eBay prices

[Daisy Buchanan]

Needed to revive this sad thread

It's getting really bad out there. I have lost 4 dresses in the past 3 days, and they went for unfathomable prices. The bidding wars in the last minute of the auctions caused the items price to sky rocket. This is so frustrating. Who are all these people who suddenly need a dress from the 30's? Only 6 months ago, I would happily pay $75 -$100 for a 30's evening gown. Now they are at least $300. The prices of day dresses has gone up even higher too. This is so frustrating. I hope this Hollywood trend of buying vintage will go out as quickly as it came in, so we can get back to being able to afford the outfits we long for.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I have found that prices are climbing, especially for certain items, like platform shoes, doll hats, and even day dresses. It's a bit annoying, but I have scored great items for very low prices while similar items went for absurdly high prices. Just the luck of the draw, I suppose.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I just want to know who is buying up all of these dresses. How many people do you know in your area who are dressing in vintage? I only know of a few, the ladies from Boston that I've met on the lounge. With the way these dresses are flying of the rack so to speak, you'd think you'd see people out dressed a little better. Not saying that people who don't wear vintage don't dress well. Just saying that I see more people in shorts and t-shirts than in pretty day dresses from the 30's and 40's. They are really driving the prices up. Even the local vintage shop, that used to have amazing prices, has raised her prices by at least 20%, and every time I go into her shop, she is packed with people. She told me that last spring it was in style to wear a vintage dress to the prom. She sold out of all of her 30's and 40's formal wear in 2 days! I just hope it calms down a little bit, or I'm gonna have to really start making my own vintage clothes (taking lessons, I'm really not good at it )

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Prices and demand were higher with swing was very popular in the 90s as well. I do think that people who live in areas where vintage is more expensive (like California and New York), contribute to the increase in prices. They may even think they are getting a good deal, because a similar item might sell for much more in a local shop. I know of at least one shop owner in England who buys clothing for her shop, marking up the prices once she receives the item (she doesn't spend a great deal on these items, though.)

Also, I think collectors impact the prices--I have seen platform shoes sell for $300-400 or more (and I even believe that an upscale designer bought quite a few for study purposes, and then copied them for his line.)

And of course, vintage clothing is a limited supply. In some cases, it is harder and harder to find certain items, which will again drive the price up.

In some sense I enjoy it when the fashion trends lean towards vintage looks, as it means you will see a greater variety of modern clothing that can be adapted to fit your wardrobe. However, when it becomes the 'cool' thing to do, you get a lot of trendoids snapping up vintage clothing just for the heck of it.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Also, I think collectors impact the prices--I have seen platform shoes sell for $300-400 or more (and I even believe that an upscale designer bought quite a few for study purposes, and then copied them for his line.)

We have a big vintage dealer here in Boston, Bobby, and he is friends with Ralph Lauren. At the begining of every season Ralph goes to Bobby's warehouse, buys a bunch of vintage clothes and uses them as inspiration for his new product lines. The two are actually opening a store together. Half vintage, the other half vintage inspired Ralph Lauren.
I'm glad too to see a return to this style.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I just want to know who is buying up all of these dresses.

Since I sell vintage menswear, my response may be off, but I'll throw it in anyway.

My eBay buyers live in the U.S.A., Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. My Japanese and Swiss buyers have generally paid the highest prices.

It's possible that the folks winning those '30s dresses are from other parts of the world. Unless you travel to New Zealand, Japan, etc., you may never get to see these bidders wearing their vintage wins.


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

At the begining of every season Ralph [Lauren]goes to Bobby's warehouse, buys a bunch of vintage clothes and uses them as inspiration for his new product lines.

Yup -- Ralph Lauren's "designers" have been buying vintage clothing and copying it (more or less faithfully) for decades. I don't think that Ralph Lauren has made anything original since 1980.

.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

My friend is an eBay seller, and she has sold items to Betsey Johnson (including a pattern that was also copied faithfully.)

I want to say that Marc Jacobs was one designer who was copying 1940s shoes for awhile. Jill Stuart had some dead ringers, too.

I recall seeing Cate Blanchett on the cover of Vogue around the time The Aviator came out--she was wearing a Ralph Lauren dress that looked straight out of the 1930s.

 

[decodoll]

My friend is an eBay seller, and she has sold items to Betsey Johnson (including a pattern that was also copied faithfully.)

I saw Betsey Johnson at one of the Vintage Expos not long ago, must have been last September. She was buying up a storm. Also saw Chris Isaak at one a few years ago. :swoon: You never know who you might be bidding against...

 

[Lauren]

Yeah, Betsey Johnson frequents the Santa Monica show too. It's fun seeing her walking around. I just love her.

 

[Ccc]

What is too high a price?

It is too high a price if I can pay someone to make a similar outfit, which actually fits, in the fabric I choose, for less than what the shop is asking.

This has happened to me several times; therefore, I rarely purchase vintage.

Ccc

 

[millinerymiss]

e-bay fraud

I have a friend who sells alot on ebay. Well... ladies as you suspected there is a reason that the prices have skyrocketed. The scam is to list an item and have a friend bid on it to jack it up. Then when sold relist it. This gives the seller an advantage. NOT FAIR at all. I'm seeing this more and more. Not sure what can be done about it but to boycot e-bay... food for thought.

 

[TOTTIE]

Sweaters are getting harder and harder to sell, especially if they are not decorated.
Lizzie

huh! I spend my time desperately trying to find sweaters that are not decorated. I hate beading. And sequins.

