Tag: Buying Lululemon

How to get the BEST Deals on Lululemon

Hello everyone! I thought it would be fun for me to write an article, to help my loyal readers, and random Internet people who search for “how to find good deals on Lululemon.” In this article, I will cover all of my favorite methods for acquiring Lululemon for less than retail. Some of them require luck, others require time. All of them produce results.

I hope you find it useful!

eBay

There are a few ways to get cheap Lululemon clothes on eBay. While it is true that many of the items will sell for lower than retail, (as they are used, although, as I discuss in many other posts, there are exceptions), other items will sell for lower than average. For someone who is looking for a good deal, such as yourself, not only do you want to pay less than retail, you want to pay less than average. The average price an item sells for on eBay is what I call the market value of the item. However, once in a while, an item will sell for a great deal less than that price on eBay. It’s these outliers that I hope to help you obtain.

There are two ways to do this. One requires time. This method has you input your most general search term: whatever you are looking for, let’s say you’re looking for anything in a size 6, so you search eBay listings for “Lululemon 6.” After that, change the settings to “Ending Soonest,” and “Auction Only.” Then, you can browse the listings that are ending soonest for great deals. This can take a long time, I usually look through for the next 24 hours. I also recommend doing this on mid-week days, and other days when eBay is not going to be as busy, but those are very general terms on how to get good deals on eBay. I’ll try to stay Lululemon specific.

The second way requires a bit of luck! You can get good deals on Lululemon if you subscribe to mobile alerts from eBay that tell you when specific search terms you input come on the market. This is when you want to input your very specific search terms. Let’s say, for example, that your unicorn is a pair of Quiet Stripe Wunder Unders in a size 6. I would save & ask for eBay alerts for “Quiet Stripe Wunder Under 6.” Then, when someone lists some, you’ll be notified. The main way you can benefit from this is when someone posts a listing with a “Buy It Now” option. If you see it first, and you like the price, you can buy it then and get a great deal!

Groups

There are numerous groups dedicated to the buying, selling and trading of Lululemon items. Sometimes the best deals are located in long threads on pages like The Lululemon Market, other times the best deals are found in “Buy It Now” prices on the auction pages. Many of the auction pages also have $DOLLAR DOLLAR$ days, where all starting bids must be $1. Most decent items go for about market value, but once in a while an unpopular item in an unpopular size will go for much less.

Lulu Bones: subscribe to updates.

Other than trolling eBay and the groups for great deals, my favorite “low-priced” value page for Lululemon items is Lulu Bones. If you subscribe to updates from the page and have them sent to your mobile phone, you’re sure to spot the good deals as they arrive “in stock” on the page. People list their heavily used or slightly damaged Lululemon items here for CHEAP! The admins have set price limits, so no gouging occurs. You just have to decide whether the bleach stain or tiny hole is a problem for you.

Local Scores!

While this option is not necessarily available to everyone, I find that some of the very best deals I hear about are through local pages, thrift shops and, to a lesser extent, consignment stores. By local pages, I am referring primarily to Craigslist and Kijiji. Basically, local pages that foster transactions on an individual basis. I have a search saved on the Home Screen of my cell phone and I click it once in a while to see if there are any new items for sale. It makes it easier for me because I don’t have to go to the website and enter my search terms.

I think the term “thrift shop” is universally understood, but it’s important to know when to go in order to find the best deals. Obviously, if you have any way of knowing when they restock, that’s a good day to go, but if you’re unsure, I’d at least plan to go early in the morning, so that if they had restocked, at least you would be the first to get the deal.

The third place I’ve heard of people getting decent deals is in consignment shops. If you want to, you might be able to talk to the shop owner to see if any Lululemon items have come in recently. I find that consignment shop owners are often interested in helping me find specific items.

WMTM Upload TIME

Although it can be sporadic, especially around the holidays, I’ve found that We Made Too Much, Lululemon’s ‘sale’ section, gets uploaded very early on Thursday mornings.

Sales at your local shops.

The best days to go shopping at your local store, in my opinion are on the weekends. I’ve found that when I go in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the markdown racks are full of great deals, and when I go during the week, sometimes there’s not even a markdown rack on the sales floor. I’ve definitely gone in on a Tuesday only to walk out with nothing because I was looking for a deal, but found nothing on sale.

The Outlets

Again, this is a method that is location dependant, but if you find occasion to frequent an Outlet, I’d highly recommend it. Even if you are a popular size, like a 6, you might still be able to find some heavily marked down socks, underwear, bags, accessories, etc… In case you’re interested, here is a list of the locations of Lululemon outlets:

Fort Worth University Park Village – Fort Worth, TX (817) 882-8075 Lululemon Outlet Fort Worth

Minneapolis Albertville Premium Outlets – Albertville, MN (763) 497-0240 Lululemon Outlet Albertville

New York City Woodbury Common Premium Outlets – Central Valley, NY (845) 928-5470 Lululemon Outlet Central Valley

Portland, ME The Kittery Outlets – Kittery, ME (207) 438-9347 Lululemon Outlet Kittery

San Antonio San Marcos Premium Outlets – San Marcos, TX (512) 353-0281 Lululemon Outlet San Marcos

San Jose Gilroy Premium Outlets – Gilroy, CA (408) 846-4281 Lululemon Outlet Gilroy

Seattle The Outlet Shoppes at Burlington – Burlington, WA (360) 707-2982 Lululemon Outlet Burlington

Toronto Vaughan Mills – Vaughan, ON (905) 669-2039 Lululemon Outlet Vaughan

Walt Disney World Orlando Premium Outlets – Vineland Ave – Orlando, FL (407) 238-1076

Warehouse Sales

Much like the outlet locations, your attendance at the Warehouse sales will also likely be location dependant. The only exception I can think of is when Lululemon hosted a “Canadian Warehouse Sale,” online in mid-January of this year (2014). I have known women who have travelled up to 5 hours by car to attend a warehouse sale. I’ve never known a Lululemon addict to say that it wasn’t worth it and many return with quite sizeable hauls.

