- No, you do not need an appointment to drop off a consignment. You can stop into the East Greenwich boutique at any time. We do not go through consignments on the spot. It generally takes us a few days to do through your pieces. We inspect for tears, stains, etc, verify authenticity, price them and get back to you with an itemized inventory report via email. At that point we'll let you know if there is anything you need to come back and pick up.

- Several reasons. 1. We research price points on every piece, with every consignment. Other consignment shops price their items based on a percentage of the original retail. We understand that resale values fluctuate. As such we look up comparable sales for every consignment and price them accordingly. 2. We do a lot of the behind the scenes work - such a pricing inventory - after hours. Our store is constantly busy. During business hours we need to be focused on doing what we do best, which is selling your pieces. We strive to give every customer that walks into our store our undivided and complete attention. 3. We may not know. Certain items need additional research and/or authentication before we can give you an accurate representation of what they're worth. We prefer to get our ducks in a row before committing to a price on anything. If you'd like to get a basic idea of our price points prior to bringing your pieces in we recommend checking out similar items in our webstore at www.ShopKarmaOnline.com.

- We have over 1200 consignors and no less than 5000 pieces in the boutique at any given point in time. Although we would love to call you and gloat every time we sell one of your pieces there is simply not enough time in our day. You can check on the status of your consigned items at any time by requesting a report through our website, sending us an email or giving us a call at the boutique. If you do feel comfortable using email or the report request feature we ask that you do so. If you send an email please include your full name, street address and which months you'd like a sales report for. If you'd like a report of your remaining inventory please indicate that as well. Again, we handle most of the administrative stuff after business hours. Every minute that we spend on the phone is a minute that we're not spending selling your fabulous items to a prospective buyer. We really ask that you try to use the report request feature or email if at all possible.

- You have two options for payment. 1. Store credit. You can use your balance by making a purchase in the shop at any time throughout the month and earn a 10% discount (i.e if you use $100 in store credit you get an extra $10 off of the total purchase amount. 2. You can request a check in the first 7 days of the month by using the check request feature on our website, emailing us or calling the boutique. Checks that are requested are cut and mailed on the business day closest to the 15th. The majority of out girls use store credit (a leopard doesn't often change it's spots...ladies, you know who you are) and others prefer a check. Either way is fine with us but you need to let us know if you want a check in that first week, otherwise we assume you want to leave it on your account. This is one of your two main responsibilities as a consignor (see main responsibility # 2 in the next question) Our vendor reporting utilizes a computer program and the checks are issued by a third party bookkeeper. That being said, in order to efficiently manage our time and resources we cut checks one time per month with no exceptions. If you miss the cut off request on the 7th of the month you will need to wait until the following month for a check. We suggest that you make a note on your calender, put a reminder in your cell phone, invest in a carrier pigeon...whatever works for you. Should you forget to to request a check your balance is available to you on the following month up until a full year from the date of the original sale. Monies that are left on account with us for over 12 months are donated to one of the many worthy charities that we work with.

You have two main responsibilities. #1. If you would like a check, request it in the first 7 days of the month via the check request feature on our webstore, via email or if you absolutely have to - by telephone. (See previous FAQ) #2 Remember your contract dates! Our consignment contracts run for 90 days. If you would like to retrieve any unsold items after your contract date you need let us know that you'd like them back before your contract expires. This is very important - we have a very limited amount of space and we simply cannot hold items for longer than 90 days. Items that are left after the 90 day term may be donated. We do NOT notify you at the end of your contract date. You also need to give us at least 72 hours to collect your pieces. They need to be pulled from the floor, deleted from our system, removed from the webstore etc etc ect. Depending on how pieces you have left this can take some time so we ask for at least a few days notice.

