RRP vs. price war for new or nearly new qualitative garments on the market

A new jacket taken out of the box and resold it by a private seller loses 30% of its original price. After a few wears it goes down to 40%. That’s my experience. It really sucks but that’s how the market works. Same with boots etc.

The thing is nobody really needs these clothes, they are a treat/hobby whatever you want to call it, so if there isn’t a massive save on the second hand market then why not going brand new? Sometimes it seems counterintuitive but people who buy used don’t wanna save just 10% even if getting an item which is basically new.

For this reason, lately I’m finding it easier to reconcile with the idea of donating to charity the stuff that just doesn’t work out instead or reselling at a huge loss to someone who doesn’t even really need it in the first place. If I think at all the cheap b***s on eBay this is in fact quite refreshing.

I would like to buy used, but unfortunately my dimensions are so beyond the norm that nothing fits me. And I don't like to compromise on the fit either. It would be different with fabric jackets, because I have a good tailor to have it adjusted. But I have a good source for clothing, where new things only cost me a fraction of the new price.

It depends on the brand and the exact model. For example, I sold my Freewheelers San Mateo for more than 2/3 its original price within 1 hour on instagram even though I was the second owner. I also sold my brown Freewheelers Mulholland for around 3/4 of its original value almost immediately after listing it for sale. That one is a limited edition though. I also sold a cotton jacket for 90% of its original value within a few hours of listing it. That one is also something that is hard to get.

I have other clothes on ebay that haven't sold even though they've been listed for over a year. Ebay is pretty dead right now. All of those items that I sold quickly were sold through my instagram stories. So at the end of the day, it's just simple supply and demand. If it's something people really want and it's limited edition or sold out or whatever, then it will sell for a high price and probably sell quickly.

I never see decent used leather jackets cheap enough even used to warrant my interest.

Mich486 said:

A new jacket taken out of the box and resold it by a private seller loses 30% of its original price. After a few wears it goes down to 40%. That’s my experience. It really sucks but that’s how the market works. Same with boots etc.

The thing is nobody really needs these clothes, they are a treat/hobby whatever you want to call it, so if there isn’t a massive save on the second hand market then why not going brand new? Sometimes it seems counterintuitive but people who buy used don’t wanna save just 10% even if getting an item which is basically new.

For this reason, lately I’m finding it easier to reconcile with the idea of donating to charity the stuff that just doesn’t work out instead or reselling at a huge loss to someone who doesn’t even really need it in the first place. If I think at all the cheap b***s on eBay this is in fact quite refreshing.

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I like your thinking. Used jackets seem really expensive these days. I came to this site via an interest in old clothing found in flea markets, thrift shops, ebay, etc. I never got into high end reproduction things. So I would need a $1500 jacket to be $400 used before I was interested. I can afford to buy expensive things but I don't have a passion to own artisanal high craft items that cost more than my first car. Happy enough in what I can scrounge elsewhere. It's more fun to me this way.

Clearly it's a whole host of reasons, the one I don't think anyone has mentioned is the rapid and relentless increase in prices the big names around here have undergone in the last few years.

A few years ago you used to be able to get a brand new jacket for roughly the prices being asked on the second hand market today.

I think they have just priced themselves out of the average punters price range to a degree.

The other COVID issue that nobody has mentioned is just the reliability of postal services right now. Sure I could drop a few hundred on a new jacket but would it even arrive? There is enough doubt for me to think I'll wait until this whole mess is cleared up before I seriously look at buying.

Even worse selling! Do I really want to sell a jacket only to have it vanish, then be liable to refund the money and have no jacket.

No thanks, I'll wait....hell, I'm still not going out as much as I used to so I have even less need/opportunity to wear the damn things anyway.

dudewuttheheck said:

It depends on the brand and the exact model. For example, I sold my Freewheelers San Mateo for more than 2/3 its original price within 1 hour on instagram even though I was the second owner. I also sold my brown Freewheelers Mulholland for around 3/4 of its original value almost immediately after listing it for sale. That one is a limited edition though. I also sold a cotton jacket for 90% of its original value within a few hours of listing it. That one is also something that is hard to get.

I have other clothes on ebay that haven't sold even though they've been listed for over a year. Ebay is pretty dead right now. All of those items that I sold quickly were sold through my instagram stories. So at the end of the day, it's just simple supply and demand. If it's something people really want and it's limited edition or sold out or whatever, then it will sell for a high price and probably sell quickly.

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I agree that it is the supply and demand at work plus

Mich486 said:

The thing is nobody really needs these clothes, they are a treat/hobby whatever you want to call it, so if there isn’t a massive save on the second hand market then why not going brand new? Sometimes it seems counterintuitive but people who buy used don’t wanna save just 10% even if getting an item which is basically new.

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this weird psychology.

Marc mndt said:

I'm bored because I can't go out and do the things I used to do. Instead I'm at home sitting on the couch in a leather jacket, searching through marketplace I can think of on the hunt for nice jackets.

