Do I need an appointment to consign?

For local consignors: No, you do not need an appointment to drop off a consignment. You can stop into the East Greenwich boutique at any time. We do not go through consignments on the spot. It generally takes us a few days to do through your pieces. We inspect for tears, stains, etc, verify authenticity, price them and get back to you with an itemized inventory report via email. At that point we'll let you know if there is anything you need to come back and pick up. For online consignors: You can consign online by filling out the consignment contract on our policies and procedures page and requesting a shipping label.  You will receive a Fedex shipping label via email within 24 hours. At that point simply box up your items and send them out!

Do you ever buy anything outright?

We do offer a direct purchase option for premier designer handbags. You can read about it here.

How should I bring my pieces in?

Local consignors: Clean, pressed and on hangers pretty, pretty, please? Beautiful clothing in garbage bags makes us sad. No matter how gorgeous your items are if they aren't in salable condition when they come in we have to return them to you. If you absolutely must you can fold them neatly and place in shopping bags or boxes. Online consignors: Obviously you can't send your pieces in on hangers. Just make sure they're cleaned and pack them as neatly as possible to avoid wrinkling while in shipment.

Do you take undergarments, bathing suits, men's, childrens, bridal or maternity clothing?

 No, we dont.

What is your consignment split?

Our consignment split on most items is 50/50. We do offer a 60/40 split on premier designer handbags.

Why can't you go through my items and give me prices when I bring them it?

 We research price points on every piece, with every consignment. Other consignment shops price their items based on a percentage of the original retail. We do not. We understand that resale values fluctuate. Certain pieces may be limited or special editions unbeknowst to you (or us even) As such, we research comparable sales for every item and price them according to what the market will bear. This takes time and attention. Any shop that pulls a price off the top of their heads is doing you a diservice.

We do a lot of the behind the scenes work, such a pricing inventory, after store hours. Our store is CONSTANTLY busy. (Yay for us - and you!) During business hours we need to be focused on doing what we do best: selling your lovely consignments. We strive to give every customer that walks into our store our undivided and complete attention and our mission is to provide an unparalleled luxury shopping experience. 

If you'd like to get a basic idea of our price points prior to bringing your pieces in we recommend checking out similar items in our webstore at www.ShopKarma.com.

Do you call me when my items sell?

For both local and online consignors: We have over 1500 consignors and no less than 5000 pieces in the boutique at any given point in time. Although we would love to call you  every time we sell one of your pieces there is simply not enough time in our day. We are working on building a system that will notify you electronically. However, in the meantime you can check on the status of your consigned items at any time by sending us an email or giving us a call at the boutique.  If you send an email please include your full name, street address and which months you'd like a sales report for. If you'd like a report of your remaining inventory please indicate that as well.

Is there a benefit to spending my account balance in the store?

Yes. If you use your consignor account balance to shop with we give you a free 10% bonus to spend.

Why do I have to request a check every month?

For both local and online consignors: You have two options for payment. Payment method #1. Store credit. You can use your balance by making a purchase in the shop at any time throughout the month and get a 10% bonus for doing so (i.e if you use $100 in store credit you get an extra $10 to spend. For online consignors: store credit purchases must be made over the phone in order for us to give you your credit and discount. Please call us at 401-398-0576 to place a store credit order. Payment method #2. You can request a check in the first 7 days of the month online on our Consignor Tools page. Checks that are requested by the 7th are cut and mailed by the the 30th of the month. Checks can take up to 10 business days to reach our consignors. Some of our girls use their store credit to shop with (a leopard doesn't often change it's spots...ladies, you know who you are) and others prefer a check. Either way is fine with us but you would like to receive a check please remember to put in a request in that first week, otherwise all balances are left on your store account to shop with. We do require a $50 minimum balance for a paper check. In order to efficiently manage our time, resources and sanity we cut checks one time per month with no exceptions. If you miss the cut off request on the 7th of the month you will need to wait until the following month for a check. We suggest that you make a note on your calender or put a reminder in your cell phone.. Should you forget to to request a check your balance is available to you on the following month up until a full year from the date of the original sale. Funds that are left on account with us for over 12 months are donated to one of the many worthy charities that we work with.

Is there a minimun check amount required for a request?

