Vestiaire Collective experiences?

[Gabs007]

I don´t understand either why people would buy Zara second hand but hey.
I think the pricey items don´t go as fast because when I buy an item without seing it IRL and without the possibility to return if it doesn´t fit....so I´m very hesitant to pay more than 200€ for something I´m not sure will even fit...its a gamble. and let´s be honest some of the photos are really bad and sellers don´t even want to post pictures of the items on.
But this season´s items are listed at very close to retail price usually...

I get that, but if you get every possible measurement, and my more expensive items tend to be shoes and bags, and the odd dress, but then I really give every measurement (armpit to armpit, 10 cm under the armpit, waist, shoulder width, you name it) and if you pay 200 to 500 for an item that usually retails for 2K plus up to 8K (a red carpet dress you can only wear once and it is usually for 3 to 5 hours max) it is still one hell of a bargain. I honestly do not list anywhere close to retail (and I feature in the discount I get from the designers as it will be worn at an event where their name is then mentioned - unfortunately I am not in the league where it comes totally free) but I am seriously not going to let it go for the price of a H&M t-shirt in the sales.

In all honesty, I often tried to post additional pictures on VC, what happens is that they can't be bothered to upload them, so I tend to have them on another website and then "hint" to the interested party that they might want to google the description and will get more pictures.

 

[Gabs007]

Continuation of the VC saga where they issued a label with the wrong address, the item finally got returned to me, it was in July when I sent it on the website the delivery is still apparently in progress, VC didn't bother to contact UPS with the right address (they will not speak with a 3rd party), despite me regularly contacting them, so today in my mail I got a bill from UPS, apparently 'I' provided them with the wrong address and they are now trying to charge me.
Decided to contact VC and to not bother with any of their chat clowns but to email them, where they then can't claim anything, also writing to UPS and pointing out that I am using the prepared address label VC gives me, who is their contractual partner, I have no contract with UPS and I find it more than questionable and dubious that they are trying to bill me!

 

[Gabs007]

They came back with the idea of giving me a free postage voucher if I buy something and I should settle it witH UPS, so NOT going to take it, the voucher will not cost them anything and they messed up with the wrong postage label, I am not paying to send my item away and VC messed up the postage label, I have NO contract with UPS, in fact VC has a contract and provided the label, their responsibility, not mine...

 

[Greenredapple]

They came back with the idea of giving me a free postage voucher if I buy something and I should settle it witH UPS, so NOT going to take it, the voucher will not cost them anything and they messed up with the wrong postage label, I am not paying to send my item away and VC messed up the postage label, I have NO contract with UPS, in fact VC has a contract and provided the label, their responsibility, not mine...

Hang in there.

Reading experiences like this has made me more cautious of vc. I managed to sell three items over the summer and the experience has been fine so far. I suspect that me being a relatively new customer/seller has something to do with it.

 

[Gabs007]

Hang in there.

Reading experiences like this has made me more cautious of vc. I managed to sell three items over the summer and the experience has been fine so far. I suspect that me being a relatively new customer/seller has something to do with it.

Doubtfully, I think they are trying to squeeze newbies even more by trying to force them to lower the sales price, but I am seriously angry, they make a mistake and I should pay for it, and in exchange they want me to spend money with them and offer a free voucher for sending, which would mean I have to give them money as well, err, PASS

 

[Lae]

Not so sure where you are, but in Europe there are some alternatives, none of them without hitches.

The biggest one is Rebelle, but I wouldn't go near them ever again, their commission is modern daylight robbery, their authentication is a joke, if they offer free sending or 10 to 20% off or a voucher, the seller pays for all of it and you only see it once the deal is done, plus when it comes to checking items, they lie through the teeth, if they even give you a reason, personally I avoid them like the plague, bought a dress through them apparently in very good condition, measurements were all wrong, no reply then the tepid "You can resell for free" - never worn the dress, kept it in a garment bag, finally sold it for 1/3rd of what I paid and they rejected it as they claimed it was in "acceptable" condition, the very same dress they sold me 6 months earlier that I had not worn once....

There is HEWI, but they tend to reject a lot, I guess it depends on the mood of the person who does the curation on the website and it goes straight from seller to buyer, so if I sell anything through them I always take a picture with a time stamp before I send.

You can try JoliCloset, overall OK but not well known, so don't count on a quick sale. Lately I have one buyer making the same offer on the same dress over and over again, when I accept - nothing.... And they use ParcelForce for sending to them

VideDressing, you also send directly to the buyer but front the postage, certain items they check and they are not very clued up, so if you have a vintage item, they will possibly scream fake as they don't keep up with changes to the label, plus they only pay part of the postage, most of the buyers are in France and they apply French postage, if you are sending from the UK, you are out of luck, additionally the buyer has 48 hours to decide, since they make up weird stuff, tracking shows delivered on Monday and buyer wants to return Friday, they often let them claiming it was delivered Wednesday, if the buyer doesn't confirm, you have to chase them up...

