The Sneaky Shopping Secrets Of A RealReal Addict

I am a walking talking advertisement for The RealReal. At any moment, 90% of whatever I'm wearing I've bought from there. Coats, dresses, jeans, shoes, bags - even my everyday sunglasses, a pair of 25th Anniversary special edition Oliver Peoples shades that I got ages ago, lost, and then found again. 

I'm telling you, all roads lead back to there. Truly. Everything new today will be resold there tomorrow, you can count on it. So why pay full retail like a fool?

Now I know, the first rule of The RealReal is you don't talk about The RealReal. Well, more accurately, you don't talk about what you've got saved on The RealReal - your carefully curated edit of treasures need never be on anyone else's radar until you've secured them. But in my many years of shopping with the luxury reseller (always online mind you, there are no real deals in-store), I've amassed a troubling, you'd-think-this-is-my-full-time-job number of tricks and strategies.

Just promise this stays between you and me!

MEMBERS ONLY
First thing's first - when someone tells me they're addicted to The RealReal, I immediately ask them if they have First Look. If the answer is no, I'll steer the subject elsewhere. If the answer is yes, they'd best buckle up because our conversation's about to get serious. 

For $12 a month, First Look gives you access to shop new items 24 hours before non-members. Without it, you're so not in the game you don't even realize you're not in the game. Think of how many people out there love Manolo Blahnik. Now think of how many of them are your shoe size. There's only one of those black satin crystal buckle Maysales, in Very Good condition, marked down with a heavy hand, so you do the math on just how long you think those are going to last on the market.

But perhaps I'm ahead of myself...

TIME TO GET A WATCH
Each day at 10AM and 7PM (EST) thousands of new items are added to the site. As you can imagine, these times are feeding frenzies. The second the clock strikes it's off to the races. 

If you schedule a call with me at 10 or ask me to dinner at 7, just know that I hate you and I will be scrolling on my phone or solely thinking about scrolling on my phone. Lose track of time and realize you're ten minutes late to checking in? It hurts, but just accept defeat. Chances are that most of the items you'd die over have already been safely placed on hold in the cart of some girl exactly like you - same size, same taste, same budget she's telling herself she has but definitely doesn't - only difference is she just happened to have her shit together that day.

KNOW THY BRANDS
So where exactly am I going when newness floods the site? 

I'm checking on my bread and butter brands. I'm very consistent when it comes to the designers I'm drawn towards. Sure I'm happy to try something new, and if a style's on point it'll always catch my eye, regardless of the label. But in a marketplace driven by scarcity, I'm running to my favorites first - Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Brock Collection, Nili Lotan, Markarian. In that order. I get the ones I know loads of others are pouring over out of the way first, then move on to the names that aren't likely to be of the highest competitive priority.

Once I've sorted through my top brands, I'll saunter over to the New Arrivals section to pick through those pages. If you're doing this twice a day reliably, you'll be 98% up to date on what's listed at all times.

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS
This should totally go without saying, but save your sizes. Give yourself a healthy range, at least one size up and one size down in clothes and shoes, since sizes are the biggest lie in the world and every brand is different.

To this point, always check the details of each item, where they note the measurements. The RealReal has a million pieces to measure, so no, they're not always going to be the most accurate, but they'll give you the gist of whether or not that dress is actually worth trying to zip up.

Below that you'll find the condition. While they really only accept clothes that are in great condition, it's always worth comparing to the cost. The price you should pay for something Pristine is obviously more than something their Product Receiver has inspected and found just Fair or Good.

ON HOLD
If you're even marginally interested in a piece, or think that maybe you could be marginally interested in a piece, add that shit to your bag. Items in your bag are placed on hold for twenty minutes, meaning no one else can snap them up. Rest easy in knowing that you've infuriated your sartorial doppelgängers, but don't rest so easy that you take your eyes off the prize.

Twenty minutes goes by pretty fast, and if you let the clock run out, you'll be stuck in like a minute-long no-man's-land shopping Siberia where it says the item's still on hold and won't let you add it back to your cart. It is during this time that inevitably your online shopping arch nemesis will swoop in and steal that handbag that you were somehow convinced is going to change your life. They will have a far happier trigger finger and purchase it immediately, and you will be left sad, bagless, and certain that there is no God.

The trick here is never getting to that expired bag. Clear your cart a few minutes before you're time runs out and then you'll immediately be able to add everything back in, safe and sound. This is also a fun little zig zag move to throw off other shoppers. Since many fall prey to The RealReal's limbo trap, if there's something that you wanted but someone else got to first, just start refreshing that product page like crazy from 10:20 to 10:23 and chances are it'll pop back up.

OBSESSIONS
Assuming you don't have all the money and closet space in the world (my condolences), you'll have to strategize about what to buy. Hearting items and saving them to your Obsessions page is a must. For those doing it right, it's putting on the hat of economist and anthropologist and fashion market editor. 

You might be playing the long game, waiting for that skirt to go from 20% off to 40% off. You have to have an understanding of just how much that skirt's really worth, how popular that brand and style is, how many times you've happened to see it's in someone's cart, how many other people have it in their Obsessions, how long it's been on the site without any movement (i.e. being purchased and then returned). Do I think people are thinking about cashmere maxi skirts in summer? Is this so special that another one won't come to market for a while?

The longer you play the game, the better your instincts will get. It's all a feeling. When Brene Brown wrote, "Intuition is not a single way of knowing—it's our ability to hold space for uncertainty and our willingness to trust the many ways we've developed knowledge and insight, including instinct, experience, faith, and reason," I'm positive she was talking about this.

CROSS CHECK
No one wants to leave money on the table. That coat that's new to the site? There might be another one of those that listed a long time ago, sat, and now is 40% off. 

Always check to see if there's another of the item you want listed. And focus on the total price, don't get caught up in the percentage off. The first time that I ever sold anything on the site, the shopping rep explained to me that if I saw my items listed right out of the gate stamped with their 20% off promo code REAL to know that's just a marketing scheme. That "discounted" price is actually what they would list it as. They marked it up so you could mark it down and feel like you're getting a deal. Sneaky sneaky.

ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER
Speaking of returns, I never buy just one thing. I'll always buy at least four to five things. 

Is this because I'm a more-is-never-enough materialistic monster? Yeah, sure, whatever. But it's also because you have to pay for shipping and returns. So, let's say I buy one thing and I don't like it. For the pleasure of discovering that, I'm out a $12.95 flat shipping rate and a return fee (sending it back in the mail costs another $12.95 or, because they finally got smart to the fact that all of us were just returning our stuff in-store to avoid paying that, you can pay a $6.95 in-store restocking fee).

There's always a chance an item's not going to work, so why not increase your odds of keeping something and not feeling like that shipping fee was a sunk cost part of doing business? If you buy ten things and keep one, that's all it takes to not be completely losing in this system.

Of course, if you're sick like me, the more you buy the more you're likely to keep, but I'm a big believer in the fact that shopping simply can't be a problem when what you buy is great. 

Just always check to make sure something's returnable. For the most part, everything is. Except for stuff on super sale, and handbags.

[Photos via @TheRealReal]