I've been collecting vintage clothing for 21 years.  I first began purchasing the garments for the fabrics.  The wonderful brocades and printed cottons were like works of art to me.  After holding onto the garments for a couple of years, I started to feel badly about cutting the garments for blocks of fabric.  I began researching the designers who created trends that set the fashion world into chaotic spins.  I read every fashion magazine I could get my hands on and started purchasing vintage clothing to resell....at least that's what I told myself.  What really happened is that I became an obsessed collector and I justified spending hundred of dollars every month on everything vintage from A - Z by telling myself and my family how collectible and rare these items were.  By the year 2000 my vintage collection had taken over a 300 square foot basement and our guest bedroom closet so I decided I needed to  prove to the world I had purchased all these garments and accessories, not because of any compulsion, but because I had a good head for business and I could turn a profit on each and everything I had purchased.

When I started ebay in 2000, I had a fair amount of success.  I could have been extremely successful, certainly ebay gave me all the tools for success.  Trouble was, I couldn't let go of the items for the price the market was willing to pay.  Besides, I was reading all the vintage clothing books and price guides that were hitting the market.  I couldn't believe how much money a Christian Dior chapeau was fetching or a Vera scarf.  I was mesmerized by the prices "professional vintage clothing sellers" were claiming they received for the same items I had in my collection. 

I would go in and out of ebay.  Soon I stopped selling online and started pretending I would just sell to close friends.  I bought business cards and set up a little shop in my basement with racks and shelves and fooled myself into thinking I could part with these items.  A couple of years passed and I sold a couple of things and I gave a couple of items away for Christmas and I kept buying and scouring thrift stores and garage sales and buying and buying and buying.  Friends who thought my collection was "so cool" really just wanted to borrow something at Halloween.

I started feeling pressure from my family to get back to the business of selling instead of buying as the collection was beginning to take over ever square inch of my home.  I had boxes in every closet,  garments hanging on rolling racks in the spare bedroom and hat boxes stuffed into kitchen cabinets.  I decided to get back into the Internet selling game.  I opened an Internet store and listed about 50 items for the prices that the "expert vintage clothing sellers" said they were worth.  I didn't sell one single, solitary item.  I blamed my lack of success on the Internet site and shut down once again.

In 2003 we moved to a larger home with an 800 square foot basement.  My vintage collection filled every square foot.  I had clothing in bags, in boxes, in old suitcases, hanging from ropes tied to hooks in the ceiling of the basement.  Once again, I opened another Internet store and got all my price guides out and listed the garments at the "expert" prices.  I sold about a garment a month.  I just kept paying those fees and buying and then, something changed.  I wanted out.  I wanted a clean home.  I wanted organization.  I wanted room to breath.  I wanted someone to help me release the albatross that was tied to my neck.  I was trapped in a sea of compulsive collecting that was suffocating me.

When I finally realized I was in too deep, I couldn't find a way out.  I couldn't stand the thought of giving this "gold mine" to charity and what if it didn't sell?  Would they throw it away?  This collection had been my live for years.  This collection had been my drug of choice.  I couldn't just give it away.  I contacted auction houses in New York and Chicago.  I wanted the items to go to people who appreciated them.  The auction houses wanted to pick and choose the big names like Schiaparelli and Pucci out of my collection.  I didn't want that to happen so I put ads in the paper for a "vintage clothing store" and never received a response.  Then one day, one very lucky day a light went off in my head.  I was reading a vintage clothing blog and one writer voiced her opinion about wanting to have nice vintage items but couldn't afford the prices sellers were asking.  She continued by saying she was going to forget about vintage shopping because it had become a"ripoff".  I  began to see that I had held on to all these great vintage items out of greed or a need...I'm not sure which one fits best. 

I reopened my ebay account in the summer of 2007 and had a talk with myself about realistic pricing and letting go.  I am happy to report that my ebay site, "thecinderellaproject", now has near perfect, designer vintage clothing at two price points....$25.00 and $45.00.  That's it.  Some items are auctions and some are fixed prices.  I do not vary from those prices.  If bidders want to raise a price, that is their choice, not mine.  I am clearing closets and finding space I don't know what to do with and, once I have sold the last hat, the last garment, I will sell this big house and buy something more manageable, more peaceful.

I am sharing beautiful vintage clothing with, hopefully, another generation that will find it as compelling as I did many years ago and, hopefully, at prices they can afford to spend on wonderful pieces of fashion history.  A little ebay and a lot of reality checking...and throwing away those ridiculous, exaggerated price guides....saved me and put money back in my wallet. 

My advice to everyone thinking of buying vintage clothing to resell is,  buy only excellent condition items, put them on ebay auctions at a 30% markup and share the joy.  Share the joy through fair pricing.