Instructions for Selling at the Maidenhead & Marlow NCT Nearly New Sale

SATURDAY 23 APRIL 2016

St. Piran's School, Gringer Hill, MaidenheadSL6 7LZ

AM only helpers: 10:00 – 13:00

All day helpers: 10:00 – 16:00

Seller drop off: 10:00 – 11:00

PM only helpers: 13:00 – 16:00

All day helpers’ pre-sale: 13:00 – 13:15

NCT members’ sale: 13:15 – 13:30

Sale time: 13:30 - 14:45

Collection of unsold items: 15:15 – 15:30

THANK YOU for your interest in becoming a seller at the Maidenhead & Marlow NCT Nearly New Sale on Saturday 23April 2016 at St. Piran's School. Please read this information carefullyas it has been updated since the last sale.

How do the Nearly New Sales work?

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) is a registered charity, for which the local Maidenhead and Marlow NCT branch runs 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 sale items. NCT, as a charity, takes commission from everything that is sold thereby raising money for its essential work supporting parents.

Volunteers

The success of the sale is dependent on those who volunteer to help so please register as a volunteer, even if you can only spare a few hours. The nearly new sale is always over-subscribed and it’s a shame to have to turn people away. With your help we can make this our biggest sale yet.

How do I register as a seller?

Apply to be a seller by completing and sending the attached registration form, a correctly stamped addressed A4 envelope and your deposit to NCT NNS, 6 Mossy Vale, Maidhead, Berkshire SL6 7RX.

Registration is now open and closes on 16 April 2016.

Historically seller places have all been taken within two weeks of registration opening so please submit your application as soon as possible.

We ask all applicants to ensure that they send a correctly stamped A4 envelope as Royal Mail may not deliver under-stamped mail or charge you an incorrect postage fee. It is important that you send an A4 stamped addressed envelope as we will not be able to send you your tickets if the envelope is too small.

Please allow ten days to receive your tickets after you have posted your form. If you have not received your tickets after this time pleaselet us know at .

Commission Rates

NCT, as a charity, takes a commission of 35% from everything that is sold thereby raising money for its essential work supporting parents. However, we recognise that without the help of volunteers we could not run the nearly new sales therefore we are pleased to offer the following incentives:

• All day helpers (10:00am – 4pm): exclusive access to the pre-sale event giving you a chance to grab those bargains and a reduced commission rate of 25%.
• Part day helpers (10:00am – 1:00pm OR 1:00pm- 4pm):a reduced commission rate of 30%.
• Items priced over £50 attract a reduced rate of 20% commission but please do not inflate your prices.

Cancellation

Whilst we appreciate that unexpected events sometimes occur we operate a cancellation policy. Sellers/helperswithdrawing from the sale within 14 days of the sale will forfeit their deposit.

What can I sell?

Remember, this is not a jumble sale – dirty/worn-out goods will be rejected. Anything that is dirty, worn-out or incorrectly priced will not be put out for sale.

You can sell baby and children’s wear (up to age ten), maternity wear, equipment, books and toys.

Clothes:

Only items that are of new or nearly new quality will be admitted for selling. Sale items must be clean and in good condition. We limit the number of newborn to 3 months baby wear to a maximum of 15 items per seller. Bundles of children’s clothes hangers may also be sold.

Toys:

Toys and puzzles must be complete. Any loose parts should be securely attached. Puzzles should be sealed in a clear plastic bag. Please ensure that any toys with batteries are in working order.If the batteries have run out or the toy doesnot work then it will not be put out for sale.

Equipment:

Equipment sells better and at a higher price if instructions and, if valid, guarantees are included. Please note thatstair gates, fireguards, barriers and bed guardsmust have all the correct fittings and 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 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 (e.g. PVC) with no tears, cracks or holes.

What can’t I sell?

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Car seats

Door bouncers (without assembly instructions and weight limit)

Breast pumps

Dummies

Baby bottles

Anything with a teat

Baby food & formula milk

Riding hats/crash helmets

Hand-knitted toys

Clothes with a drawstring around the neck

Mains powered electrical equipment

Clothes in a larger size which aren’t maternity clothes

Cuddly toys which are not character toys (e.g, Noddy, Fifi etc)

Children’s bicycles (with a saddle height of more than 635mm)

More than 15 items of 0-3 months baby clothing

Bednest Cribs

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Pushchairs

Pushchairs can be sold 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 manufacturer’s website.

