OK I have a weird, yet serious question.  It’s something that has always bothered me, because I just never knew the answer.

I’m a big eBay-er, and I always see all those yummy designer goods at auction.  But being the budget fashionista that I am, I can lust after them, but I know I will never be able to afford them, even on eBay. 

So my question is--and this goes for all designer duds--where on earth does everything end up if it never gets sold in the store/on eBay/TJMaxx/wherever??

Seriously.  I mean, SURELY they don’t end up in a landfill somewhere, that would be tragic!  There have been some items I’ve watched on eBay for weeks at those super high prices, and part of me wants to send them an email and say: “hey, I see you’ve had X out there for several weeks - if you just want to get rid of them, I’ll be happy to buy them off you for $50!” just to see if they don’t fall on the floor gasping with laughter.  :)

So since I’ve never been in retail, let alone fashion retail, what is the “sale trail” for designer stuff...where does it all eventually end up?

And why don’t they save everyone the headache and just tell us where it is? :)

(btw...any former alt.fashionista’s here?)

I know that some places donate things to organizations : Dress for Success, the Salvation Army, auctions for fundraisers. But I have no idea how extensive that really is.  I too hope that they don’t end up in a landfill ! Yuck!

You have my interest really piqued.

There is a true outlet store in Mpls called Opitz Outlet. In a news interview the owner said she gets the unwanted stock from places like Macy’s, Bloomingdales and some of the more high end dept. stores in NYC. They resell that stock in two stores. One that has the nicer items and another than has merchandise with small flaws or damage for 90% off retail.

I used to do some wholesale sourcing for a side business my husband was running. Wholesale lots of designer clothing were very hard to come by through the typical wholesale channels that frequently had things from major retailers like Target and Amazon. So my guess is there is a very buried market within the fashion industry that you really have to be in the industry to find out where they are sending things.