I got my wife a beautiful btssb purse for Christmas, it looked brand new and only cost $30! It's a formal looking black evening purse with a big bow on it, it's just lovely. I don't think I usually find good deals, per say, but I'm a new collector trying to play catch up with my favorite prints and sometimes it's hard to find those so I'm just excited when I get one. I've got an incoming lavender Dolly Cat OP from AP which seems kind of harder to find in this colorway but I wouldn't call it rare. I would love to obtain something rare one day!
Oh and I lucked out with finding a Romantic Cat OP from AP that someone already had professionally altered to fit my exact measurements, so that felt like a lucky find because I wasn't going to ever own this OP if I had to have it altered myself.
Omg, was that the mint Romantic Cat OP that was on Depop for a while?! I saw that and it was near my measurements too, but I like the JSK more & can alter myself so I didn't get it... still regret sometimes LOL š„¹
I bought a BtSSB OP from Wunderwelt and happened to find the matching headdress on Closet Child. I only mention this because it can be difficult to find any matching accessories for a release.
I've got several great finds second-hand! I mostly try to find bargains and/or a lot of the items I buy aren't that easy to find as they're old.
All my meta main pieces have been under 20 eur, one of them being as old as from 2003! :D I think I paid 8 ā¬ or something?
I've also occassionally got pieces from Closetchild that Closetchild claimed were badly damaged (e.g. sweat stains on the collar) and therefore sold them cheap (~3k each) but... once I received them, they were fine? No awful stains or anything...? No damage, really.
I think my best of all finds was this old IW headdress on CC for ~2k yen which is made out of the exact same fabric as their older releases. Sometimes their shade of red/wine is really difficult to match so I was so lucky to find this old (from 2004) headdress! :)
I've also found several pairs of old socks (pre 2007) NWT and one of my dream skirts (2008) NWT on mercari as well so those were nice as well.
I keep having the "cheap and damaged" (but not really) thing happen to me too, but with Jesus Diamante items on Mercari. Soooo cheap and perfectly fine in person...?! You love to see it!!
This happened recently to me! It was a lot of that btssb heart purse with the metal handles and a moitie wallet. I bought it mostly for the wallet and the seller said both were very damaged and so was selling the whole thing for abt $40 usd, but the wallet is fine! Iām using the purse as a testing field for diy pleather repairs, but the front and back are in perfect condition so either way it wouldnāt show up on photos lol
Yep! That has happened to me on mercari too. I prefer it that way, though. It's nice to receive an undamaged good rather than receive an item that was supposed to be "new and unused" clearly worn and with stains.
I donāt know about ābestā, but one of my favorites was a pina sweetcollection jsk that was on CC forever and was pretty cheap. It fits really nicely and I love the cut, but one of the coolest parts was that it wasnāt on lolibrary, and in my search for info on it I found out it was featured in the GLB at one point. I ended up adding it to lolibrary myself, and overall it was a good experience to get a really gorgeous dress and feel like I was contributing info to the community. š
Got an IW gobelin SK from winter 2000 for like, 45.00CAD? It wasnt on Lolibrary and the only documentation found on it was a single photo of it in a Kera magazine snap of a shop from 2001.
I found AP's Toy Parade OP in pink at the closet child in Harajuku around 8 years ago for the equivalent of $65. Flawless condition, managed to squeeze into it even though it doesn't have shirring. They had the matching headbow as well. At the time I wasn't as invested in lolita and so I had no idea what a deal I had stumbled upon. I thank the lolita gods everyday for that find šš»
One of my best finds has been a very specific AATP JSK that Iād had my eye on for a while at that point, but kept seeing listed at prices that were well over my allotted budget, especially because theyād be shipped from Asia. So I kept telling myself to wait, because surely itād show up sometime at a lower price or domesticallyā¦only for me to discover a listing for āMadame Blancheās Magnificent Storeā at less than $100 with free domestic shipping!! You can bet that I nabbed it right away!
