Transcript: Buying New Versus Used For Your Kids

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Parent Savers
Buying New Versus Used For Your Kids

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Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

JENNY HUMORA: Parenting is expensive. Some estimates put the cost of raising a child through age 18 at more than $250,000.00. But what if there were ways to reduce the costs while still providing everything you need for your family? Not everything for baby needs to be brand new, but how do you know what does, and what doesn't? I'm Jenny Humora, Parenting Expert, and today we're talking about what you need to buy new, and what you can get second-hand. This is Parent Savers.

[Intro/Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome everybody to Parent Savers, broadcasting from the Birth Education Center in San Diego. Parent Savers is your online, on-the-go support group for parents with infants and toddlers. I'm your host, Johner Riehl, happy to be back talking about Parent Savers and back on the show. Thanks so much to all of our loyal listeners who join us every time a new episode's released and for those of you continue the conversations with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Make sure to check out the Parent Savers app so you can listen to all of our episodes wherever you go as soon as they're released or on demand, whenever you want to check them out. There's always great stuff going on with Parents Savers and with the whole world of New Mommy Media so Sunny, who's the head of New Mommy Media, is going to tell you guys all about how you can get involved in the show or in any of the other shows.

SUNNY GAULT: Alright, so we have some different segments that you guys will probably want to get involved with, because they're lots of fun and one is called Parenting Oops, so we're looking for your funny stories that you have about things that you've done with your little kids or that's happened to you.

We all have some doosies, so we want to share those on the show, so that's one way you can get involved. We have an “ask the experts” segment where any of our experts that have been on our show and also we have a select team of experts, can answer your question. So again whatever questions you have going on in your life, well related to parenting, let me specify, related to parenting. Go ahead and send that in to us and we'll get those question answered and we'll also put it on a future episode so other parents can benefit from it.

So the way you submit to those, you can either go to our website at www.NewMommyMedia.com, go to the Contact link and email us. You can post stuff on our Facebook page for Parent Savers, that's fine too. Or, if you actually want to tell your story yourself or ask the question yourself with your own voice, you can call our voicemail at 619- 866-4775 and then that way you'll actually be on the show yourself telling your own story and we'll play it you know as it records. So those are a couple different ways you can get involved.

JOHNER RIEHL: Awesome. Those are great and we love hearing about Parenting Oops. It makes us all feel better about our own oopses. So, let's talk about who's in the room. Sunny, who's just speaking to us, remind everyone..

SUNNY GAULT: Yes, who I am, what I do, and how many kids I have?

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes, exactly.

SUNNY GAULT: Yeah so I'm Sunny. So I run New Mommy Media, which produces Parent Savers, Preggie Pals which is a pregnancy show, Twin Talks which is all about twins, The Boob Group which is about breastfeeding, there's a long list, isn't there? And then we have a brand new show called Newbies, which is focused on moms during that first year of life with their babies. And so, that keeps me pretty busy. I have four babies at home, my oldest just turned five and is in kindergarten, a boy. I have a three-year-old son, and I have identical twin girls who are about 22 months old.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice. So Sunny, we all admire, appreciate all the work that you do. And so I'm Johner. I'm 41. We have three boys, an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, and a four-year-old. And I'm happy to be back hosting the podcast, but I also do some PR for videogames and apps as my day-job. Alicia's also joining us in the studio.

ALICIA BRAVO: Hello.

JOHNER RIEHL: Hello.

ALICIA BRAVO: I'm Alicia. I work full time as a director of training and onsite services for an employee assistance program and I have four children. My girls are ten and eight, and my boys are six and three.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice! Admiration! Admiration is the right word. I admire all you guys.

ALICIA BRAVO: It's an exciting life.

JENNY HUMORA: I have the easy job over here. I'm Jenny Humora and I'm the community manager for Close 5 and I have two children. They are eight and nine. My daughter Mallory is nine, my son Gauge is eight, and they are a piece of cake right now so for everybody who has little ones, it does get so easy. I mean, seriously. When I leave here I'll be throwing a bridal shower and they are cleaning the house.

SUNNY GAULT: Oh my gosh!

ALICIA BRAVO: I don't believe you. Wow.

JENNY HUMORA: And they made a salad this morning too.

JOHNER RIEHL: That is awesome.

JENNY HUMORA: I mean, and they're really sweet too, so.

JOHNER RIEHL: That's great. Alright well we're definitely looking forward to the conversation.

