Meanwhile...
Last spring, I wrote some positive things about the new and newish resale sites. I even have another positive post that I never got around to publishing.
Just as well: the bloom is off the rose. Twice has been purchased by Ebay. Luckily, I had used my credit, but I witnessed a mad scramble among those with credits to use up.
Tradesy has gotten very expensive. Most of the items seem to be listed by professional resellers with access to outlet stores. I have no problem with that, but the prices are generally high.
Thredup: The worst for last? The site announced a lowering of prices last spring. As far as I can tell, the brand I like--Eileen Fisher--is about 50% HIGHER than it was last spring. I did buy one thing recently though: skirted leggings. I paid the $6.00 shipping fee on top of the listed price.
The thing is: I ALWAYS wear an S in Eileen Fisher. The item I bought was listed as an S. It is an EXTRA SMALL PETITE. That's two mistakes. I am probably not going to return and pay the ridiculous restocking fee. So look for these on ebay one of these days..
I emailed and await their response. I expect the typical customer service: you are welcome to return for credit blahblahblah. But I doubt I will order from them again. In fact, like the Swedes in Beowulf I have a long memory. So I will add Thredup to the list of brands and stores that I don't buy from.
I think this is a message from the universe to USE WHAT I HAVE. OK. I'll try to listen.
Have you used (as seller or buyer) any of these resale sites? Have you had any excellent experiences?
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4 comments:
I used to buy from Twice and really hated to see them go the way of Ebay. I have ordered from ThredUp but I don't think they give you enough information on the item, i.e. color. Thanks for sharing your experience with them.
I've tried a couple of times to sell thing through Thredup, and they're no big barrel of laughs there either. They give you shockingly little for your garments, and reject some things that should have (in my humble opinion) been accepted. And you have to pay for them to send things back to you if they're silly enough to reject them.
It's a great business model, poorly executed. I am hopeful that the inherent wisdom of helping women resell clothing will be compelling enough that SOMEONE will come into the market and do a good job of it...
I've used Threadflip for selling, and so far, so good. I used the service where you send them your stuff and they photograph it and ship it for you. They do take a big commission, but I think it was worth it because they made my items look amazing on the web site--so they probably sold for more than they would have if I'd photographed them myself.
My items were in like-new condition and I had purchased them on sale. Threadflip sold them for either full retail price (for a hard-to-find item) or for about half the original price. So for a less-expensive item, I made back half of what I had spent, after commission. For a more-expensive item, they sold it for more than I had originally paid, so I made back about 90%.
I would use the service to sell my shopping mistakes (things I never or rarely wore), but I wouldn't bother to shop outlets etc. for things to sell. It's not worth it. Nor would I bother to try and sell anything that didn't look new or wasn't very valuable.
I don't think I would bother trying to buy from these sites, either, unless I were looking for something very specific and knew my size. I find second-hand online shopping to be a bit of a hassle, in general.
@Jane--Thanks for reinforcing my opinion...
@Janice--I wondered what happened after you sent your stuff off.
@Bettina--Lucky you (and skillful you!) to have such good experiences! I don't have really good shopping opportunities where I live (and I hate shopping on vacation), so I grew to love the resale sites...but no more.
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