13 July 2007 3 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

As you are reading this, I’ll be on my way to San Diego for a friend’s wedding over the weekend. Yesterday, I spent a day in shopping hell with my girlfriend as we went from store to store, mall to mall to find shoes that would match her dress. It takes hours, if not days to find the right dress, then you need shoes to match it. Sometimes I am just ecstatic over the fact that I’m a guy. My way of preparing for this wedding was going in my closet, and picking a nice shirt and tie combo. I then packed my favorite suit. I was done in literally five minutes. I love suits because they are so versatile. You can have the same suit for work, after work, a party, a dinner, a funeral, a wedding, and much more. They also make great gifts for husbands, dads, grads, and more. Suits range from $60 all the way up to thousands. The cheap suits look and feel cheap. The best suits in terms of price and quality are around $400-$500 retail, but you don’t have to pay nearly that much. What’s the big secret? Buy your suit online!

I first started buying suits when I became a real estate agent. Like most people, I thought of a department store first, such as Macy’s to find my suit. Then I looked at specialty stores like the Men’s Wearhouse. There you’ll see the $400-$500 suits selling for, well, $400-$500. A shopper with a consumers mentality will just go ahead and buy the thing, since they probably think the more expensive it is, the better it is. Also because it’s in a fancy store, it must be a better suit. The shopper with the investor’s mentality will look at value. The investor-like shopper will find out that the same quality suits, even the same brands are for sale at discount outlets such as Marshalls or Burlington Coat Factory for about 40% off retail. I’ve seen $400 Calvin Klein suits at Burlington for $250. Discount outlets are much better than full retail if purchase offline.

Being the diligent and sometimes overly obsessive saver/investor that I am, I often take my search one step further and run what I call an “eBay check”. eBay generally has the best pricing on most shippable items. One of the first suits I ever bought was at the Men’s Wearhouse. It was a black Calvin Klein suit for $499 plus tax. I later found out that I could have bought a similar suit, same brand at Burlington for about $250. I was upset, but I took it as a lesson learned. A few months later, and I kid you not, I saw the exact same suit on eBay for $75. Yes, $75 and it was a first quality Calvin Klein suit. I was mad that I bought mine at full retail but I was also glad to find out that suits where so cheap on eBay. Now if I buy any suit for myself or as a gift, its on eBay.

One of my favorite eBay sellers is the Wizard of Ahhs. This guy has great Italian suits at excellent prices. These are the suits that would be going for $500-$1000 at some fancy store. You won’t recognize the brands, but they are great suits that rival $2000 Armani suits. However, if you’re a brand name lover, just type in your size and “suit” and search eBay. You’ll find excellent deals on all brands of suits. Once it arrives have it tailored to fit your body and you’re good for any semi formal or formal occasion for as long as you can fit the suit. So remember, next time you’re looking for a gift or a suit for yourself, run an eBay check. You’ll save tons of money. Well, a few hundred bucks per suit, which is still pretty good.