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Fixed it for you, Marc...

handymike said:

I feel used Aero jackets are worth $400-$600...yet I see a lot of people trying to get more. I personally don’t care if it’s been worn once or for 2 years. As long as it’s in good shape, it’s the same to me.

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I have seen this as well many times. I think some have a hard time believing that the jacket isn’t going to sell for almost what they paid for it, much less half what they paid...

sometime I wonder if human too have somekind of hivemind be it subconsciously, blew my mind away how things go viral, how polarizing fashion trends go from one to the next,
I mean right after wearing skinny jeans, skinny shirts, men turned into urban lumberjacks, with raw jeans, chambray, flannel, boots, pomade and beard oil the same person would probably is now already convinced rocking boxy fit anklepants chino, and flower pattern shirt or blazer with turtleneck, he wont need any leather jacket with flower shirt I suppose... so back to the niche market jacket goes.

A lot of the discussion around new vs used I think depends on who you are and what you value. Of course when buying new you will inevitably have to take hit with depreciation most of the time (unless you get lucky). For certain things I prefer to have new and others I don’t mind/prefer to have used. For instances with boots and shoes, I don’t mind buying used because I have the ability to resole and bring them back to state of like new. But for leather jackets I want to be the first owner and be the one to put the creases in. I am like that sometimes with footwear too, being the first owner allows you know 100% that it will be taken care of properly.

ProteinNerd said:

The other COVID issue that nobody has mentioned is just the reliability of postal services right now. Sure I could drop a few hundred on a new jacket but would it even arrive? There is enough doubt for me to think I'll wait until this whole mess is cleared up before I seriously look at buying.

Even worse selling! Do I really want to sell a jacket only to have it vanish, then be liable to refund the money and have no jacket.

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I've heard more people complain about the reliability of postal service since Covid. But I wonder whether this is actually a thing.

In the last few monts I've bought / sold about 20 jackets, most of them from abroad. I bought / sent to Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, UK, USA, Canada and Croatia. All were delivered without any problem or delay except for one hat I sent to @Monitor which took almost 4 weeks to be delivered.

Was I just lucky, or is this reliability issue just hearsay?

Marc mndt said:

I've heard more people complain about the reliability of postal service since Covid. But I wonder whether this is actually a thing.

In the last few monts I've bought / sold about 20 jackets, most of them from abroad. I bought / sent to Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, UK, USA, Canada and Croatia. All were delivered without any problem or delay except for one hat I sent to @Monitor which took almost 4 weeks to be delivered.

Was I just lucky, or is this reliability issue just hearsay?

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I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it. Although I haven’t sold or bought nearly the same amount of jackets that you have, I have sold and bought in the last year. Everything has been delivered on time.

Marc mndt said:

Was I just lucky, or is this reliability issue just hearsay?

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You were just lucky. I recently purchased a jacket from Europe -- shipped via DHL -- took over two months to be delivered.

Moreover, my purchasing from Japan has been thwarted because EMS is not delivering to the US.

Marc mndt said:

I've heard more people complain about the reliability of postal service since Covid. But I wonder whether this is actually a thing.

In the last few monts I've bought / sold about 20 jackets, most of them from abroad. I bought / sent to Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, UK, USA, Canada and Croatia. All were delivered without any problem or delay except for one hat I sent to @Monitor which took almost 4 weeks to be delivered.

Was I just lucky, or is this reliability issue just hearsay?

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Same here. All the jackets I bought arrived very fast, and the same goes for the ones I shipped myself (one was posted Friday at 7pm and arrived Saturday 5pm). One exception was a jacket going to the US which took a week, but even that is ok, IMO.

That said, I always use DHL priority shipping (expedited - whatever that means and insured). It’s quite expensive, but I’d absolutely hate a jacket that I send to a new home getting lost in transit.

Superfluous said:

You were just lucky. I recently purchased a jacket from Europe -- shipped via DHL -- took over two months to be delivered.

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My delayed package was shipped via DHL as well. After three weeks I contacted them to start an investigation. They then replied that they had a backlog in their regional sorting hub. This was end of December / beginning of January. Maybe yours was stuck there too.

Marc mndt said:

My delayed package was shipped via DHL as well. After three weeks I contacted them to start an investigation. They then replied that they had a backlog in their regional sorting hub. This was end of December / beginning of January. Maybe yours was stuck there too.

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Yes. This was around the time I shipped to California too. Guess, one week wasn’t too bad at all.
A few years back, shipping FROM the US/Canada would take forever. Reason was that customs clearing was really cumbersome. The process has changed now, and my Imperial took three days door to door.

Right now, I seem unlucky. Package to Pakistan around 4 weeks.
A shipment with DHL Express, which is usually there in 5 days, is already 9 on its way and the arrival has not yet been fixed. A package to the USA has been shipped January 27th. and since the 29th no status has changed. Officially, it should "only" take 10 working days.

But it works quite well within Europe.

My experience over the last year has been that within Europe is the same as always, Japan to Europe about a week extra with EMS. I had a package come in from the US in early December (USPS) and it was about a week too. So yes some delays but for better or worse nothing significant enough to hinder my buying habits.

