The Pros of Consignment

So do you remember that Dole banana box that I was using as a night stand from that picture a while back next to my fancy air mattress? Well, it has officially been upgraded! My room finally looks like a nice living space, as opposed to a 19 year-old's off-campus college apartment room with egg crates and an old beer can collection. I drove down to Serene Ave the other day (right near I-215 just west of Eastern Ave) where the Sam's Club and Wal-Mart are located to buy a new night stand. I wasn't really happy with the selection, but kind of decided on one of the "nicer" stands (term used extremely loosely seeing as how I was in Wally World), which would have set me back $84. However, from about 2 months ago, I remembered that I had once walked past a consignment store in the same big shopping center (next to Home Depot). To be honest, I wasn't even familiar with that term before, but I thought I'd give it a try, since I didn't have much else to do that afternoon.

Well, I'm glad I did. In case you haven't been in a consignment place before, it's basically a giant store with articles such as jewelry, furniture, art work, etc. for sale, by the owner of the article, by way of the store itself. It's kind of a cross between a pawn shop, garage sale and flea market, except that almost all of the stuff in there is pretty high quality, thus keeping away the mullet-wearing white trash crowd. A lot of their stuff comes from well-off families in Henderson or the outskirts who just want to update their furniture, and some comes from model homes/apartments. So the stuff is pretty nice!

After basically getting lost in that place for about 30 minutes, I finally found a stand that caught my eye, which was not a small miracle considering where the thing was located. Honestly, look at the picture and tell me that they weren't trying to hide that thing! Can you see it? It's like finding Waldo! I found it almost impossible to find a good stand that was the right size for sitting next to my taller bed AND was not part of a bedroom set, which was the norm for the items in this store.

There's my stand, back beneath the lamp and behind that big, uh, whatever that is in the foreground.

One thing that I did NOT realize is that all the prices are negotiable, just like a flea market or garage sale. Once their employees fished the stand out from all the other stuff, I instantly knew it was mine. It's 100 times better quality that anything I'd get a wal-mart, it doesn't have a scratch on it, and my roommate doesn't have to hear me swear for a couple hours while trying to assemble it! The sticker said $99, so I figured for an extra $15 compared to wal-mart, it was worth it. Another plus is that when I was talking to the lady as she ran the credit card, she took another $10 off, I guess because she knew it was my first time in there and that I didn't know any better than to haggle. Score!

Here's the stand in its place next to the bed. The drawers are pretty high quality and are NOT removable.

So now I FINALLY have someplace to set my box of cereal, VHS copy of Strange Brew, beer coozy and bottle of Kahlua!!