eBay Risks (a.k.a. Who Wants To Buy These Shoes?)

Welp, this one's going to be a quickie, it's been a super busy week for me. You folks may have seen my feature on Effortless Gent, and I've been continuing to do some work helping Barron out. He's launching his Cladright program soon and I encourage you all to check it out. Barron's a great source of information and inspiration, and I'm really excited to see how Cladright develops. Learn more about Cladright here, and be sure to read up at Effortless Gent as well.

I've also had the pleasure of joining the team at Peter Field, a menswear startup here in Chicago. I'll be sharing more information on Peter Field soon, but in the meantime, check out the website and the current collection of awesome custom ties (sourced and handmade in the good old U.S. of A. That's right, responsible business practices). Check me out in a Peter Field tie here, no joke, they rock, and there's lots more to come. My recommendation is to snag a wool tie in time to be seasonally fashionable as fall finally sets in.

OK, on to the meat of this post. I laud the glories of shopping eBay for shoes all the time, and have plenty examples of incredible finds that have worked out impressively well for me. However, all of those happy endings should come with the disclaimer that, while often rewarding, shopping on eBay is always at least a bit of a gamble. Case in point: I have a navy suit on the way from Dragon Inside, and really wanted a pair of oxblood dress shoes to wear with it. After a couple days of scouring eBay, I found a hella-nice looking pair of Johnston & Murphy cap-toes with a Buy-It-Now price just below $40, shipping included.

Apologies for the poor lighting.

Lately, I've had a few pairs of 10D shoes that felt a bit wide, and these puppies came in 10B (narrow), so I hoped they'd be spot on. Woops.

Five days later, my feet were killing me as I tried to go a day squeezed into these shoes. The fact that the shoes themselves were in damn fine condition, and exactly the style I wanted, just made them hurt that much more. Sad face. The moral of the story here, however, is not to scare you away from eBay. It's just a reminder to shop smart. While these shoes aren't going to work out for me, and I can't return them, I didn't save up or spend a paycheck to get them. Worst case, I'm out $40. Even better, I bought a popular brand and a popular style that I knew I could sell back if I needed to, which is exactly what I'm going to do.

You can look for these on eBay in about a week, but I'll give you all the chance to scoop them up without getting in a bidding war. Like I said, size 10 B, and definitely narrow, but in damn good shape. They retail for $175 (see them new here) and look like they've only been worn for about a week. Interested? Shoot me an e-mail, I'll part with these for just $30, including shipping. No bites in a week and they'll go up on eBay. See more pictures below:

Uppers in great condition, minor creasing, no scuffs or blemishes.

Minor wear to soles and heels, still have lots of life.

Inners in pretty perfect condition. From the Johnston & Murphy Optima line.

Size 10 B (narrow).

Sayonara!