BCSS Circa: March 2001

Best Consignment Store Software...

...began in 2001, literally turning the consignment-software world upside down.

We cut prices by 70% and did away with 'annual fees'.

Other programs were way over-priced (and still are).
Our software is still 'one payment for lifetime use'.

Vendors used software updates to force support payments.
We made updates free.

Meet Our Founder

Steve Henning brought fair value and full disclosure to the consignment industry in May of 2001 with the creation of Best Consignment Shop Software, an A+ rated business by the Better Business Bureau.

Mr. Henning began his Internet career in 1996, registered in good standing with the NASD and Securities Exchange Commission as a licensed securities broker-dealer.

He graduated from the University of Illinois and was honorably discharged from the USAF Security Service and the 6994th Security Squadron where he held top-secret and cryptoanalytic clearances. He is a Vietnam veteran with 154 combat missions and several commendations.

For the past 19 years Steve has helped (literally) thousands of resale-shop owners save (an estimated) $3,500,000 (three millions five hundred thousand dollars) with free expert advice and help with software, hardware, support and consignment-shop management. He is singularly responsible for bringing full disclosure and fairness in advertising to the consignment-software industry, leading by example.

Consignment Software/Hardware Packages & Bundles Discounts

Fair and Honest

Payment for software and hardware is once for life. There are no perpetual fees. Software updates are free. See pricing.

Flexibility

The software is graduated in price and features allowing start-ups to buy a lot of computing power and convenience for a low start-up cost.

Most stores start with the Deluxe edition which tracks consignors and their inventory and prints everything (agreements, price labels and hang tags (with barcodes), receipts, settlements, reports and checks) using an ink printer.

Deluxe includes a complete POS capability and includes over 300 reports on consignors, inventory, sales, settlements and disbursements. If it's in the program it can be produced in a report.

The Diamond edition adds support for networking, thermal label printing and mall, antique and flea-market vendor management.

The Virtual edition allows clients to see their account information and add inventory online. (There is a monthly server rental for this option.)

Fast Delivery

Before purchasing any software program, take advantage of the demo period and the 'free live demo' (if one is available). The BCSS demo is the full version of the highest edition (Virtual) and is free to use with sample or live data.

Before purchasing demand a written disclosure of any and all fees post purchase. Any fee not disclosed can't be assessed after you're lock in.

No Add Ons

There are no ticky-tack add-on fees added to the end of the purchase process: No handling or shipping charges, no sales tax (except in states requiring collection).

Best Consignment Software is a low-cost program with all the basic features for consignment, resale, retail and rental with no ongoing forever fees. Start small with one low payment and expand as business and computer skills grow.

Consignment Software

    • Manage and communicate with clients.
    • Tab and label their inventory with barcodes.
    • Process sales and settlements.
    • Offer 'store credit' as a settlement option.
    • Discount inventory as it remains unsold.
    • Discount inventory by category.
    • Conduct promotional or seasonal sales.
    • Export data for use in other programs like QuickBooks.
    • Forced daily backups avoid data loss.
    • Detailed financial reports for your accountant

Resale Software

Resale for software purposes is the buying of merchandise from individuals for reselling. The program can record information about each seller as well as buy and sell prices, profit and loss and financial reports for any period of time.

A purchase agreement can be printed when items are purchased, spelling out the store's and the seller's information, a description of articles purchased, prices paid, total and terms.

Items can be entered into inventory quickly using a simple input screen. If desired, price labels or hang tags can be printed at the point of entry or they may be printed at a later time.

Unlike consignment of course purchased items become the property of the purchaser and can also be discounted automatically as defined by discount schedules (which may be applied to individuals pieces of to categories of inventory).

Retail Software

Retail purchases are those made from suppliers like wholesalers, manufacturers, importers, distributors, etc. Selling retail in as opportunity to increase shop profits by offering new items in addition to used merchandise. If the store sells women's clothing, for example, a small display of earrings costing $1 each and selling for $3, a 200% markup...

Rental Software

'Rent' in Best Consignment Shop Software takes three forms:

    • Rent floor space: Shopping-mall owners, flea-market operators and any business leasing space to merchant vendors can track each rental property, the renter, the amount of rent, when it is due, when it is late and who is waiting to rent the space. The mall operator can print labels and tags for vendors and process vendor sales at one (or more) checkout stations. A special report at the end of each rental period shows which vendors had insufficient sales to cover rent and the amounts of the shortages.
    • Rent items: Renting out merchandise is another way of increasing store profit. DVDs come to mind but there may be items that people only want to use for a short period of time, like heavy equipment, boats, cars and sports-related inventory. The program tracks renters, merchandise, date out and due in and produces reports of late returns. A late fee can be applied.

Features of All Versions of the Software -

  • Enter inventory in batch or import from spreadsheets.
  • Edit agreements and print them when needed.
  • Print receipts on plain paper or on 3" thermal receipt paper.
  • Print price labels on sheets of paper, sheets of labels or rolls of thermal labels and tags.
  • Connect multiple computers at the same location to share the same data.
  • Work from home for free using any free remote-PC-access program.
  • Gain mobility by using the program on a laptop. Sell on the road. Work from estate sales.
  • Paid option: Pass credit-card charges on to patrons by adding a % at checkout and/or deducting a % from settlement of credit-card purchases.
  • Paid option: With the Virtual edition of BCSS allow vendors to add inventory online and view their account information online.
  • Print an entire account history for any client to show how the current account balance was computed.
  • Data can be exported to be used in mailing programs, spreadsheets and QuickBooks.
  • Any card-processing system can be used.

Like most investments 'the best consignment software' is the one that has the highest ROI (Return On Investment). Successful entrepreneurs push past sales hype and tactics to find answers to "What will it do for me?". "How much does it cost now?" and "What will it cost in the future?".

What will it do for me?

With few exceptions every program provides the basics of customer and inventory management, sales and settlement processing, reports and data export (for use in other programs).

Most programs print consignment and buy-outright agreements, labels, tags, receipts, checks and reports.

A program like Best Consignment Shop Software's Deluxe Edition does all of that for 1 payment of $395.

Everything else is 'bells and whistles' with competing programs starting at $1,100 and up.

How much does it cost now?

No, not just 'today' but for the next 12 months. Sales slogans like 'Only $99 to start' and 'Low monthly payment' target those focused only on 'price', not 'cost' as though they intend to be in business for just one month. People selling software are are most skilled at preying upon this myopic view.

Dig deep enough and the differences between cost now and cost in the future are two hugely different things to those who step into price trapping after purchase.

How much will it cost in the future?

Many a store owner in the past two decades has paid far more to software vendors after purchase - partly if not mostly because software vendors succeeded at hiding post-purchase fees and expenses.

It's only necessary to read websites and listen to sales pitches to conclude that providers of software think they are quite skilled at deceiving potential customers about real long-term expenses:

  1. Liberty and 'Conpro' both represent their annual support plans as "optional". If that were so why have them at all? Surely anyone would opt to not pay a fee if it's not required. Ask those who have fallen for this what happens when they need help or a software bug fix. When they have called for help, they were greeted with "Are you enrolled in our annual support plan?"
  2. Wilson at 'Conpro' offered a 'free update' to several users who opted to not pay his annual support fee. The 'update' disabled their software and he refused to remove the planted bug until they agreed to pony up.