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[Theme Music]

SUNNY GAULT: Alright, so before we start today's show, we are going to do App Review and we're going to talk about an app called Close 5. C-L-O-S-E five, the number 5, and if you don't already have it on your phone, you should probably check it out. It's free to download, it's available on Android and iOS and it's basically a different look at classifieds.

The way to make it a little bit more simple and to really use your app for putting classifieds out there for different stuff you have around your home, help you find items for sale specifically in your neighbourhood so that's where the '5' part comes in. Around five miles from your house. You can extend that if you want, if you want to search for a little bit further away. But again, a great way to find out what's happening in your neighbourhood as far as what's being sold. And you know, you can sell to people obviously in your neighbourhood as well. You can sign in through your email, or through Facebook, so it's pretty easy to sign up. And you can list your items; you don't actually need to list a price or a description.

They have a private chat, so once your offer is accepted, you can chat privately and discuss all those meet-up details which I know as parents we're a little concerned about because the whole safety factor of stuff, so you don't to automatically list your phone or email or all of that. It can completely be done through the app.

And then the ads are also monitored by a community team, so those are some of the nuggets that I took out of it when I first checked out this app. And we're fortunate because Jenny here is the community manager for Close 5, and so we wanted to chat with her a little bit about some of the benefits of using the app and obviously this ties in really well with our topic today of buying new versus hand-me-downs. Jenny, did I give a pretty good explanation?

JENNY HUMORA: Sunny. Do you work for Close 5?

SUNNY GAULT: No, I don't. Just a user really.

JENNY HUMORA: That's awesome. Thank you.

SUNNY GAULT: Sure.

JENNY HUMORA: Really, you said it all. It's kind of like the garage sale on your phone and as you know, most of us are on our phones more in a day than we are on our computer. So what's really cool about it is if you're trying to list an item for sale, you just snap a photo as you would and as you do all day long on your phone and you can, really quickly within seconds, have it listed on your profile.

And you know you mentioned the safety characteristics and that's super important to families or anybody in general, so we do have a customer service team. Not only are they monitoring everything that's happening on the app, they're reachable. You know, I don't know if you've noticed, but you can't reach a lot of people through Facebook or whatever.

There are certain businesses that don't have a customer service team, but we do. They're there. They'll answer your emails. They'll respond to Facebook posts and what not. And so that gives a sense of comfort to everyone. And then the other thing is, it's so easy that for anyone who has been reluctant to try resale, just sit there and browse on your phone.

You're not going to go walking into a consignment store and being overwhelmed with what's available, and you are not having to drive around to yard sales or even go to the swap meets. You can easily see what's available on your phone and you can kind of see what's popular, and if you have something that seems popular in your closet, list it and see what happens.

SUNNY GAULT: Right. I usually do that with like Amazon and stuff, so now I need to get into the habit of going to Close 5 and checking out all the stuff in my neighbourhood, right, 'cause I give Amazon way too much money.

JOHNER RIEHL: I mean the appeal with Amazon sometimes is that it's really quick but also, I know when I'm searching on for other classified sites or whatever, I pretty much type in my neighbourhood as part of the search term or the next one, so it's really neat that this is automatically pulling them up based on your location the ones that are close.

JENNY HUMORA: In that way, you're not driving long distances to go pick up your item. You're certainly not shipping to or having to have something shipped to you. I've met lots of women here in San Diego who bought things from neighbours that they really didn't know, but now they do. Thanks for that crib, you know.

JOHNER RIEHL: And then you find out that you have some things in common. That's great.

JENNY HUMORA: And you know no matter where you live, right here in San Diego we don't have a lot of space, and it is important to get things out that your children have outgrown, but probably across the country people feel the same way, you know. We don't need those giant ExerSaucers hanging around when the kids are out of them, and it's very nice to donate them but the thing is, is when you sell in-good-condition item, you've recouped some money and then you can use that for your Christmas shopping later this year or you know to buy some things new and improved for your kids.

SUNNY GAULT: Right. I feel like I'm always trying to you know get the old stuff out of the house as a parent you know all the old clothes that I know we're not going to use anymore, or you know my girls are done now with the ExerSaucer and any of those standing kind of toys you know to help you learn. And I'm like "okay we're done, let's get it out of the house it's like extra clutter" and stuff like that, so.

