Bidstitch: Everything We Know About the New Vintage Clothing Marketplace
November 16, 2021
Bidstitch is 100% Free, App In Development
Drew H. took to IG to announce that the platform will be free, zero fees, and now no monthly subscription charge. The deal is promised to remain in effect until their mobile app drops.
September 22, 2021
Bidstitch Live Auctions
Bidstitched took to IG to announce they are getting into hosting live auctions on a weekly basis and have scheduled their first line-up for Friday, September 24.
“INTRODUCING BIDSTITCH LIVE. Every Friday night we will be hosting live auctions on our IG with our subscribers.”
September 21, 2021
NFTee
Bidstitch announces their first vintage t-shirt NFT that is being auctioned via OpenSea.io.
“Using in house authentication and by attaching a mini QR code to the physical shirt we can work to establish ownership history, provenance, and connection between the authentic good and the digital NFT.”
September 14, 2021
Scheduled Downtime, Upgrades
Bidstitch.com goes down for a large chunk of the day for scheduled maintenance. Admin reports they have improved the notification and email system and added a page to better manage offers. The forum is also noticeably missing from the site, but the developers are upgrading it.
August 7, 2021
Bidstitch Review
I did a full review of Bidstitch after listing and selling my first item.
August 2, 2021
Live-Chat
Bidstitch announces a Live-Chat feature for better communication between buyers and sellers.
August 2, 2021
Bidstitch Hiring Marketing Director
Bidstitch posted a job listing on LinkedIn to fill a position for a marketing professional.
August 1, 2021
Vintage T-Shirt Con
Bidstitch announces they will appear at Vintage T-Shirt Con in Austin, Texas on August 7 and 8.
July 21, 2021
Buying Goes Live
After a lengthy period of downtime, the site returns late in the evening with announcements from Bidstitch that users can now make purchases.
There are 3100+ tops (1800+ tees) along with 16 auctions at launch.
July 20, 2021
Scheduled Downtime
Bidstich announced the end of the founder’s sign-up period. The site will go down for maintenance at around 1pm and be restored on Wednesday when users will be able to make purchases for the first time. 2500+ t-shirts have been listed under “tops” on the system.
July 17, 2021
Server Maintenance
Bidstitch team reports scheduled downtime for server maintenance and bug fixes. Inventory on the site continues to grow.
July 15, 2021
Site down
In the morning users are getting the password-protected splash page that was present pre-launch. Founders have explained the site will be down for a few hours due to server maintenance.
By 9 am EST the site has been restored and lag/hang appears to be resolved. There are currently 200+ tees/tops posted.
By the early evening, there were nearly 800 tees posted.
July 14, 2021
Founders/Public Launch
The website went live on Wednesday afternoon around 3 pm EST. Users (and the founders) reported some issues with accessing the site due to the sudden traffic. At one point the site went down entirely. It’s also been quite slow to respond and/or timing out. Several users reporting successful registrations and account setups. The number of t-shirts and shops are both steadily increasing, as are comments about site issues.
July 9, 2021
Founders Launch Announcement
The Thiftlord hosted an open live on IG where he and Drew discussed some additional Bidstitch details. One of which was the “founders launch date” which happens the week previous to the public launch date, July 14th to 20th. During this time early users will not only get a month free but they’ll be grandfathered into the $9.99 monthly fee, as well as enjoy added perks that may cost additional money in the future.
Binding Offers
The two also discussed “Binding Offers” that apply to best offers. If a best offer is accepted, the buyer is on the hook for it and can’t flake out.
Payments
PayPal will be the base platform for transactions, but the monthly subscription fee will be processed through Stripe.
July 8, 2021
Public Launch Date Set
Bidstitch announced the launch date of Wednesday, July 21 through a video on their IG account.
July 1, 2021
Approximate Public Launch Date Announced
According to the @bidstitch_fanpage (?!) Instagram account, Bidstitch will be live to the public “sometime after the 19th but no later than the 23rd of July.”
Here is the full announcement from the “insider”:
“According to a reliable inside source of the Bidstitch team the platform is just about ready to be made public. While the source refused to give a specific day for the launch they did say that you could look forward to going on the platform sometime between the 19th and 23rd of July. “We could finally say with 100% certainty that the platform will be made available to the public sometime after the 19th but no later than the 23rd of July”. An official announcement regarding the launch will be made on the @bidstitch instagram page in the coming weeks. Who’s ready for the launch and if so show some love and give me a follow or like. Tell your friends!!! Get ready”
June 13, 2021
Beta Goes Live
Bidstitch announced that their beta site is live and that invites have been sent.
