Consignment Policies & Procedures
What Is Consignment?
Consignment is a mutually beneficial partnership between the consignor (you) and an authorized seller (us). We sell your gear/clothing on your behalf at our store, splitting the profits with you. We do not purchase your items outright or offer trades for other items in our store. Once your item has sold, we pay you by mailing a check to you or issuing store credit to you. We will not issue a payment to you before your item has sold. You are welcome to pick up your items from us at any time (presuming they haven't already been sold).
Our Consignment Payout Rates
Consignors receive 50% of an item’s selling price if paid by check or 55% of an item’s selling price if paid in store credit.
(For example, if we sell one of your items for $100 - you receive $50 if paid by check or $55 if paid in store credit.)
Our Pricing & Monthly Discount System
Selling price is initially determined by Second Gear with input from the consignor. Typically we price items 30 to 50% below their retail value depending on their condition, although pricing may vary. We utilize a progressive, monthly discount system to help us sell your gear at an appropriate price. Each month an item in our store doesn't sell, we reduce the price a little bit more. This helps us prevent the store from becoming cluttered and move through inventory that may have been priced too high initially. Most high quality gear/clothing in our store sells within the first two months!
On the first day of each month the selling price of all consigned items are discounted by the following amounts based on how long they've been in the store:
0% during the first month the item is in store,
10% during the second month,
25% during the third month
50% during the fourth month.
Second Gear reserves the right to reduce prices further for sales or other promotions. Consigned items that haven't sold after 150 days (5 months) become property of Second Gear and may be donated to local nonprofit organizations. It is your responsibility to keep track of your unsold consigned items. If you don't want your items to sell at a discounted price or get donated please pick them up from us at the appropriate time!
How To Consign Your Gear With Us
Simply bring in your outdoor gear/clothing to our store at 99 Riverside Drive and meet us at the counter labeled "Consignment." Before bringing your items in, we ask that you review the "Consignment News" section on our website to check what we are currently accepting and not accepting and learn what types of brands and items we accept in general. If you're unsure of something don't hesitate to call us at 828-258-0757 with any questions. Gear and clothing must be clean and in usable condition. There is no need to make an appointment, but we ask that you visit our store at least 30 minutes before we are scheduled to close on any given day. We have a 30-item limit per consignment drop-off.
Please allow our staff adequate time to inspect your items when bringing them into the store. Depending on how busy the store is and how many items you've brought in this can take anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes. We do our best to fully inspect your gear/clothing when you first bring it in but we are only human and we do occasionally miss flaws or imperfections during our initial review. Even if we "accept" your item during our initial inspection review, we may still contact you and ask you to pick it back up from us if if we discover something wrong with your item after you've left. Tents, sleeping pads & larger gear items will require a longer inspection period. If you don't already have a consignment account with us, please allow a few additional minutes for our staff to set one up for you during your visit.
How You Get Paid
Consignors can sell items for cash or store credit.
Cash Payment: Second Gear sends checks to consignors each month for any items sold for “cash” in the previous month. The store strives to mail all consignment checks by the 10th of the month. We process these for hundreds of consignors each month so please be patient with us! We have a $20 minimum balance requirement for mailing checks. This means that if you sold items at our store but have made less than $20 you may not receive a check in the mail. You can always visit our store at 99 Riverside Drive to cash out balances less than $20 at our register. Please note that we have limited cash in our registers and cannot cash out balances larger than $20. Every few months we drop our minimum balance requirement lower and mail out checks less than $20 to make sure all of our consignors get paid!
Store Credit: Consignors selling items for store credit are credited 48 hours after an item sells. Whenever you're at the register at Second Gear, simply let our staff know your name and they'll pull up your consignor account allowing you to spend your store credit on anything we sell in the store. Your store credit will never expire. If you ever want to convert your store credit into cash, we can do that for you (you will lose the 5% bonus for store credit payouts when converting to cash payout). Please be advised that we process our checks in batches at the beginning of each month so if you request a store credit payout by check we will process that payout at the beginning of the next month (ex: payout requests in June will be processed in July). Your store credit balance is only valid for in-store purchases and cannot be used for online purchases. Consignors may view their account balances online at our website. You can also stop by the store or call us to check your credit balance.
How To Keep Track Of Your Consigned Items & Payouts
When you set up your consignment account with us we will send you an email invite to Consignor Access - our inventory management system. After you've created a password for your account you'll be able to login to an online portal through our website at secondgearwnc.com that allows you to keep track of the items you've brought in for consignment. Your consignor access portal will never send you notifications externally, but once you log in you'll be able to view an inventory of your items and see what they're priced at, if they've sold, or if they've been discounted if they've been consigned for longer than one month. If you ever have trouble accessing your consignment account online you can call/email us or drop by the store and we'll send you an email to reset your password. If you'd rather not use the online portal you can always call us or drop by the store for updates on your consignment account and the item's you've brought in.
Each month, we mail out checks & store credit statements to our consignors (as detailed in the above How You Get Paid section). The checks/statements include a list of your items that have sold in the prior month and a breakdown of what your consignment payout is. If you ever have questions about your consigned items/payouts or think we may have made a mistake somewhere, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via email, phone call, or by visiting us in person at 99 Riverside Drive.
Our Information Policy
Second Gear will never sell or share any of your personal information. We collect basic contact information from you when creating a consignment account for the purposes of internal organization, mailing out checks, and making sure we can contact you about any issues with your consigned items. We don't store any sensitive financial information. When creating a consignment account your email address will be added to our mailing list where you can receive information about any important changes in consignment policy as well as info on our sales & special promotions. You can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of any email you receive. Please note that unsubscribing from our list will end promotional emails, but we still may reach out to you individually about any issue related to your account or consigned items.
Additional Policies
Second Gear may ask a consignor to retrieve any unsold items at any time. If the consignor fails to respond to Second Gear’s request to retrieve unsold items within 14 days, then the consigned items may be donated by Second Gear to a local nonprofit organization. We aim to be reasonable about providing our consignors an appropriate amount of time to retrieve their items. Please keep in mind that space in our store is limited, and we are unable to hold your unsaleable items indefinitely. If you'd rather not pick up one of your items, we are happy to donate it for you!
Second Gear reserves the right to refuse any item for any reason. Please be kind and patient with our staff members while they are inspecting your items. If we reject one of your items, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not in good condition. It might instead be that it is a brand we don't accept or that we are particularly overstocked in a particular section in our store. Space in our store is limited and we receive hundreds of items for consignment weekly so we appreciate your understanding when we aren't able to accept your gear/clothing. We encourage you to reference the "Consignment News" section on our website to see what we're currently accepting as inventory needs change quickly!
Second Gear allows returns on consigned items within a 48-hour period after purchase. Once an item has sold, it will enter a 48-hour “return period” to allow for returns. If the item is not returned, you will receive your portion of payment once the return period has ended. If the item is returned within 48 hours, it will appear back on your account and be available for sale once again. We inspect all returned items to make sure they are brought back unused and in the same condition as purchased.
You can check on the status of your account & items at any time on our website or by calling us at 828-258-0757.