Columbia U Consignment

Don’t don’t give them your stuff to sell. Head straight to Good Will and get that tax receipt. They are friendly as other reviewers say. But it potentially will be the most frustratingly got $ 20 you ever made. And what they don’t sell for you, which you gave to them so clean and pressed and in plastic, they return to you bunched up like the dirtiest laundry in a plastic grocery bag. Yeah.

I have dropped in and out of this shop year-​round to browse. The customer service is great, and they offer an interesting selection. However, their prices are ridiculous. $ 29 for a random brand, worn-​in, and generic dress on their cheapest of cheap sale rack? I think not. If I can get pristine Badgley Mischka pumps for $ 10 at Housing Works, I’m afraid I can’t justify buying anything here.

This place is amazing! Very reasonably priced, Pam was super friendly and helpful, tons of stuff from aroids decades, vintage panties, slips, beautiful dresses and corsets!

I like their selection. I bought 2 things from this store and was coming back to see if there were more trinkets to find.
However, I had been looking at this sterling silver bracelet. I tried it on twice before. You have to bend it to get it on.
When I bent it (gently, mind you), it snapped in half.
I know they have a «you break it, you buy it» policy but she even admitted that I didn’t use much force but had no sympathy and I got charged 45.00 for this already fragile item.
I get the policy, but I will not be coming back.
It would have been nice to not charge me full price for this item. Because of that, I will not continue to shop here.
If you do, be very careful with their items. If it looks like it’s going to break, don’t touch it! They will charge you full price.
And sure enough, when I got home, the whole thing just broke.

If you’re only worried about buying name brand clothing for less than retail cost, this is the place to go. If you’re a poor college student looking for affordable clothing, go somewhere else.

I turn to them every time I am in need of a era specific costume and I always leave extremely satisfied. The owner is wonderful at helping you put together an outfit for your party needs and a majority of the pieces I bought I was able to incorporate into my regular wardrobe! I am definitely looking forward to going back to Columbia U Consignment for my next big costume!

I should have listened to the review to not consign to this place. I consigned 3 pairs of high end mens shoes. When my boyfriend went to pick up the check today, on the correct date to come in, we received only payment for TWO of the shoes. Apparently no one knew if the third paid sold. In fact, the shop keeper didn’t even know where my shoes were. I was told extremely rudely to come back in 7 days by the shop keeper, Pam, who would not explain why. This place has a high turnover rate for their employees and pays minimum wage without a real lunch break! I should have known better than to trust them. Why would they treat me any better if they can’t even manage to get it together for their own employees? Disgraceful. Never again.

I love this place! Definetly my favorite consignment store! Was in NYC on vacation, stopped by this place and fell in love as soon as I walked in. If you’re into brand purses this is definetly the place to go. Found some good Gucci, Louie V, Fendi, among others. Was a great place.

Aww this little vintage boutique… i’m sorry «consignment shop» Or actually, it finds itself somewhere in the middle. They have some really great finds, and a like of articles you can play with, mix and match, and really make a statement. A lot of the items were a little over priced for the quality I feel, but there always a little haggle room. I actually found this hot blazer in the «clearance» section for $ 5. Now that’s the kind of deal i’m looking for.
They have a lot of vintage design brands as well, if you are into the Names.
I love the décor and it’s coziness. The staff is so friendly and make you feel right at home. If you are into vintage clothes and accessories and want to make your oldies, goodies, come by and check them out. It won’t hurt.

At first glance, I thought this place didn’t have much. It is admittedly kind of crammed/​unorganized. But as I looked through everything more closely, I found a lot of nifty vintage clothes and accessories. A dig through the $ 5 bin out front yielded a pretty sweet vintage black and white belt and I found another belt on sale inside for $ 6. I fell in love with a vintage lace dress but it was a bit pricey for me. There are some high-​end brands here but the prices are pretty high as well, unless you get them on sale or have a coupon deal. I will definitely come back though b/​c of the unique items and my belt habit. I may return for the lace dress, it’s been on my mind…

Have I not reviewed this place yet?
I love this place. It’s a consighnment store, but without the next to new prices.
I have been dropping by about once a week since I moved about 2 blocks away. I always find cool stuff from $ 5-​$ 60 and they even have layaway which i’m using to buy a couple bags. The two sales women are both really nice, and so is the owner.