KeeptheLabel is also a company in Poland who has a similar thing as VC, but you get totally crazy offers and you can't do counter offers, just agree or decline, then my account is an EU account but I am still currently in the UK, so they insist on paying in GBP which then costs me a fortune for the bank doing the transfer (charges for exchange and all that) you pay for the shipping to them, which you don't get refunded, sales are very slow and they NEVER respond, the phone number doesn't work, I wrote to them several times regarding if they could not pay in Euros, you would think they would answer....

Wow, thanks for taking the time share all of those! I had only heard of Rebelle on that list. I also know of The Next Closet but I don't have any experience with them. I'm going to try Heroine (the female version of Grailed) but I don't think they have much of an audience. We'll see.

I do, but I feel a bit like a detective, you know searching the items for anything that could be considered the slightest flaw. I tend to be somebody who goes a bit mad on a brand and then gets enough of it, and due to work have to wear a lot of the latest stuff, so I have and am unloading stuff like Gucci, Emilio Pucci, Bottega Veneta, YSL and Dior. Their "Please lower your price" mails drive me nuts, if I spent 2K on a pair of boots, I want at least a bit back and I don't wear the items a lot, so selling for 200 to 300 seems fairly reasonable, but not their suggested price of 150. If I am selling this or last season for 1/10th of the retail price, I am not going to take offers as they usually don't follow through, that is why I did switch the offers off, if a good bargain isn't good enough for the person who can afford "supermarket's own brand" but thinks she should be getting high end for even less, I am not the parent or her sponsor. I might as well give it to a charity then, so at least the right people benefit from it.

ETA: I am not a massive Zara fan, but unloaded a few items I bought on a whim and was surprised how quickly they went, given that they tend to be much cheaper when you buy them, your return percentage seems to be higher than if you offer "real" designer

When listing the 30+ items consecutively in May I discovered that the pricing algorithm only looks at certain characteristics such as brand name and category to decide its price, without taking other specs into account. I listed three dresses of the same brand but in very different fabrics and of very different qualities. Even though one dress cost more than double what the other two cost VC decided that all three were the same. So after that I started to pad my initial asking price a little bit, knowing that they'd tell me to lower my price, at which point I lowered it to the price I had wanted in the first place. Even if you drop €1 it'll then accept the price. You do have to pay attention, though, because they initially listed one of the dresses above for their own recommended price, which I had not agreed to. Fortunately I spotted it quickly, took it offline, and relisted it.

Yes, if you put the option of offer, people will use it no matter what.
I usually list my items a bit higher so I let the buyer get it for a bit cheaper....psychology of making a "deal". But as a buyer, when I put in an offer, I buy as soon as it´s accepted.

I agree. From my experience on other websites people will always try to haggle, even if you specifically state that the price is not negotiable. The psychological effect of getting a deal is real. It doesn't always hold, though. The two items for which I've received the most offers on VC (but no one ever actually paid) both ended up selling at full asking price.

Doubtfully, I think they are trying to squeeze newbies even more by trying to force them to lower the sales price, but I am seriously angry, they make a mistake and I should pay for it, and in exchange they want me to spend money with them and offer a free voucher for sending, which would mean I have to give them money as well, err, PASS

That's awful! I hope they take responsibility for their (or the buyer's) mistake. Did the buyer ever receive the item?
They sent me the payment for the earrings that sold for €90 last night... they only paid €20.

 

[Greenredapple]

Doubtfully, I think they are trying to squeeze newbies even more by trying to force them to lower the sales price

This is what I feel I have been subjected to. VC is constantly pressuring me to lower my prices. I feel like can't get any decent 'profit' even with new products that have not been used. My initial asking price for new products are around 1/3 of the original retail price which is pretty reasonable imo. But apparently it's too much to some so I lower my asking price, which I am not happy about, but I feel like I don't have a choice.

 

[Lae]

This is what I feel I have been subjected to. VC is constantly pressuring me to lower my prices. I feel like can't get any decent 'profit' even with new products that have not been used. My initial asking price for new products are around 1/3 of the original retail price which is pretty reasonable imo. But apparently it's too much to some so I lower my asking price, which I am not happy about, but I feel like I don't have a choice.

