I try to only buy my kids Gymboree clothing when the price is already reduced, when there is a sale, and when I have a coupon. (If I can meet all three conditions, the price of clothing is usually very affordable!) I also buy my kids' clothes off-season. In May, it is not unusual for me to buy clothes I think they will wear in December, as I did when I wrote about it here.
However, buying off season does have its difficulties. Frequently there are not matching pieces to an outfit. For instance, I bought the two dresses in the above picture during one shopping trip and the corduroy pants during another. There were no matching tops available, but by themselves, the dresses and the pants have no resale value. (One of the ways I justify purchasing my kids Gymboree clothing while on a budget is to later resell it on eBay. If you haven’t already done so, you can read how I do it here.) However, I still purchased the items.
Then, I went home and checked out eBay. Frequently, during good sales, eBay sellers will run out and buy what they can on clearance and then try to sell it immediately. Usually these items sell fairly cheaply because not very many people want to buy winter clothes in May. The dresses and pants came from a line called Sweeter Than Chocolate. Over about a two week period, I kept checking eBay for matching tops, and slowly but surely I found what I needed.
The two plain bodysuits (pink and white) are used and sold for $3.25 total plus $1.00 shipping. The bon bon bodysuit is new and sold for $5.49 and had a shipping price of $3.00. The pink striped top is also new and sold for $6.49 and had a shipping fee of $3.49. (I always include the price of shipping when calculating my total cost.) Add that to the $8.57 I paid for one dress, $7.89 for the other and $9.11 for the corduroy pants at Gymboree, and my grand total is $48.65. The retail value for all of these items is $156.00. I ended up paying 31% of retail and have enough clothes from this line to make 12 different outfit combinations for my daughter this winter. Plus, because I have so many matching pieces, I should be able to sell this set after my daughter has outgrown it for about the price I paid for it.
I keep the tags on everything until my children actually wear the clothing. That way, if I go overboard when buying great deals (hey, it has been known to happen!), I can just sell some clothes they never wear on eBay and make more than I paid when buying it at a great sale price.
So, next time you are at Gymboree and see a good bargain, go ahead and get it. You can always find the matching pieces later.
This article was shared at Life As a Mom and Money Saving Mom.
3 comments:
I got some great deals this week at the Gymboree outlet.....only thing I was disappointed in is that you can't use the Gymboree coupons there. Frustration!
I love gymboree clothing! My youngest (age 2) is wearing clothing that my second oldest
(16) wore. The clothing is well made and washes well, and if you time it right you can pick it up for less than the price of Walmart clothing! I bought clearance items last week when every thing was an additional 30% off and I had a 20% off coupon, so ended up buying 17 items for 107.57 + I got $50.00 in gymbucks which I will hopefully be able to use on clearance items, on sale, with a coupon...
When I'm looking for something on ebay, I save the search and then it will e-mail YOU if anyone posts something that matches. For instance, I have a few favorite authors. I do a search for them and then click [save this search] next to the number of results it found for you. You can unsubscribe at any time. Works great - and keeps me from missing a steal!
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