SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2014
Great Marlow School, Bobmore Lane, Marlow SL7 1JE
All Day Helpers: 10.00am-4.00pm
Drop off for sellers (helping PM shift only or non helpers): 11.00am-11.30am
Collection of unsold items (AM sellers only or non helpers): 3.30-3.45pm
Thank you for your interest in becoming a seller at the Maidenhead & Marlow NCT Sale on Saturday 15 November 2014 at Great Marlow School. Please read this supporting information carefully. Even if you are a seasoned seller, please do take the time to familiarise yourself with them as they are constantly updated.
How do the Nearly New Sales work?
The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) are a registered charity, of which the local Maidenhead and Marlow NCT branch run three nearly new sales a year - spring, summer and autumn. They are ticketed sales which operate on a commission basis. Every seller is issued with a unique seller number and a certain amount of tickets (50, 75 or 100). Each seller sets the price and labels all of the items they sell. NCT, as a charity take commission from everything that is sold. Items priced over £50 will only pay 20% commission. There are three levels of commission:
· Helping all day: Get priority access to the sale before everyone else and grab those bargains! You need to commit to helping out from 10.00am until 4.00pm. Commission rate is 25%.
· Helping out for part of the day: 10.00am until 1.00pm or 1.00pm until 4.00pm. Commission rate is 30%.
· Just drop off and pick up what you don’t sell: commission rate is 35%.
How do I register as a seller?
Registration will run from the last week in September up until Friday 31 October after which time registrations will close. Previously we have let people register after this date but please be aware that no registrations will be accepted. Please be aware that at the last sale seller places went within two weeks. Please do get your applications in quickly to guarantee your place and ensure you send a SAE with correct postage and your completed and signed application form.
Please ensure you send the correct sized SAE (A5 – not A4 or DL) with 93p for 1st class and 73p for 2nd class. Please note that Royal Mail will charge you incorrect postage fee if you send an envelope too big. We will be unable to send out your tickets if the envelope you send is too small.
Please allow ten days to receive your tickets after you have posted your form. Please let us know if you have not received your tickets after this time by emailing .
Your cheque will not be returned if you cancel your place within 14 days of the sale or don’t show on the day. If you have specified to help at the sale (either all day or half day) and notify us that you are unable to help with less than 72 hours notice, your £5.00 deposit cheque will not be returned.
If you do sell on the day, your cheque will be returned to you after the sale but a £2.00 administration fee will be deducted from your takings.
You have a logo – what is it for?
The Maidenhead and Marlow Branch were awarded a gold standard rosette from NCT Head Office for its achievements with previous sales – both in terms of amount raised for NCT and number of sellers/buyers through the door. That means you can sell and buy at our sales with confidence!
What can I sell?
You can sell baby and children’s wear (up to age ten), maternity wear (not oversized ladieswear!), equipment, books and toys.
Clothes:
We limit baby wear of 3 months and under to a maximum of 15 items. We will only sell items that are of new or nearly new quality. Please check to see if your goods fit this description, and are clean and in good condition. Remember, this is not a jumble sale – dirty/worn-out goods will be rejected. We have a ‘sin bin’ that operates at the sale. Anything that is dirty, worn-out or incorrectly priced will be put in the sin bin and will not be allowed to enter the sale.
Toys:
Toys and puzzles must be complete. Any loose parts should be securely attached. Seal puzzles in clear plastic bag. Please ensure that any toys with batteries are in working order (if the batteries have run out and the toy doesn’t work then it will be sin-binned).
Equipment:
Equipment items sell better and for more if instructions (and if you have them, guarantees) are included. Be especially careful if selling stair gates, fireguards, barriers and bed guards. These must have all the correct fittings and have no gaps where it would be possible for a baby to get its head stuck. Please include any instructions for use. (These can be duplicates downloaded from manufacturer’s website.) These, together with the fittings, should be securely attached in a separate bag.
Door bouncers, sit in activity centres and baby walkers can now be sold. To minimise the risk of accidents please ensure that door bouncers are sold with assembly instructions including a weight limit. Second hand mattresses can be sold providing they have a waterproof cover (eg. PVC) with no tears, cracks or holes.
We are reducing commission paid to 20% on any items priced over £50 (please do not over inflate your prices!).
Is there anything I can’t sell at the sale?
Updated 18 September 2014 page 7 of 7
Updated 18 September 2014 page 7 of 7
û Car seats
û Door bouncers (without assembly instructions and weight limit)
û Breast pumps
û Dummies
û Baby bottles
û Anything with a teat
û Baby food & formula milk
û Riding hats/crash helmets
û Hand-knitted toys
û Clothes with a drawstring around the neck
û Mains powered electrical equipment
û Clothes in a larger size which aren’t maternity clothes
û Cuddly toys which aren’t character toys (eg, Noddy, Fifi etc)
û Children’s bicycles (with a saddle height of more than 635mm)
û More than 15 items of baby clothing of three months and under
Updated 18 September 2014 page 7 of 7
Can I sell my pushchair?
We are now able to sell pushchairs with or without instructions. Obviously, pushchairs with instructions sell better so if you do have them, please attach these or you can try downloading them from the manufacturers’ website.
The following Maclaren pushchairs must be fitted with a hinge safety cover. Covers are available free of charge from the Maclaren website, http://covers.maclaren.co.uk/ but must be fitted before the sale. Any of these pushchairs without the hinge cover will be removed from sale.
· Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, Techno XLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller
If you are only dropping off your items and not helping that you show equipment area staff how to put up and down your pushchair.
I have a baby sling to sell – can I sell it?