- We very rarely take every piece that comes in in a single consignment and the reasons can vary. If we don't take every one of your items it doesn't mean that we don't love you or think that you're as fashionable a creature as you truly are. We have to maintain a balance of categories, colors, sizes, styles etc in the store. So if we didn't take your little black dress it simply means that we already have to many of them. If you dropped off a halter top in October it only means that it was out of season. There are certain labels that we do not take - not because we're snobby but because they simply don't sell. The biggest culprit are labels sold at TJMaxx, Marshalls etc. Don't get us wrong - we're total Maxxinista's. But we find it hard to compete with their already rock bottom prices from a resale end so we don't even try. Another big culprit are the mall brands (i.e Ann Taylor, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Cache...) The labels are so widely available in every major mall in America that you can imagine we get a ton of it in on consignment. If we took every piece we would have no room left for anything else and we'd just be an Ann Taylor/J. Crew/Banana Republic/Cache consignment shop. We also want to stock the type of pieces in the store that our shoppers can be assured that none of their neighbors will have in their closets. So although we do take a VERY LIMITED amount of these labels, we really can't take everything that comes in. As a general rule we recommend that you review the designer list on our webstore for guidance on the types of labels that we take. Also, certain categories are much slower to sell - these include pants, suits and formal wear. We generally only take very high end, couture labels in these categories.

- We have several charities that we've worked with in the past. These include women's shelters, organizations that collect prom gowns for teenagers that can't afford them, local clothing drives etc. We also have a special place in the store called Caitlyn's Corner where donated clothing is given in exchange for a monetary donation to Hasbro Children's Hospital. All of these charities greatly appreciate your support.

Ok, so it's not really a question. But regardless, we can't exempt certain items from our progressive discount and not others. That's somewhat shady and not really fair to our customers. But if it makes you feel any better if your item doesn't sell within  in the first 30 days that probably means that we priced it too high to begin with. We get a minimum of about 50,000 shoppers per month in the web boutique (this number has grown exponentially since our launch in February) and only-god-knows-how-many shoppers in the East Greenwich boutique on a monthly basis. (Suffice it to say there are enough to leave us exhausted and in desperate need of a generous glass of red wine at the end of every day.) We sell A LOT - the majority of our items go within the first 30 days. If your item doesn't sell within that initial 30 day period it probably means that we were a little too aggressive from a pricing perspective to begin with. We try to get as much as we realistically can for our consignors. But our shoppers are savvy women and they know when certain pieces are priced for more than what they're legitimately worth. Our progressive discount is a valuable tool in auto correcting initial pricing errors. So if your piece hits one of our progressive discounts it doesn't mean that you're getting less than what your piece is worth. It only means that we may have overestimated the value to begin with.

-**Sigh**..., So contractually the answer to that question is no. However, as a courtesy to our consignors in practice we always allow you to take you pieces back whenever you want them, regardless of how far they are into the contract term. HOWEVER - as a simple matter of courtesy if you plan to pull you items prior to the end of the contract term we ask that you let us know ahead of time. Depending on what the piece is we may choose not to take it in the first place. The first 30 days of the consignment process are fairly labor intensive for us. Your pieces are researched, priced, entered into our database, photographed, described, measured, inspected for quality and uploaded to the webstore. On average we spend a total of 28 minutes preparing each and every new consigned item for sale in the shop and on the web boutique. Keep in mind that if you do pull an item from the shop we probably won't take it back for full price at a later point in time (or at all).  There are certain exceptions: If you're bringing in a Chanel, Louis Vuitton or other uber high end handbag we don't have a problem with you retrieving it if it doesn't sell within the first 30 days. The reason why?...we've very rarely not sold a Chanel or LV bag within the first 30 days. But for the most part we ask that our consignors adhere to the contract terms. Repeated retrievals of consigned items prior to the end of the contract term may result in us revoking your status as a consignor. Your best bet is to be honest with us up front and we can decide as a team if our shop is the best fit for you.

Oh, let me list the ways...#1 Marketing. We have a combined total of 5000 friends and followers on our Facebook and Twitter pages and profile. Our "Scoop of the Day" typically sells within 24 hours. #2 Web boutique. We have 50k+ hits to our web boutique and ship online purchases all over the world. Our web store is averaging a 14% increase in new web traffic per month and we're already in the first 10 organic spots on the FIRST PAGE of google WORLDWIDE for over 20 highly competitive keywords (try it yourself- type in "consignment shops" into google and voila! - we appear. (Also try online consignment shops, designer consignment shops, designer consignment, consignment shops online, designer consignment online, online consignment... you get the idea...) #3 We are an eBay Powerseller and Top Rated Seller with regular clients worldwide. #4 We are recommended by myPoupette to authenticate high end handbags. This increases our sales as our shoppers can be assured that what they're spending their money on genuine, authentic items. #5 We won Best of Rhode Island in 2010. There's a reason for that....(yes, we're patting ourselves on the back.) #6 Our customer mailing list numbers in the tens of thousands and we frequently send "New Item Updates" and other promotion marketing emails to keep our Karma girls in the loop about new inventory. #7 We host in store events such as Wine and Cheese parties to reward current customers and bring in new ones. P.S You're invited too:) #8 We sleep, eat and breath high end fashion. Nobody will love, appreciate and care for you pieces as much as we do. Bottom line...we are lean, mean trustworthy selling machines. Oh, and we're nice too. You'll like us, we promise.

