Average markup on the stuff on Buy & Sell

[sho'nuff]

my markups are 3000%. who the hell cares???

buy it if it is a good deal to you. if it aint, pass.

 

[ruben]

I don't know I'm kind of intersted in this stuff.

Frankly, unless I'm way off on what outlet stores charge, some of the stuff on ebay and B&S makes me wonder how a seller makes any sort of profit.

 

[FlaneurNYC]

Are you talking about exclusively NWT items?

Because I sold a suit I paid a pretty penny for -- and wore once -- recently at a loss of about 75%.

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by FlaneurNYC

Are you talking about exclusively NWT items?

Because I sold a suit I paid a pretty penny for -- and wore once -- recently at a loss of about 75%.

this is more the case for me. most of my stuff is worn once, sold for pennies on the dollar because of the stigma that comes with 'preowned' no matter how good it is or how it can pass for new.

lot of my stuff i sell bnwt, just stuff i bought on a whim and later down the road found something else or got disinterested. so i sell for less.

i lose more than i make more. but every once in awhile there are some jewels to pick up to sell for a small profit.

 

[LA Guy]

It depends on the seller's revenue model. I think that most people just have a few items that were in their closet that they'd like to cut their losses on. In most of these cases, the seller is taking a loss, although, since they are stuck with the stupid item anyway, you could consider any money made to be salvage, and thus, 100% profit - minor expenses - time.

The second type of seller sees a good deal at a discount store or at a clearance sale, and decides that they might makes some money flipping stuff. As someone said, markup depends on what the market will bear. I've seen 10%-200%. When I used to do this, I think that I wouldn't buy to sell unless I thought that I could get keystone (2x my purchase price) for the item, since some items would not get sold, some items would have to be marked down a lot, etc... Since I figured that unless an item was highly sought after, that anything over 50% of retail was going to be thought of as a high asking price, I would only buy to sell things that were 75+% off retail. There were, of course, exceptions.

The third type of seller are the professional jobbers, who buy end of season overstock from regular resellers, or manufacturers' overstock. A big chain like TJ Maxx, when they are feeling generous, will give source retailers $0.08 on the retail dollar, but I imagine that in this economy, retailers would be lucky to get $0.05 n the retail dollar. Small jobbers probably need to pay a little more, but I'd imagine that $0.10 on the retail dollar is common these days. Again, the markup will be higher or lower depending on what the markup will bear. I imagine that someone with a pair of Mantellassi fatto a mano's could command a 200-300% markup, which that same person might have to sell some knit from a niche company at close to their own cost to get even a nibble.

 

[Faded501s]

Originally Posted by DocHolliday

I assume most sellers start out asking the most they think the market will bear, regardless of the percent markup.

+1. And the Incotex analogy is a good one. Daffy's price was $13, sold on B&S for $70, dropped to $60, dropped to $50 and every now and then for $40-45. So the original mark-up was about 500% and as B&S became saturated the prices went down. In the aftermath there were many of us who were lucky to recoup our original investments on pairs that didn't work out...so the "markup" was negative. I know most of the stuff I sell is hoping-to-break-even but, even with occasional losses, it's hella less expensive than walking down Michigan Ave.

 

[Don Carlos]

You know, there are costs associated with buying a Banana Republic tie, carefully removing the label, and then hand-sewing a Kiton label in its place. I expect my customers to pay a premium for such parts and labor.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

You know, there are costs associated with buying a Banana Republic tie, carefully removing the label, and then hand-sewing a Kiton label in its place. I expect my customers to pay a premium for such parts and labor.
Don't bother sewing another tag, dude. Just indicate in your FS post that the Kiton tag fell off, that you must therefore sell it as NWOT and you will give an extra $10 discount to compensate - first come first serve! Works all the time.

 

[AnGeLiCbOrIs]

Originally Posted by Faded501s

+1. And the Incotex analogy is a good one. Daffy's price was $13, sold on B&S for $70, dropped to $60, dropped to $50 and every now and then for $40-45. So the original mark-up was about 500% and as B&S became saturated the prices went down. In the aftermath there were many of us who were lucky to recoup our original investments on pairs that didn't work out...so the "markup" was negative. I know most of the stuff I sell is hoping-to-break-even but, even with occasional losses, it's hella less expensive than walking down Michigan Ave.

Daffy's price was $20+. A few cheaper ones only showed up later on.

 

[phdude]

not equal to, but approaching infinity as i continue to steal more items for resale here.

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by gdl203

Don't bother sewing another tag, dude. Just indicate in your FS post that the Kiton tag fell off, that you must therefore sell it as NWOT and you will give an extra $10 discount to compensate - first come first serve! Works all the time.

Good thinking. I've got a huge shipment of no-label cheapos coming in from Hong Kong tomorrow morning, and not enough fake Kiton labels for all of them. I'll give your method a shot.

 

[stylesmurf]

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

Good thinking. I've got a huge shipment of no-label cheapos coming in from Hong Kong tomorrow morning, and not enough fake Kiton labels for all of them. I'll give your method a shot.

^^^^ small-timer.

They already have plenty of places to get fake stuff already with lables on it for you to resell on ebay.

 

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by Faded501s

+1. And the Incotex analogy is a good one. Daffy's price was $13, sold on B&S for $70, dropped to $60, dropped to $50 and every now and then for $40-45. So the original mark-up was about 500% and as B&S became saturated the prices went down. In the aftermath there were many of us who were lucky to recoup our original investments on pairs that didn't work out...so the "markup" was negative. I know most of the stuff I sell is hoping-to-break-even but, even with occasional losses, it's hella less expensive than walking down Michigan Ave.

That would have to be a hell of a lot of unsold pairs to go negative

Sellers don't need to tell sob stories here to justify their markup

 

[furo]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

That would have to be a hell of a lot of unsold pairs to go negative

Sellers don't need to tell sob stories here to justify their markup

I don't think it's a "sob story" but there's definitely a learning curve to finding out what sells and what won't

What I see all too often is prices being marked down hurriedly by sellers who would be better off boxing up their supply to sell again on B&S at a later date

On the other hand, I've sold a couple of items much faster than I ever thought possible given the color or pattern (which I wouldn't dream of wearing sometimes)

 

[gdl203]

Have you guys thought of developing a cartel or some sort of price-fixing framework?