No, I am not talking about the sale rails, althought you can get an absolute bargain , I am talking about thrifting.... online.

I have not yet ventured into in store thrifting yet as to be honest... I cannot pluck up the courage. But I can spend hours upon hours browsing websites such as eBay, ASOS Marketplace and gumtree to see which bargains are to be had.

Over the past 6 months I have thrifted 3 items which ranged from (including postage) £4 to £10, which compared to an average of £18 which I would spend on a new item is a great saving.

With my, what I call, experience with online thrifting, I thought I would share with you my top tips for grabbing a bargain!

( Photos from pinterest.com)

TIPS

#1 Know your specifics

As you may be aware websites such as eBay sell thousands upon thousands of products and can leave you with a huge chore if you wish to browse through everything. The answer. Narrow it down.

eBay allows you to narrow items down by using specifics such as; gender,size,style and store. This can reduce the amount of clothing you are looking through by at least a thousand.

#2 Know how much you are willing to pay....in advance

eBay offers new and old clothes for which you are most likely to pay more for one than the other. I usually, on average, am only willing to pay about £10 total (including delivery) for used items and £20 total for NEW items. I then work out how much my maximum bid for the item would be (with the postage added) to total these amounts.

For example. If I saw a dress I liked and the postage was £3, initially I would be willing to pay a maximum amount of £7. I would place a bid that was stated then, if outbid, I would increase my maximum bid to £7 so that eBay would do the work for me.

#3 Know who you are buying from + Leave feeback for Sellers

eBay offers a system that, once an item has been sold or purchased, both the seller and the buyer can leave feedback about the product, service and anything else they want. This means that if an item is paid for and it isn't sent out to the buyer or the products are of bad quality, you can be aware of this before purchasing.

This also means that most sellers enjoy getting feedback, buyers too, as it shares with future buyers/sellers how trusted you are and how many sales you will have in the future. If you do decide to make a purchase; leave some feedback and help the sellers.

#4 Watch the items you take a fancy to

When browsing the eBay, or any other thrifting website, and you see something you may be interested in buying; 'watch it'. eBay has a button which allows you to save a product in a watch list to allow you to take a look at it later or if you are using another website, save the link

#5 Ask for measurements (know yours!)

It can be frustrating for buyers and sellers alike when a product is bought and it won't fit. Many sellers do not accept returns or give refunds so money WILL be wasted (unless you decide to resell). ASK. I cannot stress enough how important it is to ask for measurements to check that an item will fit. Pictures do not always give the correct justification for sizing and you may recive an item unlike what you were expecting.

Thats all that I can think of right now. Have you thrifted before??

LilleyMay xx

(Unfortunately my digital camera has broken so good quality images for the next couple of weeks will be out of the question whilst it is sent off for repair - I will try to find alternative photography sources but they unfortunately will not be as clear as previous.