Bag a designer bargain by ‘glambling’
WELCOME to the wonderful world of ‘glambling’ where Valentino, Chanel and Christian Dior handbags worth hundreds of euro have all gone for auction on a new Irish website, as fashionistas opt to take a punt on their wardrobe from the sofa.
Stephen May, co-owner of the auction house, along with Jennifer Bourke, said the site ‘designer-bid.com’ is becoming more popular with women who want to swap a night out to buy a luxury item that would usually be out of their price range.
“We noticed that there are a lot of second-hand designer shops popping up since the recession and saw a market that gave women the chance to buy luxury brands, brand new, in an affordable way.
“Designer handbags, sunglasses and iPhones are all on the site and everything is 100pc new and authentic. We send out the items with a store receipt.”
Customers log on to the website and buy a bidding package, ranging between €15 for 25 bids and €300 for 600 bids. They choose the item they want to bid on and hope they get in at the right time.
When a bid is placed, the price of the item increases by 1c and one credit is taken from a bidder’s account. After a countdown, the last person to place a bid wins the auction.
As Stephen explains: “We have labelled it ‘glambling’ because every €15 bet won’t win and there will eventually only be one winner. In saying that no one has lost more than €30 since we started.”
So far the site has 1,500 registered users.
“Our longest auction started at 7pm on Tuesday evening and went on until 7am the next morning. The customer got a €1,300 Valentino bag for €39.41. Another customer bought a €2,300 Chanel bag for €22.41 and she had just spent €60 on bids because she had come in at the right time.”