the most surreal conversation I've ever had

[Amy Fakley]

Ladies, I have a story to tell!

So, I just finished up my "most excellent adventure" 5 day weekend, and I'm riding quite high on the afterglow :-) on Monday, my uncle calls me up.

Now, to describe my uncle ... he's a man's man. A bit of a hippie. A bit of a slob. An excellent guitar player. An all around great guy, but truely about the manliest man I've ever met in my life. Watch football with this dude sometime, and you would think you were hanging with the SNL "superfans". That sorta dude.

My uncle has been unemployed for a very long tme, and he makes ends meet by selling antiques on ebay. It's a pretty decent business actually.

So anyhow, he calls me up. "I'm thinking about going into the fashion business".

Me: "whaa? You've been wearing the same outfit every day for the past year, you must be kidding"

Him: "I think there's money in it. I'm going to hit the thrift shops and try to find pretty dresses that I can sell for more on ebay, but im afraid the clerks will think it's for me."

stunned silence

Me (after a second): "well, you know. There's nothing wrong with it, even if it was for you. I'm sure you wouldn't be the first they've seen"

keep in mind, I was at a support group meeting in full out girl mode 24 hours ago, and I have a closet FULL of pretty dresses that I did actually buy for myself


Him: no no no! It's not for me, that's just wierd! I just don't want them to think that! Also I have to do this under a different ebay account 'cause your dad follows me and he's super judgemental.

Me: judgemental about selling clothes? C'mon, this is the age of Caitlyn jenner. My dad will give you crap, but I doubt anyone else will

... anyhow ... the conversation just goes on and on like this. Dude is super paranoid, needs help figuring out styles and sizes and brands and the whole 9. But obviously I play dumb "maybe my wife of kids could help you out"

:rofl:

I don't kow what to make of it. I don't think he's trying to tell me anything. He really does probably think he can make money this way (harder than it sounds probably). It's just hilarious that I basically had a crossdresser conversation from beginning to end with someone who isn't a crossdresser!

Wierdest conversation of my life l! :-)

[caitlyn aguilera]

Funny stuff...

[Meghan4now]

Amy,

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Very difficult to say. I don't suggest divulging anything or getting paranoid, but I would listen carefully to his future conversations, and those with your father. Like you say, there may be more to this than meets the eye, and he might have been fishing.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed your story. Setting worry aside, it seems quite entertaining. Helping him out might actually be quite the adventure.

[Julie Denier]

Love it! The irony in such "I know something you don't know!" conversations is delicious.

Meanwhile, hope we get more details and pics from your excellent adventure! ;)

[Tracii G]

I would play along and go thrift store shopping with him.
Pick out stuff and ask you sure you don't want to try this one on? :)
So much fun could be had and you never know what his real agenda is.

[Teresa]

Amy,
If he wants to sell clothes on Ebay sourced at charity shops why has he singled out dresses ? I can't help thinking the same as you because there are other items that will make more money in the clothing market, Cders come in all shapes and sizes and most of us have denied it at some point .
Many people now trawl the charity shops in the UK to resell on Ebay and other sites, I also have a feeling that charities have got wise to this and are doing it themselves with more upmarket items.

[AngelaYVR]

It used to be that it was much easier to find good quality clothes in the thrift shops, now there is far more dreck. Not sure if this is due to the general decline of fashion standards or because the best stuff has already been cherry picked by the resellers.

[Robin414]

Wow, I agree Amy...that would be a weird conversation for sure all things considered.

[Katey888]

Weird..?? Surreal...??? :confused:

I think he's been picking up all those intangible signs you've been giving off...

Like what...?

I dunno - they're intangible... :lol:


Seriously Amy - there are stranger things and if you've been putting out girly vibes like a very rapidly rotating, pink pulsar - irradiating those all around you, it's no wonder he's got the idea and no surprise why he spoke to you... ;)

:cool:

Katey x

[Kate Simmons]

Well, ya just never know do you Amy. :battingeyelashes::)

[Brenda456]

It may have been a strange conversation, but it was also a lot of fun!

[flatlander_48]

A F:

Yes, that was a really strange conversation. To me, the guy doesn't have to be all that paranoid because if your size is about a 14 and you're buying 4's and 22's, it hard to make that connection unless you have some sort of agenda.

As far as the business goes, it would seem that turnover is your friend. That would suggest that you price things reasonably so they don't sit on your racks indefinitely.

Anyway, I wish him luck! Also, tell him to be on the lookout for 14's and 16's...

DeeAnn

[IamWren]

Ok... not to get you paranoid or anything Amy but on occasion I do occasionally let my inner conspiracy theorist out and don a tin foil hat that matches my pumps and nails.

I have recently ventured out to the driveway wearing my leggings, barefoot with my painted nails shimmering for all the neighbors to see so I could retrieve something from my car.

On occasion my imagination has gotten the best of me and made me think, "holy crap... what if the guy down the street is a member here??? What if he stumbles upon my profile and puts two and two and cute sandals, toenails and stretchy pants together???

Aaaggghhh!!!!

I'm not saying you have anything to worry about though.

