Advice about selling a costume

Ariella

New member
I'm planning on selling one of my costumes, but wanted to seek advice first. It's an expensive unused costume, so I'd like to make sure I do this correctly.

To those of you two have sold a costume before: Where do you usually advertise that you are selling a costume? I'm not looking to start a costume selling business or anything, I just have one costume to sell. How do you handle payment? What can I do to make my costume easier to sell? I know that good photos and measurements are important, but what else?

Shimmies,
Ariella
 

maria_harlequin

New member
Use PayPal for people to send money to you. It does deduct a bit of money (2.9% if you're a US citizen or 3.9% for international plus an additional $0.30) but it's easy to use and convenient.

If you're looking to only sell one costume, just advertise in forums under the appropriate section or on other similar social networking websites with belly dancers. This way you don't have to pay any fees.

Also, make sure you wear your dress and take a high quality photograph! I can't emphasize on how better clothes sell when they're on actual bodies than mannequins. But if you must use a mannequin, use a cloth one - they look far better than those posey plastic mannequins.

 

Jujube

New member
And the more photos and measurements, the better! (Not that I've sold...but I've bought clothes online.)
 

maria_harlequin

New member
And the more photos and measurements, the better! (Not that I've sold...but I've bought clothes online.)

Yes! More photos is a great idea. If your costume is really detailed, take pictures of that. If your costume has a lot of movement, take pictures of that.
 

Ariella

New member
Thanks for the advice!
I shouldn't have a problem getting photos. The costume fits me well enough to photograph, and I have a friend who knows what she's doing with a camera.

Which measurements are important? I don't want to measure every possible thing and overwhelm people with information.
 

Samira_dncr

New member
Thanks for the advice!
I shouldn't have a problem getting photos. The costume fits me well enough to photograph, and I have a friend who knows what she's doing with a camera.

Which measurements are important? I don't want to measure every possible thing and overwhelm people with information.

I've always enjoyed seeing the measurements in the photos. Someone holding up the measuring tape next to the costume. For stretchy costumes, I've seen the non-stretched measured belt + the stretched version. That's helpful for showing the range of a costume.

I don't think you can overwhelm folks with info. More measurements are better.
 

maria_harlequin

New member
Hmmm...I'm not sure I'm for holding the measuring tape up to costumes. I think that's distracting and unless you zoom in, it's going to be hard to make out the inches and in that case, you're going to lose parts of the costume in the picture.

What you should measure is the length of the skirt (I'm assuming your costume is a skirt and not pants) and if it's pants, then just measure the inseam. What's also helpful is that instead of just measuring the waist and the bust, tell your customers what's the ideal size for the costume. For example, this costume will comfortably fit hips that are no smaller than 34 inches and no bigger than 38 inches. This is better than just listing sizes (you can do that too though) because sizes are never universal...also, measuring your stretchy parts "laid flat" and "stretched" is also helpful.
 
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