Consignment store

The consignment store is a lot assignment introduced in The Sims 3: Ambitions.

Gameplay
Sims are able to sell things like fruit, fish, inventions, paintings, and sculptures to the shop and put them on display for other Sims to buy. Sims can build a reputation at the store, making sales more profitable. If a Sim's reputation is high, more Sims will buy his or her stuff. The store sells items every day at 5 PM / 17:00. Similar to collections, the consignment store is in a Sim's skill journal and comes with its own unique challenges to achieve. A chart of all the items sold by the Sim is given. In addition to selling, the consignment store will randomly change its inventory, which may include a variety of items such as gems, inventions, paintings, books, music boxes, cameras, incense holders and Magic Gnomes. Objects that can otherwise be found in Buy Mode can often be obtained at a significant discount at the consignment store should they be available. Sims may receive a positive moodlet from making a good sale as well as a negative moodlet for paying too much for an item.

The longer their items are for sale, the more they decrease in price:
 * 1 Day at the shop: Selling price = 200%
 * 2 Days at the shop: Selling price = 170%
 * 3 Days at the shop: Selling price = 130%
 * 4 Days at the shop: Selling price = 110%
 * 5 Days at the shop: Selling price = 100%

An object that isn't sold by the end of day 5 is returned. Selling the same object frequently will decrease the price and the shop clerk will inform you that customers are getting bored. As a Sim's reputation increases, the percentage that the store will take for having to stock the items decreases;
 * 0 Reputation = 15% Taken off
 * 200 Reputation = 10% Taken off
 * 4,000 Reputation = 5% Taken off
 * 8,000 Reputation = 0% Taken off

Sims who have the Born Salesman trait will gain reputation faster. Also, Sims who have the Suave Selling Lifetime Reward will sell their goods for more.

Twinbrook Buy and Bargain Consignment Shop
Twinbrook Buy and Bargain Consignment Shop is the default consignment store lot in Twinbrook.

Rags to Riches Consignment Store
Rags to Riches Consignment Store is the default consignment store lot in Appaloosa Plains if The Sims 3: Ambitions is installed.

Landgraab Sell n' Swap
Landgraab Sell n' Swap is automatically placed in the lot bin after a player installs The Sims 3: Ambitions. It is probably named after the Landgraabs. In Sunset Valley, the game usually places the consignment store where the Plumpuddle Park is intended to be placed. If The Sims 3: Showtime is installed, the lot will be placed in Starlight Shores.

Known Bugs
There have been several bugs that have been reported concerning the consignment shop.

Sometimes when the player tries to use the "buy" function on the consignment shop, the shop menu will not appear. This is caused by consigned items being in the consignment shop for negative days. How this happens is unknown, but thankfully the workaround for it is simple.
 * Dealer will not allow you to buy or sell items

Should this happen to you, simply use the cancel consignment option and unconsign any items that have been consigned to the shop. The buy function should work again.

In theory, when an item consigned to the shop remains there for 5 days, it is sent back to the sim's home via the mail. For some players however, it does not do this, and the consigned items are left in limbo indefinitely. If this is happens to you, your sim must travel to the consignment shop and cancel the Consignments manually. You can then reconsign the items, but be warned, this may lead to the below bug.
 * Consigned are not returned after 5 days

Sometimes, reconsigning a cancelled consignment (usually in conjunction with workarounds for the two above bugs) will cause not only the items in question, but also any new consignment to act as if they had been consigned for 5+ days.
 * Reconsigned Items in Limbo

If this happens, your only recourse is to cancel the consignments on everything, and then sell the items through the inventory, thus deleting them from the game's memory.

Trivia

 * One of the books sold at the consignment store is titled Makin' Magic, which is clearly a reference to The Sims expansion pack The Sims: Makin' Magic.