- Because our policy is that we don't go through consignments on the spot we can't prepare a receipt for you. If you're bringing in under 15 pieces and you'd like to have some kind of itemized list prepared BEFORE you come in we can certainly sign off on it at the time you drop them off. 

- 7 days from the date that we notify you to come back and pick them up. We will email you at the address you've provided with a deadline for a pick up date. Usually we follow up with a phone call to the number you list on your contract but technically we're not obligated too. If you do not come back within that 7 day time frame we will donate your pieces. We don't like to donate without hearing back from you but as you can imagine, stuff piles up fast and we really don't have a choice. If we do not get a response to our request for a pick up we will assume you'd like us to donate your pieces. You can also indicate that you'd just like us to donate at the time that you drop your pieces off.

- No! Not ever. And trust me we're not fooled. We've spent many hours being certified to recognize replica items and have gone through a rigorous screening process by myPoupette. It is illegal to own, purchase and sell counterfeit pieces. A lot of people think it's harmless to buy a knockoff. How much money does Chanel or Louis Vuitton really need, right? But the truth is that the majority of these bags are produced using child labor in foreign countries and fund an astonishing amount of money to terrorist organizations. Seriously - google it. And frankly, it's just not worth it for us to risk an amazing business that we love make a few extra bucks peddling replicas. If you bought something on eBay, a seller other than a major department store or from the manufacturer, another consignment shop or received it as a gift all you have to do is let us know when you drop it off so we can do our due diligence. 90% of the women that bring in replicas have no idea that they're fake so we don't hold it against you if it happens, provided you're honest with us from the beginning. Also, we offer free authentication services to our consignors (and regular customers.) If you've bought a bag in another consignment shop, on ebay or other online seller and you'd like confirmation on it's authenticity feel free to bring it by for our professional opinion. We may not be able to do it on the spot but if you leave it with us we can usually get back to you within a day or two with an answer. FYI - for items purchased on ebay you only have 60 days to file a claim for a refund. We recommend bringing those items in as soon as possible!

- Don't worry, we gotcha. We don't usually respond to check requests because at that point in time we're feverishly calculating the big fat check you and all of our other consignors are about to get. If you sent a check request between the 1st and the 7th of the month you will receive it in the mail around the 15th. If you still haven't received your check by the 21st please get in touch with us. 

- Maybe. It depends on when they're delivered to us to sign off on and if we have all of the sales reports printed that we send along with the checks. If you would prefer to pick your check up let us know at the time that you request it and follow up with a call on the 14th to remind us. Please keep in mind that there are a ginormous amount of you and only a handful of us in the shop...we do prefer to mail them all if possible.

-Once again, not really a question but here goes...You really need to trust our expertise in valuing items for resale. If we can accommodate your requests we certainly will - however - we're not doing you any favors by putting something out that is obviously overpriced. We price items to sell in the first 30 days. Case in point: you have a dress overpriced at $200 that we really would have listed for closer to $180. It doesn't sell in the first 30 days and is discounted 20%. Your net sales price at that point is $160 - a loss of $20 if we'd sold it in the first 30 days for $180. For this reason all pricing is set at our discretion. You are welcome to take your pieces back if you're unhappy with their resale values.

- Our lips are sealed. We don't ever reveal our consignors identity. But seriously, resale is so on trend right now that you may want to rethink the whole privacy thing. You're friends will probably think you're cooler for doing it. 

- Clean, pressed and on hangers pretty, pretty, please? Beautiful clothing in garbage bags makes us sad. And the truth is, none of us know how to iron and we wouldn't have the time to do it anyway. No matter how gorgeous your items are if they aren't in salable condition when they come in we have to return them to you. If you absolutely must you can fold them neatly and place in shopping bags or boxes. 

- Nope...sorry.