August 16th, 2006
Denee’s eBay fashion scoop
Introducing Denee - the new fashion gun on the site with an interesting take on buying style on eBay
Model wearing Alice McCall love is a drug dress
It’s come to my attention that there’s a lot of money to be made on eBay. And no, I’m not talking about stay-at-home mums who’ve set up virtual shops to sell homemade earrings and baby clothes.
No, I’m talking about savvy entrepreneurs, most of whom work in fashion and PR, that are supplementing their otherwise meagre incomes by selling second hand garb and sold-out designer threads at ridiculously trumped up prices.
I stumbled on this phenomenon by accident earlier in the year. After wasting an inordinate amount of my former employer’s time surfing eBay, I noticed the key to selling second-hand bits and pieces was to make sure their accompanying photos were incredibly well-styled.
The Litmus Test: A ‘vintage’ dress I’d bought from Glebe Markets for $25. I set up my digital camera, changed into the dress, styled it with a tooled leather belt, some brown slouch boots and a long dangly necklace, and snapped myself wearing the outfit. Then I listed the dress on eBay, my face neatly obscured from the photograph, and waited for a response. Seven days later I’d made a cool $145. TOO EASY!
But that’s not the only way to make a quick buck. Anyone who frequents eBay often will know that some pieces from certain local designers are in hot demand. And once they’ve sold out at retail level, you can expect the re-sale value on eBay to double. At least.
Case in point: Alice McCall’s Summer 05/06 “Love is a Drug” dress. It retailed for approximately $300, and sold out before Christmas last year thanks to an unprecedented amount of fashion editorial coverage. Now, almost a year later, the dress continually sells for no less than $500 on eBay. I’m sure Alice McCall only made a hundred or so of the frocks, but judging by the frequent appearances they make on eBay, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same dresses are being passed around the country. If the trend continues, every girl in Australia will have briefly owned one at least once by 2010.
Keen to get my hands on such a coveted piece of Aussie fashion history, I bid on a white size 8 recently, but was disappointed to find it de-listed just 24 hours before the auction was due to end. When I emailed to ask why, the seller told me she’d taken it off eBay because the bids didn’t look like reaching her desired price of $650. SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS! For a dress that originally retailed for $300!
Thinking I’d learned from the experience, I made a beeline for David Jones earlier this month to grab the new Alice McCall Space Invader dress, which I predict will be a hit among the young and fabulous girls of Sydney this summer. But alas, it was long gone. In fact, it took just one day for the dress to sell-out on www.ozdesigner.com as well.
Already, it has popped up on eBay for more than it’s retail price. Now, given it’s been in store for less than a month, I seriously doubt the seller is sick of her purchases already. Methinks she’s simply quick to pick up on the next big thing. Damn her! If I only I had been quicker!
Click for more: Gossip
Leave a Comment