Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Kimono on a Budget: Part 2

In the first installment of this series, I walked y'all through weeding out junk on Ebay and scooping up "ending soon" auction deals.

The approach today is the opposite tactic, but can also pay off every now and then: Head over to Ebay and search for "kimono" or whatever item you're after, clicking on the Cultures & Ethnicities section in "Collectibles" next. After that, click on the tab on top of the listings that says "Buy It Now". Then click on "Time: newly listed" from the dropdown menu over to the right. This will show you all the brand-new stuff available for purchase at that exact moment, rather than waiting days for an auction to end (and other shoppers to find your item).

Every now and then someone will put up something valuable for cheap, not knowing what it is or I guess just wanting to get it sold. Skimming new listings, I've gotten a hanhaba obi for a Buy It Now price of $4 and a very nice silk men's kimono and haori set (the one I posted about in a seller review) for only $60.

I restrict it to Buy It Now when I look at "newly listed" items because cheap auction opening prices don't matter if the auction still has 5 days to go and lots of time for the price to get driven up.

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