Online auction sites such as Ebay and Yahoo! Auctions can be a treasure trove for parents seeking inexpensive, nice clothing for their children. The most common scenario is a stay-at-home mom who is looking for some extra cash. She gets together some kids’ clothing that seems too nice to sell at a garage sale, and groups it together for sale at auction. The winner is you, the parent who is looking for a great deal. Children’s clothing sold at auction is usually clean, rip-free and name-brand. It may even still have tags on it from the seller’s child growing out of it before getting to wear it. Sellers usually group similar items together by size, so you can pick up a half-dozen pairs of shorts in size 8, for example, at one sale. Auction sites categorize their clothing by item and size, so searching for a certain kind of clothing is quick and easy.
There are a few drawbacks to buying kids’ clothing at online auctions. First and foremost is a problem common to all auction sites, fraud. If it seems like the seller is not on the up-and-up, check her feedback rating and trust your instincts. Also, prices will be higher than garage sale prices (although considerably lower than retail), and you’ll have to pay shipping too. Clothing on auction sites usually runs a season early (rather like retail stores), so if it’s summer and you need summer clothes, you are probably only going to find fall or winter clothes for sale. And even if the seller includes pictures in the listing, pictures won’t allow you to see the cat hair, or smell the cigarette smoke, or feel the fabric. You are buying on blind faith.
I commonly use online sites to pick up summer wardrobes for my older daughter, who can’t find decent clothing at garage sales due to her age. We have never had a problem with fraud, but occasionally we run into a problem with a seller who mistakenly says a piece of clothing is one size, when it is in fact another size.