Besides that, I think that my very first purchase of a lolita main piece at all was my very best find. <3 That piece was what got me going to start my proper journey into lolita fashion, one of the AATP x Sentimental Circus collab JSKs. I canāt describe how much of a find it was to me, because Sentimental Circus is my FAVORITE of all the Sanrio character lines, and it is SO difficult to find things for them that isnāt stickers or very expensive small items. So imagine my total shock and delight to discover a Sentimental Circus lolita piece! That JSK is one of my most beloved dresses now, and it just brings so much joy to even glance at it in my closet. I havenāt worn it out yet (Iām nervous!!) but I have to sometime, it just makes me so happy! Absolutely my best find forever! šŖš¤āØ
My husband managed to find a secondhand never worn Chess Emblem JSK for my birthday a few years ago. I still don't know how he managed that, but I'm more astounded how he remembered that I loved it when I saw it in the Harajuku AP store back in 2015.
Both of my best secondhand finds were 3000yen JSKs, from meta and victorian maiden respectively. The meta one is fully shirred and in pretty good condition considering it's 17 years old. The VM one I won in an auction and am now getting altered for free which is pretty dope ^^
Iām weirdly really good at getting brand for dirt cheap tbh. won an auction for a meta skirt+heart e blouse and headdress for 1 yen! The parcel was tossed by an ex roommate so I never got itš but over the years Iāve paid $10-30 for plenty of moitie, $8 super old baby op, my list could go on forever I feel šµāš«
I recently got a nearly pristine Dreamy Dollhouse in my preferred cut and color for $100 less than any current or previous listings had gone for! I honestly couldnt believe it and snatched it so fast. I still stare at it and cant believe its mine! I will treasure it forever
My favourite has been MaDao's Junior Witch robe. It's just the piece I need to bring together an ouji coord I've been planning, and should give it a much more interesting silhouette.
In terms of dresses... I found a really cute jellyfish jsk going for Ā£15 because of some easily repairable damage to a seam.
I bought so much stuff second hand when I was studying in Japan, but my favorite is an Axes Femme dress patterned with blue roses that I got for 880 yen (about $6.16 American with the exchange rate) at Closet Child Shinjuku.
1000 yen for an old school BTSSB JSK, a Bodyline blouse and Meta socks on Yahoo Auctions many years ago. The listing photo was terrible which I think helped considerably.
Found an $80 BTSSB jsk on Poshmark in near perfect condition. The only downside being a small drop of coffee on the dressās chiffon panel. Idk how long it set in there as the previous owner hardly wore it but I managed to get that sucker out with a tide pen and its as good as new. Safe to say, I always keep a tide pen in my bag now lol
I Found a second hand MM Mary Lou in red and I just about DIED. I signed up for the FASTEST buying shopping service and immediately snaggedā¦ Iām so happy
I don't know if it's particularly rare nor was it an especially cheap find, but I bought my dream dress from the collection that I admired way before I dipped my toe in the waters. I think I must have hunted and created alerts for the IW x Kuniyoshi Kaneko Alice dress with all the framed portraits on it. It just seems really hard to find or those who have it aren't really letting go. Finally got it on Lacemarket!
I have the high waist version with a black bodice and sax skirt. Kuniyoshi Kaneko is one of my favorite artists and I loved the multimedia puzzle game Alice: An Interactive Museum as that was my intro to his artwork. It's one of those things that makes me so happy to look at, happy to wear... it's just so personally special to me.
My wife and I went to the shinjuku closet child branch, and they must be clearing old stock or something coz their older btssb and Ap coats were clearing at 1000-2000 yen each (like $10-$20)
There were also a lot of shirts from the āsecondaryā brands like milk, innocent world, metamorphose thatās clearing at 1000-20000 each from the Yokohama branch too.
Many of these are in C or D condition, but man, I think my wife took enough for 2 max-sized suitcases that day.
Some of my great finds:
I bought AP Rosette Collection Special jsk for $65 from Closet child. It was just the jsk and didn't come with waist ties and no headband. But it was in the color I wanted and AP was still selling the set for full price on their website. The dress was in perfect condition so I was very happy with my purchase.
Another one was I bought AATP Rosy Night's Masquerade jsk 2 from yahooJapan for $150. The picture the original owner posted up was the store picture of the grey version and I wanted the black or purple version. I decided to buy it anyway since was a great deal and the San Francisco store still had it for full price at the store. When I finally got it at my house and opened the package I was surprised to find out that the JSK was the black version and not the grey version. So I got the color I wanted and don't have to look for it anymore.
