Generally speaking, I shop thrift. Most of my clothes are $1 at Value Village, aka Savers. In my neck of the woods, thrifting is abundantly rich. Well, at least middle-class. I often find brand-new garments, tags still on them, from the current season, for a single dollar.
But that is not true for many of you. Recently I have stumbled onto another option: eBay.
Here’s what I mean: many items go unsold every week; lots of them good, basic, low-priced items which never get a bid. I’ve heard it said that ebay is just above a garage sale, and in these cases it’s true. Items priced at a dollar or two, with a $5 shipping charge, if they only get one bid, will sell for under $10.
Just call it thrifting from your easy chair.
My advice: go ahead and bid on an item that would work for you. Set the opening bid as your maximum. Who knows? You could be the winner.
I got most of my maternity clothes from eBay. I bought some great stuff from Land’s End and J. Jill (not really maternity, but it usually runs huge and flowy) for less than $10 an item, including shipping. The Land’s End was all new, and the J. Jill was mostly “EUC,” or Excellent Used Condition. The best part was that Land’s End was closing out all of their maternity wear at the time, so I was able to get a lot of good deals there, and they went with my eBay finds. 🙂
About six months ago I decided to challenge myself to only buy clothes via eBay as an exercise in saving money. I’ve gotten great brands–Coach, J Crew, Gap, Aerosoles, Maggie London–for one half to one third of the retail price.
We live an hour from the city, and shopping is limited in our small town. I get to the city only once every 4 or 5 weeks. So, when I HAD to find an outfit for an anniversary party, ebay to the rescue.