*Sayyidah adjusts her pink tinfoil hat*

[CourtneyBme]

Wow, what a conversation! Some of my dresses have come from ebay, so if he comes across a good dress, I'll buy it lol

[NicoleScott]

I wonder if he suspects something and he's baiting you to reveal.

[Anne K]

For me, it's a no brainer. For other people, it may be a scary situation. I like the idea of going with him to buy clothes. Might be fun!

[Amy Fakley]

I suspected that it may have been bait. However, I think he's serious. I dropped by his place the other day, and he showed me some of his finds.

They were laughably bad. But then, I've never sold a thing on ebay. Might sell like hotcakes for all I know. Nothing I'd be caught dead in though, lol. Of course, borrowing Sayyidah's pink tinfoil hat ... that too may be a ruse (lol I doubt it though).

Part of me wants so bad to be like "look, I am one of those peoyou don't want to be mistaken for, please let me help.ypu because you're way off here lol.

He's quite the cool cat. He may be ok with it, but he'd definitely tell my dad. Then I wouldn't stop getting pamphlets for "pray out the gay" camps and crap for the rest of my life. Ugh.

[flatlander_48]

Then I wouldn't stop getting pamphlets for "pray out the gay" camps

And we all know how well that works...

DeeAnn

[Amy Fakley]

Everyone knows except my dad. Trust me on this :rofl:

[bimini1]

The vibe of what we are and the frequency of those vibrations sent out into the universe come back to us in some way. In my opinion that is what you're experiencing. Feels like the twilight zone but in actuality it's not weird at all, just reality finding itself. Think about it like this, you meet in life the exact reproduction of your own thoughts, your own impulses.

It happens to me all the time especially when CD is concerned. It's like, why is this person saying this to me of all people and at this time, just uncanny. Finally I just threw my hands up and concluded they may not know why but I do. Call me crazy, but I'm tuned into so acutely I can actual feel and sense when it's about to occur.

[Krisi]

I have stuff that I should put on eBay (not clothes, musical and electronics), but it seems like a lot of work so I haven't done it. I do have some clothes I could sell but again, a lot of work for an undetermined possible gain. I usually donate unwanted clothes to a charity that gives them to people who need clothes so they can get a job.

As for your uncle buying dresses at thrift shops and worrying that people will think they are for him, He could just mention his business to the clerks, but if he is buying random sizes that he could not possibly wear, it would take a pretty stupid clerk to think they were for him. And besides, if the clerk doesn't know him, why should he care.

[sometimes_miss]

Amy,
If he wants to sell clothes on Ebay sourced at charity shops why has he singled out dresses ?
Easy. He already knows that old stuff rotting in people's closets can draw big bucks. So he probably goes to a lot of garage and estate sales. Perhaps he saw one such vintage designer dress go for $1000 or something. That would be enough to get him looking for that type of item to sell.
We have a saying; When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras (well, unless you live in the Kalahari desert). Or if you'd rather, Keep It Simple, Stupid. The simplest answer is most likely the right one. No, not always, but almost always.

[Sandra-Bumstead]

People really do make a living reselling clothing. Where I like in Nova Scotia there is more than one brick-and-mortar store doing this, never mind eBay. Annoying they get the best stuff. But good for them for their entrepreneurial spirit. In Nova Scotia we have a super chain of thrift stores called Frenchies. They get tons of nice stuff from New England and sell super cheap, in stores with big bins of clothes dumped out. They've been written up in New Yorker magazine.

[Amy Fakley]

All this talk of entrepreneurialism makes me wonder if you could make a better go of it on ebay by posting Second hand clothes specifically for crossdressers. As we all know there ARE styles that look better on our manly frames, and the right descriptions could make that clear (not to mention the convinience of having a TG model on hand, LOL)

... hmm ... he might actually be onto something without knowing it ...

:-)

[nvlady]

Be sure to tell us his e-bay account name and if we buy any pretty clothes from him, we'll make a point of telling him we are guys buying womens clothes for ourselves. :)

[Dana44]

Amy, actually there is better way than thrift shops. There are cheap cloths suppliers like in china and other places where you can buy in bulk at very discount prices.

[Ozark]

I sell a lot of vintage stuff on ebay. Panties, nightgowns and yes, vintage men's briefs.

When I sold a pair of vanity fair panties for almost $200.00 (why anyone would pay that much for a pair of panties is beyond me), I printed off the auction page and showed it to the clerk at my favorite thrift store. She later told me that some of the clerks were talking about men who buy women's clothes and she mentioned me and said, "Oh, he's alright, he sells them on ebay." Then she told about the big sale.

I've told a couple of other clerks at stores that I buy for ebay and I say "You know the larger sizes sell better"...I leave it to them to draw their own conclusions.

But it's a fickle market. At one time shortie overalls were hot...you know, shortalls. I was buying them all over town. Then the market dropped.
Not so much now, I got boxes of them! LOL. It's hard work putting stuff on ebay... writing descriptions, taking photos, listing them... but it is also nice to get those checks in the mail.

Ah, life is good sometimes.

[Alice_2014_B]

Very cool conversation.
I would like to start a business someday, wouldn't be in fashion though.
:)