Yes, but bag-style slings can’t be sold. They are the ones with a deep pouch and an elasticated edge. Whilst these products have not been recalled, they may cause breathing difficulties in young babies. The brands and products which cannot be accepted are:
Updated 18 September 2014 page 7 of 7
û Infantino sling ride
û Premaxx baby bag
û Munchkin cargo sling
û Boppy carry in comfort
û Lamaze close comfort
û Wendy Bellissimo sling
Updated 18 September 2014 page 7 of 7
How do I make sure I don’t over or under price my items?
The guidelines are that you prices at 20-25% of the original selling price of the item you are selling. Below are some guidelines which may help you.
Please try not to overprice your items otherwise you maybe surprised with the number of unsold items you are left with (particularly clothes). Please don’t keep putting in items you haven’t sold to the next sale – as a guideline, we say that if you haven’t sold the item at three sales then it is unlikely to sell. In most cases items over £50 rarely sell.
Ask yourself: a) Would I buy it? b) How much would I pay? c) Do I ever want to see this again?
· Clothes (according to brand and quality)
Babygrows 50p–£1.50 / Shirts £1–£3 / Cardigans/jumpers £1.50-£3 / Dresses £2-£4Trousers/skirts £1.50-£3; / Jackets £4-£5 / Pram suits £2-£4 / Shorts/T-shirts 50p-£2
Socks & vests (eg 5 pairs) £1-£2 / Slippers & wellies £1-£3 / Swimwear £1-£2.50 / Grobags £5-£10
· Toys
Activity centres £2-£6 / Baby gyms £2-£6 / Books 50p-£2 / Large Dolls £2-£5Large Cars £2-£4 / Jigsaws/Board games £1-£3+ / Ride on toys (inc. bikes/scoters) £5 / DVDS £1-£2
· Equipment
High chairs £10+ / Strollers £10+ / Pushchairs with accessories £20+ / Moses Baskets £8+Travel cots £20 / Cots £15 / Booster seats £5 - £10 / Safety gates £10+
Slings £7-£15 / Backpacks £10-£30 / Bedguards £5+
How do I label my items?
Please price in multiples of 50p with the minimum ticket price being 50p (you may choose to bundle smaller toys/books to reach this figure). Any items not priced in multiples of 50p will be sin binned.
· Only use the tickets sent to you for this particular sale as the colours change for each sale and seller. If you use tickets of a different colour your items maybe put in the sin bin.
· If you have fewer than ten items to sell, please tell us when you apply. This will not affect your ability to sell but gives others an opportunity.
· Complete both sections of the ticket as follows:
NO:STYLE:
SIZE:
PRICE / Your Unique Seller Number for this sale
Brand / style / etc
Age for clothes if applicable
Multiples of 50p only please
· Attach the whole ticket securely by the top section only as the lower section is removed and retained at the till – please do not sellotape all of your ticket down (just the bottom part). Safety pins should be used for clothes and sticky tape for toys and equipment.
· Please do not use clear plastic bags to display clothes.
· Items with lost tickets cannot be sold. Any items that don’t have a ticket will be placed in the sin bin for collection at the end of the sale.
· Please consider sellotaping or cling filming toys that have many pieces together to ensure it stays as one item.
· Please do not label or sort through your items on the day – please ensure they are all labelled and bundled correctly before the day of the sale.
· To help you to monitor your items for sale, we have enclosed a list which we advise you to complete to record items/prices.
· Please use clearly labelled boxes (not bags) to bring in your items.
I have tickets with a stamp on them….what are these for?
Previous sales have seen a vast increase in the number of clothes for babies up to three months old. We are therefore asking that each seller puts a maximum of 15 clothing items in for this age range. 15 of your 50, 75 or 100 tickets will have a stamp on them and only these tickets can be used for clothes in this age range. If you have considerably more than 15 items in this age range to sell, please consider bundling them together. Please note that if you put additional items out for up to three months that don’t have a stamp, they will be put in the sin bin.
I don’t have any clothes for sale in this age range – can I still use the tickets?
Yes, if you don’t have any items in this age range, you can still use the stamped tickets for other items in the sale.
I don’t have enough hangers – do I need to put all clothes on hangers?
Yes, because all of the clothes are displayed on rails, they need to be on hangers – including babygrows and vests. Any items in clear plastic bags won’t be put out for the sale and will be placed in the sin bin.
The exception applies to swimwear, socks/tights, hats/scarves/gloves, shoes/slippers/wellies and sunglasses & accessories, which will be displayed on tables.
If you need additional hangers, you can request free ones from the clothing departments at M & S, Next, Asda, Primark or Tesco. You could also request hangers from sites such as Freecycle and Freegle, where people give things away for free.
We cannot collect hangers from clothes sold because it slows down the already-long till queues too much. However, if sellers have surplus hangers, we are allowing them to be sold in bundles at this sale.
How do I bundle my items to bring to the sale?
It is essential that clothes are already sorted into bundles clearly marked by the following categories. You can do this by using separate supermarket bags around the hangers of each group.
Unisex tiny baby/newborn / Girls tiny baby/newborn / Boys tiny baby/newbornUnisex 0-3 months / Girls 0-3 months / Boys 0-3 months
Hats / Girls 3-6 months / Boys 3-6 months
Socks / Girls 6-12 months / Boys 6-12 months
Shoes/boots / Girls 1-2yrs / Boys 1-2yrs
Swimwear / Girls 2-3yrs / Boys 2-3yrs
Underwear / Girls 3-4 yrs / Boys 3-4 yrs
Dressing up clothes / Girls 4-5yrs / Boys 4-5yrs
Other accessories / Girls 5-6yrs / Boys 5-6yrs
Maternity wear / Girls 6+yrs / Boys 6+yrs
Put all clothes in one box (or in a number of boxes). Toys, books and equipment can be grouped and boxed together. Larger items don’t need to be in a box. Please make sure your seller number is on the box.