The article "How to Buy Used Baby Clothes Online" is about family, it was created by Sharlene Rollins.
Three are multitudes of ways to purchase used clothing for your
baby. In this article I will cover only the online options
available in the hopes that it will help you to maximize your
spending money with the least amount of hassle, stress or risk.
I hope to cover some of the key issues of purchasing used clothes
online such as private sales versus online stores, the use of
PayPal and other forms of payment, purchasing through ebay and
non-ebay auctions or non-auctions alike, online classifieds and
more all in the hopes that you will beneift from some of the
things I have learned and avoid the mistakes that I as well as
others have made.
First of all let's talk a bit aobut where to find used baby
clothes online from private sellers. There are some areas on the
web which allow you to post used clothing ads such as ebay and
classified sites.
Some classifeid or "for sale" sites are even
specialized in either family or baby related items. Ebay, for
those of us who are familiar but not necessarily all knowing
about it, is a giant online auction with items being posted
constantly in all possible fields and topics. Those selling can
choose to list their items in an auction format in which the
sky's the limit.
Bids can start as low as one penny or they can
choose to invite human being to pucrhase the items out right by using
a buy now feature in which they set a cost for their items. As
a general rule the buyer pays all shipping costs on top of the
selling cost and most payments are made through PayPal, which I
will coevr later.
Baby clothing on ebay tends to be mostly new with or without
tags attached and is either sold in batches of items known as
"lots" (grouped by gender and size) or individually as outfits.
Since I am focusing on used baby itmes let's discuss those.
Batches of baby clothing on ebay tend to get bid very high as
there is a seemingly large number of human being wanting to buy in
this way and very few meeting the demand. I have found that
items and btaches of clothing of any note on ebay tend to sky
rocket in cost above what is reasonable for used clothing --
particularly if they toss in a couple of name brands such as Gap, Osh
Kosh, Gymboree etc... and more often than not a bidding war
ensues and you're inevitably outbid or wosre you get caught up
and spend more than you'd originally expected for items you
haven't even seen and have no quality guarantee!
Auction and classified or selling sites other than ebay can be
very chancy -- since ebay is established it has the ability to
set down rules which keep most dishonest human being out while the
smaller sights haven't the same pull with those posting. Quite
often these sites (this doesn't really apply to local
purchasing) are riddled with human being who are no longer allowed to
post on ebay for one reason or a second. I have had experiences
myself in which items promised ended up being fewer than what
I'd paid for and set a cost based entirely on quantity! I can't
tell you how upset that made me, and what was worse -- I was
informed that three of the items had small stains when in truth
about 50 fell into the stained category. So what had originally
been a good deal turned out to be very disappointing!
There are of course no guarantees with a private seller, no
return policy or customer service after the sale is closed and
once the sale is complete you must find a new seller down the
road when you need clothing again and you run the risks of
stumbling across a swindle or a sour deal every time.
One rule to follow in all private sales is to use a traceable
method of payment like PayPal. PayPal is a third party which
will ensure payment and receipt of product from both parties. Do
not use Western Union in any online transactions, or any other
non traceable forms of payment! Tehre is no guarantee you'll
ever get the items you paid for when you use this method as it
is meant to be untraceable!
So now let's discuss the second option of purchasing used baby
clothes online -- the non private sellers or online used baby
clothing stores.
There are over 50 stores currently running
online who specialize in selling used baby clothing. As with all
things online there are stores which are shabbily run due to
poor web design skills and such to no fualt on the part of the
store, they just don't have the skills to make the process
simple and enjoyable for you. They have great items and
competitive pirces and if you don't mind a little extra effort
when placing an order they do have more security than the
average private seller -- especially since you know where they
are going to be when you need them.
There are a handful of sites
which are a little better for service - for example you do not
need to email them detailed descriptions of the items you'd
like, mail them a money order or some such and then wait for
them to receive it before they even send you the items these
sites often have PayPal as an option and some even have shopping
carts if a little confusing to use. There are an even smaller
number of high service sights who offer credit card payment
options, low shipping costs and things similar to those offered
by online stores in genearl. Quite a couple of of all three levels of
sites have quality guarantees for a week or so after you've
received your order -- one even offers a full year quality
guarantee! This ensures that the items you buy from them have
been inspected thoroughly by human being who have a more universal
understanding of the words "in great condition" and it is in
their best interest to saitsfy as they ideally would like you to
come back and tell others! Shopping with these stores can be fun
and you can save tons while getting the quality you're looking
for!
Should you choose the more dangerous route of shopping through
private sellers with ebay and non ebay sites please take care
and remember to never use a non traceable form of payment, don't
be afraid to ask numerous questions -- if something seems off in
their responses trust your gut -- there will always be another
seller. Should you choose to explore the option of purchasing
through an online used baby clothing store I wish you all the
fun of shopping for baby clothes at bargain prices (doesn't that
mean you can buy even more?!) with none of the hassle or risks
associated with privtae sellers and the added benefit of quality
guarantees! Happy Shopping! I will cover more on this issue in
later posts.
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