The joy of buying that battered classic orange covered Penguin edition of Brighton Rock or that 60 year old Harris Tweed blazer is the story. You can only begin to imagine the adventures its had, you get the clues; like the 'To Harold, from your dearest Maggie' scribbled in beautiful penmanship on the inside cover, or the old cinema ticket in the top pocket of the blazer to see Pretty Woman in 1990. The rest you fill in with your imagination and then step out and start it's next chapter.
The impersonal nature of shopping online, coupled with the standardized format and general coldness and blandness of sites like Ebay and Etsy takes a lot of that joy, mystery and story out of the experience. Like these sites, Threadflip lets you buy and sell secondhand fashion goods. What Threadflip does and where it differs from its established competitors, is it personalizes the experience, buyers and sellers are identified not by anonymous usernames, but by their Facebook profiles. It injects the story back into the online retail world, something that was loved but is no longer needed is passed on, it stops being a mere transaction. The format of the site encourages you to browse and explore, as if you were in a vintage clothes store on Portobello Road, rather than searching like you would on Ebay, further resurrecting lost pleasures of shopping.
On top of this they ship you the packaging and an addressed, pre-paid mailing label so all you need to do it pack it up and send it on its way. And also offer a service called White Glove Service, where you send them your stuff and they do all the photographing, listing and posting for you. All together it amounts to a fantastic service and we at The Ataraxian salute you Threadflip. Threadflip are currently only in the US, so we have have a couple of requests, get over to Blighty sharpish & we would be ecstatic if you did Menswear as well.
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