Store workers - used skates

[hockey315 0]

Were thinking of taking in used skates on consignment when you purchase a pair of skates in our store. I have a few questions:

1. How do you determine how much to sell the skates for?

2. How do you keep track of the skate/customer? I'm thinking numbered tags with a corresponding notebook that contains name and phone number.

3. Do you give the customer the purchase price in the form of store credit when they sell.

4. Where do you get the bowling shoe spray that kills the smell?

Anything that I'm missing?

[CTHockey 2]

Consignment is one way to do it but we just give store credit right there on the spot when a customer brings in a pair of skates. Saves us from having to keep all that paper work and track customers down once something sells. We dont give cash for skates because we figure if we give them store credit then were keeping their business with us, if we were to give cash they could just take that and go wherever they please. Learning the value of used skates is a learning process. Eventually over time you'll learn what you can get for a used pair of skates and will price based off that. Make, model, boot condition, steel condition all play a factor into price. For example, lets take a used pair of Bauer One90's used for one season. Boot is in good shape as well as a good chunk of steel is left. I might give a $100 store credit knowing i can turn around and sell them for $150-250 depending the overall condition. However, lets take that same boot and say there is hardly any steel left. I would subtract about $40 from my original price because i know i'll have to sink that money into putting new steel on the skates to make them able to sell. I tend to low ball when it comes to trading in skates. The way i look at it is i'm doing that customer a favor by taking these skates in so they can either take what im willing to give them or pay full retail for whatever their getting. Plus im technically losing money or barely making any until i actually sell that used pair of skates which could take anywhere from 1 day to 1 year. I know some shops can't afford to give store credit but in the end its the easiest way to manage your used products. To keep track of your consignment items try putting a sticker on the bottom of the boot or inside the boot under the insole with a product number which you can then look up in a log book or excel spreadsheet on your comp which will have all the contact info for that person and product.

[killthepoodle 0]

Plus with store credit, the real value of the credit is: wholesale value of their purchases.

[hockeydoc 0]

Bowling shoe spray is Lysol.

[Monty22 833]

Used skates tend to be way more hassel than they are worth. Not worth the time ,effort and space involved for minimal profit.

[dangle 0]

Used skates tend to be way more hassel than they are worth. Not worth the time ,effort and space involved for minimal profit.

But it may draw more customers... which would be the main reason to do it I would think. Not necessarily for the profit of the used skates but just to get more people into the store which leads to more sales. Just my take on it

[Chadd 916]

Used skates tend to be way more hassel than they are worth. Not worth the time ,effort and space involved for minimal profit.

But it may draw more customers... which would be the main reason to do it I would think. Not necessarily for the profit of the used skates but just to get more people into the store which leads to more sales. Just my take on it

The number of new customers you get will be mitigated by the number of people who get pissed because they don't get nearly as you're charging for the skates. When they come in and see you're charging $200 for the skates and you only paid them $100, they usually start griping. Then you get the people who know exactly how much you paid for a skate and want to give you exactly that much. It can be a major headache.

[dangle 0]

Used skates tend to be way more hassel than they are worth. Not worth the time ,effort and space involved for minimal profit.

But it may draw more customers... which would be the main reason to do it I would think. Not necessarily for the profit of the used skates but just to get more people into the store which leads to more sales. Just my take on it

The number of new customers you get will be mitigated by the number of people who get pissed because they don't get nearly as you're charging for the skates. When they come in and see you're charging $200 for the skates and you only paid them $100, they usually start griping. Then you get the people who know exactly how much you paid for a skate and want to give you exactly that much. It can be a major headache.

Yeah, no doubt. I agree. But some people see some kind of positives in doing the whole used skates thing and i was only guessing on what those positives might be

[CTHockey 2]

Thats why i look at it the way i do.. I offer what I offer, they can either accept it or keep the skates and try and sell them on their own. I could care less if they walk into the store the next day and see that im selling the skates i took in from them for double what i gave them. Business is business, if they wanted to make money then they should have tried to sell them on there own. Selling used skates is sometimes very profitable and sometimes its just another service we offer where we make hardly anything. But in the long run i feel its a essential service to have for customers

[Chadd 916]

Used skates tend to be way more hassel than they are worth. Not worth the time ,effort and space involved for minimal profit.

But it may draw more customers... which would be the main reason to do it I would think. Not necessarily for the profit of the used skates but just to get more people into the store which leads to more sales. Just my take on it

The number of new customers you get will be mitigated by the number of people who get pissed because they don't get nearly as you're charging for the skates. When they come in and see you're charging $200 for the skates and you only paid them $100, they usually start griping. Then you get the people who know exactly how much you paid for a skate and want to give you exactly that much. It can be a major headache.

Yeah, no doubt. I agree. But some people see some kind of positives in doing the whole used skates thing and i was only guessing on what those positives might be

Don't guess at things you don't know or have experience with, just to post something. There are some shops who do well with used gear but they are few and far between.

[docar15 1]

Play-It-Again sports sells used and new skates. They buy used skates out right or take them in on consignment. When I was selling my brand new CCM V6, guy was honest and said he would give me $25 for them. Slow season and all. He was honest. I have no complaints. When I looked in their store, they had about 300 pairs of used skates on hand. I am wandering if these are all from this year alone, or they accumulate them and rotate the stock? Not knowing their business model, it would almost make sense to donate the skates to some charitable kids or other organization where people can use them and take the tax deduction....

[Chef23 0]

I used to work in a retail ski shop that took items on trade. For a current year item in very good condition we calculated that we could get 50% of what the new item was selling for when we sold it and we would give 40-50% of that on the trade. For example if a new ski or boot was selling for $400 we would offer $100 for the trade with the idea we could sell it for $200.

I was always up front with the customer with what I was going to try and sell the trade in for and explained that we needed the extra margin to cover the overhead of the operation and the risk associated with the transaction.

One other thing I learned was always under offer a little because people like to negotiate on that stuff.

[Law Goalie 147]

In Canada, amateur sports have been rather spectacularly hamstrung with respect to charitable status by a single idiotic Supreme Court decision. Basically, unless the organisation is operating under the aegis of a religious institution (ie. a Church Athletic League) or an educational one (ie. a high school), no tax credits.

It may be different in the US or EU, I'm not sure.

In general, I like PIAS. They're unabashedly low-rent. I needed a pair of cheap skates for the wife, bingo - pair of brand new factory-second Daoust 301s that probably hadn't ever seen the light of day, $30. Somebody probably came in with a truck full of stuff, and a few minutes later, walked out with a hundred bucks or so for a bunch of stuff they'd never have used and wouoldn't have had time to sell piecemeal.

That said, I'm not the least bit surprised that bigger shops are moving away from it. Even a place like Toronto Hockey Repair, which was legendary for its used stuff, and had the strategic advantage of a basement (with respect to the reality that Chadd pointed out) has really pared back.