Help for consignment, resale & thrift shops is here at Too Good to be Threw for you
Too Good to be Threw helps your resale, consignment, or thrift shop be the best! Tips, hints, and info to make your business thrive.
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• What's New

• Who is Kate Holmes? and Why Kate's the Authority and Who Cares?

• Start-a-Shop

• Consumer Page: The Original "How to Shop Resale"  

• Shopkeeper Hints & Tips

• Ask Auntie Kate: Specific questions asked by real resalers that Kate has answered      

• The current Special Offer

• Our shop full of Products for the Professional Resaler and FAQs about our Products and why you can believe in our Products

• Our complete catalog of Products for the Professional Resaler in PDF to read on-line, or to print out and save for your reference library.

• BUY ON-LINE
  The Manual "The Resale Bible" Table of Contents, An Excerpt , What They Say about the manual
  The Resalers' Financial Survey  
  Solutions for Small Businesses
  The Best of The Best of TGtbT and Used News
  Short-Stops: In-depth Topics
  Shop Sizzle: Your shop can look & operate like those big-buck stores
  Ready-to-Use Forms Don't re-invent the wheel. You have better things to do
  Drop-&-Run Kit: The Best Invention since The Manual!            
  Customer Service Brochures (most cost-effective customer gift ever!)
  Get your order FAST
  Order Form if you'd rather mail, phone, or fax
  And more! Bag Sales, Beat Garage Sales, 10 Simple Low- or No-Cost Ways to Make $10,000 more in your shop.....
        An excerpt from a Product (this page changes, so check often!)

• The Picker Who Perished, A Too Good to be Threw Consignment Shop Mystery by Kate Holmes
       How The Picker will make YOUR shop BETTER
        Read Chapter One, or Get Wendy Sam's Recipes  
        Order a single copy or WHOLESALE, for selling and making money!
        Places to buy The Picker Who Perished Retail, besides here on the author's web site
        Information for the Press and Kate's bio, from an "author" standpoint...
        I know this question eats at you in the middle of the night: Just what IS a Katydid?

Information to make YOUR shop THRIVE!

• Our Sharing Discussion Board's FAQ Page. Read it, then go to Sharing to participate in our community!

• Our Guestbook of Sharing Participants

• Do you know what an advertorial is? It's a paid ad designed to look like editorial material in a periodical. Why? Because viewers trust editorial matter more than they do ads. Here's a great example of an advertorial.

• How resalers reacted to Hurricane Katrina (also here, an example on how to write a press release.)
  

• Selling for the Seasons: 
     Christmas/New Year's, and a fun and inexpensive gift on our Christmas Crafts Page
      Halloween & other Costume Times,
      Father's Day
      Merchandising sells more year-round: and it's NOT rocket science

• Specialty Pages:
  ..          .. ..... 
      Childrens'             Womenswear               Furniture/ Household          NFP thrift shops              Swing Shops
  
   

• A picture's worth a thousand words: How to photograph your shop exterior and its interior. These tips alone are worth your contribution to this site's overhead, I guarantee it! 

• Business Cards 

• Our Resalers' Dictionary is being constantly added to.

• Sidewalk displays (and walk-in window displays as well!): How to make them SUCK customers in!

• Let's Shop (what to shop for to make YOUR shop better! A favorite amongst resalers!)

• Pass it On: One of resale's missions is, of course, recycling. Here's how to pass usable items on wisely.

• Resale Shops across the globe: HowToConsign.com

• Why Kate thinks you should attend the NARTS Annual Convention, for the good of your business
  You know you should go but simply CAN'T? Create Your Own Conference
  Have a Great Meeting: How to get the most out of ANY professional meeting
  Photos from NARTS Conference 2007 and  NARTS Conference 2006 (2 pages of these)

• Extreme Makeover, Resale Style

• Would you like a Virtual Tour of consignment and resale shops? We have lots to show you at Sharing Photos Pages 1 and 2.

• Kate visits two shops in Ocala FL who approach the same challenges in 2 very different ways

• Our Newsletter Archives. USED ain't seen nothin' yet, our e-mail newsletter's past issues. SCADS of info and links in every past issue.

• ODDS N ENDS OF  HELP:
     An example of an Advertorial
      The anatomy of a Press Release (using an example from Katrina)
      How to take good pix of your shop indoors and out
      Sharers contribute some Thinking Outside the Box original ideas for you to try
      How resalers stay organized!
      What color should I paint my walls? What color order should I arrange my clothing in? And more thoughts on color, A conversation with Kate

• Kate's Recommendations. Stuff, mostly books, that I think you will benefit from.

• Shopkeeping Fun is where we share our lighter moments. In fact, we have SO MUCH RESALE FUN that there's another page too!

•   Quick Takes. 5-Second looks at:
  Doing Sidewalk Displays
  Calling Attention to your Shop 
  Window Display Advice from 100+ years ago
  One of my favorite cartoons 

• Links to other places on the Internet; Resale shops, supplies, help and info

• Finding YOUR shop's future customers

• KATE'S WISDOM on other websites:
  HowToConsign.com is a site designed for your clientele. You can list your shop, and get a link to your site or a FREE e-business card and URL if you don't yet have a site. 
  Auntie Kate's Blog is a place that's informal, fun, and open for your comments.
     Here's an example of how Kate helps form public opinion. A blogger was saying she'd rather donate than use a resale shop to pass on items, and I mentioned there's a better way, perhaps, to help her good deed go further...
  "Buy it or live to regret it." Those are my words that this journalist used in an article about resale shopping
  Kate is sending eBay vendors your way with her article Find products to sell on eBay at consignment shops
  The above article was taken from my LIVE (gulp!) internet talk interview on Entrepreneur Magazine Radio and eBay Radio
  An article some radio hosts wrote from my words, after radio-interviewing me: How to Shop Resale
  Friends of California Libraries liked this article on The Cheapest Most Effective Advertising a Resaler Can Do!
  Twisting a Round Idea to fit your Square Peg was written by me at the special request of another industry altogether.
  Kate also writes two publications for Woman's Exchange, a Sarasota not-for-profit consignment shop: a newsletter for the 300+ volunteers, and the double-sided check enclosure to consignors. See a few past issues.
  Kate also, sometimes, writes for consumers and NARTS includes it in their e-newsletter. For example, Choosing the Right Resale Shop and what to do with things that just don't have any more life in them. Then, there's Cachet Without Cash and an article on serendipity. Remember, these writings are protected by copyright. If you wish to use them in your business, contact Kate.
   

• Hey, what other industry has a recipe named after it? Here's the Cuban specialty, Ropa Vieja, which means OLD CLOTHES!

but can only remain so with your active support.
 Your purchases at our Shop for Professional Resalers make this site possible.