buying second hand
so if you buy off of ebay or thrift stores which brands do you have in mind? like let’s say you have an item in mind (green blazer eg) do you have a shortlist mentally? or some other mental process entirely
19 Replies
idk what style you're looking for but a good starting point is PutThisOn's saved searches https://www.putthison.com/ebay-roundup-609/
Put This On
eBay Roundup
Put This On is a member of eBay’s Partner Network, which means all of our eBay links are affiliate links....
Beyond that, a lot is just brand knowledge
For thrifting I'm generally looking and feeling almost everything and care a lot less about the brand. If I happen to recognize the brand I'll pay extra attention, but I'm also open to generally anything that looks cool, fits well, and feels nice regardless of the brand
Otherwise, I wake up every day and doomscroll new Lemaire listings with a cup of coffee on ebay, depop, grailed, yahoo japan, mercari, etc. I've gotten some awesome pieces for cheap just by being first to them
I doomscroll stuff I want like "vintage western shirt" I don't bother with brands that much when buying used unless it's otherwise relevant (specific item, fit, detail, etc.)
lemaire?
is that another second hand site
ok so grailed, depop, ebay, mercari
It's a brand
For specific things, I'll use secondhand site searches. But I generally don't find it's worth the time for things like "brown button down shirts" - you have to be more specific to actually filter through tens of thousands of results
well yeah but how do you be more specific?
green blazer isn’t something that common but still
also how do you build brand knowledfge which is actually real besides reddit circlejerk
Ask
there are lots of nerds here
Just look at things
Look at #waywt , ask questions
Look at #inspiration
Save photos of things you like, ask for brand recommendations based on what sort of styles you like
Not really an easy way to speedrun it but just pay attention to things around here and you'll catch onto some brands folks talk about or post about and start to understand your taste
You just sort of have to learn this to be honest, or work from an inspiration photo and ask for folks here to help you explain things about the green blazer you like. Is it made from a particular material? What is the lapel shape? How many buttons does it have? What sort of pockets? Etc etc
check #brands or check websites for brands
Also do a couple google searches for the brands in the eBay suit filter awz posted, Putthison has curated a lot of the highly regarded brand names there so you'll learn more from osmosis just reading around those
if you are interested in buying tailoring secondhand in particular, it's worth investing in further knowledge
beyond having more awareness of what particular features you want as @rawbert-oh described, there are a number of well-crafted suits that are less expensive because they don't have the name recognition of brooks brothers or ralph lauren or contemporary designers
given how the industry moved in the 1970s and 1980s, many no-name brands or individual boutiques were bought out or used the same mills as the more well-known brands, but because resellers focus on brand name they don't value them as highly
but seriously, ask questions in #waywt or #inspiration and search through the threads in #brands or #questions-and-advice or the archived #styling-suggestions - form the visual of what you want before buying and you'll be better off
I’ll generally search from a short mental list of brands I like. Nonnative, Tilak, Stone Island Shadow Project, etc.
If it’s a site I browse a lot, I’ll save filters and apply those before searching.
I base the vast majority of my understanding of brands from just sifting through old discussions on the discord
But you can rly begin to tell for yourself at least what kind of aesthetic a brand has
buying tailoring secondhand? wdym
tailoring is the umbrella term for suits, blazers and sport coats (and i guess waist coats but you probably don't want those)
different types of items (t-shirts, button up shirts, jeans, outerwear, tailoring, shoes, etc) will have different brands worth buying for whatever reason
A game changer for me was learning how to search on eBay. You may already know this but you can use various symbols to improve the search. I’ll do like:
“ navy blazer (polo, brooks) (40,42) “
Which will search for a navy blazer from either brooks brothers or polo that is either a 40 or 42
also -words for things you don't wanna see, cleans up searches immeasurably