Girls' Accessories
Buy and sell girls’ accessories in Costa Rica.
A wheeled backpack with a rubber bumper across the front takes the knocks of a school corridor and the bus steps, and it is often the one accessory a family thinks twice about buying new. Around it sit the lunch bag, the hair clips and headbands that pile up in a drawer, a first pair of earrings and the crown she wears on the morning of her first communion. Pieces come new and pre-owned, and most second-hand ones are passed on because she outgrew them or the cartoon on the front. Ask for close-ups of zips, wheels and clasps before you drive from San Ramón to Turrialba to collect.
School backpacks with straps or with wheels:
the choice comes down to how she gets to school. A strap backpack from a children’s line such as Totto Kids comes in small and medium, and the right one sits at her waist rather than knocking her hips. A rolling one, with a telescopic handle and a bumper across the front, spares her shoulders on a long flat walk but is heavy on stairs and awkward on a crowded bus. A matching lunch bag in the same print is worth more sold with it. Character prints date fastest: the cartoon she picked in first grade is often the one she refuses to carry later, so plenty of barely used bags get passed on. The uniform and school shoes they go with are under girls’ clothing and girls’ shoes.
Hair clips, headbands and bows:
these are what girls lose fastest and still collect most of. Snap and spring clips, elastic hair ties and headbands get bought in packs and scattered across every bag in the house, while bows come out for a birthday or a school assembly. A single clip is not worth a listing; a bag sorted by colour, or bows in a school’s colours, is.
Earrings and bracelets in gold, silver or gold plate:
with jewellery, the value sits almost entirely in the metal. Solid gold and sterling silver carry a purity stamp on the post or the clasp; surgical steel is the usual first pair of studs. Gold plate is a thin layer of gold over a cheaper base: in a photo it looks the same as solid gold, and it wears through first at the post and the clasp. Treat any “gold” piece without a stamp as plated until the seller shows otherwise. Pieces for her brother are under boys’ accessories.
First communion crowns made in Costa Rica:
small workshops around the country make them by hand in white flowers, pearls or silver tone, often with a matching veil and gloves. A crown is sized by head circumference, and the tape goes round over the hairstyle she will wear on the day, where the crown will rest. Some are worn across the forehead and others further back, so a crown that fits one hairstyle can slip on another.
Communion crowns and rolling backpacks, new and second-hand:
they lose value for different reasons. A handmade crown runs from about ₡9,000 to ₡15,000 new, and nearer ₡25,000 sold with its veil. Most are worn for a single ceremony, so a clean one with every flower in place is fairly priced at around half that. A rolling backpack from a children’s brand costs ₡40,000 to ₡55,000 new, and its resale follows the wheels: one that still tracks straight is worth real money, while one with a worn wheel sells for what a plain strap bag would.
The lining of a used school backpack:
it keeps the stain of every lunch bag that leaked inside, so open it and check for juice marks and a sour smell first, then run every zip and look at the stitching where the straps meet the body. On a rolling one, lock the handle out and spin both wheels: a flat spot or a wobbling axle means it was dragged along the pavement, and a cracked bumper means it took the stairs face first. White flowers on a crown yellow in storage, pearls drop off and cheaper ones show glue at the base, so ask for a photo in daylight. Worn earrings get cleaned before they go into another girl’s ears.
Passing on a communion crown with its veil and gloves:
keep the set together, because a family getting ready for the ceremony wants the whole look in one go, and give the crown’s inner circumference. Photograph a backpack front, back, inside and underneath, and say whether the wheels and handle still work. For gold or silver, show the stamp up close. Lay crown, veil and gloves out together on a white cloth in daylight: a buyer can see whether the whites still match, and that decides whether the set goes with the dress she has already chosen.