Yes. Your consignment proceeds must be over $50 in order to request a check. If your balance is less than $50 you can either spend it in the store or wait for it to accrue further in the following month.

What are my responsibilities as a consignor?

For local and online consignors: You have two main responsibilities. Responsibility #1: If you would like to have a check mailed to you you must request it in the first 7 days of the month via email or by telephone. Responsibility #2: Remember your contract dates! Our consignment contracts run for 90 days. If you would like to retrieve any unsold items after your contract date you need let us know that you'd like them back before your contract expires. This is very important - we have a very limited amount of space and we simply cannot hold items for longer than 90 days. Items that are left after the 90 day term will be donated. We do not notify you at the end of your contract date. You also need to give us at least 72 hours to collect your pieces. They need to be pulled from the floor, deleted from our system, removed from the webstore etc etc ect. Depending on how pieces you have left this can take some time so we ask for at least a few days notice. For online consignors: You will need to provide either a credit card or shipping account number if you would like your unsold items sent back to you.

Why didn't you take everything that I dropped off?

For local and online consignors: We very rarely take every piece that comes in in a single consignment and the reasons can vary. If we don't take every one of your items it doesn't mean that we don't love you or think that you're as fashionable a creature as you truly are. We have to maintain a balance of categories, colors, sizes and styles in the store. So, if we didn't take your little black dress it simply means that we already have too many of them. If you dropped off a halter top in October it probably means that it was out of season. There are certain labels that we do not take - not because they're not good enough but because they simply don't sell. The biggest culprit are labels sold at TJMaxx, Marshalls etc. Don't get us wrong - we're total Maxxinista's. But we find it hard to compete with their already rock bottom prices from a resale end so we don't even try. Another big culprit are the mall brands (i.e Ann Taylor, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Cache...) The labels are so widely available in every major mall in America that you can imagine we get a ton of it in on consignment. If we took every piece we would have no room left for anything else and we'd just be an Ann Taylor/J. Crew/Banana Republic/Cache consignment shop. We also want to stock unique items that none of our customer's neighbors will have in their closets. So although we do take a VERY LIMITED amount of these labels, we really can't take everything that comes in. Online consignors: We recommend that you avoid send these pieces in at all as you will have to pay the cost of shipping to have them returned to you if we cannot accept them on consignment. We also suggest avoiding sending in what would be considerd a "basic" piece (i.e plain black pants, white button down shirt etc) As a general rule we recommend that you review the designer list on our webstore for guidance on the types of labels that we take. Also, certain categories are much slower to sell - these include pants, suits and formal wear (with the exception of prom season!) We generally only take very high end, couture labels in these categories.

Where do you donate unwanted inventory to?

For local and online consignors: We have several charities that we've worked with in the past. These include women's shelters, organizations that collect prom gowns for teenagers that can't afford them, local clothing drives etc. We are always on the look out for new organizations that need our help so if you have any in mind please let us know and we'll try to include them in our rotation.

I don't want my items to be discounted.

For local and online consignors: Ok, so it's not really a question. But regardless, we can't exempt certain items from our progressive discount(see home page) and not others. That would be impossible for us to manage and not really fair to our customers. We get a minimum of about 80,000 shoppers per month in the web boutique (this number has grown exponentially since our launch in 2009) and only-god-knows-how-many shoppers in the East Greenwich boutique on a monthly basis. (Suffice it to say there are enough to leave us exhausted and in need of a generous glass of red wine at the end of every day.) We sell A LOT - the majority of our items go within the first 30 days. If your item doesn't sell within that initial 30 day period it probably means that we were a little too aggressive from a pricing perspective to begin with. We try to get as much as we realistically can for our consignors. But our shoppers are savvy women and they know when certain pieces are priced for more than what they're legitimately worth. Our progressive discount is a valuable tool in automatically correcting initial pricing errors. So, if your piece hits one of our progressive discounts it doesn't mean that you're getting less than what your piece is worth. It only means that we may have overestimated the value to begin with.

Why should I consign with Karma as opposed to the other online consignment shops or those in Rhode Island?

