Have You Ever Purchased A Makeup Item Over Retail Price?
Last week I was searching for a rather hard to find item at Home Goods/TJ Maxx. It’s was the larger Headless Horsemen Statue and oh my god, if you follow me on Instagram you know I scored! I found it! A lot of items like this are harder and harder to find because people have made a career out of hunting these items down and putting them up for sale on Mercari and E-bay for triple the price. The statue retails for $39-$49 depending where you purchase it but earlier in the month it was on Mercari for close to $200.
It’s pretty crazy. I have two feelings about seeing marked up stuff like this. The first feeling is anger. I totally get enraged that someone is ripping me off like this and marking up something to triple the price. I see it happe with limited-edition purses, shoes, clothing, accessories, everything….! I see some items that retail as low as $9.99 at TJ Maxx and people will sell them for $100-$150 (Rae Dunn items in particular).
Another part of me is like, “well, first come first serve!” I mean, if you found the item and you paid for it that would mean its technically yours to do whatever the heck you want. So, I feel Karen-like ranting about someone trying to make a buck. But I just feel like it ruins things for people who really want the item ya know? It feels unobtainable when someone is selling you something that’s just grossly overpriced and YOU KNOW that. It would be another story entirely if you told me hey, I have this, I’m selling it, it’s $150 want it? And me, being ignorant of the original price, really likes the look of the item and I decide is it worth $100. However, going into a purchase like this fully knowing the original price is upsetting to say the least as you feel a bit robbed.
I think it’s even harder if you’re a nerd that collects certain items that are released at exclusive stores or available in very limited quantiles as people who aren’t fan snatch every single piece of that item up and proceed to try and sell it to fans for much, much more and hey, some people even buy it (I’m guilty of that!) because they really want that item.
I have done this before. There have just been items I really wanted and I did my best trying to score a deal on Mercari or E-bay for it because it sold out, was no longer available, or I simply couldn’t find it. I never said I wasn’t a push over. Sometimes I am sadly. I’ve only ever purchased on makeup item over retail price. We’ve had plenty of limited-edition releases over the years a lot of which sold out SUPER fast. Remember those days? 12:00PM that new Tarte Palette would drop and 12:01PM it was gone. I remember those days very well. But thankfully, I was never tempted to pay more than retail for any makeup item but I did fail miserably once.
