Late to the party but this whole thread is 💯. Glad I found it.

Apply a strict price filter and use broad keywords.

• Search nylon jacket instead of brands.
• Use this free extension for price drops. Basically works every time.

Saving this thread

TIL! Thanks for sharing

Unfortunately Etsy has been a huge letdown for me lately. The prices are just not as good as expected and sellers can be really unreliable with their descriptions.

• Are you looking for a specific brand or just any 80s style?
• Does the forty dollars have to include the sales tax too? I mostly use PriceDropCatch to track things because I dont trust the search results anymore. It feels a bit safer than just overpaying.

Ngl, I kind of disagree about using broad keywords like nylon jacket because that usually triggers the high-volume resellers who pay for ads. In my experience, searching for those generic terms just lands you back on page one with the eighty-dollar stuff. Over the years, I've found that the real deals are hidden under technical specs or dead-stock brands that collectors don't care about. Try searching for Sears, Montgomery Ward, or even just 80s colorblock shell jacket. Those old department store brands are usually way higher quality anyway and sellers list them cheap because they don't have the hype of a Nike swoosh. Since you're in Seattle and need it by Friday, definitely filter for US-only sellers to avoid the shipping nightmare. I usually throw the stuff I like into PriceDropCatch and wait for a notification if the seller gets desperate and drops the price. Honestly works like a charm when you're on a budget.

> My logic was that if I searched for specific brands it would be cheaper but it's actually worse. I actually learned that lesson the hard way a few years back when I was hunting for a specific 90s puffer. In my experience, searching by brand name is basically a trap since sellers know exactly what those keywords are worth and price them accordingly. Over the years, I have found that my current setup works best when I search for terms like estate find or closet cleanout alongside the item type. I once found a mint condition windbreaker for fifteen bucks because the seller didnt even mention the brand in the title, just vintage purple jacket. It took some digging but finding those individual sellers who arent trying to be curators is the only way to stay under budget. These days I rely on this browser extension to sift through those lower-priced listings before they get snatched up by the big resellers. It has saved me a ton of time compared to the manual scrolling I used to do. Just keep it simple and look for the listings with bad photography... thats usually where the twenty dollar gems are hiding.