If you purchase shoes to resell, as I do, you probably pick them up from lots of places.
Most yard sales or estate sales will price shoes at one price, either with a sign or just let you know when you ask the price.
My good ole' Goodwill loves to select the "premium" shoes and price them at "premium prices". Which means that they have checked what is listed on ebay and decided that they have a gold mine and are going to give you the shaft.
My local GW loves sharpie markers. Loves them with a passion. Sometimes I will find a "premium" something that has two or three prices on the label. They can't decide what is high enough. You get the item for free! Just mark it up to a fair price and move it out of inventory. Hopefully, into my inventory but someone will want to purchase it if you price it fair for both parties. Geesh...decide already.
If they mark the soles of the shoes that is fine, unless they are leather or the rubber Dr Martens. Sharpie is NOT coming off of leather or the rubber. At least I have not found a method of removing sharpie that doesn't leave a worse mark on the leather or rubber. And of course they have to mark both shoes and sometime they mark the insole. I purchased a pair of Mephisto sandals (not retail cheap) recently and both soles were marked in silver sharpie and one insole was marked in black sharpie. Grrrrrrr. But these were my size and I planned to keep them for myself anyway. But if I had wanted to resell them I would have had to leave them behind.
I think I have found a solution
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| Why the price on both shoes? I don't see any shoppers in GW that are looking for just one shoe. |
On the soles of men's shoes that I can't safely remove the sharpie I just draw a box around the price and move on. On the soles of women's and girls shoes I draw a heart around the price and move on. So far no problems and the box or heart look better than sending out a pair of shoes with the thrift price on them.
Let me know if anyone has a better solution.
thank goodness my gw and thrifts use stickers. Although sometimes they place the sticker where it will damage the product (like on the side of a hand painted ceramic and when you peel it off, the paint comes with)
ReplyDeleteI wish they would use tags at GW, but I guess they don't want the extra expense. My favorite big thrift uses a red sharpie and puts an X on the tag when they toss it in the bins. A lot of times the red sharpie gets other places that you can never get out.
ReplyDeleteToday I purchased a purse at GW, where purses are not marked but are always $1.99. My purse was marked, in black sharpie, on the inside with $2. I guess it was a premium purse!!
Have you tried rubbing alcohol?
ReplyDeleteRubbing alcohol works for me if the sharpie is on fabric or regular vinyl soles but not on leather or the rubber Dr Martens. For some reason on the rubber Martens the sharpie absorbs into the rubber and will not come out. Alcohol on leather just takes the dye out of the leather and barely removes the sharpie. I use alcohol on fabric, pottery and lots of other things and it gets it out fine, just not leather or Dr Martens.
ReplyDeleteHey this post is only a year or so old, I can still comment right? I'm a bit late to the party, BUT, my GW just started doing the old silver sharpie thing a few months ago, I get it off with magic eraser or, if its particularly hard, Goof Off, stuff works well but you have to be careful the items you use it on, it will make plastic dull and rough for example. Hope this helps, a whole year later, but I'm guessing you already have a method by now!
ReplyDeleteOh ya,I found your blog and have been working my way through all your posts, which is why I am commenting so late! Ha! Great blog by the way!
ReplyDeleteI have tried lamp oil on the Dr Martens with some success, which is similar to goo gone. You just have to be careful with the leather soles because you end up removing the finish and it looks sooo crappy. I should mix up some lamp oil and dawn like I have used for porcelain molds to clean them out and see if that works. I just ordered Amodex ink and stain remover as recommended by a reader and I will let everyone know if it works.
ReplyDelete