Once Upon a Child?

[DinahInWonderland]

Does anyone here have experience selling used clothes to Once Upon a Child? How are their prices? One just recently opened in my area and I have 2 1/2 years worth of my son's clothes that I no longer have any need to save. I probably have 4 or 5 Rubbermaid containers full of good condition Carter's brand clothes. Just wondering if it would be worth it to lug them to the store and just be rid of them or would I get a significantly better price selling them in small lots on eBay?

 

[wdw4rfam]

I worked for OUAC, for years. I can tell you that they are very brand picky, and can't have any sign of a spot or stain. They generally don't pay much for clothing items, especially baby clothes. But, on the other hand I have done the eBay thing, and by the time you pay those ebay/paypal fees, and spend all that time listing, packaging, shipping, etc., I don't know that it is that much better. I myself still use OUAC, for me I would rather just take it in, walk out with cash, and be done with it, then spend hours taking pics, typing up the listing, packaging, driving to post office, etc.

 

[supersnoop]

If you itemize deductions on your taxes, you'll probably get more value donating the items than selling to the resale shop. I just cleaned out about 8 tubs worth of clothes. After separating out the high-quality pieces into 3 tubs, I ended up with $180 from Once Upon A Child, and they didn't even take half of what I expected they would. I made another $100 selling on my city's virtual garage sale facebook page. I donated the rest and, according to my ItsDeductible software, I can claim about $2,500 in deductions.

 

[Manders77]

They are very picky and some of your clothes will be considered outdated. I tried to sell my DS3 clothes from when he was born and they hardly took anything. I had two full tubs and they took maybe a dozen pieces. They said it was outdated since it was from over a year ago. I was shocked because infant clothes are infant clothes. This was when DS was 2. I now just garage sale it or donate.

 

[kajs22]

I've done both, but, now prefer OUAC because of the time involved and hassles with ebay. True they give you next to nothing, but, I wait and bring in tubs. I have not had much problem with them buying my stuff, but, problems when bringing something to sell back after purchased even if unworn lol. So I am careful when buying from them.

 

[sunlover13]

I started using Moxie Jean. Google it. They ship you a bag for free.

You fill the bag and send it back.

They will email you with how much it's worth and they donate what they will not accept.

Their website lists what brands they will not take and what each brand is typically worth, etc.

I sent a bag full of my daugther's clothes. They took about 1/2 of the items and donated the rest and I got about $30 for everything. I was happy.

 

[dpswift]

I've done both, but, now prefer OUAC because of the time involved and hassles with ebay. True they give you next to nothing, but, I wait and bring in tubs. I have not had much problem with them buying my stuff, but, problems when bringing something to sell back after purchased even if unworn lol. So I am careful when buying from them.

I had this problem with consignment shops in the past. Also recently we bought 2 relatively expensive items from Platos and they were both damaged. I have never really liked consignment shops.

 

[golongon11]

If you itemize deductions on your taxes, you'll probably get more value donating the items than selling to the resale shop. I just cleaned out about 8 tubs worth of clothes. After separating out the high-quality pieces into 3 tubs, I ended up with $180 from Once Upon A Child, and they didn't even take half of what I expected they would. I made another $100 selling on my city's virtual garage sale facebook page. I donated the rest and, according to my ItsDeductible software, I can claim about $2,500 in deductions.

I would not recommend planning on claiming clothes on taxes unless you've kept all the original receipts for the clothes and depreciate them with a standard depreciation schedule. The normal rate would be something like this, you paid $20.00 in 2009 for kids jean the schedule would say their value in 2013 is about $4 (I'm guessing, but I remember it was a fraction of what we paid for them).

If you get audited and don't have records of all donations over the max allowable without receipts (which last I knew was $400) the IRS will not allow those deductions and you most likely will be hit with penalties on top of the paying back the taxes with interest.

This is something Goodwill and other places don't tell you and usually let you believe that you can claim all the donations as deductions, but you better have receipts for all claimed items donated. You also should have a written itemized list of donations from the charitable organization that is signed and verified by the person receiving the donations. You have to be able to prove that you actually donated them and having pix of the donations being accepted is also not a bad idea. Don't think these organizations will be any help if you get audited, they won't!

If you claimed $2000 worth of clothing you would have to be able to produce about $10,000 in receipts. Don't get burned. A number like $2000 worth of charitable donations will get the IRS's attention. You better have receipts and you should have based the value on a standardized depreciation schedule. The schedules used to be on the IRS website.

I can tell you that you do not want the headache that goes with this or the potential costs and fines.