JENNY HUMORA: Well you know what, I mean, obviously parent is very stressful. But part of the stress is the clutter. And when you can kind of alleviate that and streamline your life a little bit better, it just helps the family flow.

SUNNY GAULT: Totally! And just wanted to mention really quickly, that they do have different categories on here as well and Babies and Kids is one of them so if you just wanted to search for Baby and Kids items, you definitely could do that. Alright, well we'll put a link to it on our website and give you guys some more information about it but again it is free and it's called Close 5, available on Android and iOS.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: We've covered a broad range of topics through the years on Parent Savers, but I think this one might actually be the most true to our name. Today we're talking about how we can save parents' money by looking at what you can buy new versus hand-me-down.

Especially for you first time parents, hopefully this episode's really useful, but also for those of you that may be going through it again, and want some other sort of perspectives on your experience but we've got a lot of kids between all of us in this room, so definitely looking forward to the conversation. Our expert is Jenny Humora, the community manager for Close 5, thanks for joining us today.

JENNY HUMORA: Thank you.

JOHNER RIEHL: So let's jump right in to it. Let's talk about some of the best things for parents to consider buying used or as hand-me-downs. What do you think one of the best things it is for people to get?

JENNY HUMORA: Well, you had mentioned clothing.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes, clothing is something that pops to my mind. We talked a little bit before.

JENNY HUMORA: Kids outgrow clothing super quick, okay.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

JENNY HUMORA: So and the thing is, is when you are willing to shop resale for clothing, a lot of times the items can be new, with tags on, so why go to the store and pay full price, you know, twenty dollars for a little cute outfit when you could find it new with tags on. The baby might have been born too big to even wear that outfit. That happens sometimes. You know, you buy the preemie, and the baby is a ten-pounder. So you can get that for just a couple dollars you know usually.

JOHNER RIEHL: And I don't know if you guys have this experience but for like, especially for like the two-year-old, there's so many sort of clothes in the rotation that, I mean, if you even just count out the days of the week, and say, well even if we didn't do laundry for two or three weeks, there's still so many clothes in there. So sometimes there are clothes that either don't get worn or they only get worn a few times, so it's maddening if you think about having to spend full price for all of them.

JENNY HUMORA: Especially because you might have bought, you might be taking a baby with you to a wedding, bought a special outfit, but is it practical for that child to be wearing the dress that she'll outgrow in the next couple of months? No. So it's probably already only worn once. On the flipside, though, babies are super messy, your items can be stained and ruined. So of course, anyone who is wanting to sell items, you want to make sure that you're kind of keeping the nice items separate from the spit-up items.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

ALICIA BRAVO: And I found that when reselling clothing, looking at it in sunlight really shows off if it has any stains or anything.

JENNY HUMORA: That's great.

ALICIA BRAVO: In the house you can't really tell but as soon as you're near a window or something you can tell that.

JOHNER RIEHL: That's true. I think usually they get in the sunlight wearing the clothes and we'd be like "oh I forgot there's a stain right there".

JENNY HUMORA: Another cool way to sell items is in lots, and that means, you know, all your six-month clothing lot in a box together, and so you're saying to someone, "I'm going to sell this lot of clothing for 30$ and it's not piece by piece.

JOHNER RIEHL: So as a parent looking to buy that, what's the value proposition on that?

JENNY HUMORA: I would say that you know there will be some items in there that you might not love, but it's just a way of getting a big chunk of stuff for a low price.

JOHNER RIEHL: As opposed to if you're trying to get all those pieces individually, it would be a lot more.

JENNY HUMORA: And it's just easier to move that way. If you'll look on different resale sites you'll quite often see lots of this, lots of that. Like Legos, for example, is a super popular thing for people to want to buy. It's actually not always for sale, but a lot of Legos or a lot of baby clothes.

JENNY HUMORA: Similar brands too, I noticed, if you look online sometimes you can find a lot Gymboree clothes and if you know you tend to like that brand, then you can buy that size you know a whole lot of it for a really reasonable price, whereas in the store you're going to pay a lot of money for that.

JOHNER RIEHL: But it's hard because I think especially going through it the first time, you feel like "oh", I mean I remember going to the stores, "oh that outfit's so cute", to the point where we stopped going to stores so we don't see things that we think are cute.

ALICIA BRAVO: That's one of the things you learn as a parent, though. You don't just walk in to a store.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right, exactly.

JENNY HUMORA: Especially with your child.

ALICIA BRAVO: So I think clothes is definitely one that's great on the list.

