Will You Buy My Stuff?

By Shana Karn, Owner TSK Warehouse & The Second Knob

279 Rte. 13, Cortland
(607) 344-3900
tskwarehouse.com
shana@tskwarehouse.com

This is, by far, the most frequent question we are asked here at TSK Warehouse followed closely by, “Maybe one of your vendors would like to buy my stuff?”

TSK Warehouse is indeed a vendor mall but our vendor contracts strictly prohibit vendors in our mall from purchasing items from customers at the Warehouse. There are reasons for this! “TSK” stands for The Second Knob [Gifts & Antiques, LLC] which is the TSK Warehouse’s “parent company.” The Second Knob, in addition to being an “anchor shop” at the warehouse, is an online auction service— which helps pay for the majority of TSK Warehouse staff, advertising and utilities. Therefore, any consigning or purchasing of items from walk in customers has to be done thru The Second Knob; it is what will keep our vendor mall open. Additionally, The Second Knob’s online auction will, more often than not, recognize higher prices for vintage, antique and collectible pieces than purchasing outright from a reselling vendor will. The online auctions have participants and viewers from across the world, creating a much broader, more competitive “market” for selling. 

The Second Knob rarely purchases outright—for much the same reason we don’t allow vendors to do so: we can recognize higher sale prices in the auction than we can afford to pay outright (as a reseller). Instead of purchasing, we take items on consignment. Consignment is a business arrangement where an owner (consignor) delivers goods to a third party (consignee) to sell on their behalf, with the owner retaining ownership until items are sold.

The process of consignment does take longer, but the higher profit makes it worth it. When customers consign, we review our expected timeline with our customers. Depending on our schedule and how many consignments we have for any given auction, the timeline does vary.

Customers may consign any number of items; The Second Knob has no minimum or maximum requirements. We run full estate auctions, where thousands of items are “consigned” and we, also, welcome customers to consign just one or two items to our onsite consignment auctions.  Consigning to our auctions is easy but does require a contract—to protect both the Consignor and the Consignee.  

We do have an auction “no-no” list because the market for antiques, vintage and collectible pieces is cyclical and taking items that have little chance of selling creates more work for both consignors and consignees. Currently, we accept very little cut glass, depression glass, fine china and crystal—but this of course will change as those markets change.

To find our auctions, anyone may register via our site: www.thesecondknob.com. Local auction participants may pick up their lots at TSK Warehouse (or, if it was an estate auction, at the [local] estate). Winners from around the world, who are unable to pick up their lots, pay for shipping and items are shipped to them.

Have questions about consigning to our auctions? Email shana@tskwarehouse.com or call (607) 844-5662.