I have very expensive taste. I do not, however, have a large bank account (nyu took all of my money for grad school). Luckily, NYC has an abundance of secondhand/​thrift/​vintage/​consignment shops. And I’ve been to most of them, so I know what’s out there and how much things should cost at these types of stores. I’ve seen a few different types of organizational patterns to these places, from color coding to organizing by size or type of clothing (and if you’re really lucky, a combo of any of those).
Columbia consignment sadly fails on both the organizational and price fronts. When you approach the store, located on a side street off of the 125^th st. 1 train stop, there is a bin and a rack out front. The bin is $ 5, but everything in it is pure crap. The rack isn’t much better, and most of the stuff on there is $ 10-​$ 20.
Inside, I almost had a panic attack just attempting to figure out where to begin. They had the heat blasting, and I began to melt. I felt claustrophobic among the racks of completely unorganized clothes, which range from very, very, very old and worn out to mid-​range labels like Express, to some very rare items in the upper-​end range like Marc Jacobs and Chanel. Let me be clear: there were very few items in the upper-​tier here. And I culled through a LOT of crap to get to them.
Their nicer brand stuff is so unbelievably priced, you would think it’s brand-​new. Oh, but it’s not, and usually its not even in good condition. And the mid-​range labels, they’re priced at what you’d pay at most places (Housing Works or Buffalo Exchange) for Theory, Rebecca Taylor, Tahari, etc. So, uh, save your money. The shoes are also all gross and worn out, and there is only one teeeeeny tiny dressing room.
When I dared to ask the woman behind the counter if there was some organizational pattern to the store that I just wasn’t understanding, she had some excuse about how they had a sale at Columbia recently and hadn’t gotten around to re-​organizing the store. However, she was texting and talking on the phone behind the counter, so maybe she could have gotten a head start on the rearranging during her shift?
Seriously, don’t go in here unless you’ve taken a Xanax first, be prepared to cull through a lot of crap to find any decent brands… and then be sure your wallet is full enough to dole out the ridiculous amount of money they are charging here!

I would warn anyone who is planning to consign items of value to think twice before bringing their items to this store. I brought in several bags full of high-​quality designer and vintage items to consign in the past. year. The owner had me help her to price everything, and the value added up to well over $ 1,000. The store has very specific guidelines for consigning — basically if you’re not there in person exactly 30 days after dropping off your stuff, they have the right to donate your items. Because of this, I was there in person to pick up my items on the correct day, but the store was closed. Apparently they keep inconsistent hours, which is extra frustrating considering that my emails and telephone calls were never answered.
When I finally did hear back from the manager to pick up my items, I was out of town at the time. She issued me an ultimatum: I had 48 hours to pick up my items or they would be given to the Salvation Army. I found a friend to go and pick up my items and there was a check — for $ 100. Everything that I brought was priced at well over $ 900, and there were only 5 items returned to me.
Next time I clean out my closet, I’ll use Ebay instead. Consigning here is not worth the headache.

Small place with a bunch of clothes and accessories. They do have designer things for a pretty good price. You have to be willing to look through everything though!
Sale racks outside for $ 20 or the $ 5 bin. Found a cute zipper Zara dress for only 5. Even had a pair of 7 jeans for $ 5, too bad they were too big. Most of the stuff in the $ 5 bin are large sizes or have some kind of damage (hole, stain, etc). They did have some great vintage looking purses in great condition for $ 5.
I think I would find more at Crossroads or Buffalo Exchange, but wouldn’t mind coming here once in a while to see what they got.

Umm seriously, where is this place? I have lived in Harlem most of my life and have never even heard of tiemann pl. Maybe it’s because I live closer to west harlem. Anyway A LOT of vintage and A LOT of designer clothes. A bit more than I’m willing to pay, but I saw chanel, gucci, mark jacobs. Maybe when I visited by the money fairy or win the lottery, I will grace the inside of the store. Til then $ 5 bin outside for me.

The place is kind of small but they have a lot of variety. They had a few suits and dresses and ton of different shoes for girls. They had a lot of random things and the prices were imo reasonable. They had a Burberry suit for like 180, a great deal I would have bought it if it was in my size.
The people were friendly and the place was pleasant.

Pamela is the nicest woman in the world! Really helpful. There wasn’t a lot of stuff in the store that I wanted (except the most gorgeous pair of sneakers I’d ever seen) but there were plenty of deals, and the promise that’d she absolutely would have the stuff I wanted and would email me was absolutely tantalizing. Come visit; even if you don’t find anything, they’ll have it for you soon, and it’s definitely worth spending time with the awesome staff.

I tell everyone about this store! Not only is it full of beautiful items at a great price, but Pamela is exceedingly nice and helpful. There are giant trash bags on the floor full of $ 5 items — I found a wrap around that retails for more than $ 170 in Macy’s inside of one of those bags! I’ve also found pencil skirts, a cashmere sweater ($ 22), and vintage jewelry all for under $ 30. There are definitely items that are more expensive, but if you really take the time to dig through things, you’ll find a brilliant deal.

I’ve purchased a few things here on impulse, but in retrospect I overpaid for them. My bad. This store’s stock is plentiful, though, and there are some nice things to be found (lots of fashionista Columbia kids in the ‘hood have been coming to unload their stuff from last season), but I have to say that I’ve definitely scored much better bargains in thrift stores and on Ebay and Etsy. Still, there’s something to be said for the convenience of this place, and it’s definitely not as picked-​over as the consignment stores downtown. Worth a shot if you’re in the area.

This placed moved into the neighborhood sometime over the summer and I can’t stop scoring: casual, work clothes, shoes, accessories, it’s all good, decent prices and constantly changing inventory.