Okay, so what happens if you don’t want to stalk the
releases (or you stalk and are not successful), but you want a Pavo or Tekhni
or other popular limited release wrap?
Well this is where buying used comes into play. Babywearers have a term called “churners.” This refers to babywearers who love to try
lots and lots of wraps, but don’t keep them for all that long. These churners will buy the wraps, use them
for a while, and then sale or trade them. The
largest of the facebook swap pages is called The Babywearing Swap. You can search for it on facebook and request
to join. Once you join The Babywearing
Swap, you will also need to join the feedback group. There are files on the site with information
on how to set this all up. The feedback
links are very important. Sometimes
large amounts of money are changing hands for these wraps. You want to know that you are doing business
with someone that has good feedback. You
should always read through all of a seller’s feedback before completing a
transaction with them. When buying on
the swaps, you will pay for the wrap via PayPal. You should always send the money as payment
for goods and services, so that you have PayPal protection if the seller were
to not send the wrap or if the wrap was not in acceptable condition.
The Babywearing Swap is a huge group! I have found the best way to utilize this
page is if you already have a general idea of what you want to buy. So let’s say for example you want to buy your
first woven wrap. A good place to start
for a first wrap is a base size wrap. If
you are average size, your base size is likely a size 6. The best way to shop for a size 6 is to go to
the photo album section and look through the size 6 woven wrap album. You will see abbreviations such as FSO (For
sale only), FTO (For trade only – meaning they want to trade to another wrap),
or FSOT (For sale or trade). You may
also see terms such as EUC (excellent used condition) and ppd (postage paid
domestic – indicating that shipping in the US is included in the purchase
price).
There are also facebook fan groups for most of the wrap
companies. The group for Pavo is The
Pavo Society. The group for Tekhni is
Talk About Tekhni. The group for
KokoSkaa is KokoSkaa Wrap Factory Friends.
You can request to join each of these pages and find used wraps from
each of these brands for sale on these pages.
These fan groups are actually the best way to find highly sought after (HSA),
hard to find (HTF) wraps. One thing to
take into consideration is that some of these limited release wraps may end up
being sold for much higher prices than retail.
If you want to know what retail was for a wrap, you can look that
information up on the company’s website.
It can be hard to decide what is a reasonable price to pay
for a used wrap. As long as the wrap is
in EUC, I am willing to pay the retail price for the wrap. Lots of wraps are pretty stiff straight out
of the bag, so I don’t mind if someone else has already given a wrap some love
and attention to start the breaking in process for me! My preference is to try to find the wraps I am
searching for as close to retail as possible.
I am typically willing to pay, retail plus shipping and fees. This means the shipping from the retailer to
the original purchaser, the shipping from them to me and the PayPal fees. This would usually add up to around $30 on top of the retail price. Pricing on used wraps can become very controversial. In my opinion, it just comes down to supply
and demand. You have to decide for
yourself what is reasonable for you and how much you want a particular wrap. I have found that if you can be patient and
wait a few months after release, the market value will typically decline a
little and it is easier to find the wraps for closer to retail. Sometimes it can be so hard to be patient and
wait though!
This is a wrap that I fell in love with after it had already been released. It is one that I searched for on the swaps and was willing to pay market value for. It is Pavo Penumbra Syzygy in a size 5.
Labels: Babywearing, parenting, woven wraps
