Bargain

Show me a mom who doesn’t consider it a great coup to find like-new brand-name toddler and kid clothes for a fraction of the original price.

With school starting in just a few weeks and winter looming ahead, the bargain radar of budget-conscious mothers is working overtime. They’re scanning clearance racks, yard sales and consignment shops for everything from jeans and dresses to winter jackets and snow boots. They know that most of their purchases will last merely one season before their child grows out of it, so paying full price is the last thing they want to do.

That’s the mentality that convinced Spokane mom Kara Twining to join forces with her own mother and buy the local franchise to a twice-a-year consignment event geared toward moms.

Just Between Friends, which debuts this weekend at Spokane Community College, aims to be a paradise for bargain-hunting parents. And for those with a closet or basement full of stuff their own kids have outgrown or stopped playing with, it’s a place where you can earn 70 percent of your sale price and not even have to be there to sell it.

Twining equates the event to the annual Mount Spokane ski swap, only it’s focused entirely on kids and moms-to-be. No men’s or women’s clothing is sold at the event, and there are specific guidelines about what toys and furniture can be sold. The franchise started in Tulsa, Okla., in 1997, where the sale has since grown to include more than 1,000 consignors, according to the Just Between Friends Web site.

Twining hopes to have 100 consignors for this weekend’s event. Consignors can still register to sell their stuff by going to the Just Between Friends Web site, www.spokane.jbfsale.com, and following specific instructions for preparing their items.

“I want to clean out some closets,” said Pam Miller, one of the consignors, adding that whatever she makes from the sale “is just gravy.”

With four boys, including 5-year-old twins, Miller said she has held garage sales but calls them “a hassle.” She’s also taken her sons’ clothes to consignment stores but said she wasn’t thrilled with the trade-in value given.

A dedicated garage-sale shopper and bargain hunter herself, Miller said mostly she wants to be able to give other moms a great deal.

“I’m a mom. I can understand how hard it is to buy clothes for kids,” she said. “I guess it’s the sisterhood of motherhood. It’s a great venue (the sale). I can make a little money off something I bought for $20 and someone else can buy something for $3 and get good use out of it.”

Those are the kinds of deals that Donna George will be looking for.

With 10 kids ranging in ages from 16 to 3, George says, “I have to shop the sales.”

Until recently when she started going to yard sales with Miller, George said she has bought most of her kids’ clothes at retail store sales. But she hopes to score some deals for her preschoolers and younger children at the consignment event.

“I’m not one who usually buys used clothes for my kids. They have to be a good price and good buy,” she said. “I don’t know for sure what to expect. I hear there will be some good brand-name stuff. It’s not going to be yard-sale prices; I know that. But I think it has to be better than store sale prices.”

Twining predicts this first sale will feature a lot of baby and toddler clothes because the community is already familiar with baby consignment. But she stresses that sale guidelines allow clothes all the way up to junior sizes. Prom dresses, for example, have been big sellers at other Just Between Friends sales around the country, she said.

“I have heard from a couple of people that they are encouraging their teenagers to sell some of their stuff to earn money for new school clothes,” Twining said. “I liked that idea.”

Other items that tend to sell well at consignment events in other cities include large, sturdy toys, such as Fisher-Price and Little Tykes playhouses and other yard toys, Twining said. In fact, she added, that typically 95 percent of toys sell at these events.

Miller said she hopes parents whose kids have outgrown sporting equipment or simply moved on to other sports may consider selling those items at these events. Already, a spring event is scheduled for March 11 and 12, and Twining said typically the number of consignors doubles at the second event.

Word is spreading about Just Between Friends, Twining said. “You wouldn’t believe the number of volunteers we have signing up because they get to shop Friday night.”

The sale is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. On Sunday, any item not marked with a red star on the tag sells for half-price. (Items with a red star are the original price.) Consignors also have the option of marking their item for donation to a charity if it doesn’t sell.

Just Between Friends franchises typically donate portions of their profits or items to charities. Twining said she and her mom have selected the Union Gospel Mission to receive donations after the event.

In addition to the consignment sale, shoppers also will have the opportunity to check out the Homemaker’s Idea Show, which teamed up with Just Between Friends this fall. The show will feature health and beauty products, home-based business opportunities, kitchen products, home decor, crafts and other exhibits. Both the sale and the show are free.