All of this buying and selling of vintage (and new designer) at the crusty thrift stores is really kicking my ass. My ADD does not help the situation, especially when there are so many steps to the process from literally buying the clothes until they are posting on either Market Publique (I don't think I have my own personal URL for this site?) and on my
Impulse Vintage shop. I have to promote. Don't judge me.
Anyway, so it is a grueling, ass kicking job. At first, when I had my first like 5 items, not big deal. Now, with bedroom full of 160 pieces of clothes, WTF.
Let me just explain all that goes into this process:
For example, let's say I bought a vintage dress with the original tag still on it, everything looked good. No stains. Just a couple rhinestones missing. No big deal.
Oh, and this is, after trial and error, is at least to me, the best way to do it.
1) Buy the dress - $4.80, thank you very much!
2) Research item. This can be fun when you google in the designer/brand label name and their are Ebay listings selling that brand for over $100. Score. You got lucky and picked a great item. Just by that, you can get an idea of the date and the cost people are willing to pay. Sometimes you find nothing about a brand, which usually means, I think it's an old, lost forgotten, short lived brand. Google the Brand or Designer name first. Period.
3) Further research. Dating the item. If there is a RN# or WPL# on the item, there is still hope for you. There are 3 websites I use religiously:
TESS, where you can look up anything and find out when the store opened, if it is still open, when it was cancelled, etc. TESS is awesome. I think its user friendly - some may find it a little difficult at first. Website #2 is Federal Trades Commission - Registered Identification Number Database. You can enter in the RN# OR the WPL# and it will give you little information but something important. It will give you the company name. That's awesome! The third is Etsy and/or eBay. There are competitors when it comes to vintage clothing and there is alot of it. I dating a vintage Wrangler shirt just by searching it in Etsy - exact same label. Wrangler, by the way, seems to have millions of different label styles. Annoying.
***I get really detailed in my listings. A lot of people don't. But in my opinion, the more information you can give the potential buyer, the better.
4) If there is not a materals label on the garment, this can be tricky. If its older, more than likely there is some synthetic something in there, usually polyester. I have researched types of plaids, what Orlon is, the different between knit and woven, the usual material made by a certain brand.... the list goes on. Again, you can say the material is Unknown, because most of the time with vintage, we really DON'T know, and that is okay. It's not a deal breaker for the seller. I wouldn't think?
5) GET OUT THE IRON! Once you get an idea of the brand, era and material, next we have to make the garment look pretty so GET OUT THE IRON! On occasion, if its designer, I will get it dry cleaning but that's $10 you have to add to your expenses. Probably 60% of the time that I am ironing a piece of clothing, that is when I really see the spots and stains and missing buttons... I use a Tide pen that amazingly gets out most stains, instantly. If that doesn't work, I use Oxy Clean - there is a stick you rub on the stain but you have to wash that out, and that can get hairy. Once the stains are gone (if you can get them off) it is ironing time! It is a great arm workout and I am not even kidding. It gets my heart pumping and my blood flowing. Ironing can be fun, for a while. Sometimes the wrinkles easily come out, some wrinkles seem to be permanent and PLEATS! Ironing pleats, which I have a problem with with every Calvin Klein dress, by the way, is difficult. Dry Clean. That is when it is worth it.
5) Photography location: Where? Luckily my father is a professional photographer,
Nic Nicosia - gotta give a shout out to my pops! He has a studio so I am lucky enough to have a plain white backdrop. I have seen so many creative ways to photograph clothing. Look online to get ideas.
6) Photographing clothes. This, to me, and I don't think I am alone, is the hardest, most challenging part. If you are not a photographer, like me, lighting and fooling with the camera is what gets me all in a tizzy. I use one of the newest Canon digital camera's and I am still trying to figure it out. Even item of clothing will need different lighting. Think about a sequin dress or a black velvet coat. Have fun. Practice taking pictures everyday, of anything, and you will get better and better. I always take a frontal pic, one of the side of garment, one of the back, one of the material up close, and the label. The buyer wants to know what the item looks like so make sure they are as accurate as possible.
7) Get out the tape measure! I ALWAYS list the measurements. Length, bust, hips, sleeves, shoulders - those are the musts. I lay the garment flat and measure that way. Super easy.
8) Editing time! My pictures are downloaded to Picasa and I edit them in Picnik, which I am about to stop using because it is soooo slow. Once you get used to editing pictures, which I used to think was fun, but now is just a chore, it is quiet easy. Find a photo editing site online - look for the best ones - and go for it.
9) Saving photos. I upload every picture to photobucket, which is an awesome photo hosting website, and read online was #1, beating out flickr. Since I list my items on 3 separate sites, it can get tricky because all the sites require a specific size of photograph, which you can do in photobucket or Picnik.
10) Describing the item. This part I do not like. I guess its the perfectionist in me but you have to have a good description with as much information as possible. Usually I describe the item in general - actually,
The Rusty Zipper website is my online bible when it comes to describing the article of clothing. I never went to fashion school but now I know about different types of pleats, what a placket is, types of sleeves, different styles of skirts... and it goes on and on. I also always include the following in every listing: the brand / designer, the material, what condition it is in, the size (what the label in garment says) and the measurements. Vintage runs small so that is very important. I use a website called
Penzu that is an online journal but I use it to save every item and the listing description. From there I copy and paste to actual listing.
11) Last but not least, you have the pictures and description and now it's time to list!
12) Listing the item: piece of cake because you have all the information, you just have to type it in. Some listing sites make it super easy, some ask for a lot of information, and some have a lot of fucking fees, eBay! Yeah, I said it. On the flip side, eBay will get you buyers. You just have to be smart about it and take into consideration the price you paid for it, listing fees, shipping fees, final value fees, paypal fees... Fees. Fees. Fees. Everywhere. I guess that is part of selling. Try opening a physical shop, see how much those monthly fees are. It's all part of the business.
Anyway, that's my little process, and I like it. One thing I just realized that makes things so much simpler it to do one item at a time - from the research to the listing. Atleast, that is how I have to do it.
Shit I wrote a lot. That wasn't planned either. Hopefully this will help the newbie vintage buyers and sellers of vintage clothing.
Oh I forgot something very important: If you want to sell the item, you have to have a dress form, model, or some professional clothing display were you can actually but the clothing on SOMETHING. Some people list shitty pictures of a wrinkled shirt on a lop-sided coat hanger but you have a better chance of selling the item when they can SEE what they are looking at!
