Dirty Little eBay Secret No One Talks About

Ok, so I have to admit the ole blog has been a little uninspiring lately.  I'm in a stage in my little eBay venture where the only really strategic things I have to think about are which items to buy, how to price them, how to market them and how to list them, and if you're not into eBay (or fashion/shoes) that can get a little boring.  So, I thought I would finally come out and tell you about a "dirty" little eBay secret I've been keeping from you.  I'm going to try to be as vague as possible to protect one particular buyer's information, but there's no way to tell this story without telling you about some of the specifics of the transaction so I hope I keep a proper balance between sharing my experience and respecting the buyer's privacy.

Three months or so ago, without really meaning to, I stumbled upon one of those eccentric eBay markets that other people make a mint on.  At the very beginning of my venture, when I was still listing my own personal items for sale, I listed a pair of used, almost abused premier designer shoes for a Buy It Now at a very low price.  I figured someone might want to fix them/clean them up and continue to wear them or resell them, since this was a pretty unique designer item that's no longer available in the market.

Very soon after I listed this item - it was a Buy It Now with Best Offer - I received a pretty generous offer to take the shoes off my hands.  Thrilled with my fantastic selling skills, I accepted the offer and waited for the payment email to arrive from Paypal.  It arrived within minutes, but to my surprise the name on the delivery address was that of a man, not of a woman.  Even MORE surprising was the fact that the buyer had added a note that said: "Please do not repair or clean these in any way."

At this point I'm thinking I sold my item to a rich cobbler who buys beat up footwear to repair and then resell on eBay or Bonanzle or some other market.  This buyer was extremely polite and clearly very refined - one of the nicest buyers I've dealt with so far, in fact.  So much so that I decided to contact him the next time I had a pair of designer shoes of the same brand for sale to let him know I would be willing to give him an extra special deal if he was interested in these as well, to which he responded that he not interested in buying new shoes, but rather, older shoes that I had personally worn.

A quick look at the profiles of the other sellers he had recently purchased from dispelled me of any remaining hope that this man was a rich cobbler.

This puts me in a very uncomfortable position because on the one hand, I do have some nice, used shoes I would love to list, however, I'd really prefer to only sell them to people who plan on wearing and reselling them.  The problem is if I am completely honest about all the dings and flaws on the shoes, I attract a type of buyer who may NOT intend to wear and/or resell, whereas if I don't describe all the flaws buyers may feel cheated when the shoe arrives in worse condition than they imagined.

The solution I've been using of late has been simple. 

1) List all the flaws, BUT also make sure to mentioned that the shoes have been wiped very thoroughly with disinfectant wipes (which they have!).
2) NO modeling pictures, no matter how much better the shoes look when they're actually on feet.

Think I'm messing with you?  Just type well worn shoes in the search box on eBay.  Then we can talk.