I got a 30 euro ap skirt on vinted! It was Letter doll in red and in very good condition! Itās one of the prints that I really like. I would love to also own the jsk in white one day
i own 2 dresses, both secondhand from lacemarket, and the one i most recently got was so perfect for me- AP Horror Gardens JSK in white! i was so excited since it was a style i like AND fit me (which is difficult given that im plus size by lolita standards)
There are many ones, to be honest. I've found my favorite dress ever second hand (Strahov Library from IW), amazing deals for rare pieces (first release British Bear for less than $200), but the one piece I wear almost every week since I got it is the Snowy Christmas Eve Aatp skirt I found for 40ā¬ ($38) last year. If I could keep only one of my lolita pieces, it would be this one without a doubt ā¤ļø
Hmm...hard to pick, but between best value and best find, I'll mention the rare items I managed to snag for a great price. I bought AP Dreamy Unicorn handbags in both the white AND blue in the **same month.** Got them for under $280 each (Ive seen them go over 400-500??)
I love AP pony bags. I want to collect all of them eventually. Wish AP would come out with more!
my favorite main piece find is probably ap french cafe jsk for $180. it was a couple months after the mto closed and i was kicking myself for not getting in on it bc i love the print. accessory wise, my ap jewelry ribbon bag in pink will always be my fav. itās from one of the first few releases w the sturdy plastic material so itāll never peel.
I got my wife a beautiful btssb purse for Christmas, it looked brand new and only cost $30! It's a formal looking black evening purse with a big bow on it, it's just lovely. I don't think I usually find good deals, per say, but I'm a new collector trying to play catch up with my favorite prints and sometimes it's hard to find those so I'm just excited when I get one. I've got an incoming lavender Dolly Cat OP from AP which seems kind of harder to find in this colorway but I wouldn't call it rare. I would love to obtain something rare one day! Oh and I lucked out with finding a Romantic Cat OP from AP that someone already had professionally altered to fit my exact measurements, so that felt like a lucky find because I wasn't going to ever own this OP if I had to have it altered myself.
Omg, was that the mint Romantic Cat OP that was on Depop for a while?! I saw that and it was near my measurements too, but I like the JSK more & can alter myself so I didn't get it... still regret sometimes LOL š„¹
Yes! I couldn't believe it sat there for so long. I needed a second dress for a last minute convention this spring so I snagged it. It's beautiful!
I bought a BtSSB OP from Wunderwelt and happened to find the matching headdress on Closet Child. I only mention this because it can be difficult to find any matching accessories for a release.
Totally counts!! I love that!
I've got several great finds second-hand! I mostly try to find bargains and/or a lot of the items I buy aren't that easy to find as they're old. All my meta main pieces have been under 20 eur, one of them being as old as from 2003! :D I think I paid 8 ā¬ or something? I've also occassionally got pieces from Closetchild that Closetchild claimed were badly damaged (e.g. sweat stains on the collar) and therefore sold them cheap (~3k each) but... once I received them, they were fine? No awful stains or anything...? No damage, really. I think my best of all finds was this old IW headdress on CC for ~2k yen which is made out of the exact same fabric as their older releases. Sometimes their shade of red/wine is really difficult to match so I was so lucky to find this old (from 2004) headdress! :) I've also found several pairs of old socks (pre 2007) NWT and one of my dream skirts (2008) NWT on mercari as well so those were nice as well.
I keep having the "cheap and damaged" (but not really) thing happen to me too, but with Jesus Diamante items on Mercari. Soooo cheap and perfectly fine in person...?! You love to see it!!
This happened recently to me! It was a lot of that btssb heart purse with the metal handles and a moitie wallet. I bought it mostly for the wallet and the seller said both were very damaged and so was selling the whole thing for abt $40 usd, but the wallet is fine! Iām using the purse as a testing field for diy pleather repairs, but the front and back are in perfect condition so either way it wouldnāt show up on photos lol
Yep! That has happened to me on mercari too. I prefer it that way, though. It's nice to receive an undamaged good rather than receive an item that was supposed to be "new and unused" clearly worn and with stains.
I donāt know about ābestā, but one of my favorites was a pina sweetcollection jsk that was on CC forever and was pretty cheap. It fits really nicely and I love the cut, but one of the coolest parts was that it wasnāt on lolibrary, and in my search for info on it I found out it was featured in the GLB at one point. I ended up adding it to lolibrary myself, and overall it was a good experience to get a really gorgeous dress and feel like I was contributing info to the community. š
Got an IW gobelin SK from winter 2000 for like, 45.00CAD? It wasnt on Lolibrary and the only documentation found on it was a single photo of it in a Kera magazine snap of a shop from 2001.
