Bargain Shopping!

January 21, 2008 7:46 AM

I love Velvet Garden and have been stalking LJ sales communities for bargains. Where else can I find cheap but good thrift/second hand shopping sites online? (Doesn't have to be clothes.)

I've fallen into the thrift shopping trap and I'm not sure I want to get out of it just yet. It's quite fun to find things that suit me for far cheaper than I'll find elsewhere (particularly in my style and size). So far I've used Velvet Garden, GothAuctions, Etsy, eBay, and various Livejournal communities, but would like to know of more resources.

What other websites are great with thrift/second hand shopping? Some details of what I'm looking for:

* Accepts Paypal (eCheques mainly) or Australian bank transfer
* Inexpensive shipping to Australia (I don't mind if it's slow)
* Reliable, preferably with a way to check feedback

Types of shops:
* Clothes/makeup/accessories: I'm open to anything, but my tastes run on the mainstream end of gothic/geeky/businessy/saloon girl. Particularly looking for clothes for US12/UK14-16/L (too big for normal, too small for plus size). LOVE hair stuff and glitter.
* Books: Second hand's great; as long as it's readable it's fine. Prefer non-fiction.
* Also like crafts, creative stuff, anything that helps people
* Others: I don't tend to actively search for anything else unless it's a gift, but I'm open to suggestions.

Recommendations for specific sellers on eBay/Etsy/LJ/etc are welcome too.

thank you!

posted by divabat to work & money (3 comments total)

This isn't any help to you, but I'd love to know what LJ communities you've found.
posted by magnoliasouth at 8:52 AM on January 21, 2008

One Livejournal group I use is inbetweenies, so called because it's for women who are in between plus size and regular.

I have a bunch of stuff to sell on there, I should be taking photos of it and not reading ask mefi!

http://community.livejournal.com/inbetweenies/profile

I've bought a few things on there that I really liked, and one thing that was not as advertised.
posted by Melsky at 10:07 AM on January 21, 2008

Heh, I'm already an inbetweenies member.

magnoliasouth: here's who I have in my Shopping RSS reader folder (they're not all clothes):

DIY:
reconstructed
ebay_crafty
diyrevolution
zine_scene
stolensharpie
etsy_lj
ibuydiy
su_diy_sales
tshirtsurg_sale
diyculture
zinescene
zinester
zinesters

Gothic/Alternative:
gothfash
alt_fashion
alt_boutique
alt_auctions
chateau_bizarre (linked to the Chateau Bizarre website but doesn't have the same content)
craftygoths (more to show off your latest projects but there are occasional sales)
devilishfashion
gothauctions (for the GothAuctions.com site)
gothicauctions
gothicfashion
punk_auctions
punkthrifters
punkmart
gothtrademarket
theblackmarket

General:
thebargainbin
too_trendy
forsale
_garagesale
alluringbazaar
hotfashionsales
ljswaps (though sales happen often)
bargains
thriftandtrade

Size-Specific:
fashions4sale (for "big beautiful women")
curvyexchange
inbetweenies

Country-Specific:
aussie_ebay (Australia)
lelong (Malaysia)
OzBargains (Australia, not Livejournal)
selltrade_kl (Malaysia)
aus_marketplace (Australia)
austrade (Australia)

Free/Shipping:
forshipping (just pay shipping costs)

Etc:
Knickers Bargains (not an LJ community but an offshoot of the Knickers Blog)

A lot of them crosspost (this is where FeedDemon's Sort By Title is EXTREMELY useful) though there are some sellers that post in one community and not the other. As you can see, I'm overloaded on the clothes+goth aspect; I could use a little diversity, particularly with non-LJ sites!

There's this old AskMefi post which tends to skew towards technology. I've been told that Laundromatic can be quite good as well.
posted by divabat at 12:34 AM on January 24, 2008