Shop this Land: My Key to Finding Jeans

I know!! I thought eBay was just a glorified garage sale, too.

But it actually is full of goodness. And by goodness, I means the jeans you love but hate paying for it.  Before I started trying to change my buying habits, Gap jeans were my favorite. Being short - it can be pretty hard to find jeans that I don’t have to cuff but Gap’s short sizes were perfect. The downside is that I don’t love the manufacturing practices of Gap and all of it’s many conglomerates. So that’s when I started to use eBay to find the Gap jeans I love.

I know that searching out used Gap jean isn’t the perfect solution to avoiding them all together  but as you might know, I’m not all-or-nothing gal when it comes to buying things better. I try my best, I have limited amounts of money, and this is just one way I try to be true to my progress not perfection lifestyle. So back to eBay! Here’s how I find my favorite jeans on eBay:

1.  Make an account, blah, blah blah

   1. Yep -- just make an account, sign-up, uncheck as many email boxes as you can! You know the drill. One thing to note though, you will need a Paypal account. I use Paypal all the time and if you aren’t familiar -- you just hook up your card info or your bank account info and that’s how you pay for things on eBay.

2. Search for exactly what you are looking for

   1. So, for example when I need a new pair of jeans I search: Gap Legging Jeans 26 Short and see what comes up. Last time, the EXACT pair of jeans that had ripped the day popped up and it was like a true miracle. :) If you don’t find anything by being really specific, change it up. Next I would try, “Gap jeans 26 short” and see what comes up.

3. Bid or make an offer

   1. There is two different ways people sell things on ebay. They either do an auction-style or charge a fixed price. Auctions usually start fairly low, so I’d just bid the lowest possible, make note of the ending date, set a reminder on your phone, and check in when it’s almost over to see if your the winning bidder or you want to bid a little more for them

   2. When it’s a fixed price, I also offer a few dollars less than what the seller is asking. Sometimes they accept and sometimes they don’t but it’s worth a try.

   3. For me, I would not pay more than $20 for a pair of used, Gap jeans. That’s with shipping. The pairs I usually am comfortable paying range from $8-14.

4. Check reviews

   1. Make sure the seller that is selling the brand has good reviews. It’s eBay’s simple way to make sure that the seller delivers the product you see and that their listing description is accurate.

eBay has worked really well for me! I have sold a number of things, too. So in case you gave it a bad rap like I did, here’s a sign to go check it out. It’s more like an world-wide thrift store than a glorified garage sale. :)