JENNY HUMORA: But you know, the thing is that, I think a lot of new parent do want those cute outfits. They want to buy things brand new. It's really when you've moved on to a second child or you're really struggling to raise your baby on a budget that you actually even look into resale. But one thing that, no matter what your situation, you should look at, are large baby gear type items. So for example, a stroller, they can cost 500$ you know brand new. But if you go look online, go look at the Close 5 app, go to your neighbourhood consignment shop, you will find really great quality strollers for you know a hundred bucks, less than a hundred bucks?

JOHNER RIEHL: The other thing that I think with strollers specifically is that it took us until after our first child to understand this and I think that it's something that we'd love to get more people to understand, is that with the stroller also if you go and you spend the money on a nicer stroller, say if you want to get a double, you want to spend a four hundred bucks on a stroller, or three hundred fifty bucks on a nice one used, chances are, if you take decent care of that, you can sell that then when you're done with it, for 300$.

JENNY HUMORA: Exactly.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right? And so your cost of use is not as high as that investment. You just have to kind of put the money out there.

JENNY HUMORA: Yes. There are certain brands that, even in resale, they're only 50 to 100$ less expensive.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JENNY HUMORA: Because they have such great quality.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah. They have such great quality. It took us a bit to understand that. Where we were on the low end of trying to find the $50 stroller for example, and it kind of, it tore and didn't work out for us. And then we ended up investing on a higher end one and then we're able to sell it for a pretty good price.

ALICIA BRAVO: One thing I will say though, that's hard to do when you're having your first baby is to know which stroller to buy.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

ALICIA BRAVO: It helps to maybe borrow someone else's when you first have the baby and find out what fits you like. I know it took us probably a couple of years to realize and what we did, we were at Disneyland, and we realized we loved the rental stroller at Disneyland. We hated ours, which we had spent a ton of money on, and we loved that, and so I found out the brand and make and everything of that one and bought it and I've had it for four years now and still, like you said, we keep it in good condition.

JENNY HUMORA: What a good idea.

ALICIA BRAVO: It's great. So I would actually suggest borrowing other people's strollers until you find the one that's right for you and your family and your activities.

JENNY HUMORA: That's a really great tip.

JOHNER RIEHL: The other thing about like Disneyland or like going to Lego land is, you can see a lot of different kinds of strollers and baby gear.

ALICIA BRAVO: And the struggles?

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah, exactly. And you can kind of just shop with your eyes until your eyes get dry.

JENNY HUMORA: That's true.

ALICIA BRAVO: The other thing, you mentioned hand-me-downs and we didn't get in to that too much but if you have a friend who loves their stroller and they're in between babies, they'll sometimes let you use theirs while yours is growing, and just give it back once they're you know at that point again. So as long as you take care of it again, you can do that and you can get a really nice stroller. I used a 600$ stroller for a couple of years from a friend who was between babies. And in fact, in the end I think when I was going to give it back to her she decided, they decided not to have anymore so I think I kept the stroller for a while.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

JENNY HUMORA: You're a stroller expert.

ALICIA BRAVO: We're very active.

JOHNER RIEHL: Let's talk about some other items, then, Jenny, about some good things to get used or hand-me-downs.

JENNY HUMORA: So, books. I think I mentioned that I just got rid of a bunch of books and sometimes kids will destroy books but ones that are in good shape you will pay you know 5 to 10$ brand new and often you'll go to like The Parent Connection Swap Meet and you'll find them for 50cents. Just flip through them real quick, you'll see they're in really great condition. And what's really fun too is when you're buying resale books, you're going to find titles that might not be like the current popular titles, they're maybe the ones from your childhood or you know it's just a wider selection that you might see otherwise.

JOHNER RIEHL: It feels like sometimes when you go to like a big brand store; it's sort of the same books in their limited bookshelves. And they're also trying to do a bunch of different, other baby items. So they have a little book section and it's the same. Not only is it a good deal, but you get exposed to different books.

JENNY HUMORA: My favourite book that we bought resale that I did not let go is a Dick and Jane book.

JOHNER RIEHL: Oh nice.

JENNY HUMORA: I mean they don't publicize those. I mean I'm sure somewhere. And I read that as a child and that was kind of like I think in first grade. Something that we were reading.

ALICIA BRAVO: Another thing with books is if you find it gently used, by the time you get at home, your child could have gotten their hands on it within five minutes and if you've paid full price, it's very frustrating, but if you've bought it resale then you don't feel so bad. You know you can't pass it on.

