Lynn’s eBay Ezine Volume III, Issue Number 14

‘Clothing Bonanza!‘

by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’

So, last weekend my mom and I were checking out the sales in the paper. One of the ads in the paper was for a clothing sale in Rancho Mirage. We love Rancho Mirage and my mom specializes in clothing. The sale was scheduled to start at 8 am. The advertisement said, “Designer brand new clothing with tags. 100s of items. Great prices.”

And the ad went on and on. It almost sounded like a professional and I hate those sales. I said to my mom, “Even though it sounds like a pro, I have a feeling about this one. Let’s swing by early.” We drove by and found the sale. The garage was not open and it was 7:40 am. We decided to hit another one and come back.

As we were leaving and turning the corner, we saw a man putting up a sign for the sale. I said to my mom, “Pull up and lets ask him what time they are opening and if they have good stuff.”

Tip #1–Ask what they have and if it is good. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

The man was really nice and said it won’t open until 8 am exactly. We drove away and I told my mom, “I know that man from somewhere” I didn’t know if it was from baseball or church or somewhere else. I couldn’t figure it out and it drove me crazy.

We went to a few other sales and I said to my mom, “We need to go back to that clothing sale, I just have a feeling and you specialize in clothing.” So we went back and it was finally open.

Tip #2–Follow your hunches and your gut instincts.

There were racks and racks of clothing. The first table of clothing I walked up to had men’s shirts on it. The brand name was Salvatore and I knew that I had seen these shirts somewhere before.

It finally dawned on me, these shirts were left over from the Presbyterian church sale that we had attended two weeks prior and I had bought so much stuff! Finally, they had lowered the prices on all the designer clothes and we were about to score! Well, my mom was about to score. They had lowered the prices from $5 to $50 per outfit to $1 to $15.

I helped her with her shopping strategy because we don’t compete on clothing. What we did was go through every rack piece by piece looking for good brand names and new with tags. My mom found some St. Johns that were not new with tags but that is always OK at a good price. And $15 for a St. John is a great price. Then we went for all the new with tag items.

Tip #3–Have someone help you. Look for great brand names and new ones with tags.

We also introduced ourselves to the people running the sale and asked them if they remembered us from the prior sale. Of course, they did. They said, “You are the dish lady.” So they made a special place for my mom and me to put all the clothes.

Tip #4–Make your presence known and make friends with the sellers. This is key.

My mom ended up buying 70 pieces of clothing for $550. That was an average of $8 each. Not bad because some of the outfits were originally priced at $330. They wouldn’t take a check and we were a little short on cash, so we left a $100 deposit and ran to the bank.

Tip #5–If you don’t have enough cash, always leave a deposit and get a receipt.

As we left to get money at the bank, we asked them if they had any sheets to wrap the clothes up in and could we please keep the hangers. Surprisingly enough, the man that we had seen hanging up the garage sale signs, had old sheets in his car. My mom expertly wrapped up the clothes and we were off.

Tip #6–Carry old sheets in your car if you specialize in clothing and always ask to keep them on the hangers. That way you can immediately hang them up on your rolling racks when you get home.

The first week on eBay, my mom listed the best 8 pieces. She listed the St. John pieces and within that first week, had 1⁄2 of her money back–$275.

Tip #7–Always list the most expensive, best-selling items first to get the bulk of your investment back.

Here is a link to one of her items that sold for the most.