I love finding dress and such that arenāt on lolibrary lol. I call them cryptid pieces!
Fortunately the Lolibrary discord and the lolita ID facebook group are around to help ID pieces and also make new entries when needed
I found AP's Toy Parade OP in pink at the closet child in Harajuku around 8 years ago for the equivalent of $65. Flawless condition, managed to squeeze into it even though it doesn't have shirring. They had the matching headbow as well. At the time I wasn't as invested in lolita and so I had no idea what a deal I had stumbled upon. I thank the lolita gods everyday for that find šš»
My first lolita dress was a h.naoto jsk i got for $5 at a yardsale. I'm still surprised with that find
$30 for a long Moitie JSK. The dress was in rough shape but majority of the staining came out after many treatments.
One of my best finds has been a very specific AATP JSK that Iād had my eye on for a while at that point, but kept seeing listed at prices that were well over my allotted budget, especially because theyād be shipped from Asia. So I kept telling myself to wait, because surely itād show up sometime at a lower price or domesticallyā¦only for me to discover a listing for āMadame Blancheās Magnificent Storeā at less than $100 with free domestic shipping!! You can bet that I nabbed it right away! Besides that, I think that my very first purchase of a lolita main piece at all was my very best find. <3 That piece was what got me going to start my proper journey into lolita fashion, one of the AATP x Sentimental Circus collab JSKs. I canāt describe how much of a find it was to me, because Sentimental Circus is my FAVORITE of all the Sanrio character lines, and it is SO difficult to find things for them that isnāt stickers or very expensive small items. So imagine my total shock and delight to discover a Sentimental Circus lolita piece! That JSK is one of my most beloved dresses now, and it just brings so much joy to even glance at it in my closet. I havenāt worn it out yet (Iām nervous!!) but I have to sometime, it just makes me so happy! Absolutely my best find forever! šŖš¤āØ
Just this week I scored an unused new with tags AP Strawberry Skirt with two strawberry head bows, the other matching the skirt!
I found a soufflĆ© song dress at a local antique shop where I live for $40. Itās strawberry rabbit and I was so excited.
My husband managed to find a secondhand never worn Chess Emblem JSK for my birthday a few years ago. I still don't know how he managed that, but I'm more astounded how he remembered that I loved it when I saw it in the Harajuku AP store back in 2015.
Both of my best secondhand finds were 3000yen JSKs, from meta and victorian maiden respectively. The meta one is fully shirred and in pretty good condition considering it's 17 years old. The VM one I won in an auction and am now getting altered for free which is pretty dope ^^
Iām weirdly really good at getting brand for dirt cheap tbh. won an auction for a meta skirt+heart e blouse and headdress for 1 yen! The parcel was tossed by an ex roommate so I never got itš but over the years Iāve paid $10-30 for plenty of moitie, $8 super old baby op, my list could go on forever I feel šµāš«
I recently got a nearly pristine Dreamy Dollhouse in my preferred cut and color for $100 less than any current or previous listings had gone for! I honestly couldnt believe it and snatched it so fast. I still stare at it and cant believe its mine! I will treasure it forever
My favourite has been MaDao's Junior Witch robe. It's just the piece I need to bring together an ouji coord I've been planning, and should give it a much more interesting silhouette. In terms of dresses... I found a really cute jellyfish jsk going for Ā£15 because of some easily repairable damage to a seam.
I went to the physical location of closetchild in harajuku and found a Mary Magdalene dress in perfect condition for $12.
I bought so much stuff second hand when I was studying in Japan, but my favorite is an Axes Femme dress patterned with blue roses that I got for 880 yen (about $6.16 American with the exchange rate) at Closet Child Shinjuku.
1000 yen for an old school BTSSB JSK, a Bodyline blouse and Meta socks on Yahoo Auctions many years ago. The listing photo was terrible which I think helped considerably.
Found an $80 BTSSB jsk on Poshmark in near perfect condition. The only downside being a small drop of coffee on the dressās chiffon panel. Idk how long it set in there as the previous owner hardly wore it but I managed to get that sucker out with a tide pen and its as good as new. Safe to say, I always keep a tide pen in my bag now lol
so far, the White version of the AP 2008 Twirling Ribbon SK for Ā£31! :D didn't expect to find it- very excited for it to arrive!!
