What Do You Deem as Worthy of Paying Full Price For? - Page 2

 

Shoes are meant to be worn. When I first started out on SF I thought like this.  But then I realized, I bought my shoes to wear. And I didn't want to wear ugly beaters to and from work everyday - lest I had an appointment/meeting before or after.  Use taps to extend the life of the toes and heels, but if you're buying good quality and have a sufficient rotation, your shoes should last 8+ years, if not much more. I speak from experience commuting around NYC and I have yet to buy a 'SF-Approved shoe' and toss it b/c of it's condition. 

 

Now, the caveat being that on rainy or snowy days, I wear 'beater' or  topied shoes and use Swims.

Whenever I end up at the outlet versions of department stores or at sample sales, the suits don't seem to be staples. That is great for someone looking for an oddball suit, but I guess I'm just not at that place in my wardrobe-building yet. Examples are a light-gray double-breasted RLBL suit, and a brown SB RLBL suit at a sample sale.

 

In the past, I have made similar mistakes as BB: buying a sale item take is almost, but not quite, what I am really looking for. I almost always end up with the item I actually want at some point, and then I never wear the on-sale substitute.

When I am shopping for clothes and shoes I am hardly constrained to selecting from limited run collaboration items. With a global market at my disposal, there are by far more discounted items available that I would actually like to purchase than I have funds to purchase. I am neither lacking for choice nor making impulsive purchases simply because an item is on sale.

There are times when paying full price is the only purchase option, and that's fine, but holding that forward as a virtue to be practiced in all cases strikes me as patently absurd. Throwing money away unnecessarily is not an attractive quality in a man.
Edited by RogerP - 3/19/13 at 11:54am

The only thing I would pay full price for are Hermes ties,a watch and a hard to find sportscoats.

 

Other tie brands such as Tom Ford or Ferragamo I would purchase them at an outlet store or with a neiman marcus gift cards I receive from my credit card .....Boston Neiman Marcus doesnt sell Hermes ties :( 

 

I will hunt for a great suit at an Outlet store. If its a hard to find suit that is a really like than I will pay retail.

 

For shoes I would purchase them with gifts cards or at site suchs as Bodileys

 

I will not pay full retail for shirt. I will try to find a solid shirt at an Outlet store of some sort.

 

I try my best to network with people who work at retail stores to use their employee discount :)

I would gladly pay retail for good bespoke. Everything else, if I know it will go on sale at some point, I wait. If not, I buy at retail.

Buy what you like, too much money is wasted on compromise...

I take it item by item. There are some things that I see and don't mind paying full price for (either because I really like them or because the full price is reasonably low). I don't think that there's any one category of items that I'm more often than not willing to pay full price for. Not many otr/rtw items are worth full retail, IMO. There's almost always a promotional price around the corner or someone, who's just as reputable, selling the item for less.

In general, I do not like to pay full retail for anything RTW. If I really like something and also need it for my wardrobe quickly and do not have time for MTM, I'll make an exception. For me, the Brooks Brothers Regent suit is a perfect example. It fits me extremely well off the rack and I like the suits, but there's no way I'm paying $1,000 for an 1818 line suit when I could have Hemrajani make me something nicer for the same price or less. On sale for $600; that's another story.

I agree with much of what BourbonBasted said about getting a deal. It's great when you can find items on sale, but I don't believe in buying something just because it's on sale. I've made that mistake before in my life and I have regretted it. I have to like the item and see myself wearing it, no matter how good of a deal it is. This lets me pick up something I like and consider "good enough" for the right price, e.g. Brooks Brothers Regent stuff from the 1818 line, while avoiding spending too much time trying to save.

I will also pay full retail for shoes in most cases because I think that $350 is worth it for a pair or Allen Edmonds and that $450-$500 with the British Pound where it is now is a perfectly fair price for C&J Benchgrade. I have managed to get a decent amount of Ferragamo shoes on discount but generally would probably not pay full retail for them. I like the styling but think they have a decent sized designer brand premium.

That makes no sense to me. If something is on sale, it means there is an excess of inventory usually. Some things are in fact unwanted and discounted to try to con someone into buying them, but there are plenty of retailers who are trying to make room for a new seasonal lineup that are willing to part with things for a discount or that may have produced an excessive amount of a product that does in fact sell pretty well.

Sales are just a tool for retailers to make space for more stuff to try and hook people on. I have noticed that retailers will often add merchandise at sale time that they do not carry the rest of the year. This is flat out cynical on their part but they understand the psychology well.

If you have been eyeing an item with intention to purchase it and it goes on sale - you would be crazy not to buy it. If you think that something being on sale makes it more attractive you are likely deluding yourself.

Sam Hober.

Company A makes 100 of Suit B. Suit B is worth 1000 dollars to 50 customers. 50 customers buy Suit B. For 50 other customers, 1000 was too much for Suit B. 50 customers already bought their suits, the remaining suits aren't moving any more, so now the suits are discounted to 800 dollars and sold to an additional 30 people. The last 20 suits aren't moving because everyone who felt the suits were worth 1000 and 800 dollars already purchased theirs. So the suits are discounted again until they are all gone.

 

If the suits cost 500 dollars to make, it doesn't make sense to only make enough to sell to the 50 people willing to pay 1000 dollars for it when there are an additional 30 willing to wait and pay 800 dollars for it on sale.

 

As far as being in demand: your preferences aren't always going to reflect what is most popular, so what is in demand won't concern you. Yeah, if your preferences do align with demand, then you'll be less likely to find what you want on sale, but even then the manufacturer may have overestimated the demand...in which case the items might go on sale because they need to be moved.

Edited by Claghorn - 3/19/13 at 11:27am

The difference is that you were getting rid of things that were not useful to you and that you did not want. You have a yard sale to get rid of unwanted stuff. A store is always in the business of selling things, so it's a bit different. A store can have many reasons for having a sale, including trying to clear shelf space to house next season's items. Different items also sell in different quantities through the years, so it is entirely possible that they overproduced some items and the sale is supply driven and not demand driven. Stores also often have sales to drive in additional foot traffic. If you really don't like buying things on sale, you can always wait for the sale to end and buy the same item at full price, but this seems kind of absurd.

+100.