JOHNER RIEHL: My family has the inevitable middle child taking a bite out of whatever we just bought. It happens, right?

ALICIA BRAVO: Ours is crayons. Crayons all over the books. Torn pages, you know, they flip it fast and they rip it halfway.

JENNY HUMORA: That's kind of how it is in my house, or how it's been in my house but I've had books handed down to me from three boys, the same book that three different boys have handled, and it was in great condition. I'm like how did the mom manage to do that? And it just depends on the way you monitor your kids, I guess.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

JENNY HUMORA: I also like the baby carriers. And you know you're mentioning testing out strollers. It is important to be able to test out baby carriers. Different kinds of slings and whatnot that you can use and you know if you were to go to a consignment store, their sales people are very knowledgeable about what's popular or how things work, and you can go and try those on. So then something that was you know a hundred or more dollars in full price retail you can get at a really great price, and that's not something that would get destroyed. You know people tend to take good care.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah. There are so many kinds of baby carriers now. What about shoes? I feel like people are split on that one.

JENNY HUMORA: I don't like used shoes myself, but just as we were saying about clothes in general. Sometimes those shoes never fit the child, sometimes the mom got it as a gift and didn't like the style, so of course if you're looking, you can probably find some really great quality shoes. Look at the bottom, and that'll tell you about the wear and tear.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah. You need to get past the stigma that you maybe have about used shoes because what you probably are looking for used and you're able to get a better deal on is something that was either barely ever used, or sometimes, they're stuff that's still in the box.

SUNNY GAULT: I think most of my kids' shoes are used. Honestly. Yeah. Totally! My boys? Yeah.

JOHNER RIEHL: See I remember having like some Pedipeds with like the kid like we ended up either through gifts or because "oh those are so cute, they have little turtles and dinosaurs on them", and then they're barely ever worn.

JENNY HUMORA: But that's what I was going to say. Some of those little shoes, they don't even walk. They're still crawling.

ALICIA BRAVO: That's what I was going to say. Infant shoes should be bought resale.

JOHNER RIEHL: And infant shoes. Yeah. Totally!

JENNY HUMORA: But one thing that I’ve discovered that all of you with boys probably agree. My son at age 4 was putting holes in every pair of pants that he had. And I said, finally, "I'm not going to buy any more new pants, I'm going to go to my favourite consignment shop and find size 4 boy jeans used and would just do this until you're out of this you know phase of just getting on your knees constantly, and they didn't have any. The woman from the shop told me you know age 4 is like the time when they just run their pants and people can't resell them because they have holes in them.

ALICIA BRAVO: That's true.

JOHNER RIEHL: That's funny. Alright we are rocking and rolling on this subject but I think we need to take a quick break, come back we're going to talk about some more items as well as some items that you should probably be looking to get new. The ones that you don't want to get second hand. So we will be right back.

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[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody. Today we're talking about what items you should buy new versus hand-me-downs, hopefully staying very true to the Parent Savers name. So let's keep talking. We talked a little about clothes. What about toys though? Toys are sort of the big, giant, subject.

JENNY HUMORA: And I just remembered something that I had wanted to say, and it really fits with toys. When you're buying something that you think you might want to pass on, especially if it's a large item or an expensive item, one of the valuable things that you thought you can make some resale money out of, keep the boxes. Because it displays so much nicer, and keep the instructions too, if you can, for the different toys and you know sometimes games of course need instructions, but you can actually find those a lot of times online, so if you happen to lose them, or they get torn up, that's not the end of the world.

But for some reason, when people are shopping resale, they really enjoy things to look as new as possible, so put the box up on a shelf and put it back together when you're ready to get rid of it.

SUNNY GAULT: We have a whole section in our closet that is just empty boxes for stuff that we think we're going to resell at some point. My sons, they were having a hard time sleeping and they were getting out of their beds and stuff and so we bought them these bed tents that go over there.

They have twin beds that can also be bunk beds. And so one was like a cars theme and another was planes or whatever. And they love them but then they wanted very quickly to transition into the bunk bed phase and we thought we'd try that out and that's working really well so now we don't have a need for these bed tents, and they're like, they're only like six months like we used them for six months. You know. And but we kept the boxes.

My husband just said to me yesterday, "we need to get down those boxes and resell them", so look for that on the Close 5 app.