Concerning shipping, things have definitely slowed down. While mostly everything I bought in Europe arrived, albeit with some delay, I still have two items from US stuck in the mail. Leather shirt and jeans, both of which have been shipped early November.

What's really weird is that two pairs of leather pants that I sent to two completely different addresses within the EU have both returned to me and nobody can figure out why. They've been stamped with addressee not found and immediately sent back, without mandatory 20 days wait, in case someone shows up. Really strange.

navetsea said:

sometime I wonder if human too have somekind of hivemind be it subconsciously, blew my mind away how things go viral, how polarizing fashion trends go from one to the next,
I mean right after wearing skinny jeans, skinny shirts, men turned into urban lumberjacks, with raw jeans, chambray, flannel, boots, pomade and beard oil the same person would probably is now already convinced rocking boxy fit anklepants chino, and flower pattern shirt or blazer with turtleneck, he wont need any leather jacket with flower shirt I suppose... so back to the niche market jacket goes.

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Wouldn't hold hive-mind responsible for this, though I'm absolutely convinced such a thing exists but what's happening is that since fashion trends are dictated by fashion designers and high-fashion, thing is, they simply picked up whatever new they spotted on the street. That's their talent; Not coming up with new clothes & styles (not even possible anymore) but taking the right thing at just the right moment.
Not many people are capable of even selecting clothes that they actually like, let alone developing a style of their own, so those that do quickly get noticed by people who are in control of fashion, who then slowly start integrating it into general fashion. The moment those few people became interested in heritage clothes, everything we like here becoming mainstream was bound to happen. Curious bit is that it's always first tested on women and only then, if successful, does it make a shift into men's fashion. And then everyone just picks up what's hanging lined up on a rack in Zara because otherwise they wouldn't have a single clue what to wear.

TheBigEraser said:

In my opinion, COVID didn't really hit the market of the relatively high-end leather jacket. People who were able and willing to spend so much money on one jacket are less likely to be affected by the financial impact from COVID (lose of job, etc.). Again this is my understanding and what I observed in my leather jacket fellows.

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Probably. I also know people working in Savile Row who have lost jobs; I'm guessing the issue there is less clientele not having the money, more the lack of need of a new suit if they're not in the office / going out.

Monitor said:

What's really weird is that two pairs of leather pants that I sent to two completely different addresses within the EU have both returned to me and nobody can figure out why. They've been stamped with addressee not found and immediately sent back, without mandatory 20 days wait, in case someone shows up. Really strange.

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I had a similar experience once, many years ago. In the run-up to Christmas, I had several packages not arrive, most ended up returned to sender. Wat happened, it turned out, was a new delivery driver for Parcelforce (who receive all packages at the UK end for many global partners) had come to deliver to my flat during the day. These Parcelforce guys can't get into the block to leave me a card like the regular postman, so they're supposed to send me notification in the mail. Instead of doing this, a new driver on my route was not bothering and just routinely sticking everything in the 'return to sender' box back at base. (Other private couriers are even worse; Covid times aside, I've had to start having everything delivered to the office in order to actually bed sure to get it; DHL and the rest either leave no notification at the flat, or stick a card outside the main door where it inevitably blows away...).

Not many people are capable of even selecting clothes that they actually like, let alone developing a style of their own, so those that do quickly get noticed by people who are in control of fashion, who then slowly start integrating it into general fashion. The moment those few people became interested in heritage clothes, everything we like here becoming mainstream was bound to happen. Curious bit is that it's always first tested on women and only then, if successful, does it make a shift into men's fashion. And then everyone just picks up what's hanging lined up on a rack in Zara because otherwise they wouldn't have a single clue what to wear.

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Culturally, women are encouraged to be interested in fashion, to stand out, to have the latest thing. The majority of men here in the UK - heterosexual, white, mainstream - are culturally programmed to believe that standing out for what you wear is wrong / bad / "gay" / other / not to be accepted, so for the most part will only wear what everyone else is wearing. The only way for a high street fashion place to work that is to be sure they can make it bland enough to sell to enough men that it has the same herd acceptance. I've never ad this so reinforced as going out one night in Liverpool, about fifteen years ago. Three of us were surrounded and pushed around at a bus stop by a dozen or so scallies - every one of them in identikit slip on shoes, pinstripe trousers, and short-sleeved, open-neck Ben Sherman shirt. They were so uniform, it was like a bizarre version of Reservoir Dogs. Complete herd mentality (as also reflected in 'let's push around the weirdos').

In all honesty, the only difference I see in most fashion for men (at least insofar as my undergraduates are an indication) in the last twenty years has been jeans getting much tighter than they were in the 90s. Otherwise, they dress much like most kids did when I was at university. Markedly fewer leather jackets, though, than in my era. Most mainstream men really don't want to stand out. Women are upset if another woman turns up in the same dress. Men seem to seek the reassurance of a uniform. I'm sure there's some deep, psychological issues involved.