Baby Says Hello

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I remember being terrified the first time I went to John Lewis’s baby dept. Not by the matronly staff and old-fashioned nursery furniture, but by the prices. I’d thought that kitting out a new room for the baby would be quite cheap, after all a cot is a quarter of the size of our bed, ergo it’ll be a quarter of the price? Wrong! And on it went… threeway travel systems that cost more than a Vespa and designer clothes destined to be worn twice before being outgrown?  One strategy for beating the cost of having a baby is eBay. Seven years ago, buying from eBay was still seen as being a bit risky. Horror stories of rip-offs and dud goods abounded, not to mention a confused friend of mine who paid way over the going rate for a pushchair because she was bidding against herself. But these days, this is where you’ll find some of the savvier shoppers.  Want to buy a stylish Bugaboo three-in-one travel system without breaking the bank? A quick check shows 110 for sale on eBay ranging from second hand ones for auction to brand new with a Buy It Now price well below what you’d pay on the high street prices. eBay’s baby section even has it’s own sub-category for nipple protectors (?!) which shows just how comprehensive it is as a market place!   You still need to apply common sense to your consumer guerrilla shopping though. The trusted advice is, don’t buy car seats second hand (they may have been compromised by a previous accident) or baby mattresses (hygiene!). But knowing how quick babies grow, and how their needs evolve, a lot of items listed as second hand will be as good as new. Baby baths, Moses baskets, travel cots and monitors are all the type of functional items you can get at a fraction of the cost, leaving you with plenty of change to save up for that Vespa.    

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am and is filed under Let's shop!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.