Reassure me about a purchase

[snarlingcoyote]

I was in the thrift store yesterday and apparently JCPenney's donated a bunch of prom dresses that hadn't sold. I found a long blue strapless dress with pickups and a little sparkly across the bust for $20 that would fit my niece. It will need to be taken up for length and dry cleaned to get wrinkles out, but otherwise the dress is in perfect condition.

Tell me that if she hates it, I can sell it and at least get my investment back.

I'm not entirely worried about it - she loves dark blue, she loves dresses with pickups and loves dresses with the corset style back (which this one has). But I hate buying her something like this for a formal dance without her ever having seen it! Also, I'm worried about the sizing, as it has formalwear sizing (which I thought was odd for Penny's). It says 17/18, but I slipped it on and it's about a size, size and a half larger than I am and DN is about a size to a size and a half larger than I am. . .

Do you think I could resale this winter or spring if necessary?

 

[Swan4Me]

If you are this worried about recouping $20-why in the world did you buy for someone who didnt see it?

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I have to agree with the previous poster. If you are this stressed over $20 than I probably wouldn't have bought it.

 

[PartyFromSaturn]

Was it Goodwill? I think they will let you return it if you keep your receipt.

We have a consignment store for formalwear, so you might check into that if you need to sell. However ours is really picky about brand names. But it might be worth checking into?

 

[Allison]

Honestly, it's $20. I wouldn't worry about getting your money back by selling it. If you can, great, if not, it is not a big loss.

It would be pretty hard for us to be able to tell you if you can get money out of it.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Yeah, I hate wasting money too much I think. I mostly just didn't want the dress to just sit there. If she doesn't want it, I'll just donate it to a Cinderella project. I some girl will want it. New with tags, looking like 75% of the pics from prom last year? Yeah, some girl will give it a good home before next summer, might be niece might be someone else!

Thanks for the perspective, ya'll!

 

[carebee21]

Is there a reason you were buying the dress instead of her parents? Unless I couldn't afford to buy my daughter her prom dress or homecoming dress, I think I would be upset if someone else purchased one.

I know some of my fondest memories with my mom are going out of town, into a bigger city to find the perfect dress, shoes and accessories. It was a fun trip for the two of us and I think that she would have been upset if someone took that away from her.

Also, I would have been upset if someone simply selected a dress for me, without asking me. I selected my dress based on different things. I know one year I selected a blue dress because my date had once made a comment in passing that I looked great in a blue sweater. I was trying to impress him and wanted to look cute so I selected that color dress on purpose. Another year, all of my friends wore pink dresses and we did pictures and all of that. Again, small stuff now but it was a big deal when I was a teenager.

I think it's nice that you were thinking about her, but I think you may be taking away something from her or from her mother by simply finding a deal and picking it up for her.

 

[Magical JenK]

Worst case--donate it to Goodwill or something similar & get the tax write off.

 

[lilpig]

I think that was very nice of you and there are probably more than one occasion where she can where a nice dress. Weddings, going to a show, a very nice date, not just a dance. I know having a 17 year old that it is nice to have many formal dress options. When ever I see them at a very low price and they are new I pick one up. I have bought one as low as $15 before.(my daughter is up to 5 I think lol).

Some of my daughters friends have even have formal birthday parties, so you did a nice Aunt thing. If you where my Aunt I would thank you.

If your niece can not use it in anyway and she is absolutely positive, you could always call you local High school and give the dress for a girl who would love and is in need of a dress

 

[TheRatPack]

Like the previous poster said....even if she can't use it for Prom...there is homecoming, banquet....etc. So maybe she'll be able to use it for one of the formal events

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

Even if your niece doesn't like it, I'm sure there's someone who would. I like your idea of donating to a Cinderella project- they would probably be thrilled to receive a brand new dress.