 
I Paid $108.00 (w/o tax). 
That's a Total Savings of $388.52!

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how large this event is:

View from above of the entire sale. (Picture from http://tulsa.jbfsale.com/pages/shopper_information) 

This is a shot from a story the local news station did on the event. That's me shopping on the far right hand screen of the picture in the navy shirt.=) 

Here is the link to the main Just Between Friends Sale. Go check it out and see if there is a sale going on near you. And if you've been to a JBF sale, please share your experience. And for any consignors out there, please let me know if you have any great tips that will help me in the spring.