JENNY HUMORA: Yes, thank you.

JOHNER RIEHL: No, and I think, I mean you know from a seller's perspective for sure, but even from a buyer's perspective it sort of makes you feel a little bit better about, if you have concerns about was it taken care of, when someone has the box. And usually I mean you're still getting a deal getting it resale as opposed to buying it new.

And I think that's the balance, between the sellers then trying to get as much money as they can for it, and the buyers getting a deal. But definitely, I think the box and all of the packaging would make me trust them more as a buyer.

JENNY HUMORA: And also you can often times find replacement parts on the company's website. So my daughter's EasyBake Oven, I can't find the pan, so you obviously can't bake without the little baking pan that only fits right in to the.. But I went online and that's available, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Either replace it myself or just tell whoever buys it that they could find it for $5 on www.EasyBakeOven.com or whatever.

JOHNER RIEHL: And we actually, you know those mini cars, those power wheels type cars that are . . . We saw one on, we actually got one for free because the battery didn't work. I think we got another one for like 25 bucks be the battery was dead and the people just didn't want to deal with it. So we actually took it home, I think I spray painted it but made it red cause the kids liked red. And the battery was like fifty bucks, but instead of spending like three hundred and fifty bucks like the neighbour did, we spent about fifty or seventy-five bucks and our kids are zooming around.

ALICIA BRAVO: I did the same thing; I sold one for twenty-five bucks. There was a problem with the battery; I didn't know where it was or something like that? And this guy wanted it and so he got a great deal.

JOHNER RIEHL: And to your point then about also being looking into ordering parts. If you're willing to do a little bit of work on something.

SUNNY GAULT: You can get a really great deal.

ALICIA BRAVO: I did do that, I had one of those five-in-one bassinets that was in almost in brand new condition except the battery compartment, I had lost it or something like that. So all I did was contact the company and because it was for the batteries, they sent it to me for free as a replacement part they always wanted it to make sure it was always with the bassinet, so they sent it to me for free, I put it in there, and sold the bassinet for a great, great price.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

SUNNY GAULT: Nice.

ALICIA BRAVO: And I was going to say, even if you don't have the box, you can still get great resell value by cleaning it. People always have garage sales and consignment sales and just throw it out there, and just even five minutes with some good soap and cloth, you can get it looking like new and people are willing to pay a really good price for it.

JENNY HUMORA: You're right about that. And clothing should always be washed, and on a hanger would be really nice.

JOHNER RIEHL: But so as a buyer, look for the dirty stuff that's not on a hanger, because that's how you're going to get a really good deal.

ALICIA BRAVO: You have to take on to fix it yourself.

JOHNER RIEHL: It's true, exactly.

ALICIA BRAVO: I don't usually have time for that, so I go for the clean things.

JOHNER RIEHL: But so what about things like playpens or bassinets or cribs?

JENNY HUMORA: My girl friend is using the crib that was handed down to me. It had been recalled, and she knew that. And she's used it for her two children. And my children were fine in it, her children have been fine in it, but it wasn't something that I sold. I just gave it to her. Of course you should never sell something that has knowingly been recalled, and if you're not sure, when you're trying to sell something, or if you're buying something, you can check out certain websites that will let you know if there's a recall.

So for sure, you actually never find any consignment or swap-meet type situation where they allow safety seats to be sold because you really don't know if that one's ever been in an accident. You can know if it's been recalled or not.

JOHNER RIEHL: Isn't it against the law? I think it's against the law to resell a car seat.

ALICIA BRAVO: I think it is, but people still try to.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

JENNY HUMORA: But it's really kind of awesome to be able to go on websites like www.SafeKids.org and just do a quick search to see if whatever it is that you're interested in buying or selling has been recalled and what I like about this particular website is that they have a Top 7 Recalls List. So it's just showing you, like I can see right now that there's from IKEA some chests and dressers. You know funny you might not think about children's furniture posing a safety hazard but you know there are things that go wrong so it is important when you're looking to buy or sell to make sure that you're doing what's safe.

JOHNER RIEHL: Another thing that I think might be a good idea is the rockers, like for the breastfeeding, those chairs.

JENNY HUMORA: The gliders. The rocker gliders.

JOHNER RIEHL: Rocker gliders. Yeah.

