Recently I brought a decent sized load of clothes up to a local consignment shop (a younger, kind of hipper one). They were too nice to throw into the charity bins so I wanted to see if I could get some cash for the clothes - even if just a few bucks to cover dinner that night or something. The clothes were nothing that would have moved on SF, or fetched any decent money on eBay after my shipping costs and bay'fees.
Anyway, there was some nice stuff in my bag I brought up. Unworn J.Crew button downs and chinos (tags still on), BR, Gap Jeans and shirts. Just casual basics that were in solid condition. The young kids that worked there ask you to leave your load there for a bit while they sort through it and determine what they want. I learned later that they have a binder with all the latest & greatest fashion trends. What brands to accept, what brands not to. They also check the lower labels in the BR, Gap, J.Crew stuff, as normally it will state the year and season the shirt/pants are from. Per their book they won't accept anything below FW/09 for example...no matter how nice looking, or the condition. (this is somewhat silly from my perspective, but I suppose when you're dealing with a huge volume of incoming clothes you have to set some pretty strict criterias around what is and what is not acceptable, otherwise, you risk chaos).
A little more to the story and that is, in this bag, I also mixed in some SF type stuff on the much cheaper side of the spectrum. Some old Shades of Greige stuff. Maybe some save khaki I never got around to wearing. A pair of adam velour (brand) pants (this was a true accident to put in the bag as the pants were probably $200+ retail). Longer story longer, I gave them their time, went up in the shopping center and walked around and grabbed a slice of pizza. Went back to the shop, asked if they were done. They were confused....but then, "oh yeah, hold on". Brought me back practically my entire bag of clothes accompanied by the "we want" bin. The "want" bin consisted of mainly some pretty beat up diesel jeans (circa 2004 or so - tattered rear hem, etc), a pair of my girlfriend's 7evens, and some pretty new looking cole haan ugly ass shoes from 2007 or so. I was pissed that they didn't take more, but the good side of the story is they actually gave me a fresh $100 bill for a pretty small amount of clothing that would have wound up in the good-will bin outside the place, otherwise.
So don't forget about local consignment shops if you have a decent load of clothes (recent seasons, clean, maybe wash them first and fold nicely) if you're looking to scrape together a few bucks. Clean your closet and get some money - good deal.