FashBlog.com

If you're anything like me, then you have at least a few friends who gush about the great bargains they've found on eBay, the Internet auction site (www.ebay.com). Even if you've never visited the eBay website, chances are that you've at least heard of them. Remember a few months ago when a woman sold a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich that purportedly bore the image of the Virgin Mary? Well, she sold it on eBay (for a whopping $28,000). The auction site brings together millions of buyers and sellers from all over the world. The result is that you can buy almost anything you can think of, including clothes.

What are the advantages of buying clothes on eBay? For one thing, you have access to items that you might otherwise have never seen if not for eBay. For example, many people operate virtual eBay stores either as a way to supplement their incomes or as a full-time job. It costs a lot of money and time to set up a physical retail store. It also takes a lot of inventory to stock a "real" store. But when you run an eBay store, you don't have to deal with those requirements. You just sell what you have on hand in your own home. This is great for people who make their own clothes. It gives them a chance to get their designs out in the public eye without worrying about many of the marketing aspects that traditional designers have to deal with. This gives you an opportunity to find truly original clothes at reasonable prices. If you are tired of retail stores and off-the-rack fashion, but at the same time don't want to pay exorbitant prices for top-of-the-line originals eBay just might be what you are looking for.

Another advantage to buying clothes on eBay is low prices. You can often find name-brand items that are selling on eBay for a lot less than you would pay at the mall. For example, I bought an authentic J. Crew sweater on eBay for $19.99 when it was going for $34.99 at the J. Crew store at my local mall. How does this happen? Isn't the eBay seller losing money on that deal? Well, I thought so too, at first. But no one would willingly lose money just so I can score a bargain, right? I did a bit of research and discovered that the most common reason that people are able to do this is because different branches of the same store hold sales at different times in different parts of the country. So while my local J. Crew in Chicago is selling sweaters at $34.99, the J. Crew in Los Angeles might have those same sweaters on clearance for $14.99. The eBay seller in Los Angeles scoops up as many sweaters as she can, and sells them for $19.99, which amounts to a profit of $5 per sweater. That's a pretty good margin for a home business or hobby.

Shopping for clothes on eBay is not always that easy or straightforward, of course. There are several disadvantages that you should be aware of. First of all, on any given day, there are quite literally tens of thousands of clothing items up for auction on eBay. Because of the sheer volume, I personally find browsing to be a bit difficult. It's better to go to eBay if you know exactly what you want. That way, you can just type in the item description in the search box and have only the relevant listings appear on your screen.

Another disadvantage is that most of the listings on eBay follow an auction style. So, you are not guaranteed to get the item at the price that you want. Other people can inflate the price with their bids and if you don't bid high enough, you will lose the item. This usually happens with the most popular and trendy clothes. For example, I have seen Abercrombie & Fitch clothing sell on eBay for more than the retail price found at Abercrombie stores. If a shirt, for example, is a particularly hot item and is sold out in the stores, then people are willing to pay a premium (that is, a higher price) on eBay just to be able to get the item. It's the equivalent of paying a scalper twice the face value of a concert ticket in order to see your favorite band perform live at a sold-out event.

One more thing you have to watch out for on eBay is the reputation of the seller. Luckily, eBay has a pretty good feedback system, so you can check out what other buyers had to say about their past dealings with the seller. If a seller gets consistently negative feedback, then you know you better steer clear of him or her and buy your clothes somewhere else. Some reasons for negative feedback include: excessive shipping and handling charges; wrong item sent; item never sent; or fake merchandise (the seller tried to pass off an obviously fake Gucci item for the real deal). Because you can read the seller's feedback, the truly bad seeds don't last very long. I have bought countless items from eBay and have not had a bad experience yet (knock on wood).

While buying clothes on eBay might not be for everyone, I recommend that you try it at least once. Start with a low-priced item, such as a t-shirt, in order to get your feet wet and to see if you like the way eBay works. It's a nice alternative to the mall or to the websites of national retail chains. You never know what kind of great bargains or truly one-of-a-kind originals you will find on eBay.