Funny, weird, bad listings list!
- Thread starter YouAreAlways
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
While I am totally disgusted that somebody sells them, the fact that somebody will buy them, eeek
I have no idea! And if you look at the completeds, there are some that sold for over $2k.
This is weird. The items are all relatively the same, but in different combinations. Prices vary, some have shipping, some don't, other have very low shipping like 49 cents. It doesn't seem to matter about size or weight and the prices that include shipping don't always equal the ones with price plus shipping. It's almost like they're just playing with the numbers to see what sells and what doesn't.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Countertop...cat=133704&Brand=Oster&_trksid=p2046732.m1684
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Countertop...cat=133704&Brand=Oster&_trksid=p2046732.m1684
I have no idea whether this is authentic and I supposed there's a market for it, but it just strikes me as an odd listing:
https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Lo...ght-Shoe-Only-Amputee-Sz-8-Us-39-Eu/651302276
https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Lo...ght-Shoe-Only-Amputee-Sz-8-Us-39-Eu/651302276
Funny that you mention this. I was recently in a shoe store. There was a shoe I liked but they only had the left foot in my size. They couldn't find the matching right foot. I got to talking with the clerks since it was a slow time. They were telling me that they had an entire store room full of single shoes that lacked a matching mate. They could never figure out what happened to the matches. Do people steal single shoes off racks? It wasn't a matter of simply misplacing inventory they claimed. Occasionally the store set employees to spend the day scouring through inventory to try to locate missing shoes, but ultimately many shoes remained unmatched.
Both employees had worked for the store for over ten years and the missing shoe phenomena had been going on a long time. When they left shoe racks out in the mall during sales they theorized that passersby may be picking up single shoes with the intent to take them inside the store to try on, but ended up pocketing them.
When I mentioned this to my DH, who hangs out with a group of amputee athletes, he got fire in his eyes and said "Hey, I know a market for those single shoes!" I told him ebay had already beat him to it.
I left my name at the store and said that if they ever found the mate to the single shoe I tried on I would buy the pair. But they never found it.
I can't count the number of times I've found shoes I like but the pair would be mismatched, with one shoe a half or full size difference from the other. THAT is common. None of us have identical sized feet though usually, we can wear both shoes of a single size.
But where peoples' feet differ enough that they can't wear both shoes of the same size, they'll often switch out the shoes and take 2 shoes from difference sized pairs. It's easier to do in stores like Nordstrom Rack, Marshall's, TJ's, etc. where it's self service. And while the employees are supposed to verify that both shoes are the same size, mismatches slip through.
It's the single shoe on ebay that threw me. Ebay just doesn't strike me as being the type of market I'd use in the case of an oddball item for a unique circumstance.
But I've also come across this website several times over the years. They've been around a long time:
:: My Left Shoe .ca :: amputee shoe swap, single shoes for sale
And a google search brings up a lot.
https://www.google.com/search?sourc.......1..gws-wiz.....0..35i39j0i131.bO9dvbdjz1I
But where peoples' feet differ enough that they can't wear both shoes of the same size, they'll often switch out the shoes and take 2 shoes from difference sized pairs. It's easier to do in stores like Nordstrom Rack, Marshall's, TJ's, etc. where it's self service. And while the employees are supposed to verify that both shoes are the same size, mismatches slip through.
It's the single shoe on ebay that threw me. Ebay just doesn't strike me as being the type of market I'd use in the case of an oddball item for a unique circumstance.
But I've also come across this website several times over the years. They've been around a long time:
:: My Left Shoe .ca :: amputee shoe swap, single shoes for sale
And a google search brings up a lot.
https://www.google.com/search?sourc.......1..gws-wiz.....0..35i39j0i131.bO9dvbdjz1I
No clue if they’re authentic as I can only pull one picture but there’s a definite market for single shoes and there are single shoe swapping sites for amputees as well as for people who wear significantly different sizes R to L.
BTW the usual reason for stores ending up with singles:
1. Single was used for display and was lost due to theft or misplacement. Theft is usually about a hopeful thinking the mate may show up on the floor down the road which doesn’t happen. Singles end up buried under couches etc.
2. Half the pair is damaged and the box is taken out of inventory and returned to the vendor for credit forgetting that the half pair on display needs to be pulled too.
3. Half pair is being sent out for a repair and gets lost. I’ve had that one happen to me.
4. Socks in the dryer syndrome haha
I've read online women claiming that occasionally clerks in shoe stores will swap out different sizes in a box for them when their feet need two different sizes. That's what they claim anyway.
I was surprised at the number of amputee shoe-swap web sites that came up when DH and I had a discussion about it. One of the beauties of the Internet. Can't imagine how difficult special shoe needs were before the net.
Yet, that is exactly how the site started out. THE place to buy and sell the odd, unusual, eclectic and just plain weird stuff you couldn't find anywhere else.