Out With the Old, In With the New

   The theme of this post is no funny, but all money.
   A creative way to sustain your shopping addiction is to utilize consignment shops and online auction sites, like Ebay, to sell your shoes, jewelery, clothes and bags that you no longer use.  Rather than allowing these items to crowd your living space I recommend spring cleaning at least once a year. This means taking inventory of your belongings and honestly assessing which items you no longer use so that you can make room for the items you are not ready to part with.  As for me, I go through this cleaning process with the change of every season, but that's only because I shop so much that I constantly need to make room for the "NEW" by getting rid of the "OLD."  The task is usually rather difficult for me because I have a very classic style that never really goes out of style.  Additionally, I treat my material possessions with kid gloves because when you spend thousands of dollars for something it's only prudent to make sure it stays in pristine condition for years to come.  For this reason nothing in my closets ever really gets old, hence making it difficult for me to weed things out.  There is something to be said for keeping your designer and non-designer items in good condition, however, because the better care you take of them the more money you can expect to earn should you ever decide to resell them.
    I have been selling on Ebay for approximately eight years and started using consignment shops about two years ago.  For those of you who may not know a consignment shop resells your items and then takes a cut of the final sale (usually between 30%-60%) leaving you with the rest of the sale proceeds.  Whereas, if you are selling an item on Ebay the onus is on you to do the listing which should contain a description of the item and the it's current condition along with images of the item. Though selling the item on your own is more responsibility in the end you reap the benefit of the full purchase price without having to share the proceeds with anyone.  Thereby, giving you more money to reinvest in a new pair of shoes or bag!
    I recently discovered the consignment shop Second Time Around (STA), which has 11 locations in NY alone.  STA is an amazing upscale consignment shop that will accept designer clothing, shoes and accessories from a myriad of high end designers; Dior, Chanel, Rebecca Minkoff, Prada, and Emilio Pucci just to name a few.  I highly recommend to anyone, like me, who constantly needs to feed their couture habit selling their old designer duds for new ones, rather than leaving them in their closets to collect dust.
    While you can never expect to recoup the full price you paid for your items upon reselling them, you can get at least half of your purchase price so long as the items are timeless pieces that are in good condition and still in style at the time of resale.  With this in mind the best piece of advice I can offer is not to succumb to the temptation of purchasing anything that is merely a fade or trend for it will be in today and gone tomorrow.  If have any intentions on making your current wardrobe a future investment then you must remain true to this very important principle.