How to Start a Clothing Consignment Business: $10k+ Per Event

How do you make extra money in a low-risk way?

One method I keep coming back to is the idea of starting a consignment business.

So you’re selling other people’s stuff and just taking a percentage. They get paid, you get paid, and you’ve got no upfront inventory risk like you’d have with a traditional physical product business.

Sarah McAffry of Statemint Consignment earned over $10,000 from her first consignment event and has continued to grow from there.

She’s been crushing it in this space for the last 10 years, and it has now expanded to 23 locations across the country.

Tune in to Episode 640 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

How Sarah got her first 50 sellers to trust her with their inventory
Her marketing strategies to get buyers in the door
How you might start something similar in your own area

Table of Contents show

The $800 Kids’ Consignment Sale

You know those moments when opportunity comes knocking in the most unexpected ways?

That’s exactly what happened to Sarah McAffry. She was already juggling a photography business and young kids when she decided to sell some of her kids’ used clothes at a local consignment event.

Nothing fancy—just showed up with her stuff, priced it, and hoped for the best.

Then came the surprise: she walked away with an $800 check. Why isn’t anyone doing this for adult clothes?

We all know somebody (or maybe we ARE that somebody) with a closet full of perfectly good clothes just collecting dust. Clothes that are too nice to just dump in a donation bin but probably going to never wear again.

So this is an opportunity for Sarah, and like many successful side hustlers I’ve talked to over the years, once that idea took root, it wouldn’t let go.

“So I really tried to ignore it for a while, but I got to where I couldn’t sleep,” she shared.

Taking the Leap to the First Consignment Event

Why go through the hassle of organizing a big event? Why not just help people sell their stuff on Poshmark or eBay?

Sarah believes the event model, with its built-in urgency and scarcity, is what makes it work. They’re only open 10 days a year (split between two events), which creates that “you snooze, you lose” mentality that drives sales.

In one late-night session, she:

Found the software she needed
Got the business name (Statemint) from a friend
Built a website

Her initial goal was 100 sellers for the first event, but she landed 50 (which is not so bad).

The pitch was also simple: “All those clothes that are sitting in your closet that you don’t wear? I would love to help you sell them.”

For the venue, Sarah drained her savings account to secure a banquet facility for $3,500.

Looking back, starting with a smaller venue might have made sense—she didn’t need quite that much space for the first event.

She just had to make it presentable. You can’t just pile clothes on tables—you need space for proper displays, hangers, and a layout that gives shoppers room to browse.

Tools/Tech

The backbone of Sarah’s operation is a platform called My Consignment Manager that automates every aspect of consignment sales.

It eliminates errors in reporting and makes paying sellers a breeze.

Beyond that, Sarah keeps her tech stack surprisingly simple:

Squarespace for the website
Basic point-of-sale equipment for checkout
No fancy inventory management systems
No complicated e-commerce integration

You don’t always need complex systems to run a successful business. Sometimes simpler is better.

There’s also no online component to the business. No e-commerce store where people can browse inventory between events.

Sarah believes strongly in in-person sales and community building—it’s all about getting people through the doors during those event days.

Finding Her First Customers

Statemint Location — Source: Statemint Consignment Facebook

Sarah’s initial market research was pretty straightforward—she noticed there were tons of kids’ consignment events but virtually nothing for adult clothes. We all know people with closets full of barely-worn clothes they’d love to sell, but who don’t want the hassle of listing items one by one online. So the opportunity was hiding in plain sight.

The first thing she did was call everyone she knew who had a closet full of good clothes.

It’s not complicated, no. But was it scary? Absolutely. That’s the kind of uncomfortable work most people aren’t willing to do.

To make it work, Sarah set up some smart guidelines:

Sellers price their own items (with guidance)
Items should be priced 50-80% off retail
Sellers hang and prepare their own items
Sellers earn 60% of the sales price. (Statemint earns the other 40% for facilitating the event.)

This is great for two reasons:

It removes a ton of work from Sarah’s plate
It gives sellers control over their own inventory

The pricing guideline (50-80% off retail) is also particularly smart because it:

Sets clear expectations for sellers
Gives shoppers consistent deals
Helps items actually sell instead of just taking up rack space

Marketing a Consignment Event

To get shoppers in the door, Sarah developed a multi-channel marketing approach:

Facebook & Instagram ads (something like “Hey Knoxville, come shop up to 400 closets in one place.”)
Facebook events
Local media coverage (they give local news reporters pre-sale shopping passes)
Newspaper ads
Flyers to local businesses
Yard signs

One of my favorite tactics is that she incentivizes sellers to help market the event. For example, they can earn entries into a $100 giveaway by:

Sharing the event page
Tagging friends
Posting in Instagram stories
Leaving reviews

This is a smart way to amplify your reach without spending more ad dollars.

Running the Consignment Event

With events now featuring 50,000+ items, it takes a village to pull this off in just 5 days. So Sarah taps into her seller network to work the event, paying them hourly.

These seller-workers want the event to succeed because their stuff is on the racks too. They’re invested in making sure shoppers have a great experience.

People literally line up outside before the doors open, especially on the first day and for their half-off sales.

The community aspect is particularly powerful. About 80% to 90% of their sellers return for the next event. Once people get that first consignment check, they’re hooked. They clean out their closets, make some money, maybe work a few shifts at the event, and often end up shopping themselves.

But what happens to items that don’t sell? Sellers can pick them up or have them donated. Sarah says they fill a massive trailer with donations after each event.

Geographic Expansion

After proving the model in Knoxville, Sarah started getting requests to bring Statemint to other cities. Instead of trying to run multiple locations herself, she decided to franchise the business.

Interesting pivot: She actually tried creating an online course first, sold it to two people, but then had a gut feeling it wasn’t right and refunded their money.

In 2022, she launched the franchise program, and they’ve grown from 8 locations to 23 so far this year.

Any Mistakes or Surprises Along the Way?

Since it is a big event, some things are bound to be missing at the end. She’s got hundreds of sellers wanting their unsold items back, and sometimes things just… disappear.

Sarah initially delegated these tough conversations to others but realized that as a business owner, she needed to handle these complicated situations herself and develop a thicker skin for negative feedback.

What’s Next for Sarah?

Sarah’s completely stopped doing photography to focus on growing Statemint, and she’s aiming for 100 locations… and then 100 more after that.

The timing seems right. According to ThredUp’s latest report, the resale market is growing 15x faster than traditional retail. More people than ever are looking to buy secondhand whether driven by cost savings or sustainability.

Sarah’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Inspiration is perishable.”

Episode Links

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