Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Sam, I think you’re spot on. I actually had the same misperception myself even through the first 1-2 years of reselling. I felt bad about swiping up the like new ll bean boots from the rummage sale and cherry picking all the good stuff from the thrifts. But I finally realized (with the help of many posts on SL), that a) there’s more than enough stuff to go around for everyone to have to wear – piles and piles and piles of it, b) the poor that really need the clothes aren’t often at the rummage sales, at least not when I go – they are probably working, c) the point you made about finding the right size/style, and d) your point about some resellers need the “help”, too – the thrifts help resellers make a living.
Now if we could just get some mainstream journalists to write about this to educate the reseller haters…
01/12/2020 at 6:36 pm in reply to: Anyone familiar with this lamp/light part….antique sewing machine maybe?? #72833To me it looks a little bit like one of those downward pointing lights in old movie theaters that were affixed to the sides of the aisle seats so you can make your way up/down the stairs even in the dark.
01/12/2020 at 6:32 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality? #72832Mike,
Believe me, if I had your particular education, experience and biz acumen, as well as physical ability to pack so many large and/or fragile items (medical issues prevent the latter), I’d follow you right (mostly) out of the clothing market. But given the circumstances I have to work with, I’ll just ride out clothing as long as it lasts, mixing in a fair amount of small/medium hard goods as I’m able. I hope to share some fun successes in hard(-ish) goods sometime soon on one of the Wednesday what sold posts.01/12/2020 at 5:37 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality? #72830Mike, thanks for your polite and thoughtful response. You say you didn’t comment on BOLO lists, but you responded with a strong “Amen” to the post/comment on BOLO lists, laziness and incompetence. I guess that was not your intention, but that’s the way it read to me. Anyway, my comment on positivity/negativity was not made in response to just one comment/post by you or anybody, but to what has become a string of comments whose focus seems to be on how stupid and lazy and wrong-minded many clothing resellers apparently are, and I found it quite a downer, particularly since I do and/or support some of the “lazy” and “wrong” things that were mentioned, and they work for me. Re: your J&R-based BOLO list – I’m totally with you on that one; wouldn’t be where I am now without it.
01/12/2020 at 4:17 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality? #72824BOLO lists only exist due to the laziness of resellers.
What some people call lazy, other people call efficient, or just a difference in preference. Personally, I prefer to watch several carefully chosen youtubers to learn about what styles and brands are “in” now, rather than doing lots of ebay solds searches and following fashion blogs. It’s much faster and a lot less boring for me.
I’ve enjoyed Scavenger Life for a number of years b/c the vibe here has always been positive, and all about “do whatever you find works for you”. Can we try to keep it that way? Calling people lazy, incompetent, clueless, blind – not helpful.
01/11/2020 at 5:05 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality? #72799They don’t know how to market the items they have for sale because they don’t actually know what they are selling.
almasty,
What do you mean by this statement? Could you maybe provide an example? I must be one of those dumb clothing resellers, because to me a north face down jacket is just that, and when I list it as that on ebay with clear photos and measurements, it sells for a good price. What kind of marketing are you talking about that I’m not doing?re: sharing of information (posting about where and how to find items to re-sell), that’s actually one of tenets Scavenger Life was initially based on – the sharing of all that information to help others and create community, with the underlying notion of abundance – that there’s enough for everyone. J&R shared (and continue to share) a LOT of information about their entire shopping-to-shipment process and I’m grateful to have benefitted from that.
01/11/2020 at 4:55 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 444: Is Cross Posting The New Reality? #72798I don’t understand why, but the Instagram resellers are telling each other to have youtube channels as well as an additional stream of income.
The reason why is because they can’t make enough money selling clothes. I sell a lot of clothes and watch some of the youtubers, and many of them seem okay with reselling tons of items in the $12-20 range (that they got for almost free at the bins), which to me screams “sweatshop”.
One non-clothing reseller (Real Nifty Vintage) posted a video where he was really open about the fact that the low-value vintage ceramic items that he sells just don’t make him that much money (per item), and his youtube income helps him stay in that business (of reselling the vintage stuff) that he enjoys.
“GW realizes they can’t … build the infrastructure to support a true reselling operation like individuals can.”
They haven’t so far, but what’s to prevent them from getting their act together and doing so in the future? That is the worry in the back of my head, since I’m not diversified like J&R are with other types of income streams. If they’re willing to make the investment and wait a little while for the return, they could hire away a high-level manager/executive from ThredUp, say, to grow shopgoodwill.com into a major player. No?
Don’t know myself, but here are a couple of links to info on this topic:
Let us know what you find out and decide re: List Perfectly. I’ve heard some Poshmark youtubers mention it, but it hasn’t been brought up by anyone on Scavenger Life before (that I can recall).
The_SEAM_Store, thanks so much for the tip! I know you know your high-end clothes… It is indeed the classic knit, made in USA. I had no idea they had wool in them (there is no material content tag in this particular garment); that is very useful to know. Maybe I’ll go with it as-is.
I wasn’t criticizing or disagreeing with anything in your post. I was just trying to point out an additional misleading thing about these organizations.
Samaritan Ministries home page says “Join the community of Christians helping Christians with health care.”
Well, I’m Christian, so I decided to look into it. (Merriam-webster.com defines “Christian” as: one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ).
Well, turns out Samaritan has a much much narrower definition of what a Christian is, so I find just that simple tag line on their home page very misleading. And then I saw the pre-existing condition exclusion and that turned me off completely.
Also the word “Christian” is misleading. It is only for a certain type of Christian – as they define it.
But if it works for you and you are their type of Christian, go for it.
“with as much stuff as they get for free, they need to keep things moving.”
Two of the thrift stores I go to (one Salvation Army, one independent local charity thrift) have finally figured this out. The Salvation Army used to be overflowing with stuff, and now that they’ve lowered prices back down, things keep moving and there’s at least 50% less stuff in the store. Which is great, b/c that means I’m not looking over the exact same stuff over and over again for months and months. The indy thrift’s new manager now has a 70% sale running almost continuously on almost everything in the store, and it’s still packed. I think it’s going to take a while for people to catch on and start coming back in to this store again, b/c prices have been high for so long.
Hopefully this reversal of the pricing trend will catch on in other places, too .
Yeah, those aberrant ampersands really get to me, too. 😉
-
AuthorPosts