Ch...ch..ch..ch...changes

Contrary to my post two years ago on donating clothes, I've found that good habits take a while to set and previous habits can just...pour acid on any new roots you set down.

Then, I was feeling down about my capacity to monetize my clothing that I just haven't been wearing. At the time, it wasn't so bad and actually quite convenient to just donate my clothes. I was more focused on making progress towards paying off my bills, not using my credit card and just wanting to focus more on the house. What changed?

It's easy for the purposes of creating space, clearing room, but if I'm buying clothes at a higher rate than I'm getting rid of - something's gotta give. It makes it harder to just continually donate if sometimes I'm donating things I just bought (Thank you American Apparel for your liquidation sale and your wonky sizing).

My previous go-to Like Twice was bought out by eBay. eBay had gone downhill for small scale sellers like myself whenever they started cutting out negative reviews for buyers - I would get people who'd bid on my auctions just to tell me that they had no intention of paying and they would face no consequences. What was left? Poshmark.

It's nice how these things evolve. Poshmark is a nice solution to the problems of eBay. You list your item and if someone decides they want it, they essentially pay an internet middleman who holds the money until they get the item and accept that they receive it in the noted condition. When they accept or 3 days of no response pass, you get paid. This is not so bad.

As of now, I've listed 5 items from my American Apparel binge and they're now not just sitting around my room taking up space, but being exposed to people who might like them enough to buy them.

Now, I'm just trying this out. It's my full intention that if things don't sell after a couple months - mid November - I'm just going to take down the listing and donate the items. I'd feel less bad over that arrangement because at least I could say I tried.

Here's My Poshmark Closet.

EtseBay

Here is a little background on my clothes shopping:

Around the time I actually developed an interest in clothing, my upbringing led me to thrift stores and liquidation type places like Ross. Searching through places like that was relatively easy because the relative percentages of clothing my size were very low compared to size 8 and 10. This was during my awkward years around ages 11 to 14. I wanted to find clothes, but I did not always have the patience for the treasure hunting process that would be involved in the places mentioned above. It was tiring.

Around age 13, I got my first eBay account and while I was just messing around increasing my action figure collection, it would later occur to me that eBay would be the solution to my treasure hunting dilemma. I experienced the growth and development of the internet firsthand, as such I had to become more familiar with ways to use it effectively like using boolean search terms on engines. When applied to eBay, I had the environment of the thrift store with the convenience of a normal store and the treasure hunting became so much more convenient. Really, it was more like a consignment shop. I recall telling my computer maintenance teacher how I bought the vest I was wearing at the time on eBay and how it's so much easier to find clothes now. There was a convenience fee called shipping and handling, but it was still a good deal overall. This was around 2002-2003, about 9 years ago.

Fast forward to the present and I find that eBay is no longer the convenient market place it once was. I see more big label stores using an eBay store as an outlet. It's like a giant online Ross or Marshalls (that's not bad, but I'd prefer going to places like that in real life rather than online) I read complaint stories from sellers about the new policies for feedback. I mostly see a lot of mass quantities of "buy it now" items. I recall a time when eBay felt like a nice exchange between two people, not too different from a flea market even though those two people were on different continents.

I thought I was in the know when it came to eBay, but I haven't sold anything for two years. When I've talked to my sister about the selling on eBay (she's a more recent seller) here's her input:

"Buyers try to commit fraud saying someone jacked their account"
"Paypal doesn't want to reimburse my money"

Sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers as it is viewed as "backlash" and retaliation.

I can understand that eBay wants to create an easier buyer experience and that's understandable, but it also creates the atmosphere for irresponsible buyers to develop. It also creates a very negative atmosphere for sellers. Who would want to sell in an environment where you have to send and item and wait 21 days to get paid? Even worse is how a buyer would file some kind of complaint upon receiving the item and result in you not getting paid for the item you sent and shipping you paid for. What kind of business is that?

I generally have a good reputation on eBay, but I'm not sure it is something that I'd want to maintain with this change in policy.

The second phase of my cloth buying habits involved my buying clothes that I wanted at retail prices. It's ok, but sometimes it's just hard to find exactly what you want and in my situation, right now that happens to be a rose (pink) colored leather miniskirt. The most reasonably priced retail one happened to be from American Apparel in their vintage stock and it comes with a catch:

American Apparel Vintage Leather Skirts

You can only pick a color scheme, but not the exact color of the skirt you want. If I pick pink, there's a 25% chance I'll get the skirt I want.Upon trying to email the people at American Apparel about this issue, my email had to try to send and resend to the email listed multiple times before giving up. I must say that the way clothes buying is evolving is really not my cup of tea.

Going back to eBay, I discover something that has been lingering at the corner of my computer screen. While just searching on google for the my elusive pink leather skirt, I came across Etsy. I have an account, a few of my friends have shops. There have been a few cool things I've found on Etsy but never bought (fiscal responsibility you know). Upon finding not only one, but two pink leather mini skirts at prices reasonable beyond what I've found on eBay. It's like my teenage convenient online thrift shop has been opened up again. I get the opportunity to interact with people again, practice great customer service again. I get to enjoy a more legitimate online marketplace where the business makes sense.

Death of a small-time Salesman

One of the things that really sucks about being in middle school is coming to the realization that having money is fun and that you're too young to do anything. I remember getting involved with eBay back in 1999.

Yes. That would put me at about age 13. They didn't require a credit card to gain membership, all you had to do was sign up and all I had to do was alter my birthday to 1981. You did need a credit card to sell things and after my dad repeatedly denied me the use of his credit card, I just resorted to the credit card of my eldest sister. My ability to sell on eBay opened up monetary doors for me. I didn't have to wait until my birthday, Christmas, or New Years for money from my relatives, I could make my own money. I was able to sell a set of video tapes for $50, just in the nick of time before VHS tapes pretty much lost all of their value and it became hard to sell them at $0.50 each. I was able to raise about $200 selling my figure collection to get money for college. Money came in all forms, it was nice when it was immediate, through Paypal, but it was also nice receiving checks, money orders, and cash through the mail.

I'm glad I started selling then and that I have some kind of history now because this modern eBay definitely makes it hard to make an honest buck these days. Paypal is basically the only option for payment both ways, receiving and sending. Paypal hold your money for a certain number of days forcing new sellers to front the money to send packages. I don't know who they're catering to, but it's not the little guy, that's for sure. Maybe it's because I've lived in Austin for so long that I appreciate local business. It's kind of depressing going through eBay and not even seeing crude home photos of junk that people don't want anymore. I know a lot of the new regulations had to do with bad seller practices and is seems that sellers are being punished with the new feedback policy and Paypal money holds, consequently, buyers are now instigating bad practices as well, but a business wouldn't dare punish the buyer. What happened?