Priming For Prime Day

In just a few days it will be Amazon Prime Day (July 12th and 13th). I've been an Amazon Prime Member for a number of years and heavily relied on it during the pandemic. There have been plenty of articles and blog posts written about deals and deep discounts to lock into today, even before Prime Day officially starts. I haven't bought anything pre Prime Day and so far haven't eyed anything to buy when it officially takes place. That might be changing.

I was reminded about Prime Day two days ago when I shopped at Whole Foods. After I showed my Prime Membership via my iphone to the cashier and paid, the cashier thanked me for being a Prime Member and gave me a cute green mini zip top tote bag. (Tote bag is in the background of photo.) The goodies in the bag are shown below. Several coupons were also included. The vendors of these products probably pay to have these items included in the bags. Yet, this is a good way to have potential customers try these products as they might not be inclined to buy them right now.

It was a nice surprise to leave Whole Foods with a bag of stuff I didn't pay for! Now it is time to get myself primed for Amazon Prime Day.

Circular Fashion -- Maybe This Could Be It

In my previous posts I explained my experiences with reselling / consigning on different resale platforms, including on websites and in stores. My initial goal was to declutter my stuff. While I continue to devote only the weekends and a few hours in the evening during the week, I'm intrigued with the reselling process and striving to learn more about the reselling market place so I could become successful at it. This would still be a part time endeavor; but the aim is to "be good at it."

A few of the things I do to learn more about reselling includes reading articles about fashion and retailing. Much has been written about Circular Fashion and I appreciate the importance of it. In fact my initial goal of decluttering has branched out and hoping to do my part for Circular Fashion. This will be a long journey for me as I'm yet to buy anything "used" or sold through a resale platform. I'm warming up to it, though.

Another activity I like to do is see if there are identical items on resale platforms to those that I have sold. While I first look for (nearly) identical items when initially pricing, I also look for identical items after the item has sold as well. When I consigned to The Real Real, I was unable to set the prices for my items. So when the items sold on The Real Real I looked at other resale platforms to see if any of the identical items were sold there and the prices paid.

I recently decided to look for one of the items I consigned to The Real Real. It was Helmut Lang sleeveless dress. Original price $245, with the tags attached. The Real Real described my dress in "Pristine" condition, which it was! When the dress was initially posted on The Real Real the price was $60. After at least one discount the dress sold for $30. My commission was $9. Yes $9! The dress was a few years old and definitely not a "hot item." Maybe I could have done better if I sold through another platform. But it no longer took up space in my closet, someone bought it and moved into Circular Fashion. This is a win! The image below is the posting on The Real Real:

The other day while looking at an internet resale platform I searched for the identical Helmut Lang dress mentioned above. The next image shows what I found. An identical Helmut Lang dress! Priced at $65, much more than the $30 mine sold for on The Real Real.

This seller on the resale platform included this hang tag image, proving the dress was purchased from The Real Real. While I don't know if this is the dress,I consigned to The Real Real (and probably it is not) it got me thinking that if it were and I decided I really wanted to wear it, I could buy it. This would be a great literal example of Circular Fashion!

I'm still working on figuring out what items sell best on which resale platform. Stay tuned!

RESELLING ON MERCARI

Reselling continues. Finally focused on Mercari and made a sale within a few days. I hadn't paid much attention to Mercari because the packaging and postage procedures were not as simple as Poshmark's. With Poshmark the seller can use the USPS Priority Mail cardboard boxes, which made it quick and easy to get the package to the post office. With Mercari I had to calculate the postage (Mercari has all the tools to guide you step by step to do this) and buy a box. I like to send the items out within one day of my sale. But since I had to buy a box and could not get to the store so fast the item was shipped in two days. Mercari has a direct communication link between seller and buyer so I let the buyer know the shipping would be delayed a day. The buyer was understanding.

One of the unique aspects of Mercari when compared with Poshmark is the buyer and seller can rate each other. The person may click on a number of qualities such as friendly, communications, understanding. For this first sale my buyer gave me this 5 star review and listed these attributes; friendly, reliable and great packaging.

Turns out my Mercari experience wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be. In fact it was smooth sailing. (Once I bought that box!) When I have vacation time I'll spend time with this platform.

I've now sold through a range of reselling methods: The Real Real, Poshmark, Mercari, ThredUp and Crossroads Trading. I've a few things lined up to test out Tradesy and Rebag. From my seller's point of view, I believe certain items fare better on certain sites. Knowing which sites to sell the items on is THE question I hope to solve! Stay tuned.