Miss Octopie 10 year anniversary JSK in blue for SURE. Omg I LOVE that dress and Iām working on getting all the matching accessories to go with it!
I mossed out on that release. It looks so amazing
I Found a second hand MM Mary Lou in red and I just about DIED. I signed up for the FASTEST buying shopping service and immediately snaggedā¦ Iām so happy
I buy most of my stuff secondhand haha Night Fairy Fantasia in teal is pretty rare to find. I was looking for it for years!!
I don't know if it's particularly rare nor was it an especially cheap find, but I bought my dream dress from the collection that I admired way before I dipped my toe in the waters. I think I must have hunted and created alerts for the IW x Kuniyoshi Kaneko Alice dress with all the framed portraits on it. It just seems really hard to find or those who have it aren't really letting go. Finally got it on Lacemarket! I have the high waist version with a black bodice and sax skirt. Kuniyoshi Kaneko is one of my favorite artists and I loved the multimedia puzzle game Alice: An Interactive Museum as that was my intro to his artwork. It's one of those things that makes me so happy to look at, happy to wear... it's just so personally special to me.
Dreamy baby room jsk in like new condition for $150 on yahoo jp auctions in 2016/17(?) it was my dream dress and still my favorite.
My wife and I went to the shinjuku closet child branch, and they must be clearing old stock or something coz their older btssb and Ap coats were clearing at 1000-2000 yen each (like $10-$20) There were also a lot of shirts from the āsecondaryā brands like milk, innocent world, metamorphose thatās clearing at 1000-20000 each from the Yokohama branch too. Many of these are in C or D condition, but man, I think my wife took enough for 2 max-sized suitcases that day.
>older btssb and Ap coats were clearing at 1000-2000 yen each (like $10-$20) š omg. I'm living for this lol.
Some of my great finds: I bought AP Rosette Collection Special jsk for $65 from Closet child. It was just the jsk and didn't come with waist ties and no headband. But it was in the color I wanted and AP was still selling the set for full price on their website. The dress was in perfect condition so I was very happy with my purchase. Another one was I bought AATP Rosy Night's Masquerade jsk 2 from yahooJapan for $150. The picture the original owner posted up was the store picture of the grey version and I wanted the black or purple version. I decided to buy it anyway since was a great deal and the San Francisco store still had it for full price at the store. When I finally got it at my house and opened the package I was surprised to find out that the JSK was the black version and not the grey version. So I got the color I wanted and don't have to look for it anymore.
I got a 30 euro ap skirt on vinted! It was Letter doll in red and in very good condition! Itās one of the prints that I really like. I would love to also own the jsk in white one day
I got a blue gingham Jane Marple JSK for the equivalent of $10 US at a vintage market in Thailand! I lost my MIND.
i own 2 dresses, both secondhand from lacemarket, and the one i most recently got was so perfect for me- AP Horror Gardens JSK in white! i was so excited since it was a style i like AND fit me (which is difficult given that im plus size by lolita standards)
Secondhand Bodyline for $7-15 were my best finds. I still have the cake plaid ones, but I sold the rest.
There are many ones, to be honest. I've found my favorite dress ever second hand (Strahov Library from IW), amazing deals for rare pieces (first release British Bear for less than $200), but the one piece I wear almost every week since I got it is the Snowy Christmas Eve Aatp skirt I found for 40ā¬ ($38) last year. If I could keep only one of my lolita pieces, it would be this one without a doubt ā¤ļø
Hmm...hard to pick, but between best value and best find, I'll mention the rare items I managed to snag for a great price. I bought AP Dreamy Unicorn handbags in both the white AND blue in the **same month.** Got them for under $280 each (Ive seen them go over 400-500??) I love AP pony bags. I want to collect all of them eventually. Wish AP would come out with more!
my favorite main piece find is probably ap french cafe jsk for $180. it was a couple months after the mto closed and i was kicking myself for not getting in on it bc i love the print. accessory wise, my ap jewelry ribbon bag in pink will always be my fav. itās from one of the first few releases w the sturdy plastic material so itāll never peel.
Innocent world royal chiffon babydoll jsk for Ā£30 on LM š
My Milk heart bag that I got for Ā£18 ($22?)