True-life confessions: What's your worst eBay purchase ever?
People often ask me about my eBay habit, and what they basically want to know is how to foolproof the buying from an online auction process. Like "How do you know it will fit?" (Answer: Use a measuring tape), or "How do you know what to search for?" (Answer: Spend an embarrassing amount of time on the site), or "How can you trust people to send you stuff?" (Answer: You can't.) But the truth is, even though I shop and write about it a lot, I still make tons of mistakes on eBay. For example, there was the time I bought the entire 90210 DVD series from some crafty seller in England and it never came (it wasn't even out—scammer!); the incident of the dress that looked cute in the picture but in real life resembled an old lady muumuu adorned with a cartoon panther, a giant grapefruit, and a palm tree (this is the only item my boyfriend has ever pleaded with me not to wear in public); and recently, these shoes. I hate these Marc Jacobs shoes so much. The picture does not even begin to describe the hell they are on, their complete lack of versatility (or utility—they don't look good with anything), and how poorly they fit. It's all a disaster. They sit in my closet and mock me: a reminder of the mere eBay mortal I am. Sigh. Okay. Your turn. What's your secret eBay buying shame?
I bought a London Fog coat. Despite the measurements, it stil turned out to be too big on me. sigh. But I do have the most lovely vintage dresses though. Some of which I probably paid more than I should because my 'competitive nature' got the better of me. Right now waiting on a new dress (a 'garden dress'?) I just bought (which I KNOW will be too big) but hopefully my tailor will fix it!
A pair of gorgeous Betsey Johnson d'orsay heels that are great to look at but hell to walk in. The heel is about 5 inches (and I'm always in flats!) and they're a little too big even though I asked the seller to measure the soles. I wore them to a wedding recently and had to change into a pair of old flats half-way through. I don't think I'll ever wear them again... sigh.
By the way, I rework a lot of vintage/pre-owned pieces and sell them on eBay if you ever want to take a look. I also post them on my blog: www.ovestidorosa.blogspot.com. It seems there's lots of ladies who want something quirky and unique that no one else will have!
xoxo
Two summers ago I went on a major vintage dress kick on eBay, focusing on 50's styles with pleated skirts, for the most part. I ended up with some great stuff but also a few really frumpy numbers. Then I got cocky and thought I'd buy a dress for my upcoming rehearsal dinner. My best friend had purchased an AMAZING silver dress that turned out to expand to a perfect circle with the neck at the middle--it looked like hell on, but the fabric was amazing, and I got silver into my head. I found a 60s sheath, perfect size, in quilted silver lam?, and I ignored my internal alarm bells and bought it. The photos, btw, made it look pewter colored--dull silver, very cool.
It showed up and looked exactly like crumpled tinfoil. Oh, and it came with a matching cape. I haven't gotten rid of it because I just know some day I will be invited to....a Jetsons party? But it cracks me up every time I look at it. I wish we could post photos here; it's hard to explain the crazy of this dress.
Holy moly!!! I nearly bid on that exact pair of MJ shoes - thanks for falling on that grenade for me ;-)
I have bought my share of duds on eBay but I usually just turn around and sell them or donate them to Goodwill.
Where do I begin??? Generally if a dress has the prefix 'mini' attached to it, I'll regret it (So it looks great on the model. I'm nearly 34 with not great legs, who am I kidding?). There were the several vintage necklaces that broke the first time I wore them, all the obvious fakes, the items that never arrived, and the gorgeous vintage shoes that are too narrow. But one dress really makes me scratch my head every time I look at it. See, my monitor is dark, so colors tend to be more muted onscreen than in real life. The dress is a great shape, fits well, and would be perfect if were not NEON pink with tiny NEON blue, yellow and green flowers all over it. I'll never wear it in public, so I wear it to clean my apartment, along with the bright yellow Mexican dress in which five of me could fit.
I bought my wedding dress on eBay, which was a great buy! But before I bought the one of which I speak, I bought one that looked so cutesy and short and sixties-looking in the photo, but that ended up with the dreaded nightgown effect once I got it home and tried it on. Giant white eyelet muu-muus look good only on Ali McGraw or Twiggy...not on a 5'1" redhead!
a grey victorian jacket that looked a lot like this great vivienne westwood number, but turned out to have mammoth leg-o'-mutton sleeves when I tried it on...
and a pair of vintage 1930s shoes that turned out to be about four sizes too small. that one was probably my fault for measuring incorrectly.
You really talked yourself into those shoes...they are two different sizes....there's a red flag!
I bought a silver Tory Burch top with grey flannel trim that looked to have a sort of edgy elegance, but which actually that made me look like a pregnant alien with sausages for arms.
I turned it around and sold it on ebay and the buyer, as far as I know, was thrilled with it.
You know, those shoes are really cute in the pic though... I envision them with a black and white striped tent dress and blue bag...
I have a leg of mutton jacket too! It looks cute other than the sleeves. Every time my husband sees it in the closet he's all so when are you going to wear your pretty jacket? Argh!
Oh lord - it's a toss-up between the fuschia velvet strappy heels and the Panama tourist scarf I thought would look adorable as a head scarf (note: it doesn't). I've never worn the shoes, and every time I think "I'll wear those shoes with these jeans!", I just can't. They're so fluorescent! The scarf, well, it's just taking up space in a drawer.