For local and online consignors: #1 Marketing. We have a combined total of over 9,000 friends and followers on our Facebook and Twitter pages and profile and they're growing every day.  #2 National exposure. We have one million yearly visitors to our web boutique and ship online purchases all over the world. Our online store is averaging a 14% increase in new web traffic per month and we're already in the first 10 organic spots on the FIRST PAGE of google WORLDWIDE for over 20 highly competitive keywords (try it yourself- type in "online consignment shops" or "designer consignment" into google and voila!, we appear. #3 We won the Best of Rhode Island annual readers poll in 2010.  #4 Our customer mailing list numbers in the tens of thousands and we frequently send "New Arrival" emails and other promotion marketing emails to keep our Karma girls in the loop about new inventory(such as yours). #5 We offer a robust buyers reward program and frequently host in-store events to reward current customers and bring in new ones. #6 Security. We have a state of the art in-store system to keep all of our beauties safe. #7. We sleep, eat and breath high end fashion. Nobody will love, appreciate and care for your pieces as much as we do.

Do you give me a receipt for the items that I drop off when I bring them in?

Local consignors only: Because our policy is that we don't go through consignments on the spot we can't prepare a receipt for you. If you're bringing in under 15 pieces and you'd like to have some kind of itemized list prepared BEFORE you come in we can certainly sign off on it at the time you drop them off.  Local and online consignors: You will receive an itemized inventory report via email once your pieces are entered into our system.

How long do I have to pick up pieces that you don't take on consignment?

You need to come back within seven days from the date of our email notification. We will email you at the address you've provided with a deadline for a pick up date at the time your inventory is entered.  Please keep an eye on your email. If you do not come back within that 7 day time frame we will donate your pieces. We don't like to donate without hearing back from you but as you can imagine, stuff piles up fast and we really don't have a choice. If we do not get a response to our request for a pick up we will assume you'd like us to donate your pieces. You can also indicate that you'd just like us to donate at the time that you drop your pieces off.

Do you take replicas or knockoffs?

NO! Not ever. And trust me we're not fooled. It is illegal to own, purchase and sell counterfeit pieces. A lot of people think it's harmless to buy a knockoff. How much money does Chanel or Louis Vuitton really need, right? But the truth is that the majority of these bags are produced using child labor in foreign countries and fund an astonishing amount of money to terrorist organizations. Seriously - google it. And frankly, it's just not worth it for us to risk an amazing business that we love make a few extra bucks peddling replicas. If you bought something on eBay, a seller other than a major department store or from the manufacturer, another consignment shop or received it as a gift all you have to do is let us know when you drop it off/mail it in so we can do due diligence on our end. 90% of the women that bring in replicas have no idea that they're fake so we don't hold it against you if it happens provided that you're honest with us from the beginning about where you purchased it. We also offer free authentication services to our consignors (and regular customers.) If you've bought a bag in another consignment shop, on ebay or another online seller and you'd like confirmation on it's authenticity feel free to bring it by for our professional opinion. We may not be able to do it on the spot but if you leave it with us we can usually get back to you within a day or two with an answer. FYI - for items purchased on ebay you only have 60 days to file a claim for a refund. In circustances regarding questionable authenticity ebay nearly always sides with the buyer so there is a very good chance we can help you get your money back. We recommend bringing those items in as soon as possible!

Can I pick up my check in the shop?

All of our consignor payments are issued by a Bank of America BillPay system and are mailed directly from that location in Indianapolis. Unfortunately this means that store pick ups are no longer possible.

I want to decide the prices for my items.

Once again, not really a question but here goes...You really need to trust our expertise in valuing items for resale. If we can accommodate your request we certainly will, however, we're not doing you any favors by putting something out that is obviously overpriced. We price items to sell in the first 30 days. Case in point: you have a dress overpriced at $200 that we really would have listed for closer to $180. It doesn't sell in the first 30 days and is discounted 20%. Your net sales price at that point is $160 - a loss of $20 if we'd sold it in the first 30 days for $180. For this reason all pricing is set at our discretion. You are welcome to take your pieces back if you're unhappy with their resale values.

I don't want anybody to know that I'm consigning. Do you tell people who your items belong to?

Our lips are sealed. We don't ever reveal our consignors identity. But seriously, resale is so on trend right now that you may want to rethink the whole privacy thing. Your friends will probably think that you're cooler for doing it.