Bag a bargain at your local Nearly New Sale!
It's time for another Nearly New Sale! The Hertford, Ware and District NCT Nearly New Sale is a great chance to pick up all those essentials you need for your baby (and older children too) at a bargain price.
At the same time, you know that you're helping your local branch raise funds at the same time. Funds raised by the sale allow us to continue offering vital local antenatal and postnatal activities and services, and allow the national charity to train new antenatal teachers, breastfeeding counsellors and postnatal leaders, and to operate essential support lines including the pregnancy and breastfeeding helplines.
You can also register to sell things your children have outgrown and clear space for your sale purchases!
The next sale is on Saturday 28th March 2020 at Presdales School. Seller registration will open at 7pm on Monday 13th January at 7pm.
Please support the Hertford, Ware and District NCT by:
- Shopping at our sales, eating our cakes and drinking our coffees & teas
- Registering as a seller for a small fee (30% commission on your sales to the NCT, or reduced commission if you help us and volunteer on the day)
- Volunteering to help with the running on the day, before during and after the sale. It is great fun and, as a thank you, you get a head start by shopping before the other buyers. You also get a warm glow for helping out and making it another success.
The sale opens at 11:00 for the general public. Members can get a head start by coming along with their membership card at 10:30. Entry costs £1 per adult.
How do I register to be a seller?
To register for selling at the next sale, please complete the registration form (this link will not be active until 7pm on Wednesday 12th June)
https://nct.intrabiz.co.uk/cgi-bin/sys.cgi?action=NCT-product-client_view&id=39803931
PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO REGISTER UNTIL THEN!
How do I register to be a volunteer?
To ensure the success and smooth running of the sales, we really appreciate any help you can give us on the day during any of the time periods listed on the volunteer registration form. We ask you to give a few hours of your time in return for the pleasure of shopping at the 'pre-sale sort' before the sale. The volunteer registration form will follow after you have completed your seller registration and clicked on yes to volunteering. If you would like to help out but not sell please contact us.
For more information email NNS.HertfordWareAndDistrict@nct.org.uk
Advertising at our Nearly New Sales
At our Nearly New Sales we hand out Goody Bags to the first 250 people through the tills. If you run a local business and would like to put your flyers in these goody bags then you can do for £25. Alternatively if you have free samples that you think would interest new or expectant parents then we can include these for free.
We also have space for a few business stands at our sales, this is a great opportunity to chat to over 400 potential customers in one place. These stalls are £25.
Please email nns.hertfordwareanddistrict@nct.org.uk if you would like to advertise at the nearly new sales.
Terms and Conditons on selling at an NCT Nearly New Sale
Waiver
By registering for the NCT Hertford, Ware and District Branch Nearly New Sale, you agree to hold harmless the individuals, the branch and the NCT should items you place in the sale go missing or become damaged. We are volunteers and do our best to ensure the security and safety of all items. We cannot be responsible if you do not receive payment for items you placed in the sale which were not returned to you. If you are concerned about the safety of an item, please do not put it in the sale.
When you collect your goods following the sale, please check your box only contains your items. Before you leave, please check the table by the door carefully for any items that are yours (items that lost their tags or were removed from the sale). Any unsold items not collected by vendors by 3.00pm on the day of the sale will be donated to another local charity.
Any proceeds of Items that are sold using incorrect tags will be automatically donated to the NCT.
Sale FAQ
Below you can find a lot of our frequently asked questions about our NCT Nearly New Sales, if you have any other questions not answered here please get in touch! nns.590@nct.org.uk
Do I need to be an NCT member?
No, you don’t need to be a member to sell, volunteer or shop. Members do get in to the sale 30 minutes early (this is a national NCT membership benefit) but the vast majority of our buyers and sellers aren’t members.
To get in early you do need to have a membership card (we don’t mind if your Mum comes instead of your partner so long as you have two cards). We make an exception for anyone who needs additional assistance, e.g. heavily pregnant or have mobility issues.
Unfortunately the school is not fully wheel chair accessible, the entrance to the sale is down a few steps and then it’s a few steps back up into the hall itself. However we can give you access via a side door so please ask a volunteer if you need help. If you’d like to speak to us before you come please do email.
Shoppers do start queuing about 30 minutes before the sale opens so if you want something specific and want to ensure the best choice you may want to arrive early. That’s not to say there aren’t bargains to get later on.
We accept cash, debit and credit cards (not Amex). We do ask for an (optional) 50p donation for card payments to help cover the cost of the chip and pin machine rental.
Somewhere in the region of 300-400 buyers come through the door at each sale, the 35+ sale volunteers also do their fair share of shopping!
We have a café area serving tea, coffee, squash and cakes so you can sit down, recharge and make final purchasing decisions before you head to the tills.
Of course! If you’d prefer a private space to feed please ask a volunteer, we can also provide you with hot water to heat a bottle. We also have a baby change table available.
We’d rather you didn’t, the sale gets very busy and getting around with a buggy is difficult. If you really want to bring one then you are very welcome to, we will however put some ‘sold’ tape on your buggy as you arrive to show you have brought it in with you. Volunteers will be happy to help you negotiate the steps into the hall.
The sales take a lot of man power to run smoothly and as a charity we aren’t in a position to pay people. We need volunteers to run the tills, keep the queues moving, the sale floor tidy and to add up all the seller proceeds. Without the volunteers we couldn’t run the sales. Volunteers get to shop before the doors open, giving them first pick of the items for sale, we also offer sellers a reduced commission rate if they help for all or part of the day.
Table top sales would certainly be easier for us to run but most people prefer the label sale format. Having the sale set out like one big shop allows shoppers to quickly find items and sizes that they are looking for, they can browse at leisure, compare items from multiple sellers and then pay for their shopping all in one go.
We are also able to maintain a higher quality standard of items sold as our volunteers pull out anything we consider unfit for sale.
It also means sellers don’t have to man their own table, catering for sellers who can’t attend the sales due to other commitments, sellers that perhaps don’t have enough items for a whole table or people who just don’t feel confident in that situation.
The Gold Standard mark that we were awarded in 2014 and 2017 shows that we run consistently popular and successful sales, that serve a large number of people. Only 25 branches hold a current Gold Standard certification so we are very proud of it.
The registration fee covers the cost of the sellers pack (envelopes, printing, price tickets and postage). We keep this as low as we can so sellers aren’t paying up front.
You can choose between 50 and 100 items when you register, you’re not obliged to use all your tickets.
There are a few things that we can’t include in our sale; car seats and bases, used bottles or breast pumps, vented mattresses, recalled items and used electrical items that aren’t PAT tested. We also reserve the right to remove items that are in poor condition, broken or partially missing.
