Since then, the sale has grown from three dozen friends and neighbors selling used children's things in Nelson's Sherman Oaks driveway to a twice-yearly mega-event that fills a 6,000-square-foot hall. Come fall, she'll be moving to a 10,000-square-foot space with room for 375 sellers.
Nelson wouldn't discuss the profits from her recent four-day sale but said her earnings have gone from "manicure money to getting-closer-to-vacation money."
Fueling the boom in baby gear resales is a more-than-doubling of annual U.S. retail sales, from $4 billion in 1995 to $8.9 billion in 2006, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Assn. This doesn't include infant and children's clothes, which topped $17 billion in sales in 2005.
"Babies haven't changed at all. They are the same as they were in 1978, but what we know about them has changed dramatically -- there's so much more research about how they develop," Alan Fields said.
This has led to an explosion in the number and types of baby products and a deepening desire by parents, many of them older, to make sure their child gets "the best." As a result, brand names such as Maclaren, Peg Perego and Petunia Pickle Bottom now command three-digit retail prices for strollers, highchairs -- even diaper bags.
"Twenty years ago, no one really cared what brand your stroller was," Fields said. "Today, it's a status symbol."
This is particularly true in style-conscious Los Angeles. Just as cruisers show off their wheels along the Sunset Strip on Saturday nights, parents promenade along Ventura Boulevard with Junior reclining in a $959 Bugaboo stroller. That price makes used strollers a particularly popular item at children's sales nationwide, as are clothes with trendy labels, which sell for half to two-thirds off retail.
"My parents shopped at Kmart or Sears or Penney's for me, but now people want Gap or Gymboree, or boutique brands like Oilily and Hanna Andersson," said Linda Darden. She runs a sale in Nashville, as well as www.kidsconsignmentsales.com, a website that lists similar events. "We want to be able to give our kids the things we want, the things we feel like we deserve, without having to get a second mortgage."
Since Darden's site went online in 2005, the number of listed sales has jumped from 600 to 1,000.
