Wee-cycle Mart Opens This Weekend in Timonium

Blaney Spinelli wants to lower the costs of raising a child.

As the founder of Wee-cycle Mart, a children’s consignment sale now held nine times a year from Fort Meade to Westminster to Timonium, Spinelli’s slogan is, “Keeping down the cost of growing up!”

Timonium will  host the 27th Wee-cycle Mart at 23 W. Aylesbury Road, behind , from Friday through Sunday. The market will include items such as clothes, toys, strollers, swings, cribs, sports items, Halloween costumes, books, video games, DVDs, room décor, arts and crafts and scrapbooking supplies. 

For new moms there is a Thursday night pre-sale. An expectant mother, or a mother of a baby under 12 months, can have first dibs on the 30,000 new and used kids’ clothes, toys and equipment. To receive one of 100 passes for the pre-sale, go to Wee-cycle Mart’s website (click here) before they sell out.

“We’ve had 2,700 new moms that have shopped our sale on Thursday night, in the past three years,” said Spinelli, who founded Wee-cycle Mart with her mother, Clair Dobry, in 2007. “They can only come once, so every time, it’s unique, first-time moms. They can come in and save a ton of money.”

The pass allows them to bring a guest, so the new dad or a friend is just as welcome.

Nancy Kreitz, a Wee-cycle fan and a Towson mother of two girls at , said, “I wish I would have gone to these things when I was a new mom, because they have such great stuff, and so cheap, and it’s hardly ever used. Like high chairs, and exersaucers, toys and things like that, that are so expensive when you have to get it at the store.”

Kreitz is going to consign for the first time this year. She is unloading mostly clothing, which is what she shopped for when she attended in past years as a buyer.

“When I went before, I got some great deals on some clothes for the girls—some nice boots, for like $4,” Kreitz said.

Wee-cycle Marts are set up like a store, with all items tagged and bar coded and organized by type of item, not by consignor. All baby clothes are together, all shoes are together, and so on. Cashiers ring up all purchases, not individual vendors, and consignors can track their profits online. They receive a check after the sale.

Spinelli knew she had a winning system when she consigned her own children’s items during her first Wee-cycle Mart, which was held in a church basement in Pasadena.

“I sold over $400 of my stuff, the same stuff the consignment store told me they couldn’t sell for me,” Spinelli said.

Want to consign this weekend? It’s not too late! Click here to find out how to consign.

Want to shop?  The hours are as follows:

• Thursday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Thursday is for new moms only and you must have a pre-sale pass.)
• Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Saturday is Mom’s Fest and features a baby photo contest, giveaways and activities, and a punch card worth 6 percent off the entire purchase.)
• Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  (Sunday is half-price day.)

Admission is $2 per person, or $1 and a bag of non-perishable food to benefit the local food bank. (The Thursday pre-sale pass is $5.) Kids are free. No strollers allowed on Friday, 9 a.m. to noon.