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How To Resell Children’s Items Found In Storage Auctions

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So you’ve bought an abandoned storage unit and have gone through the items and found many great items that can be resold and put them in the right places in storage until you can take them to be sold.  Now you have all this kid’s stuff.  How do you resell children’s items you find in units?  Do you just donate it or what? Can it really be sold for money?

Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate relationships include, but are not limited to Amazon Associates, Walmart.com, and Etsy.

Yes! You can resell children’s items and make good money, so don’t be disappointed when you find them in a unit!  Here are some ideas of how to get the best dollar for them…

Homeschool Book Sale – (usually you rent your own space or table and be there yourself to sell these items) textbooks, picture or chapter books, flashcards, art supplies, math manipulatives, learning toys, learning board games, LEGOs, perler beads or zirrly beads, science kits, microscopes, school supplies, all these need to be in great condition for resale.  All of these items could be included in the JBF sale section below.

Play It Again Sports – (sports resale store – pays cash on the spot) slightly to gently used, modern sports and exercise balls and equipment such as weights for weight lifting or aerobics items, sports shoes, helmets, pads, rackets, baseball or softball bats and other related items, hockey items, football items, volleyball nets, balls, tennis, golf items, etc.

Gaming Stores – (will give you credit or cash on the spot) these stores love vintage or modern video games (save empty cases in case you find game to go in them someday for best resale value), video game systems, iPods, iPads, tablets, etc.

Cards & Comics Shop – (credit or cash) trading cards such as sports or specialty cards (like baseball cards or Pokemon cards), comic books, collector memorabilia, etc.

Music Resale Shop – (credit or cash onsite) music CDs, records, albums if in good shape, etc.

The Book Resale Shop – (you get credit or cash onsite, not very common) books and audio books (we try to sell the ones we think will go well on eBay or take kids, educational and teen books to home school or group consignment sales first)

abandoned storage unit up for auction at a storage auction how to resell children's or kids' items
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A storage unit that went up for auction. You can tell by the stroller that there are kids items in this one.

Local or Regional Online Auction – (this is an online auction house that sells items for you online, you pay a small fee and they get a percent of sales) collectibles, items not chosen at other places put into a “lot”, empty storage containers, just about anything someone else might want to buy, etc.

Once Upon A Child – (or your local consignment store, cash on the spot) This is a store that buys gently used kids stuff. You bring in your items (no appointment necessary), they review your items, choose items they want, they offer you payment for all items accepted. Some items they take are clothing (newborn to Kids 16), outerwear, costumes, dance wear, sleepwear, toys, books, outdoor toys, ride on toys, puzzles, games, shoes, boots, dance shoes, rain boots, snow boots, special occasion shoes, strollers, high chairs, play yards, entertainers, swings maternity, nursing bras, nursing shawls, front and back infant carriers, etc. They do not buy car seats, formula, recalled items, or stuffed animals.

Plato’s Closet – (or your local consignment store, cash on the spot) This store buys gently used brand name current clothing and accessories for teens and young adults. They take girls clothing size 0 to 16, Guys clothing size 28 – 40 waist, jeans, shirts, tops, pants, shorts, t-shirts, tanks, sweaters, hoodies, dresses, shoes, boots, sandals, sneakers, jewelry (we take jewelry to a gold buyer first, then here second), belts, scarves, purses, backpacks, book bags, sunglasses, gloves, coats, jackets and hats.

eBay/Amazon – Items we intend to sell on this site. It may include sports jerseys, autographed items, new items in original packaging, collectibles, books, movies, video games, DVDs, Blu-rays, basically items we think we can get more money from selling here than at the other places. Sometimes we try to sell an item here and end up taking it somewhere else when it doesn’t sell.

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A woman about to place clothing on a rack at a JBF sale.

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JBF Sale – This is a large children’s consignment sale that has hundreds of consignors bringing items to sell in a great big building. It may be held in a dry indoor ice hockey arena, an indoor soccer field, concert center, fairgrounds exhibitor building, etc.  Just Between Friends (JBF) has many locations.  If you don’t have a JBF sale in your area, do an online search for a children’s consignment sale and see what you find. We have done other sales under the names of Here We Grow Again, Green Whimsy, Munchkin Markets, etc.

How it works is The kids sale company puts up racks for clothing with sizes marked and tables with labels such as “infant toys”, “toddler toys”, “blocks”, “cars/trucks”, “breastfeeding items”, “diaper bags”, “shoes”, etc. You, the consignor, would register to sell at the sale, pay a small fee for your portion of their advertising, price the items according to their website rules (usually with a bar code tag that you print from your printer when you are on their website), you bring your items at the drop off time indicated, they are inspected by a sale volunteer, you take the accepted items to the proper racks or tables and set them out for sale. They sell them for you all weekend.

During the sale you can see what sold on the website under your account and you come back and pick up your items at the designated pick up time. You receive a check within two weeks for a generous percentage of the sale price. Sadly, we have to drive from one to three hours to get to one of these sales as there is not one closer to us. Usually, you can save unsold items for the next sale. There are often two sales per year at each location. Sometimes they only take spring items at the “Spring Sale” and fall items at the “Fall Sale”. If you have enough locations around you, you could do a sale every weekend for about four months out of the year.

You will need lots of children’s size hangers (which we don’t always find in units), large safety pins, cardstock paper and a tagging gun for this adventure, but it will pay off!


Rummage – After we have tried to sell in the above ways, we have a rummage sale. We take the time and price the items, then put them in a tote marked “Yard Sale”. Then we leave it in our storage area until sale week. We will then take them all out and set up for the sale. It is a good idea to keep tables, doors, boards (whatever you use for tables), clothing racks, paper or plastic bags for customer purchases, signs and a chair or two in your storage area. (Don’t buy them, you may find all of these in units!)  We advertise our sale on many Facebook sale groups, homeschool websites, Craigslist, local newspaper, signs hanging in the library and restaurants. The last few hours of our sale, we offer a certain price for as many items as they can fit in the bag. That has been very successful in helping us clean up the sale!

What’s left after the sale, we donate or trash. Get creative and look for other group sales to sell at. Maybe you love Matchbox cars or Legos or Trains and you could find a local sale for those items. We chose children’s items to be our niche because we have eight children that we need clothing for and we always seem to find these items in almost every unit.

Learn all about the abandoned storage auction resale business in our book.

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How To Resell Children’s Items Found In Storage Auctions

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