JENNY HUMORA: They are so expensive, and yes. When you look at different resale sites Close 5 app if you're going to a consignment shop you'll see that those are the hot items. The most expensive, when we're talking before about what you might consider selling, I think it's the expensive items that you don't want that clutter in your house any longer and you can really recoup some good money, put it toward your future purchases.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah.

ALICIA BRAVO: I do love that glider, though. My little one's three and I still love that glider.

JOHNER RIEHL: We actually still have. I always joked that it was like the second most expensive chair that we bought. The first is the one that's in the minivan. If you think about you're sitting in that chair a lot and you're driving the car right around it. But you're sitting in it a ton and it's totally worth it.

ALICIA BRAVO: It is.

JOHNER RIEHL: But then it also makes me think that the minivan and the car is another thing that you can buy used as opposed to buying it new.

JENNY HUMORA: Definitely.

SUNNY GAULT: Do people sell cars on Close 5?

JENNY HUMORA: Yes they do.

SUNNY GAULT: Do they really?

JENNY HUMORA: One of my favourite Close 5 fans that I met couldn't wait to tell me that he had bought this jeep that he always wanted since childhood. He found it on Close 5 here in San Diego. It was amazing.

ALICIA BRAVO: Maybe get a used minivan on Close 5.

JOHNER RIEHL: That's right. Dreams come true.

ALICIA BRAVO: The most expensive chair.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah, exactly. Alright so we've talked a lot about Close 5 and we mentioned consignment shops. I'm not that familiar with how those work. Do you have some experience with those, Alicia?

ALICIA BRAVO: Not with shops, but with weekend sales. So what happen is they, whoever's coordinating it, rents a space and you drop your items off. You tag your items, you hang them, you clean them, you get them all prepped for it and you drop them off like you know a day before, two days before and then they display everything.

They have racks of clothes, they have the perimeter is books and toys and large items you can sell. Anything related to babies or children up to teenagers, and some will also include maternity clothes and mom things. You can volunteer for shifts so you get a percentage of your sales at the end. You can volunteer for shifts if you volunteer you get an extra 5% for every shift you volunteer and it's mostly running the registers, reorganizing the products and things like that.

JOHNER RIEHL: But as a buyer it's good also to go there because there are good deals.

ALICIA BRAVO: Well yes that's exactly it. So as a seller, you have that. And then they do lots and lots of marketing for it and so thousands of people come to these sales and sometimes they're at fair grounds like the big buildings and the fair ground. It's open so there's Military Sale Day, there's New Parent Sale Day, there's Volunteer Sale times where you get extra 10% off whatever you're buying and everything. The more aggressive it's priced, the faster it goes and so you can sell almost all of your stock very quickly.

JOHNER RIEHL: That's great.

ALICIA BRAVO: And in the end, whatever's left you have the option to donate. It always goes to like a Women's Center or you pick it up and sell it at the next one.

JENNY HUMORA: I know I love those and so across the country there's different names and different cities. There are certain ones that are national franchises but if you just Google consignment event, almost every major city will have one.

SUNNY GAULT: I do have some experience with consignment shops too. There's one down in San Diego that we go to and the one thing that I've learned about that is usually, those shops are looking for stuff very specific. So before you go to one think about you know if you're trying to sell stuff you know bringing everything you need to sell might not be the best thing.

A lot of times on their website they say what they're looking for. And it's usually very seasonal, obviously right now Halloween, all that kind of stuff. But this particular shop that we go to is great because we take our stuff and then they can either you know give you money back for what they want to sell on their store right there on the spot, or you can opt for store credit which is what we do and we actually get much better deal. A higher percentage!

So we always need shoes, we always need stuff like that and my kids love it cause they get to get so many different things that we wouldn't be able to get at the stores simply because you know I feel like it's more that community like here I need stuff and I'm going to give stuff away and it works out really well for us, so.

JOHNER RIEHL: So there is a list though that are recommended that you don't buy used. That you get new. And there are things like car seats which we talked about. I think mattresses I saw on the west. Have you guys heard that?

ALICIA BRAVO: You don't want to buy a used mattress.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yeah, you don't want to buy a used mattress. You want to make sure to get that new. And I think again just knowing the history of it, right? And then cribs. We talked about that a little bit. Bottles and pacifiers? Pacifiers obviously I don't think you'd want to.

SUNNY GAULT: I've sold bottles to people yeah. Totally! Plastic bottles!