The following Maclaren pushchairs must be fitted with a hinge safety cover. Covers are available free of charge from the Maclaren website, 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 please ensure that you demonstrate to the equipment area helpers how to fold and unfold your pushchair.

Baby Slings

Bag-style slings - the ones with a deep pouch and an elasticated edge – cannot be sold as (whilst they have not been recalled) they may cause breathing difficulties in young babies. The following brands and products cannot be accepted:

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Infantino sling ride

Premaxx baby bag

Munchkin cargo sling

Boppy carry in comfort

Lamaze close comfort

Wendy Bellissimo sling

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Guide to Pricing Sale Items

As a general rule we advise you to price items at 20-25% of the original purchase price.When pricing your items consider whether or not a) you would buy it? b) How much you would pay? c) Do you want to have to collect it at the end of the sale?

Please try not to overprice your items otherwise you maybe surprised with the number of unsold items with which you are left (particularly clothes). Please donot keep trying to sell items which did not sell at previous sales. As a guide, we say that if an item has not sold within three sales then it is unlikely to sell. In most cases items over £50 rarely sell.

Please see the below tables with suggested prices:

• Clothes (according to brand and quality)

• Toys

• Equipment

Labelling Sale Items

Sale items must be priced 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 not be put out for sale.

• 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 will not be put out for sale.
• If you have fewer than 50 items to sell, please letusknow when you apply. This will not affect your ability to sell but gives other sellers an opportunity for more sales tickets.
• Complete both sections of the ticket as follows:

• 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 top 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 does not have a ticket will not be put out for sale.
• Please consider sellotaping or cling filming together toys that have many pieces 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.

0 – 3 MonthsBaby Clothes

Previous sales have seen a vast increase in the number of clothes for babies up to three months old. We are therefore limiting each seller to a maximum of 15clothing items for this age range. 15 of your 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 donot have a stamp, they will not be put out for sale. The stamped tickets can be used for items other than 0-3 months clothes if you are not selling any of these items.

Hangers

Allclothes are displayed on rails therefore you will need to provide hangers. If you do not have hangers any clothing items will need to be bundled together so that they can be displayed on a table.

Swimwear, socks/tights, hats/scarves/gloves, shoes/slippers/wellies and sunglasses and accessories will be displayed on tables.

Hangers can be obtained for free from clothing departments at M&S, Next, Asda, Primark or Tesco etc.They may also be available on sites such as Preloved, Freecycle and Freegle.

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.

Please separate sale items by category and used separate boxes for each category. Please ensure your seller number is clearly marked on the box(es). Larger items do not need to be boxed.

Unsold Items

There is a period of 15 minutes from the end of the sale for you to collect your unsold items. We will group unsold items by seller number where possible but it is your responsibility to collect your unsold items. Any items not collected by 3:30pm will not be returned to you and will be sold on a commission free basis at the next sale.

The NCT is a charity and relies on the generosity of its members to help fund its objectives. If you are willing to donate any unsold items to the next sale please state this where indicated on the application form.

When do I receive my money?

Cheques (and deposit cheques) will be sent out within two weeks of the sale. There is a £2 admin charge applied to each seller. Please see above for details of our cancellation policy.

Number of tickets

Tickets are supplied in batches of 50, 75 or 100. We will do our best to ensure that you receive the number of tickets you request but this cannot be guaranteed. Any unused tickets should be returned at the sale. Unfortunately we cannot issue additional tickets but we run three sales per year so hope that you will be able to sell your items at the next sale. We do not return sold ticket stubs.

Mailing list

If you wish to be added to our mailing list so that you receive details of future events, please contact us at with ‘mailing list’ as the subject heading.

Advertising the sale

If you can advertise the sale at your child/ren’s playgroup, nursery or school please email us at and we will send you posters for displaying. The more people who see it will result in more people through the door buying = the more money you will make for yourself and for the NCT.

Any other questions

Please email . We aim to reply to you within 3 working days.

Date of next sale

Our next sale is due to take place in the spring. Date to be confirmed.

What is the Gold Rosette?

The Maidenhead and Marlow Branch was awarded a gold standard rosette from the NCT Head Office for its achievements with previous sales – both in terms of amount raised for the NCT and the number of sellers/buyers through the door. That means you can sell and buy at our sales with confidence!

NEARLY NEW SALE – 23 APRIL 2016

This form maybe of benefit to you to log the items you are selling. Please note that ticket stubs arenot returned after the sale.

SAMPLE BOX LABEL FOR SELLER

(please use your own seller number – which is included with your labels)

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