The High-Low, Part 2

A lot of the clothing I've bought in the past few months has come from eBay, which is kind of like a giant online thrift store or rummage sale. There are thousands of bargains just waiting to be discovered, and some of them are fixed-price listings, so you don't even have to wait around for an auction to end and worry about bidding. Some auctions also have a "make an offer" option that effectively allows you to haggle with the seller, and can lead to some unexpected deals.

This method of shopping can be time-consuming (I tend to browse during my lunch hour), but eBay gives you the tools to save specific searches, which makes it easier to keep track of new listings in categories you're interested in (for example, you can set up a search for V-neck cashmere sweaters in only certain colors or from specific brands). And many people are offering free shipping these days, or building it into their selling prices, making some items an ever better deal.

Obviously, with any online clothing purchase, sizing is crucial. Brands you already own or are familiar with are safer, certain items tend to have more consistent sizing than others, and sellers should provide thorough size info and measurements. However, lot of people just toss auction listings on eBay without putting a lot of thought or effort into them. Sometimes that's okay, but with clothing, photos and descriptions are very important, and should match. Make sure if a seller says an item is NWT (new with tags), the photos do in fact show the tags.

Look over everything carefully, and figure out what information the seller might have neglected to include. If you need to know something that's not in the description, send a polite email, ask your question as clearly as possible, and try to be considerate: don't ask a question 45 minutes before an auction ends and be upset if the seller doesn't respond to you in time. Believe it or not, not everyone has round-the-clock access to their email.

Also, in my own experience, even if the seller claims the item comes from a smoke-free, pet-free home, there's a decent chance it will arrive smelling of something, so be prepared to launder it or hang it outside for a few hours, or both. I have one shirt I bought on eBay that still smells faintly of an extremely strong laundry detergent, even after several months and numerous washes using our own fragrance-free detergent.

A few months ago I saw a red and white striped Tommy Hilfiger shirt in a store, but when I went back to look at it again it was already gone. I decided to take a quick look on eBay and found it NWT for $10. (For those of you who might not have noticed, Tommy has toned down the branding quite a bit recently, and this shirt has only a tiny embroidered flag logo on the left sleeve placket, which is unobtrusive enough for me.)

Sometimes I search for specific items, but I've also stumbled across things while not actively looking for them. Cargo shorts are kind of necessary in summer, when you don't have coat pockets but you need to carry your phone, sunglass case, and assorted other stuff (I usually carry that stuff to work with me in a messenger-style bag, but I like to give myself weekends off from carrying it). Eight or nine years back, Ralph Lauren made some really nice cargo shorts (before cargos got all crazy-looking and huge, with all the drawstrings and zippers and crap). They had plain, flat side pockets with no pleats or gussets, set-in back pockets with no flaps, and a very small, subtle label above the back pocket.

I had a pair of these that I got at the late, lamented Filene's Basement downtown store, and I loved them dearly, because they fit well and were appropriately mature-looking. But my waistline expanded and I could no longer fit into them. Last week I came across a pair of these shorts in my current size. There were four bids, but mine was the highest; I got them for $13.50, certainly less than I'd pay for a decent pair of shorts elsewhere.

Other good recent finds: cashmere sweaters for $20, two corduroy sportcoats (one was $16, the other was $10), a bright pink Ralph Lauren shirt with a pocket (always harder to find than the ones with horses) for $9, Banana Republic khakis for $8, and my favorite deal of the past six months or so, a J. Crew suede sportcoat for $22. A great deal of this stuff was worn by someone a couple of times at most, then hung in a closet for a couple of years before being put up for auction or sale.

Of course, not every purchase is a success. A few weeks ago I thought I'd lucked out when I found a listing for off-white L.L. Bean jeans in my size. Bean stopped making these a few years back, right before I started looking for them. The starting bid was only 99 cents, so I added the auction to my watch list and waited. Several days later there were still no bids. I ended up being the only bidder, so I got them for a buck plus shipping. When they arrived, they fit great but were about an inch too short, and it was my own fault because I never asked for actual measurements. Just because the seller says "the tag reads 36 x 32" doesn't mean those are the actual measurements, especially on items that are a few years old and have been through the wash a number of times.

One other thing you notice shopping on eBay is that a lot of sellers have a seriously overinflated idea of what their items are worth. This can sometimes be amusing, but more often it's annoying, especially when it's something you've been searching for that happens to be scarce. Just because an item sold for $150 new doesn't mean it's worth $150, or even half that much, three or four seasons later. And if it's a current-season item, then a seller probably ought to know what it's currently selling for elsewhere; those $80 pants someone is trying to sell for $60 may have already been marked down by 50 percent or more out in the stores. As a consumer, you need to do a bit of homework so that you know the cost of an item, the current value of that item (not necessarily the same thing), and what it's worth to you.