I just ignore those dozens of messages they send me to lower my prices. I can't help but think that once you start discounting then "watchers" will always wait for you to go even lower. So for the time being my strategy is to accept offers but not drop prices. Most of my prices are already 70% off retail for NWT items. A few items from brands which never go on sale or very rare pieces are higher than that, but there are maybe 3 of those. Overall, I very much agree with your assessment that 70% off, minus the commission is already a very good price for a new product. That said, I fear that quite a few sellers follow VC's recommendations and as a result certain items are way undervalued. So on VC €200 for a €1000 pair of shoes can seem expensive because they've pushed a lot of sellers to list similar shoes for €80-150. And then the buyers see that price range as the norm, so €150 becomes the new "expensive".
I'm not interested in playing that game, so I'll list prices that I'm happy with, with some margin for offers. If that isn't low enough for the buyers then I'll sell it elsewhere with a lower or no commission.

 

[Greenredapple]

I just ignore those dozens of messages they send me to lower my prices. I can't help but think that once you start discounting then "watchers" will always wait for you to go even lower. So for the time being my strategy is to accept offers but not drop prices. Most of my prices are already 70% off retail for NWT items. A few items from brands which never go on sale or very rare pieces are higher than that, but there are maybe 3 of those. Overall, I very much agree with your assessment that 70% off, minus the commission is already a very good price for a new product. That said, I fear that quite a few sellers follow VC's recommendations and as a result certain items are way undervalued. So on VC €200 for a €1000 pair of shoes can seem expensive because they've pushed a lot of sellers to list similar shoes for €80-150. And then the buyers see that price range as the norm, so €150 becomes the new "expensive".
I'm not interested in playing that game, so I'll list prices that I'm happy with, with some margin for offers. If that isn't low enough for the buyers then I'll sell it elsewhere with a lower or no commission.

Excellent points. I have definitely made mistakes by lowering the prices in the past. After lowering my asking price, potential buyers will start to wait for the price to drop even lower. Due to the waiting, it takes forever to sell my items.

I will start to adopt 'take it or leave it' - tactic from now on. Price negotiating is already time consuming as it is.

 

[Lae]

Excellent points. I have definitely made mistakes by lowering the prices in the past. After lowering my asking price, potential buyers will start to wait for the price to drop even lower. Due to the waiting, it takes forever to sell my items.

I will start to adopt 'take it or leave it' - tactic from now on. Price negotiating is already time consuming as it is.

This is based on limited experience, but I think it also depends on which listings their algorithms decide to push. I've noticed a few times that suddenly there will be a very random increase in followers of certain items for a few days. It just jumps up. And after that no one will follow that item for weeks on end. So something must've happened to trigger the item to be pushed to a wider audience, which is then followed by a chain reaction. In my case the items that have sold for full price have all had this chain reaction happen. So it seems that you can reach the right buyers but there is some sort of triggering event that increases your visibility. Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out what that is.

 

[Gabs007]

I wish they would sort the webpage out, at the moment you can list a new item, it will show in your news but not on the items you have listed, but I janked my Prada Flame shoes, somebody seriously told me (didn't ask, she told me) to sell them to her for 30 and she would not take no for an answer, I ended it sweetly with thanking her for convincing me that I rather give them to a friend as a present, at least my friend never makes outrageous demands. I think they really started to attract a bunch of people who have no idea of the value of things or how much items would cost them new

 

[Gabs007]

Actually website is even worse, checked, an item I put on a few days ago, it doesn't show up in the search nor on my "for sales profile" - so basically you can list your items, but nobody will see them, since buyers can't see them... What a mess, seriously, a company that size with the worst IT department the planet seems to have to offer.

 

[Gabs007]

Btw a friend told me she lost her seller status (trusted or expert) not because she cancelled recently but because she had to cancel some stuff in April and May as there was no way to send... Oddly enough they tend to make new rules and then punish people who followed the rules before they changed them...

 

[Gabs007]

I honestly think I will give them a miss in the future, sold an item where the sleeves go into the shoulders an they find the measurements 2 cm off and decided that I need to give a 40% reduction or else I have to pay for postage back and forth. In the description I pointed that out and claimed "approximately" due to the dress not having structured shoulders. It seems they simply try price gouging because they can

 

[Lae]

The big question in that case is do they refund the 40% to the buyer, or do they pocket it? In any case, 40% for 2cm is ridiculous, especially if it's difficult to measure.

Again, limited experience, but in a way I think they may be killing their own business in the long run. They're creating a marketplace where the buyers expect high-end designer items for H&M prices but there's a tipping point with sellers. Such a high commission on already ridiculously low prices and sellers won't have enough money left to put in the effort. As long as there are reasonable buyers in the mix as well it should be sustainable for sellers but I think they need to be careful which direction they push their business in over the next few years. If they want to justify a 25% commission they need to keep sellers happy, too. They're going to have to make a choice between extremely high volume at the flat rate €15 commission, or a lower volume with a significantly higher commission. But pushing sellers in the latter segment into the first segment is not going to end well.