Buying clothes through eBay - ethical?

rackstar

I know this will be no help for the very petite or very tall, and it's not the best way to get kitted out for work, but....

I went to a clothes swap last month. It was so much fun. I can't rememebr the last time I had such a good girlie evening.

A friend invited me to her friend's house for the clothes swap. I brought another mate and we each brought a bag of clothes we didn't want any more. There were about ten of us in total and some others who couldn't make it just sent a bag of clothes. We hung them out all over the lounge and handed them round, tried them on, had a laugh and drank a little wine....

I thought I was going to make some space in my cupboard, but actually came home with more than I went with. It was great getting different groups of friends together because we weren't just taking stuff we had seen our friends wearing before.

It has changed my attitude to clothes. Before I used to think "I know that doesn't particualrly suit me, but you never know when you are going to need a black jumper..." but now I don't feel so possesive. I'd rather someone else who did suit my clothes got use out of them, and I'll have those jeans they got in the wrong size!

Put a bunch of girls together and everyone is going "oh, you look great in that" and you come away feeling good about yourself, and knowing you've got a new set of clothes that suit you, and you haven't spent any money.

We're having another one next month... hooray!

benhill

And i don't know what ebay does with its cash

They buy Skype, and the reinvest in their business. Both theoretically ways of saving money as cost-savings can be passed onto the consumer in terms of lower fees etc, and VoIP vastly reduces costs for consumers anyway.

However, I realise this is vastly off-topic so I'll go again :-)

Rachie_B

super41 wrote:

I buy quite a lot of clothes on Ebay for reasons of money saving. However hadn't really thought about the ethical issues before, so really interested to read everyone's thoughts and ideas about this. I have thought that buying online as well as being money saving and easy means I don't need to get in my car and go shopping. We live a 35 mile round journey from the nearest shopping centre (no bus route) so I feel I'm impacting less on the environment by staying at home.

ditto i also sell quite a bit of my 2 sons clothing on there too,money saving first off

and i thought i was doing good by "recycling" the clothing really

Paul_VW

benhill wrote:

They buy Skype, and the reinvest in their business. Both theoretically ways of saving money as cost-savings can be passed onto the consumer in terms of lower fees etc, and VoIP vastly reduces costs for consumers anyway.

However, I realise this is vastly off-topic so I'll go again :-)

They also brought paypal, and the intergration to eaby is great, but apart from they they runnied it IMO :rolleyes2

hardpressed

Ethically produced goods are always going to be more expensive than those made in a sweatshop because the workers are paid a living wage and work in safe conditions. Cheap goods are cheap because the workers are paid a pittance and the working conditions are appaling.

However what would happen to those who work in sweatshops if they were closed down, is it better to get a wage however small than nothing at all? In countries where there is no unemployment benefit or sociall security what is the alternative. Untill all governments make the employers treat their workers fairly it's always going to be a problem.

I don't know what the answer is. I'm quite happy to buy from charity shops, at least I'm not helping the big shops to make even more profits, and the charities are benefiting.

tr3mor

Dibz wrote:

On the other hand though, how much do I know about what eBay does with all its hefty profits from listing fees and the like? Does anyone know about this?

What's unethical about making a profit? Should your boss be able to ask you what you will spend your wages on before employing you?