Transcription
I don't pay RRP for anything most of the time. In almost all of my pickup videos, I talk about clothes that I've got for a bargain. And I get loads of questions asking how I do this because I do it consistently. There's a few ways I go about it. And no, it's not just waiting for sales, although that is part of it, but what I do is very simple. So, in today's video, I'm going to reveal all and show you my secret techniques for getting close for a good deal.
Okay, this is probably my most used method by far, and I don't know if it even has a proper name, but I'll just call it keyword searching, and I found it works best on vintage clothes specifically. So, say you wanted the infamous vintage Carheart J97 Moss jacket. It's one of the most hyped Carheart pieces of all time, and therefore priced outrageously. I mean, seriously, I've seen some of these listed at over $1,000. If you want this piece for a decent price though, you'd be a fool to go on eBay and just search J97 Moss because you'll get listings from sellers who know what they're doing, know what they've got, and will price their items accordingly.
What I would do, and what I've done many times, is just search keywords that might lead me to that jacket. For example, in this case, I might search green carart jacket. Now, this will return hundreds of results. And I'm not going to lie, it's going to take some time and persistence to find what you want. Also, keep in mind the results are obviously not guaranteed, but sometimes you'll find that some seller has not bothered to put the crucial details in their listing. In this case, J97 Moss. So, their listing gets buried in with lots of other generic green carart jackets, meaning it probably hasn't been seen by many other people. Not only does this mean the item probably hasn't sold, but more often than not, it's listed at a cheaper price as well. Either because the seller has lowered the price because it's not selling, or they didn't know what they had to begin with. This also means the seller is probably willing to negotiate on that item, especially if it's been sitting for a while, and that's easy to check on eBay. Personally, I wouldn't lowball anyone, but maybe 10 to 20% off the asking price usually works a treat for me. This is literally how I found and purchased all of my vintage carart jackets, and I've never paid more than £80.
Now, this one I have kind of touched upon, but again, it's best for secondhand clothes. Like I said, a lot of sellers of secondhand clothes know what they're doing these days. It's a business for them, so they buy and sell purely for profit, and I've got nothing against that. However, there's still some specific platforms where you can find genuine bargains, and one of them is Vintage. I'm not sure if this is available in the US and EU or if it's just a UK thing, but in my experience, it's one of the few selling platforms left where there's some actual great deals. And I think the reason for that is because most people on this platform just want to get rid of stuff. So, I'm often finding old vintage made in USA t-shirts for under a tenner. I found loads of vintage Carheart, Champion, Russell. Don't get me wrong, the business sellers have found their way onto this platform as well, even though it's against terms of service, but there's still plenty of just normal people trying to make a bit of money from old and unwanted clothes ASAP. So, definitely check out vintage before you go on eBay, Depart, or Grailed.
Now, I've talked a lot about Carheart in this video, so I thought I might as well give them a dedicated section. And that's easy to do because in the US specifically, there are a number of websites that sell brand new Carheart things at a heavy discount. The only catch is that they're factory seconds. That means they weren't deemed good enough to pass the factory inspection. But in reality, all this means is that they have a tiny defect somewhere, like a loose thread or a misaligned patch, which probably won't even be noticeable. And for that minimal inconvenience, you get up to like 50% off. And that's on any car piece. Jackets, double knees, t-shirts, new season, old season. The stock changes constantly, so keep a lookout. I'll leave links to the websites I found down in the description box below. But yeah, if I lived in the US, I'd be all over these.
This next one is new to me, and I only found out about it when I was researching for this video. It works for new or old clothes. What you're going to want to do is find a link to the item you want and then in front of the URL, type dupe.com/. I know what you're thinking. It's not dupes as in replica versions of things. What this is actually doing is an image search. So, it finds pieces for sale from around the web which look similar to the piece in your listing. I'll be honest, it doesn't always come back with cheaper stuff. And usually, I would avoid buying an alternative. I would prefer to save up and get the thing I actually want. However, that's just my opinion. You might be more than happy to buy an alternative. And if that's the case, then this method is a really simple and clean way to do it.
Now, if you're after designer stuff specifically, then there's one particular website that I always go to first, and it's ukes.com. I think that's how you pronounce it. Anyway, I believe this is basically a subsidiary of Mr. Porter or NetApporter. Again, not sure if I'm even saying that right, but it's essentially their outlet store. So stuff that doesn't sell on the main website gets put on here and at a heavy discount, much deeper discounts than you'd ever get on their main website. A lot of pieces start at like 50% off from RRP and then they often have discount codes that you can use on top of that as well. For example, one of my pickups from here was a pair of Acne Studios boot cutup jeans which were 60 quid down from 300. You can't go wrong. Like I said though, because it's an outlet store, most of their stuff will be from the previous season which makes sense. But sometimes you can get lucky and find a new season item as well. It's definitely one of those websites to check before you're about to make an expensive purchase on Mr. Porter or Essence, for example.
So, this next one isn't something that I've actually tried, but I know loads of people who do it, and it's buying from Yahoo, which is like Japan's version of eBay these days, even though I thought it used to be a news website, didn't it? Maybe it was both. But yeah, a lot of this has to do with the fact that the Japanese yen is quite weak compared to the US, UK, and European currencies. So things that would cost a lot of money over here are like half the price over there. And it won't be a surprise to hear that the Japanese brands are particularly cheap. I'm talking about the really good stuff as well, like Iron Hart, Buzz Rickson's, the Flathead, like that Buzz Ricken's MA1 I have, which retails for 500 plus is sitting there for like 80 quid. The only issue is that you can't buy direct if you live outside of Japan. So, you need to use a proxy service like Jaws, but from what I hear, they're really trustworthy and reliable. But that's just what I've heard. Don't take that to gospel.
Another development of this idea is to actually use eBay, which is accessible to all of us, but filter by Japanese sellers. Because again, due to the Japanese yen, they list things a lot cheaper than European and American sellers. And that's actually how I got my Buzz Rickson's MA1 for cheap. So yeah, this is a really good method if you're after some highquality Japanese clothes for a good deal.
Okay, there's two honorable mentions which are really obvious, but I have to acknowledge them. The first is charity shops. They're especially good for things like shirts and outerear, especially here in the UK. And sometimes the secret is to go to one in an affluent area because the stock will probably be a bit nicer. Although I'm noticing a lot of them are becoming overpriced now all over the country. So it's luck of the draw sometimes. You seem to have it better in the US where you get those Goodwill bins which look insane. I'd spend so much time there if we had something similar. Another thing you get in the US is a lot of Army Surplus, which is my second honorable mention. It's an amazing way to get quality clothes for a decent price. Some of my favorite pieces over the years have been bargains from Army Surplus.
Last up, it's got to be said at least once in this video, but patience. This goes for everything in today's video and is the real secret to getting good deals. Wait for sales. Wait for something to pop up on eBay at the right price. Unless you seriously need something straight away, just be patient. I found it best to try not to get too attached to items you don't own yet. If the item sells out when you're waiting for it to drop in price, yes, you'll feel bad for a day or two, but before long the next piece will come along and you'll completely forget about it. So, there's everything I do to get clothes for cheaper. Something to keep in mind, though, if all else fails, just remember cost per wear. If the thing you really want isn't being reduced, it might still be worth picking it up at full price if you plan to wear it over and over again rather than spending less money on something you're not going to wear very often. Anyway, that could be a whole video on its own, but for today's video, I hope you found it helpful. Thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you next time. T