May 15, 2021
Authenticators
“Jonathan Cristopher (@arcinthesky) and Doctor Fugazi are leading our fight against modern-day reprints. They will be spearheading a team whose job it is to ensure that BIDSTITCH is a home for authentic vintage. As we grow we’ll be adding more authentication experts for different sectors of the vintage market. If you think you have what it takes, email us: support@bidstitch.com”
May 10, 2021
Bidstitch Pre-Launch Review
Dereke from @waxandthreadsvintage, a veteran seller of vintage clothing weighs in with a pre-launch seller’s analysis of Bidstitch.
May 7, 2021
A Newsletter
“Once a month BIDSTITCH will send a newsletter to subscribers with in-depth coverage of emerging trends in the reprint market, events to be on the lookout for, editorials from contributors, and hot topics. A consistent source of information featuring quality content and contributions has long been overdue. As the vintage market grows, so does the need to be informed. Stay informed. Shop informed…”
May 5, 2021
Dealer Spotlight
“Each week a new seller will be featured and profiled on the front page of BIDSTITCH. Our goal isn’t to showcase the biggest. It’s to shine a spotlight on the best of the new, the young and the emerging. We have a team that will be hand-picking verified sellers for a chance to be featured. It’s not about followers it’s about quality.”
May 3, 2021
Authentication
“The major platforms have done nothing to combat the growing reprint market. We will. We have a team of authentication experts who will be ready to delete listings and/or ban users guilty of dealing with fugazi. We can’t do this alone so BIDSTITCH will be crowdsourcing the authentication experience. Notice something that looks wrong? Flag it and we’ll take over from there. Fuck the fakes.”
April 30, 2021
A Forum*
“A free service giving users a hub to share photos, finds, and insights. The vintage community goes beyond clothes. It’s about building relationships and exchanging ideas. This is YOUR platform. We want to create a place for free and open discussion about the things you’re passionate about.”
*The IG update then invites users to visit their story and help suggest a name for the forum.
April 29, 2021
Seller Verification
Become a trusted seller by becoming Bidstitch Verified.
“No physical store? No problem. We will be working with IG dealers to verify their virtual shop so buyers know you’re legit. When creating your virtual shop you’ll be asked to include your IG. A team member will then inspect your page. After review, we will add you to our verified list and provide you with a unique badge. We don’t care whether you promote your IG on Bidstitch. We aren’t transaction driven. What drives us is service. Power to the seller.”
April 27, 2021
Fees
Bidstitch will operate as a monthly $9.99 subscription plan for sellers. And only sellers need a subscription, buyers don’t require one.
“Bidstitch will offer a $9.99 monthly subscription plan allowing sellers to post unlimited auctions and listings. This means we won’t be imposing our own transaction fees. No transaction fees. No bullshit.”
April 19, 2021
There have been rumblings for a few weeks in the vintage community about a new platform for selling vintage clothing. Terren Urlacher aka the @thriftlord has hinted at it several times via his IG stories by asking his followers about their marketplace platform pet peeves. And the peeves were plentiful. Eventually, he flat out hinted that a solution was in the works.
What is Bidstitch?
“Bidstitch” is a vintage clothing marketplace platform is set to launch in June 2021.
Digging deeper through the platform’s IG account @bidstitch we find out a little about what they’re up to.
“If you have ever sold or purchased on any of the major platforms, chances are you’ve been hit with excessive fees, hidden costs, and a poor user experience.
The major platforms continue to take more from sellers without offering much in return. They forgot that YOU are their most important user.
It’s time to take the power back.”
The account’s first IG post which is a slide of 7 images also breaks down the commissions you’re paying at Grailed, Depop, Etsy, and eBay.
“With more states instituting sales tax, shipping costs going up, and higher costs caused by claims from ever-more-frequent shipping backlogs, the impact of the platforms fee hikes hit harder than before.”
“CHANGE IS COMING,” says the final slide followed by “Sellers be ready!”
Look, I’ve been selling on eBay since 1999. My frustrations with that system are decades old. It was one of the inspirations for attempting to launch a marketplace of our own back in 2011. So this is exciting stuff. I’ve always thought there should be something truly specific to vintage clothing. And I think the timing is perfect. Heck, I’m even excited and I am so burned out from listing shirts that I’ve pretty much sworn I’d never do it anymore. But the stacks of vintage t-shirts sitting in storage keep calling out to me. Maybe this is where they’ll end up.
Who is involved?
Well, given this news is coming from The Thrift Lord, you can bet he is. One hint about other players could be who the Bidstitch IG account is following. Later they reveal that Drew @drewheifetz and Terren are founders. While partners include Josh from @futurepastnyc, Tyler from @vintage_heatwave, Rodrigo from @crazylokovintage, Sam from @knownbadboy, Evan from @vtgcartoons, and @privilegedvintage,
You can also punch in your email and phone number at their website to get updates.
Stay tuned.