Small questions thread

[Lane]

I thought the timetable he was giving people was ridiculous as well, even if he were providing pictures who makes decisions that quickly on expensive items like that? Plus, I never received coherent answers about anything I asked about. Every time I tried to buy something from him, whether it was lost and found items or current season julius, he'd tell me they were sold out, lol.

Pretty much was just creating interest and sparking curiosity in this group buy, whether or not this was fulfilled to the expectations layed out is a mystery to me.

[beardown]

There is a sucker born every minute and many of them wander into fashion at some point. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

He may be 'getting away with it' for right now but hell hath no fury like a bunch of SUFUers who have been scammed. One wrong move and he's going to have a group of people out for blood and it wouldn't be too tough to track him down.

Just saying. I hope it works out for people but we know that the internet forums are famous grounds for scamming people. It's as old as the internet itself.

[cowsareforeating]

So CCP hockeyes have structured and unstructured version -- is the same true for the rubberbands?

and what leather were they produced in?

[Urthwhyte]

^ Perhaps I'm one of those suckers, but I want to believe he's honest. The effort to set up and run two or three Silent buys and establish himself as a legitimate reseller, albeit for a brand with much less cachet, all to scam people out of at most a few thousand dollars seems ridiculous.

Even had he had managed to get 1,000 people to put down a deposit, which is certainly an order of magnitude off, the upside for him would be 10,000 dollars for a con that took well over a year. The reward just isn't high enough for it to be worth it, at least from my perspective, it has to be incompetence.

[Faye]

I think you guys are very harsh with egocomplex. Obviously things didn’t work out as he planned. It’s easy to crush someone’s reputation if he’s got almost none. This guy’s been working hard these last months and didn’t mess up anything so far, except the julius glitch. But don’t judge him on that yet! You don’t even know what exactly went wrong, and he’s not like telling you that you won’t see your 10$ ever again. For the time being he deserves better.

Just to make it clear: I don’t know this guy personally at all, but I did business with him before and tried to find out more about his reasons and goals of doing business that way. With his replies he always came over to me as a honest guy trying to take a small step at a time, rather than someone trying to rip off people.
As far as I understood he’s rather young and trying hard to build up reputation and a real business with very minimal capital. Obviously he did so very well with last season’s silent buy. By organizing pre-order group buys, he’s taking a cautious step into the business, minimizing risk for anyone involved. Imo a innovative and very wise way of doing a start-up, if you’re on a small budget. As he’d mentioned himself, this will be likely the last time that he’ll be offering this pre-order pricing buys. Also, if you wanna blame his business model, blame the designers first who are willing to sell to him!

Also, while he may have re-registered himself after being banned on sufu, I know that he also had thoughts about promoting his business on sz. In fact it would be the better option because many of his brands are more popular with sz than sufu people. But being aware about sz policies, he didn’t do so till now. That’s respectful and not arrogant at all, if you ask me.

[beardown]

"As far as I understood he’s rather young and trying hard to build up reputation "

Seems like he's definitely building a reputation.

I don't know the guy...someone asked about group buys and I gave my two cents. Don't get your panties in a wad. If the guy was BANNED from Sufu for directly going against the terms and then signed up under a different name to skirt being banned, that's just plain idiotic.

I didn't judge him personally in my post but since you're bringing it up...
How is it fair to the shops that support SZ as affiliates that some guy is putting together group buys that will undercut them by 40% or so?

Probably wouldn't be too stoked on that. As I said earlier...the Internet is a hotbed for scammers. If he proves himself to people after taking down payments and fees, good for them. But a forum falls under the rules of those who out the time and effort and money to run it. If he wants to get customers, let him advertise on Sufu like the other advertisers. That might bring him some legitimacy and make him seem much less sketchy.

[Faye]

How is it fair to the shops that support SZ as affiliates that some guy is putting together group buys that
will undercut them by 40% or so?

As I said, don’t blame him, but the designers on that point. Either for being aware of his business model and still agreeing to do business, or by not doing their „store check-up“ properly to find out with whom they’re doing business exactly.

As I said earlier...the Internet is a hotbed for scammers. If he proves himself to people after taking down payments and fees, good for them. But a forum falls under the rules of those who out the time and effort and money to run it. If he wants to get customers, let him advertise on Sufu like the other advertisers. That might bring him some legitimacy and make him seem much less sketchy.

Agreed. It shows that most likely it’s his first time running any business. But his missing experience in such matters doesn’t make him someone who intends malice.
The point that disturbs me, is that the course of this discussion (not just your posting) makes a scammer out of him. And for the time being it’s just too early to make such a judgement. Afaik, the whole julius thing is still going on.
Also the fact that he didn’t advertise on sz without permission so far shows that he’s not completely giving shit.
Anyway, I don’t wanna turn into this guy’s spokesperson. So I’ll stay out of it for now.


People deserved much worse on sz before, but they didn’t get it until the very end. Just cuz they were sz affiliates!

[Oasis]

So CCP hockeyes have structured and unstructured version -- is the same true for the rubberbands?

and what leather were they produced in?

As far as I'm aware the unstructured hockeyes are actually the fe-male version, structured are the male.

I don't think it's true for rubberbands.

[tenorish]

^I'm not trying to judge 3am in any way with this post, instead just commenting on the designers that agree to sell to him, on others on sz and on the affiliate boutiques.

If the designers have agreed to sell him the products then I don't see anything shady in what he is doing. And I don't quite know how else he would be able to get his hands on such stuff unless he is part of the mafia or something like that.

