the down side of consignment sales

Okay, so I'm feeling a little discouraged today by my sales on consignment.

I just went in today to take in more inventory to sell, and for a look-see at how my items are displayed, etc. I haven't been keeping as close an eye on things over the past several months, because the monthly checks have been coming in, and in the past the owners of the shop have told me more than once, "you're the ONLY ONE of our sellers that comes in like this to check on your inventory." Yes, they do have a few other vendors who sell similar jewelry-type items to mine, although their main sales come from home and garden items - a real cute shop. I can't figure out how the other vendors can afford NOT to check their inventory. My sales had picked up after I took in a nice willow-branch tree for display, along with a nice-sized earring hanger that gave good visability; and I also took in nicer quality items that were what I would buy if I were shopping for myself - and I priced everything a little higher to reflect the upgrade in quality of materials and my time spent on workmanship. The owners seemed pleasantly surprised when things sold at the higher prices, even though their target market is not art & jewelry sales. But...they still told me no one else tracks what specific items get sold like what I have been doing.

All in all the relationship has been great. I just have to price items high enough to cover the consignment fee. My best sales have been when people can see and touch the actual item they're buying in person, compared to online sales with only a photo to go by.

So....today I finally went in to refresh everything before the Christmas rush....and other vendors were front and center on my willow tree display, with my items getting pushed to the back. No problem. I just rearranged things to suit myelf. Then the owner returned an earring that had gone missing last April. It happened to be one from one of my most favorite pairs. Unfortunately for me, I gave up hope and just TODAY altered the mate to re-work it into something else. So...I just messed up one of my faves!

So, I made note of what was there in inventory, came home and compared to my "inventory in /sold items list," and calculated that over the past 10 months I have not been paid for $73.50 (that's my portion only, not the total sale price) in inventory that hasn't been accounted for and I no longer see in stock. The owners say that they'll reimburse me for items that go missing, but in the past when I've wondered aloud if perhaps small items like jewelry get stolen, our conversation has never gotten past the point of them telling me they'll check for the item "in the back," and me letting it ride in case the items actually are in the store somewhere and I just haven't seen them at that hurried moment of my spot-check. They do have the jewelry right up on the counter by the register in plain sight where it would be hard to steal. They also gave me a break one time on my portion of a consignment fee on a painting that saved me $25 last year. I didn't want to drop my price on the paintng, and they felt that the normal consignment fee would make it too pricey to sell. (It did sell, so I felt vindicated, and now they're more open to taking more pieces of a similar nature).

Meanwhile, $73.50 means a lot to me. So, do I just write it off as a business expense, and raise my prices even more to cover just such things? Do I push the point and try to recover the cost with the shop owners at the risk of losing my "in" there where I generate my most steady monthly income, and the nice "hands-on" exposure with word-of-mouth compliments trickling back to me?

Maybe that's just the cost of doing business, but at the worst, I hate stealing; and at best I hate having to chalk all these dealings up to experience. I've been getting more and more "experience" lately. I hope this is just the "experience" of me needing to get out my bifocals and look again. I'll probably find everything somewhere in the store, then I can forget everything I just wrote.

I hope I'm growing in age, grace and wisdom a little each day.