To be completely honest, I had some rule breaking moments.
Twice this year I bought bridesmaids dresses. The second dress I did try to find on eBay , with no success. If you happen to be in a wedding with a common style from Davids Bridal, the odds of finding it on eBay can be surprisingly high. Worth a shot.
In connection with those dresses, I also bought the shoes for those weddings. Again, first attempt was to buy them second hand, but with specification on color and style, I had no success.
My primary shopping spots for 2016 were ThredUp (13 referral credits earned in 2016 equaling $240!!!THANK YOU!), Poshmark, and Goodwill. If we happened to be out of town and had some time, we always looked up the nearest Goodwill. I've learned a lot about the pricing structure of various Goodwills over the year. They're not all the same. And sometimes a name brand item (Express,Ann Taylor, etc..)will be tagged as "boutique" which will roughly double the price. At our local Goodwill this typically means $9 for a shirt, $12-19 for a dress.If the name brand is not caught during pricing, you can get a steal of a deal.
ThredUp continues to be the most successful second hand shopping platform for me. The consistency is unbeatable and the quality is always exactly as promised. They are really starting to explode and I'm currently on a waiting list for a bag to send in clothes!!! Never expected that to happen.
It seems like shipping is taking slightly longer, but that could have just been because my last order was over the holidays. Whatever the case, it my #1 recommendation for online shopping. (Link in side bar)
This what my typical ThredUp savings are per order:
Poshmark is a community of sellers and because of that your experience can vary. The only negative I've seen was when I bought shoes and the seller never sent them. There is not a way to direct message them at that point in the sale, but you can comment on the item. About a week into things, the seller assured me the item would ship the following day. It never did. I gave them 2 weeks before I canceled my order. Getting a refund wasn't an issue, because payment is not released until the item is marked at received by the buyer. I haven't had this happen again, and most of the sellers are extremely nice. Most of the time a hand written note is included even.
I decided not to stick as strictly to the second hand challenge this year, but I do think I will have a hard time going back to "regular shopping".
