Students cash in clothing

The little black dress that’s just a little too tight might be worth a little bit of cash.

Cleaning out closets and taking new or gently used clothing and accessories to second-hand stores is a fast, easy way to round up money.

Two second-hand stores located near campus are Take 2 Apparel and Rag-O-Rama, both located on High Street. Both stores buy and sell clothes, and both offer the seller a percentage of the resale value of the clothing in cash or as store credit.

Take 2 Apparel is a small, boutique-style shop located in the Short North and specializes in men’s and women’s name-brand clothing.

“Young professionals would be the biggest target market that we have,” said Charlie Gray, co-owner and director of finance for Take 2 Apparel. Gray said the store carries brands such as Banana Republic, Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Items in the store range in price from about $5 to $70, Gray said.

“It’s going to depend on the brand names, especially the jeans,” Gray said. “Since we moved on High Street, we’ve been getting a lot bigger brands. … We have some nice Diesels and Joe’s.”

One pair of women’s white-wash Diesel jeans was priced at $75. Jeans from brands such as Gap and Old Navy were priced between $8 and $15.

Take 2 Apparel also carries men’s underwear lines DT and DownBoy and is the only store in Columbus carrying those lines, Gray said.

Right now, Take 2 Apparel is looking for jeans, button-up shirts and fun T-shirts for men and jeans and fun short-sleeved shirts for women.

Take 2 Apparel offers 25 percent cash or 50 percent store credit to sellers. Selling guidelines, store hours and online shopping are available at the store’s Web site at take2apparel.com

Rag-O-Rama, located north of campus in Clintonville, is a larger store featuring men’s and women’s trendy and vintage clothing and accessories.

“We definitely see a lot of really good vintage [items],” said Kayla Cline, an associate manager at Rag-O-Rama. “Vintage dresses are definitely one thing that we get a lot of and that are pretty unique to our store.”

Items from Hot Topic, Pac Sun, Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch are popular in the store, Cline said.

Emily Messina, a senior in film studies, found two green, vintage T-shirts at Rag-O-Rama Monday.

“I like the vintage T-shirts,” Messina said. “I like the guys’ stuff. It seems like they get new stuff in all the time.”

The average price per item is $12.50, Cline said.

“We keep everything pretty current and up-to-date for the most part,” Cline said. “People can get a pretty good mixture [of styles]. We also carry a lot of party items, so we’re pretty popular with the college students for party-wear.”

Summer items as well as light-weight fall items are what Rag-O-Rama is looking for right now, Cline said. Also, starting at the end of September, the store will be carrying new and used Halloween costumes.

Rag-O-Rama offers 35 percent cash or 50 percent store credit to sellers. Selling guidelines, store hours and locations are available on Rag-O-Rama’s Web site at ragorama.com.

So whether the need is for a few bucks for a fast meal or a new outfit that will turn heads, these second-hand stores have their customers covered.

Cora Kilcoyne can be reached at [email protected].