JOHNER RIEHL: But that also might be the type of thing that you could if you're skeeved out by the nipples, get brand new nipples. But see I think we got some glass bottles as a matter of fact. I think it's more talking about the nipples and pacifiers that you want to get. The swap-meet, there's a great swap-meet here in San Diego that's focused just on parents and if they have them in your city, by all means, that's another idea.

But also just regular swap-meets have a lot of parent stuff. But we sell stuff as well as buy stuff there. And so the last one I think Christina was packing up and we had the little potty. Like the portable one. And I said "you know I don't think anyone's going to want to buy a used potty ", so I feel like I'm kind of on the fence. I feel like the potty probably . . .

SUNNY GAULT: That's the first thing that went when I went to the parent convention swap meet.

JOHNER RIEHL: Somebody bought it?

SUNNY GAULT: That's the first thing that went.

JOHNER RIEHL: So I guess people do buy them reused, right?

SUNNY GAULT: What's worse you know I mean the stuff that's going to go on there I mean it's all the same.

JENNY HUMORA: Just goes back to properly preparing your items. How clean was that potty?

SUNNY GAULT: I had the original box, see.

JENNY HUMORA: That's awesome.

JOHNER RIEHL: You know what. That probably does come in handy. Another thing as we're talking I was thinking, we really I think could embrace second handiness is if you're talking about like your grandparents' house or your parents' house. For the grandparents, if they're looking to you know have a car seat or have a high chair for example. It's crazy to buy a new high chair. But you can get some great used high chairs.

JENNY HUMORA: And the different little ExerSaucers or the Jumpees, the different things that will help keep the child entertained that are also pretty expensive.

ALICIA BRAVO: That's why I never pass up hand-me-downs, ever. People give me bags and bags of clothes, I just take it all. I go through it. They want to give me an ExerSaucer, I already have one that's fine, I have somewhere it can go just in case. Never pass up anybody offering me hand-me-downs.

JOHNER RIEHL: Alright well unfortunately we've run out of time but that was a great conversation. Hopefully there were a lot of useful tips. We'll post some links on the website and also to Close 5. Thank you so much, Jenny, for joining us. For more information or if you guys want to learn more, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com or go to the Parent Savers' page and go to www.ParentSavers.com it'll take you straight to it. We're going to continue the conversation really quickly, though, for members of our Parent Savers Club after the break with a little bonus conversation. For more information about the Parent Savers Club and what we're talking about, go ahead and visit our website, find out more information.

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SUNNY GAULT: So we have a question from one of our listeners and this comes from Carly. And Carly writes:

"My daughter is two, turning three next month, and she wants to use well when using the potty chair at home. But when we're out, she tends to have more accidents because she isn’t telling us when she needs to go. She's also typically wearing pull-ups when we're out just to simplify things. Any ideas on how we can make this transition easier so she doesn't have as many accidents when we're away from home?"

NANCY COHEN: Hi Carly, my name is Nancy Cohen and I'm a Child Development and Behaviour Specialist. I've been working in San Diego for about 30 years, spent quite a long time at Rady Children's Hospital and Developmental Services, and also taught at the children's school in Montoya where I was the director of the Parent-Toddler program.

So I know lots about potty training and hopefully I can help your daughter. It's not unusual that children do better at home than they do out in the world with potty training because they're too interested in the world around them and more reluctant to go to the bathroom and take time away from having fun.

So when you're out, I think it's a great idea to still wear the pull-ups, that's a great idea so if she does have accidents, it's easier to clean up. But I also think that rather than waiting for her to tell you when she needs to go to the bathroom, it would be a good idea for you to tell her that you think it's a good time to use the toilet wherever you are. Say "mommy's going to go to the potty and that would be a good thing for you to do too".

So you can readily anticipate and take her more frequently than she might need to go so that you're reminding her as opposed to her reminding you. Then after a while, when she starts getting good at telling you as well, then you can try the underwear again so that she gets the idea that when she's in public, she needs to hold her urine and then go to the bathroom when you go with her. Does that make sense? I know this is a hard time, but she'll get it. Good luck with all of this. Thank you. Bye.

JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up our show for today. Thanks so much for joining us on Parent Savers.

Don't forget to check out our sister shows:

• Preggy Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed
• Twin Talks for parents with multiples
• Newbies for those going through it all for the first time.

This is Parent Savers, empowering new parents.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: New Mommy Media is expanding our lineup of shows for new and expecting parents. If you have an idea for a new series or if you’re a business or an organization interested in joining our network of shows through a co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com.

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