Cashing out

Buyers and sellers seek relief in consignment shops

Owner Annette Gray (left) of Options Home Consignment checked the price of a sofa with Ann Glannon. Business is booming, Gray said. (Photos by Bill Greene/Globe Staff)

It was her husband Charlie's job loss in December that spurred Laura Carroll to pull the beautiful Wedgwood Christmas plates from their Groton attic and bring them to the Home-Chic-Home Consignment shop in Westford last month.

One of hundreds of thousands of Americans to lose a job this winter as the economic crisis deepened, Charlie Carroll bid adieu to his engineering position at Nortel Networks in Billerica just before the Toronto-based company declared bankruptcy in January. Now every penny counts for the Carrolls, who are raising three children.

"Whether eBay or Craigslist," said Laura Carroll, "I was always on the troll, but now I'm focused on making a little more money."

Carroll said her plates came from the estate of her great aunt who lived in Everett. The collectibles sat in Carroll's attic for six months, she said, before economic events pushed her into action.

Consignment shop owners are seeing a growing number of people like Carroll hawking their used goods for extra cash.

"You can't live in these times and not be aware of money," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops in St. Clair Shores, Mich. "Everyone is living with uncertainty."

A fourth quarter survey of association members showed a significant jump in sales over the fourth quarter of 2007. Of 185 respondents, 71.4 percent said sales had increased, with an average increase of 30 percent. Nearly all the store owners said they were seeing new customers, and 82.3 percent said they were seeing new suppliers and higher quality merchandise coming in.

"Consignment stores are booming right now because people are looking to save a little money," said Annette Gray, 49, owner of Options Home Consignment in Littleton. "The last few months have really been busy."

Gray displays photos of her merchandise at optionshomeconsignment.com.

Among Gray's new customers were Steven and Audrey Ducharme, who bought a couch and a chair for their Westford home this month, then hauled their love seat, end tables, and a coffee table to the shop in the hope that someone would buy the pieces.

"Money is tight right now," said Steven Ducharme, a 28-year veteran of the Westford Fire Department, where he is a captain. "It takes almost everything I make to keep the house going. So to go out and splurge on nonessential things just to make a change that's not a need, it's a want."

Ducharme, 53, said the consignment route gives his wife the option of redecorating their home without stressing the budget.

"It's the best way to change my decorations and not spend a lot of money," said Audrey Ducharme, 51, of her recent trade-off.

The region is dotted with well over 100 consignment shops whose owners display used clothing, furniture, and household items belonging to other people. In return for providing the floor space, the shop owner keeps a percentage of every sale.

Carroll's 10 blue and white Wedgwood Jasperware plates are priced at $12.75 apiece, with half the income earmarked for shopkeeper Cindy McKenna, who purchased Home-Chic-Home in December and found herself suddenly at the wheel of a runaway bus.

"We're booked into June," she said, flipping through a black calendar book filled with the names of people who are scheduled to show her items they'd like to sell. A large number of the consignors are unknown to her, she said, even though she worked at the Westford shop for 18 months before buying it.

Like most shop owners, McKenna schedules meeting times with consignors to look over the merchandise they'd like to sell and pick and choose the items she thinks will move. Retailers who deal in used clothing are particularly choosy because older styles don't sell, they say.

"We don't take things that are old," said Dotsy Murphy, a clerk at Options Consignment Boutique, next door to Options Home Consignment. Murphy said the store's clerks or owner Angela Wilde spend an hour with each consignor going through clothing for signs of wear and cleanliness, rejecting anything not up to snuff.

"We look over everything really well," said Murphy, a five-year veteran at the shop.

At the Mercantile in Andover, almost-new Coach handbags flew out the door recently, said owner Linda Saunders.

"I find the thing that goes now is current clothing." Eileen Fisher, Chico's, and Ann Taylor are among the desirable brands, said Saunders.

At WearOvers in Bedford, owner Vanessa O'Donnell posts her strict policy on her website at WearOvers.com. "If you think your item is out of style," she writes, "everyone else will, too. The better it looks, the faster it may sell."

The specialty boutique sells women's clothing, shoes, handbags, and jewelry. O'Donnell said she prices items lower than other consignment stores to keep the merchandise moving.

"Part of the logic is, it's not a museum," O'Donnell said. "You get a wider variety of higher-end stuff because it's constantly coming in."

Whatever doesn't sell after a certain period is either returned to the owner or given to charity, say the shop owners.

But some sellers are turned off by the uncertainty of the consignment route. Those seeking a surefire way to liquidate their personal inventory are scouring dresser drawers and safe deposit boxes for old jewelry.

At J. Olson Jeweler's in Acton, owner Joan Olson said she welcomes a steady stream of people each week to swap their gold. Last week the price of gold dipped below $1,000 per ounce after topping that threshold in February. Compare that to 2004 prices of about $400 per ounce.

"Bona fide jewelers are buying, and they're buying from people who have been buying from them for years," she said. "People are finding it a viable way to get instant money to help pay their bills."

There's also a market for used items that appeal to men. Carroll, 45, said that she and Charlie recently rounded up his old golf clubs, an air hockey table, an unopened set of horseshoes, a chainsaw, and a drill, and gave the hodgepodge to Joe Azzolino of Littleton, who recently started an online shop called Mantown Consignments. A number of the items were being displayed in a photo slide show on his website, www.mantownconsignments.com, last week.

Azzolino said business has picked up since December and he's seeking more inventory, particularly used golf clubs.

Still, the Carrolls are realistic about how much income they will derive from consignment sales. "Whatever money we get from that will be nice," she said, "but it's not going to support us with our situation."

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.