nytimes
First Stop: Target. Next Stop: eBay.
By KATE MURPHY
IT’S been a month since Target released its Missoni for Target line and scrums of shoppers cleared the discount retailer’s shelves and crashed its Web site. But as with some earlier limited-edition “masstige” collections, the frenzy has continued in the secondary market, with sold-out items going for breathtakingly inflated prices on eBay and Craigslist and in consignment shops.
“It’s been pure craziness trying to keep up with the orders,” said Susan Mayorga, 47, an eBay seller in Shadow Hills, Calif., better known as Deals818. She was lucky to score a cartful of Missoni for Target dresses and jumpers at an undertrafficked store in her area and has been reselling them for $100 to $200 more than retail price. “Then I look at what other sellers are getting and I kick myself that I’m not asking for more,” she said.
One optimistic eBay seller is asking $31,000 for a pair of Missoni for Target rain boots that originally cost $34.99, saying she needs the money for her daughter’s college tuition. But completed transactions over the last month reveal markups more realistically in the 25 percent to 400 percent range. The highest paid price on eBay for the coveted Missoni for Target multicolored bicycle, retail value $399.99, was $1,279.95.
“It’s the limited availability that’s the secret” to the steep resale prices, said Linda Lightman of Horsham, Pa., owner of Linda’s Stuff, an eBay store specializing in women’s designer clothing. “It keeps up the demand, whereas discount diffusion lines that are ongoing like Vera Wang at Kohl’s aren’t great sellers for us.”
Top designers have been creating masstige lines, also known as diffusion and bridge brands, for decades. But since Karl Lagerfeld created his one-off line for H & M in 2004, exclusive and short-lived collaborations between top designers and discount stores have become fashion events breathlessly anticipated and promoted on social media. The countdown has already begun for the Jason Wu for Target collection, which will be in stores in February.
And while certain collectors may sniff, many of these limited-edition lines, because of their calculated sense of urgency, have not only prompted stampedes despite the struggling economy but have also held or exceeded their original value even years after their introduction.
In August, Ms. Lightman sold a limited edition Mulberry for Target handbag for $219 (it cost $49 during the six weeks it was available in stores last year). “The opening bid on eBay was $29, so the sale price really tells you what the market will bear,” she said. “Many of my customers are in Europe or Asia where they don’t have Target stores.”
By contrast, costlier diffusion lines that are always available in department stores from Hackensack, N.J., to Hanoi — like DKNY (Donna Karan), CK (Calvin Klein) and Marc by Marc Jacobs — usually resell for 30 to 75 percent less than the original price depending on the age and condition of the garment, Ms. Lightman said.
And some initially splashy collaborations, like Isaac Mizrahi and Target, lasted so long that the market seems to be saturated; indeed, some eBay listings for Mizrahi items take care to specify “not Target.” (Good luck finding any of the designs he oversaw during his brief tenure at Liz Claiborne.)
That’s not to say all limited-edition lines fetch high prices at resale. The collections that Matthew Williamson created for H & M in 2009, Erin Fetherston designed for Target in 2007 and Tara Jarmon designed for Target in 2006 don’t create much excitement at resale, with items usually selling at prices comparable with nondesigner used clothing.
But lines by more widely known and recognizable designers (like Liberty of London for Target with its easily identifiable floral prints, and Missoni for Target with its distinctive zigzag patterns) tend to sell for significantly more than they cost when available in stores.
“All you have to do is look at the design and tell that it’s Missoni, even if it was from Target,” said Teri Clark, 49, a school liaison for children of military officers in Oahu, Hawaii, who paid $285 for a Missoni for Target dress on eBay that originally cost $59.99. “I didn’t feel cheated. I felt like I had won something.”
Likewise, draped and dramatic clothes by Karl Lagerfeld for H & M and come-hither high heels by Jimmy Choo for H & M are hot commodities at resale. For example, a 2004 Karl Lagerfeld for H & M black sequin jacket that originally cost $119 now goes for around $230, and 2009 blue metallic cage heels by Jimmy Choo for H&M that cost $129 in the store now sell for around $270.
Abigail Rutherford, director of vintage couture for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago, is mystified. “The whole point of diffusion brands is that they are less expensive,” she said. “If you’re going to pay that much, why not just get the real thing?”
Collectors of vintage clothing certainly tend to prefer designers’ higher-end work. While they may pay top dollar for 1970s Halston, Ms. Rutherford said, they generally turn up their noses at Halston III, the diffusion line created by the designer for J. C. Penney in the 1980s. “It just reeks, I won’t touch it,” she said. “There’s no secondary market for Halston III even though his other stuff has been so hot the past few years.”
The Halston III example may be instructive. According to the fashion historian and author Caroline Rennolds Milbank, that diffusion line is now considered “disastrous” even though when the collection was introduced, “it was a big success with great reviews and great sales.” She wondered if the same might eventually be true of the more-recent discount diffusion lines.
But it’s debatable whether the pieces will last long enough for anyone to find out, since they tend to be made with lesser fabrics (that is, inexpensive synthetics and thin cotton) and in greater haste, to enable lower price points.
Erin Barnes, 32, a stay-at-home mother in Olathe, Kan., doesn’t think masstige is worth the retail price much less the markup at resale. She bought several items from the Missoni for Target line from her local store but returned everything except a skirt and sweater set that she wore before she realized she didn’t want it.
“If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have bought any of it,” she said, although she plans to auction off what she kept on eBay. “I wasn’t impressed with the quality. Like the wood on the heels of the pumps was fake and reminded me of the wood-patterned contact paper you can get on another aisle at Target.”
But perception of value often depends on expectations. Roseanne Morrison, fashion director of the Doneger Group, a retail and merchandising consulting firm in New York City, said: “I think we are talking about the designer name and the stimulus of scarcity here. If the collection has enough elements of the designer’s signature look and there’s limited availability, it’s probably going to do well at least in the near term.”
Stephanie Raven, 37, of Montgomery, Ala., who operates an eBay store called Myriad Trading Co., has been happily making a 300 percent profit reselling the cache of Missoni for Target ballet flats, note cards, expandable files and media bins she was able to buy at a store in nearby Prattville, Ala. “I’m lucky to live in an area that doesn’t pay that much attention to fashion,” she said.
Explaining why evidently more fashion-conscious people in California, New York, Thailand, Australia and Germany have been willing to pay her such a premium, she said: “They’ve got to have it because everyone’s on Facebook and Twitter saying they’ve got to have it. Sounds like high school, doesn’t it?”