All's Fair in Love and Liz Lisa

I know thats not exactly how the saying goes but if you think about it, buying Liz Lisa is in high demand and people will find any way to get what they want. This doesn't really apply to buying Liz Lisa straight from the source since it is essentially first come first serve, but soooo many people search secondhand sites constantly for cheap Liz Lisa (yes I am one of them)
I'm going to give you some basic tips on how to -ethically- and -tactfully- buy Liz Lisa. (If you haven't read my previous blog post, be sure to do that as I list some helpful decision making steps before making a purchase!)
Now lets begin!

Everyone has that favorite seller. The one that has the best prices and most unique pieces...and they just so happen to be half way across the world. Due to time differences they list all their items in the middle of the night and when you wake up everything is sold. Well guess what, there is a cheat code for that!
Some sellers that constantly post will have a 'secret' group of buyers who will be notified first of what they are about to list for sale. I am a part of many sellers' "secret sales" so I get to look over what they will be selling, before they post it. This is a great advantage because you will essentially see the sales before anyone else. Usually this works through Private message so if you want something, you pay though Paypal and the seller does not have to pay fees on a listing which equals a cheaper price for you. Win Win for both buyer and Seller!
Don't be afraid to send a simple "Hi are you selling any more LL items in the future?" and wait for their response. Usually it's a yes, and all you have to do is ask them politely if they would give you a sneak peak at their next listings. Simply end with "Let me know when you have more to sell" and usually they will contact you before listing their next items. Give them your email and be sure to add in the fact that you could pay through paypal and work around any listing fees. Ask for an Instagram account, that way you can become friends, and tag them in posts with their purchases.
I do this most of the time 1. to show my appreciation, and 2. to give them business and let others know they have some cute things for sale.

Another way to "cheat" the system and pretty much guarantee you the item later is by asking for a hold.
Some sellers are against holds, mainly because buyers will ask them to hold the item for a week, but later say they can't pay for the item. This is NOT a Win Win for you or the seller. If the seller was getting a lot of interest on that item, it is very possible that they could have sold it while you were still debating if you could "afford" it or not. If you are making a hold, you are generally agreeing to pay for it. Sticking to your word and actually paying in the end gives the seller more faith for future holds. <--- THAT is a Win Win. Sellers offer more holds, people can get the items they want without having to worry about someone buying it before their next pay check.

I usually will not ask for a hold unless:
A- I WILL buy the item (within 7 days) but I do not have the money at the moment
B- I am at school/busy and there is a lot of interest in the item (will pay within 12 hours) OR
C- The seller is posting more items later (within 7 days) and I am holding to possibly bundle with the future listings.

There you have it. Very rarely will a seller be generous enough to hold an item you are unsure of purchasing. I was fortunate enough to have a few sellers hold some items that I was debating on. I remember, I once sent a message like this: "I am very interested but I dont know if I want to pay that price...perhaps I should sleep on it and decide tomorrow" and the seller replied with "I could put it on hold for you just incase?"
YES, that kind of generousness does exist. The seller placed the hold on their own terms. They knew I may not purchase, but since it was only for a day or two, they figured it couldn't hurt their business too much. If you are debating on the purchase and are going to ask for a hold, don't lead them on to think that you are 100% for sure going to buy.
Also, if an item you want is currently on hold, it is ok to ask to be second in line. Remember, a lot of people will bail and holds usually have a strict deadline. I'd say theres about a 50/50 chance that the first buyer will bail!

