Sharing the Magical Shopping Powers - Family Style

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents are visiting this weekend, so things have been a little more hectic than usual.  What I didn't mention is that my two brothers and my one sister are here as well, since we're celebrating my dad's 61st birthday this weekend.

Some of my very earliest shopping memories involve going to Dadeland Mall in Miami with my mom and my sister for our biannual "there is absolutely nothing to buy in Nicaragua because we're a crappy communist country" international shopping excursion.  This weekend my mom, my sister and I reprised our shopping trips of yore by embarking on a tri-state shopping tour - Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.  Ok, we only passed through Washington, DC, but tri-state sounded so much cooler.  Not that DC is a state, but anyhow... I took my mom and sister to all the places I go shop either for eBay or for my personal shopping projects.  I brought along all my coupons, discounts and invitations to special events.

We covered a grand total of 240 miles spread out across 2 days.  Shoes were our main focus, although my mom did buy two evening dresses and my sister got a handbag and some running shorts in addition to her three pairs of shoes.  I picked up a handbag for a special project, but as usual, nothing for myself.

Anyway, the real point of the story is about the shoes below.  Many people think they can get the best deals on shoes and clothing online.  I cringe every time I hear one of my friends say they bought something on Bluefly, Endless or Zappos.  I took my sister to one of the places I regulalry shop.  It was one of the shoe warehouse places - you know the kind, nothing special, everyone has one within driving distance of where they live.  Well, she picked up the Giuseppe Zanotti shoes you see below for about $175 before tax.  They were 70% off, and they had them in just about every size you can think of.  Fast forward to this morning.  I'm doing a little research on a different pair of shoes, and I come across my sister's shoes on Bluefly.  At a discount.  For $500 plus tax.

We didn't do anything special.  Didn't buy wholesale.  Didn't even use a coupon for God's sake.  All we did was get off our butts to do a little in person shopping in strategically selected places.  That's it.  That's what my magical shopping powers boil down to - patience, research and two well-heeled feet to pound the pavement with.

And if all else fails, if that combination sounds like too much hard work for you, that's what I'm here for.  Give me a holler!

The Recipe for Magic Shopping Powers

One of my clients, Christopher, was kind enough to leave a comment on this post referencing my "magic shopping powers" for digging up designer goods at good prices.  To be fair, I dig them up at ludicrous prices and then resell them for good prices, but that's besides the point. 

I will preface this by saying, as I think I did one of my previous posts, that what makes me good at the shopping game is I do research for a living.  But.  There's really no voodoo behind my shopping powers, nothing any one of you couldn't do with a little patience and some experience.  Nothing I sell has fallen off the truck, nor have I gotten it anywhere you guys wouldn't be allowed to go.  In my post about never paying retail I revealed some of my tricks. Here are a few others that complete the recipe:

• Shop around, online and off.  Figure out which stores are good for what.  Figure out when the big sales events are and plan your big purchases around those events.  Know how much things generally cost - otherwise how will you be able to tell whether something is a bargain or not??  Sure, those $200 shoes I sell still seem expensive to you but think about it: 1) Everything I sell is at least 65% off, which means those $200 shoes were over $500 when they first hit the rack; 2) I obviously didn't buy them for $200, otherwise I should have my MBA immediately revoked; 3) I forgot where I was going with this, but the point is the BIG bargains are out there but you'll never find them if you don't know what they look like.
• Get cash back.  Sign up for a cash back program, such as BigCrumbs or Ebates.  If you click through their links while you shop for the things you would have bought anyway, they will give you anywhere between 1% and 5% cash back, depending on the store.  You accumulate the cash back in your account until a predetermined, regularly-established payout date when they tranfer the money into your Paypal account or send you a check.  If you'd like me to refer you and walk you through the sign-up process feel free to email me.
• eBay is your friend.  It's full of desperate people who have made impulse buys and now just want to get some of their money back.  It's also full of other people like me who have visited stores and outlets where they had inventory that wasn't available at the stores and outlets YOU visited.  So in a sense, eBay is a like six degrees of separation of shopping.  Through eBay, there are only a few degrees of separation between you and the Chanel outlet in upstate New York, even though you're in Florida.
• Sign up for the online sample sales.  You know the ones - Gilt, The Sample Sale, Envite, RueLala, etc...  Their emails are incredibly annoying, but they do have some incredible bargains sometimes!
• Finally, and this applies mostly to shoes, whatever you see at Zappos, DSW and Bluefly is sitting at an outlet somewhere at almost half the price, just waiting for you to get out there and find it.

That being said, please keep asking me to get stuff for you!  I promise Italian shopping does not disappoint.  I leave on Tuesday.  I'm sure there's SOME European luxury item you've been dying to get.  Come on, you can tell me... I won't tell anyone...