Should I Buy My Wedding Gown on eBay?
by Daily Wedding Blog
Filed under Hot Wedding Topics, Wedding Dress
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I often get emails from soon-to-be brides asking me all sorts of wedding questions. One of the most reoccurring questions is whether or not one should buy a wedding dress from eBay. Let me just start right off by saying there is no right or wrong answer to this question. To help you make up your own mind, we will go through some pros and cons on whether buying a wedding dress on eBay is a viable option and let you make up your own mind.
Reasons For Buying a Wedding Gown on eBay
Wedding dresses are one of those things that go down in value as soon as you buy it. For that reason, it makes sense that a second hand gown will cost considerably less
Wedding outlets buy their gowns for significantly cheaper than its retail price via Chinese wholesalers. Some of these wholesalers sell their gowns direct to the public via eBay. So if you play your cards right, you could end up with a designer gown for considerably less than you would find in a bridal store.
Last year bride Hannah Kovacs spent a mere $180 on a wedding gown, that includes postage and insurance from a manufacturer on eBay. The same dress retails for $1500 in Australia. (source: Poll finds ‘average’ wedding costs $49,000
Reasons Against Buying a Wedding Gown on eBay
You will find some eBay sellers are actually based in China selling gowns through the auction website. They custom make dresses to the bride’s measurements. Although many brides have reported successes with using Chinese based eBay sellers, it can be difficult to address problems if complications occur. It’s one of those situations where if everything goes according to plan, you may end up with a good outcome. However, if the dress ends up differently to what you wanted, you may run into problems sorting it out in due time due to shipping times and language barriers.
Fake wedding gowns are rampant on eBay. Be wary if you find someone selling a designer wedding gown and offering to make it for you in any colour and size. Do your research. It’s probably a fake.
Things To Consider
If you do decide to buy a dress on eBay, use the following pointers to ensure you have a smooth transaction.
On the other hand, if the seller is a manufacturer, they may be using a stock product image and could actually be selling an imitation dress. Ask to see photographs of specific detail on the dress.
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I have sold my wedding dress on ebay and it was in perfect condition and the girl who bought it, got an absolute bargain for $80. The dress was 11 years old and still in fantastic condition as it had been looked after very well. The girl that bought the dress was very, very happy when she opened the package at the other end and discovered how good the dress actually was. Imagine only spending $80 on a wedding dress. So I would recommend if you are wanting to buy second hand do look at Ebay, there are some great bargains on there.
Good advice above.