Lastly, there is a very complexly simple way to winning an auction (I will be specifically talking about ebay) and it has a lot to do with patience! Theres a new listing for a piece you really want. You see that it has 2 bids already but the auction doesn't end for another 6 days, what do you do?
DO NOT BID. I repeat. DO NOT BID NOW.
You will only be antagonizing the other bidders to outbid you, and in the process, you will be raising the price. Sellers Love it. They sit there and grin as everyone bids amongst themselves, foolishly making it more expensive. Keep watch on the item, set an alarm ten minutes before the listing ends, and then you monitor the listing. You can't see the bidders names, but you can see their feedback rating. This will give you an idea of how experienced your competition is. You may think "oh they haven't bid since day one, they probably wont bid again" but if they have a triple digit number beside their na**me, you are most likely wrong. They will wait until the very end.
Just like you will.
Although ebay says "please enter your highest bid amount" dont do it. Even if theres a minute left on the clock. Get yourself ready, pull up the "one-click bid" menu, and please, please, refresh often. When it hits 10 seconds, THEN enter your highest bid.
If you automatically get the red message of sadness saying "you have been outbid" that means the current winning bidder had already entered their highest bid and your highest bid did not top that. You will probably have about 6 seconds left to decide if you want to go even higher. This is exactly why I say enter your highest around 10 seconds. You get a second chance. If you would have entered it at 3 seconds, you would not have had another chance to re-think your highest if it wasn't enough. If you want to bid again, do it asap! I tend to get nervous and jittery when it comes down to the last seconds if its something I really want.
This works for me about 90% of the time.

Tips for bids:
#1 Dont use the click buttons, type in your highest number. Only use the click button if someone has outbid you at *literally* the last second and you have no time to type in a number.
#2 enter in odd amounts. A lot of people use the buttons. Those are set increments and all it takes to win the auction is ONE CENT more than the other bidder. Typically one enters in numbers such as $40 or $45. I take this to the extreme and I will enter in a number such as $40.15. That way if someone bids $40, I still get the win because I added the extra (an unexpected) fifteen cents!
#3 Set alarms. I cannot tell you how many times I have missed an important auction because I had simply forgotten.

Other than haggling on prices which varies from buyer to buyer, that is all the advice I can give you as I am an ethical buyer. I have witnessed some crazy unethical ways people have tried to work their way around getting an item.
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Story time:

Once, I had talked to a buyer about pricing on this beautiful sweater tunic. She said she could give the item to me for $10 less AND hold it for me until morning as it was the middle of the night. When I woke up in the morning, others had commented saying "I WILL BUY FOR FULL PRICE PMD" even though I had already negotiated with the seller through comments and it was VERY obvious to everyone that she was going to sell it to me. They had the nerve to pretty much tempt the seller to sell it to them because they could pay the full price. Well, guess what happened? The seller messages me saying "Im getting a lot of offers so I can't sell it to you for that price, Im sorry"
----_________-----
^That was my face.
I quickly replied with "I will pay full price if I have to"
I felt cheated. We had made a deal and she broke it because other people wanted it and even though they KNEW it was on hold for me, they pretty much PAID her to break our deal.
How about that for disrespectful? In the end, I paid the full price (even though it was only $10 more, I am a college student and that $10 was needed for food...Im pretty sure I ate McDonalds the next few days just to save money)
I don't regret buying it, I was just very grumpy that entire day since I had to wake up to all that nonsense.

Next one is a similar story only it is something I had witnessed and not been involved with. There was a very rare bag for sale on depop and it had sold out within the first few hours of listing. There was a comment saying "I know this is sold BUT I NEED THIS and I will pay/do anything to BUY this instead!"
Welp. As you can imagine, this caused some drama. I am not entirely sure what actually happened but I'm pretty sure the seller canceled the order and sold it to the very needy person who commented. The entire listing was deleted later that day due to the nasty comments that had started between two people who I presume were the original buyer and the needy buyer.

Lastly, I have witnessed many people who will accuse the seller of a misleading item and request money back. "This sweater had pen marks all over it when I received it" even though the seller has photo proof before shipping that the item did not have such marks. These types of buyers usually DO NOT win and this type of thing happens ALL the time.

Please, buy ethically and safely, as there are also sellers out there to cheat you.

I would LOVE to hear your stories too! If you would like to share them, please comment!