How did I tag my clothes?
I decided to buy a tagging gun because I was hoping this was something I would like to do and would do it again. (I love finding things for cheap and reselling them for a profit!)
These were my reasons for buying a tagging gun . . .
- I figured I would have to buy a lot of safety pins if I didn’t buy a tag gun. I entered about 200 items, and a pack of 250 safety pins costs $4, so it would only be $1 more to buy a tagging gun that would work faster and tag more items in the long run. (Since I was entering items in the Reading JBF sale, and I knew they were going to be at Lancaster the next month, I decided I would probably enter my items in both sales.)
- I had Amazon credit (that I redeemed from my credit card points).
- We found an inexpensive tagging gun for only $5. We chose one that had multiple needles because we read that sometimes the needle might break and you need backup. This never happened to us then though!
- I can probably resell the tag gun on craigslist or a facebook group or ebay, if I decided I don’t like it. I’m guessing I could sell it for about what I paid for it, too!
- We could also use the tagging gun for our annual yard sale (which is a pretty big thing in our development – we’re talking hundreds of people flow through it every year!).
- It came with 1000 free barbs (those are the plastic things that I actually call tags)!
How to Use a Tagging Gun
To tell you the truth, I was so nervous the first time I tagged some clothes, I actually had my husband do it first. He was a pro—and loved the engineering aspect of it! I learned quickly to . .
- Put the needle through a hem or seam. This pretty much guaranteed you could not see a hole in the clothing, which I was really picky about. I didn’t want any of my items rejected at inspection.
- I did not like tagging the barn through the clothes tag because you could always see the hole that you punched. So I only did this at last resort.
- Make sure you push the needle through far enough before you pull the trigger. Otherwise the tag won’t connect correctly to the clothing. (This happened to me several times if I got to be in too much of a hurry!)
Now it’s all second nature to me and I can almost do it with my eyes closed!
After working at checkout, I learned how important it is to tag correctly.
- Several times, items could not be sold because the tag was lost. The seller lost the opportunity to make a profit here!
- It makes the cashier’s job SO MUCH EASIER if all the tags are on the right side of the clothing, in the same general area (preferably the top right, not the bottom sleeve). You might not think this is a big deal—until you work at checkout.Our job is to help the customers check out as quickly and as easily as possible. Most customers are buying dozens (yes, dozens!!!!! I was shocked too!) of clothing items, so it is important that the cashier can quickly scan each item without fiddling to find the tag.
- If your item is tagged correctly and well, you can guarantee that the cashier won’t make a mistake and miss your item.
For tomorrow’s post I will share my #1 first-time consignor regret and how I learned to be a smart consignment sale shopper!
Other articles in this series that might interest you:
How I Prepared for My First Consignment Sale
How I Priced My Consignment Sale Items to Earn a Healthy Profit
What Sold and What Did Not Sell
How I Tagged My Clothes and Why I Decided to Buy a Tagging Gun
My #1 First-Time Consignor Regret