They often host warehouse sales in many different locations across North America, but the best way to stay informed about when and where they’ll be happening is to follow Lululemon’s blog or follow Lulumum or Lululemon Addict, as they typically cover warehouse sale information in their blogs. You can also follow me for news about Lululemon, and because you enjoyed this post. Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end! Now go forth and get a deal! Thanks for reading!

UPDATE!
I recently found this fabulous group that shares deals with each other that they find on eBay! It’s called Lululemon Deal Alerts and I love the concept! I signed up or alerts for this group too!

UPDATE Jan 2017

I recently discovered a group called Lululand. I love it! They share in-store markdowns and angel products to you! (Angel: someone who will purchase and ship and item to you)

The Difference Between Paying As Gift & As Goods On PayPal

At the request of a reader, I’ve decided to elaborate on what I mean when I refer to paying as gift, or as goods when buying and selling Lululemon.

With regards to buying and selling in venues OTHER THAN eBay, so Facebook or elsewhere online, you can ask the buyer to pay you the money as a “Gift.”

When you sell something, the buyer opens up PayPal and the payment options are “Goods” or “Friends and Family.” When you’re asking a buyer to pay as “Gift,” you’re really asking them to click “Friends and Family” when they payment options come up. This means that the buyer is sending you the money and if something is wrong or they want a refund, they really don’t have the right to get one. Although they may be able to if they contact PayPal, as I have heard of some cases where PayPal grants the refund regardless of the fact that it was paid as “Friends and Family,” but it’s rare. (As an aside, you may also be able to contact your credit card company, if you paid PayPal with a credit card, but you never know if they’ll help either.) In any case, typically, when a buyer pays for your goods as “Friends and Family” they are trusting that you’ll deliver their item and it will arrive as described. Hence, the safest way to buy something is to pay AS GOODS.

On eBay, the buyer has no choice but to pay “As Goods.” That’s how eBay honors it’s guarantee. “We guarantee that you will get the item you ordered or you will get your money back. eBay Buyer Protection covers the original purchase price plus original shipping on virtually all items on ebay.com.” You can find more information on eBay’s guarantee here. Unfortunately, eBay passes on the PayPal fees to the seller, which are 3-4% of the sale price. What really sucks is that eBay owns PayPal***, so it charges you when 3-4% when you make a sale, then eBay charges you another “final value” fee, which varies depending on the listing type. You can find out more about final value fees here.

The reason that buyers pay as goods is to protect themselves, and the reason that eBay charges that back to the seller is because eBay is very “buyer-centric.” The PayPal fees pay to protect the buyer against a poor quality item, or an ignorant or dishonest seller so the seller has to pay them. Of course, most sellers factor this into their price, so in the end, the buyer ends up paying them anyways. So, if a buyer can choose whether or not to pay the extra 3 or 4%, why not give them that choice. This is where selling in Facebook groups or in other online venues can be useful. For more information on selling in Lululemon Facebook groups, like where they are, check out this post.

If you’re on Facebook, as a seller, you can ask people to pay “as gift or as goods.” And if they opt to pay as goods you can say “If paying as goods, please add fees.” Which, to most buyers means add the PayPal fees to the total dollar amount that they send you. For example, if you’re selling a hundred dollar item, they’d have to send you $104 in order to cover the PayPal fees. Then the buyer gets to decide whether they trust you enough to send the payment as a gift, or pay extra money if they’re concerned about whether or not they’re receive what they ordered in good condition.

If you’re an honest seller, with excellent feedback, who constantly delivers excellent-condition items on-time, as a buyer, I’m pretty likely to trust you enough to send money “as gift.” Plus, I don’t want to pay the extra money if it’s unnecessary. This is only one reason why it’s important to develop and maintain a good reputation in the Facebook groups.

On eBay there’s no way to get the buyer to pay the PayPal fees, except for rolling it into your final price. On Facebook, you can ask them to pay them, if they choose to. There’s no “button” they can push to pay the fees, they can only add them to the final total and send you that amount, then PayPal will deduct the fees automatically.

I hope that helps you understand the difference between paying as “gift” vs. paying as “goods.” Thanks to “addictedtoink,” for inspiring this post!

UPDATE- October 11,2015

The fact that this post continues to be a main source of traffic for my blog makes me happy. The reason it remains popular is because unfortunately, I don’t feel that PayPal does the best job of explaining exactly how this works, and I feel that my post gives a thorough explanation of exactly how you are protected by PayPal and when.

The reason I feel that PayPal doesn’t have the best explanation is because, if you search “difference between gift and goods on PayPal,” PayPal’s website comes up with explanations of the different types of payments, but the website doesn’t explain how or when you’re protected. For example, under gift, PayPal writes “Select this payment type when you’re sending money as a gift for a birthday or other special occasion.” What it fails to mention is that people are not protected when they use this payment.

The other available posts are community boards, which some people may find tedious to scroll through, so I think that my post, while it is “Lululemon-centric” is better at explaining how and when you’re protected and when you’re not. Why don’t you let me know what you think about this post, and if there is any way I can improve it to reflect what you’re searching for?

Thanks for reading!

***eBay and PayPal are now separate companies.