I, too, can see this from both sides. I do find it interesting that people expect to be able to buy a vintage item of clothing for a fraction of what they would spend on a new item. So, I feel a little annoyed if I have to spend more than £30 on a vintage dress - but that's the LEAST you'd have to pay to buy a dress new in a shop -- and for something I like, I might be looking at twice that.

This is not true with other sorts of antiques - and the thing is, whilst low prices make vintage clothes inexpensive for us, it also makes them disposable to other people, who regard them as a way of dressing fashionably, cheaply. And then they throw them away.

So all in all, I can see a rise in prices (not a huge one, but an appreciation that vintage clothes are worth something, along with a vigorous resale market via ebay which makes it *worth people's while* to sell stuff on when they get bored with it) is not completely a bad thing -- if that means that vintage clothes are given their real value and cared for.

 

[Viviene]

Millinerymiss,

Spend some time on the Ebay vintage discussion board and you'll see that the shill bidding that goes on at Ebay is killing the market for the legitimate vintage sellers. Ebay doesn't care because they make a bundle allowing this. Recently the most notorious seller that does this was suspended, however, she'll just re-register under another name and already has several other IDs as it is. It's why my store is no longer located on Ebay. The venue at Specialist Auctions dot com is moderated by myself and Margaret Bolger and we will not allow this to happen. That is why Specialists Auctions has moderators and co-moderators. It is in our best interests to keep this kind of dishonesty from happening. Auctions and set prices are offered and you can have a haggle (make an offer) to the sellers as well. At least you know you will get a fair shake there.

 

[Kaela]

Yes, this is something that's been driving me crazy!
I'm sure you ladies were like I was a few years back, being vintage, better dressed than anybody and much, much more inexpensively dressed, too. Now, why, I'd be lucky to just afford a couple dresses in one shopping spree where I used to buy five or six!
About six years ago, I bought a lovely art-deco 1920's diamond ring, and I absolutely loved it, it cost me $150 and was a real steal, and at the time, there were so many vintage rings that were cheap, I guess I took it for granted, now you can't even sneeze at something like the ring I got without it being some exhorbatant amount!
Even the physical thrift stores, they're too expensive, or all the good stuff's been snatched up!

 

[Miss Dottie]

I was talking about this to a friend who owns a vintage clothing store and she said that it's not necessariliy supply and demand as much as it's just getting harder and harder to find vintage clothing. There is a limited supply.

It took all of my energy not to break down in tears right there!

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a very good point, and it's one that applies to any Golden Era commodity, not just clothes. The passage of time is the real issue here -- when the first vintage boom occured in the '70s, the Era was only 30 years or so in the past, and there were still millions of untouched attic caches of prime material to be found. It's safe to say a pretty good percentage of those caches were cleaned out then, when their original owners were middle-aged folks astounded that anyone would want all that junk cluttering up the place.

Now, though, how many 80-somethings are left out there, still living in the same place they did in the forties, and still sitting on trunks full of clothes and things they haven't touched since then? Not too many at all. Instead, most of the vintage on the market has already been bought and sold by collectors more than once since it first came down out of the attic, and with every sale there's another markup. And upward and upward go the prices as more and more collectors chase after less and less material...

 

[Miss Dottie]

So true, LizzieMaine!

And then there was the swing revival in the nineties that blew out a lot of vintage stock too. (We all remember the Gap ad...) So many people who dipped their toe into vintage style then bought up a lot of beautiful pieces, but then in 2000-2003 a lot of it was back on the market, although more worse for the wear thanks to the pounding of lots of dancing.

A friend of mine who used to teach swing dancing in SF has a heap of beautiful vintage dresses that she blew out the armpits and ripped to shreds after a night on the town dancing. This is why she ended up buying her clothes at places like Stop Staring because they could live up to the wear and tear of dancing.

Living on the coast in SF, the prices for a nice vintage dress can be rather spendy--$40 to $100 and often not even in the best condition, which is a real bummer. My sweetie, Skillbilly, has often proposed the idea of doing a road trip across the US stopping by small towns to check out their vintage shops in hopes of finding some lovely pieces. Ever the optimist, I believe that somewhere in the mid-west, there is a little old lady sitting on an attic full of size 12/14 dresses from the forties just waiting for me!

 

[Cameron]

I had to delurk for this --

Ever the optimist, I believe that somewhere in the mid-west, there is a little old lady sitting on an attic full of size 12/14 dresses from the forties just waiting for me!

Hang on to that hope. When I was living in a small town in Missouri, there were regularly great vintage deals. If I think about all of the great items I had to pass up, I just want to cry, especially the hats that were not only in brand new condition but also in their original boxes. Everything from gloves to stockings can be found in thirft stores, antique shops, and yard sales up there. Sometimes the prices are high, but more often than not I found them to be insanely low. ($5 for a hat? $3 for 5 pairs of unworn vintage stockings? SOLD!!) I don't miss the icy winters, but I certainly miss finding those vintage bargains. :cry:

 

[inge77]

eBay prices too high!!!

All I can say is, I completely agree with the original question. The majority of eBay prices are way too high!!! And I do wonder, since I see no one at all dressed in Edwardian clothes, nor in Victorian petticoats, who are the people buying these up, driving up the auction prices so high that I have to give up on item after item? And I live in a city of a million and a half, with tons of vintage shops. When I go to NYC, I never see anyone dressed in antique clothes, either. So what gives? I am currently semi-boycotting eBay, and right off the top of my head, that's the only thing I can think to do about it.