When should a consignment shop mark things down?

When should a consignment shop mark things down, and what should it decline?

Every week an item sits, it uses a rack slot you pay for. A fixed rule (25% off at 30 days, 50% at 60) treats a $12 tee and a $210 handbag the same. Paste your items — price, how fast it sells, your share of the sale and what a slot costs per week — and get the exact markdown schedule with the highest expected profit for each, which items are not worth taking in, and what a fixed rule leaves on the table.

For consignment and resale boutiques, thrift, vintage and furniture shops. Nothing is uploaded: the text box is analysed in this browser and never leaves your device.

1. Paste your items

One row per item or item type: name, price, weekly sell % at full price, shop share %, shelf cost per week, optional weeks on floor, optional note

Weeks on floor Lift per 10% off Allowed discounts (%) Handling per item ($) Slow-season sell rate (% of estimate)

2. The plan

Every item

Item	Take it?	Best schedule	Expected net	Chance it sells	Fixed 30/60 rule	Never mark down	Slow season	Worth taking at price	or at shop share

Totals

Rule	Expected net

Prefer a CLI?

Same logic, zero dependencies, one command — reads a file or stdin:

node cli.mjs plan items.csv --weeks 12 --lift 0.35 --levels 0,10,25,40,50 --json
cat items.csv | node cli.mjs plan - --handling 2

Get cli.mjs and engine.mjs — Node 18+, nothing to install, no network call. More: How should a consignment shop mark down? 30/60/90-day schedule math.

What's recognised

Input	Handling

The schedule is exact for the numbers you type (dynamic programming over every non-decreasing schedule, up to 200 items). Seasonality, consignor price-floor agreements, items that sell as a group and unsold-item returns or donation value are not modelled; enter shelf cost and sell rates as they really are for you.

Common questions

Does it upload my item list?

No. The browser page works on the text you paste, in your own browser, and never sends it anywhere. The CLI reads a local file or stdin and makes no network call.

How is the best schedule found?

Each week an item can sell with a chance that rises with the discount, and every week on the floor costs shelf space. The tool works backwards week by week over the markdown levels you allow, never raising a price, and keeps the schedule with the highest expected net to the shop. It is checked against trying every possible schedule in the tests.

Why would it tell me to decline an item?

If the shop's cut of the likely sale does not cover shelf space and handling, taking the item loses money even at the best schedule. The tool says what price or shop share would make the item worth taking.

Where do the sell rates and the lift come from?

From your own history: how many weeks items like this usually sit, and how much faster they sell after a markdown. They are your estimates, so treat the plan as a decision aid, not a forecast.

Who is it for?

Consignment and resale boutiques, thrift and vintage shops and furniture consignors deciding when to mark things down and what to accept.