Wedding Dresses on eBay for Under $200

Shopping for wedding dresses on eBay is becoming very popular today. Many brides looking to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars have found their wedding gowns on eBay - including me!

When I was looking for my gown, I stopped in at a local wedding apparel consignment boutique to see what they had on the racks. I'd taken my daughter there for her first wedding gown and we got really lucky!

They still had a lot of gowns on the racks a few years later when my daughter remarried, but the prices were a couple hundred dollars higher than she wanted to pay.

Well, when I walked in the boutique, they only had one round rack half filled with gowns that were really outdated. I talked to the owner and she said they were really taking a hit because buying and selling gowns online was getting very popular so they weren't taking in any more consignments.

In fact, they hadn't had a gown come in on consignment for months by then and had only sold two gowns in the last year of the gowns they had left.

So I went back to searching wedding dresses on eBay and purchased my gown from an eBay Seller for a great price.

She'd bought it brand new from Bridal World but her event never happened and she sold it at almost half of the original price.

So why pay thousands of dollars when you can look like a million and spend only a couple of hundred?

Here's how to search for wedding dresses on eBay:

Here's how to search for wedding dresses on eBay:

• Type "wedding dresses" or "wedding gowns" in the main search box
• Narrow the search by clicking on Wedding Apparel & Accessories in the left box
• You can narrow your search even further by clicking on Wedding Dresses in the left hand column
• You can then even further narrow your search by selecting your sleeve style, size and color, then narrow it to New Without Tags, New With Tags, Pre-Owned, or Not Specified.

• Shipping prices-if they're upwards of $75, something's wrong there unless it's being shipped from overseas,and even then that's a high price for shipping. For example, my cousin's gown was shipped from China. The price of the gown was $78 including custom fitting and she paid less than $100 total, including shipping.

  Some eBay sellers will start their auctions off really low or have a Buy It Now price of less than $50, but then jack the shipping up to over $100 to make up for the low cost of the gown. This is price gouging and eBay's trying to catch up with these crooked sellers.

• Make sure there are a lot of good, clear, sharp photos of the gown. You want to be able to see the back of the gown to check the train length, the design of the back of the gown; does it zipper up the back, button or lace?
• If you're not sure of something about the gown or how it's described, ask the seller your questions before you bid, not after, and ask well before the auction ends to make sure your questions get answered in time to make a decision.

Going for that special, unique or rare style for your gown? Consider a custom designed gown, starting with a vintage gown that's already on the rack! Tips from an experienced gown seamstress will put you in your unique custom designed gown without spending a fortune!

Did you buy a preowned (used) dress from eBay?

Did you find a preowned (used)on eBay at a steal? Share your ideas on how you found the perfect dress for you and saved money.