#1 – Gathering Your Supplies
It’s always helpful to gather your supplies before you get started. If you have the items you need all in one place the process of tagging will go much quicker. Here is a short video to show you what supplies you need.
#2 – Hanging Your Items
Wire Hangers: Put all clothing on a wire hanger, including onesies. We do not accept onesies in a ziploc bag.
Hanging Your Items on a Wire Hanger:
Grouping: If you wish you may put two or three items together on one hanger by pinning them together. Safety pin outfits together.
Question Mark: The hook of the hanger needs to look like a question mark when looking at the front of the garment.
Pants: If you are not using the caped hangers (covered in white paper, which we highly recommend for pants) you will need to pin the pants to the top part of the hanger and place a piece of tape over the safety pin that you have used to attach your pants to the hanger. This keeps the pants looking neat by not allowing them to slide around. Neatness always sells first!
Outfits: Again, use only a wire hanger. Caped (covered in white paper) hangers work great for outfits. Place the shirt on the hanger so the hook of the hanger faces left (looks like a question mark). Then turn the hanger over and place the top of the bottoms on top of the hanger with the front of the pant facing out. Safety pin the waistband of the pant to the shoulder of the shirt, making sure to catch the hanger on both sides. This method of hanging outfits looks very neat and allows the shopper to see both pieces with little effort.
Using a Wire Hanger for a 2-Piece Outfit
Using hang a 3-piece Outfit
#3 – Entering Your Items and Printing Your Tags
Before you start the tagging process it will be helpful to sort your items by size, gender and type of item. When creating your tags you will choose from drop down boxes that can stay the same for the next item if you don’t change them. It will speed the process up if you do all of your toys together and then all of your 3T girls together, etc.
Descriptions are very important when entering your items. Not only does this help us locate your item when the tag falls off, it may also prevent dishonest shoppers from switching tags.
If you are using an inkjet printer please choose to print in the “economy” mode. The mode doesn’t matter that much with a laser printer. It is usually better for the barcode to be a little lighter than to use too much ink, especially on the card stock paper.
If you would like to change the price of an item or change the discount option after the tag is already printed you must edit the tag in the system and reprint. Handwritten price and discount adjustments on the tags will not be accepted as the price and discount option are embedded into the barcode.
Here are some tips to help ensure that your tags print in such a way that the barcode will scan easily.
- Don’t print too dark – it is better to print a little light than too dark. Don’t print on the “High Quality” setting, print on the normal setting. This is especially true for inkjet printers. Some card stock papers can “soak up” the ink when it is sprayed too dark, causing the edges of the barcode to be fuzzy and not scan. The edges of a barcode need to be crisp.
- Align your print cartridges – printer cartridges in inkjet printers can get out of alignment, especially when you change cartridges. This can cause the edge of the barcode not to be clean and straight. There should be a utility that came with your printer software that allows you to align the print cartridges.
- Don’t use designer card stock – Designer card stock that is “fibrous” can soak up ink from an inkjet and cause the edges of a barcode to be fuzzy. Use a standard dense card stock. Avoid card stock with a “slick” surface, as it can cause ink to smudge.
- Please do not shrink your tags to fit more on a page. We can not scan them when you do this and it backs up our check out line.
Here is a video that will walk your through the process of entering your items and printing your tags.
#4 – Attach Your Tags
The preferred method for attaching tags to items that are on a hanger is to use scotch tape to attach the tag to the wire hanger. Some sellers prefer to attach tags with a safety pin to the item (show in the picture below) and that is ok but it does take longer. A few sellers like to use tagging guns but we do not recommend them because they can easily leave holes in the clothing. Please know that if your clothing is damaged due to a tagging gun, we will not accept the clothing.
Attaching tags to wire hangers:
If you plan to use a tagging gun (this is not the recommended tagging method and we no longer supply tagging guns): When using a tagging gun please put the barb through the clothing tag. If the item does not have a tag please put it in the seam under the arm. Putting them through the clothes will leave holes.
If you plan to safety pin the tags to your clothing, you can see the proper placement in the diagram below.
#5 – Toys
When tagging toys put all pieces to the toy in a Ziploc bag, We ask that you please note on the tag if a few pieces are missing. Most people do not mind buying items that have a couple missing pieces but some people who are expecting certain pieces to be with a toy are disappointed when they get home and discover that the pirate ship doesn’t have the cannons or the pirate to go with it. Please be courteous to our shoppers so they look forward to returning to the Indy Kids Sale!
Prepping & Tagging Toys with pieces:
Tagging Toys that are hard to tag:
#6 – Tips for Large Items
If you are bringing large items please make sure you get large item claim tickets. These will be available at supply drops. Large item claim tickets need to be placed on items before your drop-off time. They can be attached with a zip tie or string of any kind as long as it’s secure. Large items would include furniture, pack n plays, swings, high chairs, large toys, potties, etc. An item needs a large item claim ticket if it will not comfortably fit in an blue ikea bag.
#7 Batteries are Required
Anything needing a battery must have a working battery in place for it to be consigned. Pick-up cheap batteries at the dollar store. All electronic toys will be checked at check-in if there is no battery they will be sent home with you and will not be accepted if they are not working properly.
#8 – Tagging Books, Puzzles and Games
When tagging books please attach the tags with blue painters tape. This ensures that the tape doesn’t rip the book.
Tagging Puzzles and games:
With puzzles in a box, please use painters tape to close the box. If it’s a peg puzzle, a great way to keep the pieces contained is by wrapping the puzzle in saran wrap.
#9 – Linens
- All linens (crib sheets, crib mattress pads, blankets (crib size), towels, etc) must be on a hanger This allows our inspectors to easily check the linens and it’s super easy for the shoppers to see as well.
- These items will be thoroughly inspected at drop-off.
- Please remember that we only accept crib size sheets, mattress pads and blankets. We do not accept bedding sets.
#10 – Tagging Shoes
When tagging shoes either use a zip tie or string to attach shoes. If that’s not possible, please place shoes in a ziploc bag.
#11 – Presentation Matters!
The nicer your item looks, the more you will get for the item and the quicker it will sell. Always think, “Would I purchase that item, in that condition, at that price?”
Unfortunately we do have some shoppers that try to switch tags so they can get an item for less than what a consignor intended it to sell for. There are a couple of things that you can do to help us prevent this.
- You can place a piece of packing tape over your safety pin.
- You can put your safety pin in backwards.
- You can be more descriptive on your tag.
To see all of our tagging videos, check out our youtube page.
