By Mary B
We are expecting #2 any day now. A few years back when my son was a newborn my friend Simone had a great diaper bag. It was a Vera Bradley large backpack that she converted to a diaper bag. I swore if we had more children I would use this.
I recall her telling me at the time she paid $75 or so for it, and she got it on discount through a friend of a friend deal. I swore at the time this would be my upper limits. I aimed for $50.
For months I have been searching for this elusive bag to no avail. I was not very concerned about pattern, and figured one of the many outlet stores in the area would have. Wrong. It turns out Vera Bradley stopped making them and replaced with a laptop bag. This new version is utterly useless as a diaper bag, not to mention ridiculously expensive ($99 for popular colors!)
So I began searching eBay, Amazon and Craigslist. I also started asking questions, including emailing Simone and asking her to find me her version on eBay (she did) so I didn’t buy the wrong one, and posting on Facebook asking friends if they had suggestions where I could find the bag. (When my high school prom date responded with a suggestion I knew I must be on to something since he now has two kids and my guess is his wife has searched endlessly for similar items…thanks Matt!)
The good news is, I have found several versions of this elusive bag for LESS THAN $50. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet because this is still a lot of money and I want to be sure.
The point of this post, is to remind you it is possible to get the high end quality products you want without paying full price, thus the Never Pay Retail tag. The post Simone sent me from eBay had the bag for $125, all because it’s retired. Ridiculous. I will eventually get this bag, likely sooner rather than later, but will pay 1/3 the price, and no one is the wiser.