It just seems to me, and again I'm not judging, that people on sz are sometimes not as excited when it comes to procuring designer garments for significantly marked down prices. I'm all for anti-consumerism but this is something else, it's more anti-logic. People here almost take pride sometimes in having paid retail when there may have been (legitimate and ethical) ways of having paid significantly less. The case being discussed right now is an example. Having said that, I am all for supporting designers and paying whatever their garments cost, instead of investing in copies/lower quality products.

As for the affiliate boutiques, does one have to pay a 40% premium on a complete line just because they are affiliated to sz even if one hasn't made (and doesn't intend to make) any purchases from them, when the same line is available at near wholesale prices elsewhere? If the gap, monetary or otherwise, was "smaller" I would think about it, but paying 40% more...

[lowrey]

The thing is, I've just discovered that japanese brand current season items retail for much less in Japan than in the US or anywhere else. Like 50%-100% cheaper. So why is there any reason to go to my local shop? I've met respectable shop owners but I find most of the employees are snobby as hell. I just find the overall experience unpleasant.

The fact that something costs less in its country of origin is pretty obvious, there are a number of factors contributing to this starting with shipping costs, customs, taxes..

I think a valid reason to support your local store is that they go through the trouble of sourcing and buying these goods and give you a chance to handle the things in person before buying, you don't get this when shopping online. This is why some labels go further to support physical stores and avoid e-commerce. Of course, if its a matter of buying it online or not buying at all, then its a call you have to make.

If there is some other problem with the store such as dickish employees, then thats a whole different matter..

[lowrey]

If the designers have agreed to sell him the products then I don't see anything shady in what he is doing. And I don't quite know how else he would be able to get his hands on such stuff unless he is part of the mafia or something like that.

its entirely possible that he works for a store or is pretending to be one; I really don't see it as appealing for these designers to go into business with some kid who sells stuff on a messageboard. It's also worth considering that he has no respect to the forum rules and has re-registered a number of times on superfuture and I'm pretty sure he tried to contact people on SZ as well before he was banned.

It just seems to me, and again I'm not judging, that people on sz are sometimes not as excited when it comes to procuring designer garments for significantly marked down prices. I'm all for anti-consumerism but this is something else, it's more anti-logic. People here almost take pride sometimes in having paid retail when there may have been (legitimate and ethical) ways of having paid significantly less. The case being discussed right now is an example.

are you serious? sales have always been raved about here, we have dedicated threads to seasonal sales and one of the most popular threads is Good Finds, which for the most part features items sold at below retail. Classifieds is highly popular and people certainly don't seem to have a problem with buying used goods. Who the hell has ever taken pride specifically on paying full price for something??

As for the affiliate boutiques, does one have to pay a 40% premium on a complete line just because they are affiliated to sz even if one hasn't made (and doesn't intend to make) any purchases from them, when the same line is available at near wholesale prices elsewhere? If the gap, monetary or otherwise, was "smaller" I would think about it, but paying 40% more...

can you give an example of where the same goods cost 40% more at an affiliate store compared to another legitimate retailer? not counting differences caused by location (taxation, customs, transport costs, exchange rate variation)

[PaintedBlack_7]

I picked up a vintage pair of Issey Miyake pants while i was in japan years ago.

they're drop crotch and wide legged black

how should i wear this without looking ridiculous?

i've seen mail-moth and the wire artist pull similar pants off but IDK if i would feel confident in the 3+ layers each wore it with

[tenorish]

^Lowrey: I'm sure he has broken forum rules. But IF designers have knowingly gone into business with him (or anyone for that matter) I wouldn't call the business shady, I'll leave that at an if.

As for goods costing 40% more, I was referring to the present case where the Julius AW 12 collection would be sold by him at near wholesale prices, which would conceivably be ca. 40% lower than what any retailer, let alone the affiliate boutiques, would charge.

I for one would have been quite interested in buying at near wholesale prices and wouldn't have questioned or complained until I saw signs of a scam. I think as of now it's more mismanagement/poor planning than a scam.

[sshum88]

What this all comes down to is a potential for a disruptive business model and the closest example that comes to mind is Mr.Porter. They have no bricks and mortar stores (that I know of) and they reach their customer base solely through the internet. One can cut a lot of costs out of the equation (rent, utilities, staff etc) by not running a physical storefront (you still incur costs to have an online presence). Some of those savings are passed along to the consumer and why this person (3am) is able to offer new seasonal items at much lower markups.

Some of us may have picked up some current Rick or other designer at Mr.Porter at 80% off. This is a 1st for me unless you're picking through old seasons at a reseller somewhere. And my guess is they still made a bit of margin on those items...not much but a few points. Someone who knows the wholesale prices can confirm whether or not this is true.

It's interesting to watch as I was wondering if the designers would 'shut out' these new accounts and not sell to them. Mr.Porter likely purchases a quantity large enough to rival department store buys and would be hard to turn away as a customer.

It's just a sketchy concept in general. If you're a business and you have a business license, then you can apply to open an account with vendors, distributors and designers where you buy at wholesale.

Some of these places have a pretty rigorous set of standards to opening up new accounts and there are likely fairly large minimum orders.

But what you're basically trying to do is bypass the retailer and at least 2 people will have an issue with this: retailers and designers. Think about it: If you're a retailer trying to sell high priced designer clothing and some guy is selling direct at wholesale, then retailers aren't going to like that. And designers depend on retailers to help sell their goods.

[anomolies]

I was jokin about 3am bein a scammer. All I'm saying is that I'm simply disappointed with the Julius buy, I was going to attribute to mismanagement as well.