Tuesday’s Rant: Target Merchandise scalped on eBay

On Tuesdays I usually take the opportunity to rant about something I do NOT like about Target …because although I love them to death, they certainly ain’t perfect. Today’s rant is actually about people stiffing Target vs. a gripe about Target themselves. Long story short: I’ve been to several Target stores but can't seem to find Orly Keily’s adorable apron (pictured). [You know, just to check it out – not to buy – because I’m trying to practice restraint]. So I decided to look on eBay… where I found over 20 for sale. Furthermore, I then did a search on “Orla Target”, and found close to THREE HUNDRED items for sale! Now this has happened before with other designer lines at Target: key items in the John Derian line made their way to Target shortly after it launched, and likewise many popular Thakoon pieces were horded by eBay sellers and resold on the auction site. The problem with this is that we, the consumer, suffer in all this because 99% of the time the eBay seller is jacking up the prices of the items; otherwise, how else would they make a profit? So we pay inflated prices because folks have bought out all the selected inventory from the source, Target. This “secondary market” is both shady and disturbing, but unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much that Target can do to stop it, outside of perhaps limiting the amount of duplicate items one can buy upon checkout (which, of course, would be nearly impossible to regulate).