Field notes
What sold first at the autumn consignment, and what it tells us
Three hours on the floor at a Toorak consignment sale. The pattern in what walked out the door first was impossible to miss.
The first hour belongs to colour. Azure, sorbet, anything that photographs against a winter footpath went before the queue thinned, and it went to people who tried nothing on.
Structured pieces moved second, and only if the label inside matched the label outside. Buyers here check seams like jewellers check hallmarks, and pieces with replaced buttons stayed on the rack.
By the last hour the floor belonged to basics under two hundred dollars, and the sellers who priced honestly at the start had empty racks while the optimists were still negotiating.
If you are listing this month: photograph in daylight, price at forty percent of retail for worn, sixty for tags on, and say the flaw before they find it. The fastest sellers all did.