When parents need strollers for their children, where do they look?
If they want new gear and are willing to spend a fortune, they’ll shop name brands.
But for parents looking for cheaper, used gear, they often turn to Craigslist. Kristin Langenfeld is all too familiar with that painstaking and often fruitless process.
During an unsuccessful Craigslist deal in search of a used jogging stroller, Langenfeld realized there must be a better way.
“I thought, ‘we can pretty much get anything delivered to our house, but we have to go through all this effort for a used stroller?’” she said.
After surveying a mom’s group to see if this was a common issue and receiving resounding support, Langenfeld decided to launch Good Buy Gear with Jessica Crothers.
Good Buy Gear is a marketplace for secondhand children’s gear and accessories, like strollers, jumpers, toys and much more.
The Arvada-based startup picks up used items from parent’s looking to sell their children’s accessories, checks them for safety and quality and stores them in the company’s warehouse.
From there, Good Buy Gear prices the items and lists them on their website for sale. Sellers receive a portion of the profits, based on the sale price of the item. For an item over $249, the seller receives 80 percent of the money, with the scale sliding all the way down to receiving 20 percent of sale under $15.
Sellers are paid through Paypal, Good Buy Gear credit, check or donation to a charity of their choice.
For buyers, the process operates similarly to any other online marketplace. Shipping is free to the Denver/Boulder area for orders over $60 and customers can also pick up items for free at the warehouse in Arvada.
The company recently announced a $2 million funding round led by Atlanta’s Be Curious Partners, a firm focused on reinventing parenthood through technology. Colorado’s Access Ventures and Relay Ventures also took part in the round. The startup previously raised an $750,000 seed round in January 2018.
The funding will allow Good Buy Gear to expand out of Colorado, eyeing Dallas, Atlanta or Phoenix as its next target markets.
Currently, the company has four full-time employees and about 10 part-time employees that work in the warehouse, named wingmoms. Wingmoms are responsible for checking over the inventory, ensuring its quality and safety, before it is listed for sale on Good Buy Gear.
“The way that we’ve set it up, everything is managed centrally in terms of tech, customer care and operations,” Langenfeld said. “In our local markets there’s a GM and wingmoms.”
As they grow and expand into more markets, Langenfeld said the company is looking to double its staff, hiring an additional five employees in the coming months.
The company will also look to grow locally, exploring opportunities to expand outside of the current warehouse in Arvada that houses 3,000 products.
As consumers change the way they shop, Langenfeld feels Good Buy Gear’s secondhand model will become increasingly popular.
“This is the model that we believe people will buy and sell secondhand,” she said. “We’ve proven that when you have quality checked items, people prefer not to put more plastic in the world.”
