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August 12 2008: How To Buy Cheap Brand Clothing On EBay

Filed under Money & Online & Style

In yesterday’s entry regarding eBay purchases, Jess asked what method I use for finding auctions for cheap, good-quality clothing items. The answer is simple: learn to tailor your searches to what you desire. I personally use the following search on eBay Australia:

  1. Click the “Buy” navigation tab in the top right corner
  2. Under the “Clothing” subheading on the page, click on the “Women” subcategory
  3. Click on “Advanced Search” next to the search button on the auction page
  4. Use the following settings in your search:
    1. Items located in Australia only (to save on expensive overseas shipping costs)
    2. Items listed in Australian dollars only (to save on fees banks can charge for converting currencies)
    3. Items between $0AUD and $10AUD (postage not inclusive. Average postage for an item is about $5AUD, so with a maximum item price of $10AUD + postage charge of $5AUD, $15AUD is my spending limit on clothing items bought on eBay)
    4. Items listed as “New” only (You don’t want to go buying second-hand clothes on eBay as you can’t inspect the quality of the item yourself. DVDs and so on are a different matter.)
    5. And finally: Sort items by “Price + Postage: lowest first” (so you don’t end up buying an identical item at a greater price.)

The above will give you the parameters of your search – everything located in Australia, in Australian dollars, under $10AUD, in brand new condition. You can then tailor the search to your liking by listing brands you’re comfortable with. I tend to search for the brands listed below as the clothes of these labels are generally of good and durable quality, they’re well-known, they retail for over $100AUD a piece, yet the brands aren’t so big that counterfeited goods are a problem (e.g. Gucci, Vuitton): Country Road, Witchery, MNG, Tokito, Cue, Veronika Maine, Wish, Pilgrim, Review, Seduce, Wayne Cooper, Saba, Satch, FCUK, etc. Obviously the above is a list tailored to Australian clothing brands, but you can certainly apply the same logic to other countries as well. For instance, in the U.S, don’t search Forever 21, search Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.

Good brands, of good quality, at less than half the retail price. It’s not hard to do, but the key is not to go overboard with your bidding. Take these tips into account when considering an auction. When you’ve made the decision to bid, ask yourself: “How much am I willing to pay for an item like this?” For myself, it’s generally about $15AUD, so I subtract the postage (e.g. $5.70AUD), and bid the amount left over (in this case, $9.30AUD).

Then you leave the auction. You don’t touch it at all, you don’t check back on your progress. And if you’ve been outbid at the last minute, you don’t start bidding again to attempt to win the item back. By doing this, you rid yourself of the temptation to spend more than you originally planned, and thus eliminate the possibility of shopper’s regret. You stuck to your budget and even if you didn’t win that auction, there’s always plenty more to come. I bid on well over fifty auctions a week, but may only win one…yet the amount I save on that one auction is enough to make the time spent all worthwhile.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you find and win cheap, but good-quality clothing items on eBay.

7 Responses to “How To Buy Cheap Brand Clothing On EBay”

  1. Good tips! I’ve always wanted to buy clothing on eBay since I rarely get the opportunity + motivation to go shopping IRL. I’ll definitely give it a go!

    Reply: Oh, you’ll find it really easy to find bargains! There’s always a lot of size 6s and 8s auctioned in the brands I’ve listed – and they always go for just a couple of bucks a pop, cause not many people are that size! I find it harder to get things cause I’m a size 12, and half the population is a size 12. :S

    Belinda on August 13 2008 #

  2. Interesting. I’m going to have to keep all of this in mind.

    Erin on August 13 2008 #

  3. Great tips! I was a little confused at first because I went to ebay.com and not .com.au so the options were different. Now that I know what to do maybe I can score some bargains. Perhaps in the future you can write some tips on how you score such other (non-clothing) bargains.

    Bobbi-lee on August 13 2008 #

  4. Hmmm, I think I’ll be needing to use these tips!

    Shen-Shen on August 13 2008 #

  5. Fantastic tips! *runs off to ebay*

    Alexandra on August 13 2008 #

  6. Oooh thanks! That’s awesome. You’ve certainly developed a… hmm… eBay skill lol. The brands are really helpful too, I usually don’t know what kind of brands to look for since I don’t want cheap-trashy type of stuff, but bigger brands tend to be more expensive or counterfeit.
    And – “don’t look at it again” – I’ll have to take that in. I normally don’t bid whatsoever and if in the last minute or two it’s still under my budget, I try and ninja it hahaha!

    Jess on August 14 2008 #

  7. [...] How To Buy Cheap Brand Clothing On EBay [...]

    Jingwen » Blog Archive » Jingwen’s Best Of 2008 on December 30 2008 #

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