Advice on flipping borrelli ties on ebay

[johnnynorman3]

I have flipped two items on Ebay now -- a Samuelsohn suit and the Borrelli shoes -- and am starting to see how this makes a lot of sense.

I was thinking about trying to flip some ties, and was wondering at what price point you think Borrelli ties could be easily flipped. Also, do you think flipping is ethical?

 

[kabert]

Sure flipping is ethical. Why not? No one is harmed in my view. EBay is the ultimate laissez-faire marketplace.

As for the price, I assume you've done a search for Borrelli ties to see what they usually go for. There are always Borrelli ties for sale on EBay -- they mostly seem to sell for @$40-45 for ugly brown ones, up to $75-80 or so for classic colors/designs. Kiton 7-folds are the only ones that seem to consistently garner $85-$120+ sales. As with all EBay auctions, having lots of really good pictures with close-up pictures is crucial, as is having the tie's dimensions listed.

 

[aybojs]

I've recently got into this on a casual basis, and the real question seems to be whether it's economical. On one hand I watched a someone eBay for $80 the same Kiton tie that I had paid $20 for (bought for my own use) a year ago, on the other I made a grand total of only $5 by flipping a pair of hastily bought PDC jeans that turned out to be women's (TJ Maxx had them in the men's section, I was in too much of a hurry to try them on). I'd say the latter is more likely, especially with lower ticket items like ties than with high dollar items like suits and shoes.

So the caveat is that unless you have a really cheap source or plan on doing a lot of volume, you shouldn't expect to be more than a "just for fun" seller, which is basically where I am now. The only ethical issue I can see is if you just start buying indiscrimnately and returning everything that doesn't sell on a frequent basis so the stores get stuck with the loss. My personal rule of thumb is that I only buy obvious gems or stuff that I might actually want for my own use.

 

[johnnynorman3]

Yeah, that's sort of what I'm thinking. I may have the opportunity to pick up about four or five of the ties in pretty nice colors/designs for about $30 a piece. I figured if I could sell them for $55 - $60, that could give me post fee profits of about $85 - 100. Not a ton, but good spending money. My summer job ended today, so I'm out of work for about three months (although I'm not hurting financially). Maybe I'll just go buy one for myself.

Incidentally, I was thinking of getting into women's clothing (flipping, not wearing), because I saw a bunch of Polo Black Label pant suits that are going to be REALLY cheap soon. But, it turns out that women's dress clothing doesn't do nearly as well as men's clothing does on Ebay. I wonder why?

 

[aybojs]

Yeah when I picked up those PDC's, I paid $40 under the assumption that I could get $60-70 on eBay if I decided I didn't want them after all. Then I saw that they were women's jeans and learned that I'd be lucky if they even got bid on at $40.

I had your same tie quandry yesterday. I saw a bunch of Kiton's on sale and thought about buying them all in the hopes of making a little profit on each. Of course I thought it over and decided that I didn't have the balls to try to return a dozen ties if they didn't sell well (most of them were in ugly brownish colors). I ended up just buying a few that I thought I might like; I may very well end up selling/ebaying one or two of them anyway (the ones I'm back and forth on are a cream/ecru with small dots, a green on green pattern, and a 14 micron charcoal wool).

 

[discostu004]

profit is profit...

 

[A Harris]

I sold one of those 14-micron charcoal wool ties for bucks last year...

 

[aybojs]

Just out of curiosity, how much did you get for the tie, A. Harris?

 

[A Harris]

$80 I think, you could probably get more, as I didn't put it up for bid.

 

[norcaltransplant]

Whats the difference between flipping and arbitrage? Isn't Ebay just a small scale version of corporate capitalism? (and considering Ebay fees its a elephant unto itself.)

 

[Thracozaag]

profit is profit...

...spoken like a true Ferengi.

koji