Word-of-mouth sample sales feature high-end products at bargain-basement prices

In-the-know bargain hunters regularly get invited to special events where they snap up designer garb and brand-name products at prices up to 90 percent off retail.

They're called sample sales. And here's how you can get in on the deal.

Sample sales can be big, glam affairs featuring cocktails and cut-rate couture. Or they might be hush-hush bargain bonanzas in someone's garage. Some local stores even sell samples on consignment.

Yet you'll rarely see these sales advertised except by word of mouth.

They occur sporadically — as little as once a year or at the whim of the seller who feels like cleaning house.

Samples are basically leftovers — show-and-tell items that manufacturer representatives use to demonstrate a new product line and drum up orders from retailers. Sometimes, they are manufacturer overruns that didn't sell in retail stores.

Many sample sales offer limited sizes or selections (few garments over size 10 for women, for example). They allow no returns, usually accept cash or checks only and might want you to bring your own shopping bag.

Why would anyone shop like this?

The appeal is the deal, sample-sale shoppers say, plus the sense of being part of an exclusive group getting in on it.

"It is addicting," said Lilybeth Ching of Renton, who happened into her first sample sale last year. "You don't know what you'll get when you stop. I stock up if it's really good because samples make good gifts."

Some of her finds: $1 Kiss My Face organic beauty products (regularly $10 or more), $5 silk scarves (sold at Nordstrom for $50), a garage full of brand-new Tupperware.

The best-known sample sales usually involve designer clothing, but bargain shoppers can find other products, too — candles, scrapbooking supplies, kitchen gear, furniture and more.

The samples themselves aren't destined for store shelves, leaving the manufacturer's agent with a problem: how to clear out the old samples, make way for new stock and recoup some of the investment (representatives often have to buy their samples).

Here's where you, the in-the-know bargain shopper, come in.

"It's like a little girlfriend-secret thing. I love that, the whole underground aspect of it," said Melody Biringer, founder of Crave Party (www.craveparty.com), a Seattle-based party-and-networking organizer.

Last month, Crave Party produced what it billed as Seattle's largest sample sale, a one-day event in a Sodo storefront featuring mimosas, fashion shows, a drag-queen emcee and more than 40 designers and boutiques offering everything from $5 bracelets to a fur-trimmed purple silk gown for $450.

More than 700 people, mostly 20- and 30-something fashionistas, paid up to $15 to get in the door.

Trolling for bargains

But the sample sales most common here look more like garage sales, with invitations sent to a small mailing list of loyal customers. What they lack in glitz, they make up for in good values.

Items usually are priced at wholesale or below — at least half off what you would pay in a retail store.

First you have to find the sales, though.

Kathy James of Lake Stevens says her tactic is to troll through upscale neighborhoods around Snohomish County on the weekends and look for small signs that say "Sample Sale" or simply "Sale."

Sample sales are hard to spot for several reasons. Most sellers don't advertise, because their stock is limited. Items might even be one-of-a-kind; if it didn't go over well with retailers as a sample, the manufacturer might not have produced more.

Sample-sellers also don't want to undercut their main business — getting their products into regular retailers at full price. They worry about offending the retailers if they flaunt below-wholesale prices on the same merchandise.

And many don't charge retail sales tax because their sales are so sporadic and small-scale. They might worry about attracting the wrong kind of attention from state officials if they're too obvious, said Pat Hodges, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Apparel Association.

Some wonder: What's the catch?

High-end designers sometimes hold their own sample sales. Carole McClellan, who designs garments of leather, suede and fur from her Belltown studio, said some designers worry a sample sale will deter their regular customers. But she thinks a sample sale attracts a different crowd.

"This offers people who are fans of my work a chance to obtain it for pennies on the dollar," she said. "And I get to clean house."

That means a leather windbreaker regularly priced at $1,600 could be marked down to $300. Again, no advertising. McClellan uses her mailing list to get the word out.

Sample sales are uncommon enough in the Northwest — and the prices are so low — that some people wonder what the catch is. They see the word "wholesale" and think it must be off-limits to regular shoppers.

Diana Park runs a once-a-year sample sale called Gift for Life in the weeks before Christmas that raises money for HIV/AIDS research. She and her daughter, Heidi, spend months procuring donated gift items from other sales representatives and have raised more than $100,000 in the past dozen years.

She said people will stand outside their rented storefront with their noses pressed to the glass, wondering whether signs advertising a "wholesale sample sale" mean it's open to the public.

"They don't quite get it," Park said. "There is that suspicion: 'Where do you get this stuff? Why is it such a good price?' "

But sample sales are no secret in the nation's fashion centers.

In New York and Los Angeles, Web sites and publications offer the latest news on each week's scheduled sample sales. Fashion mavens pay $200 or more per year to join sample-sale clubs that allow them early entry into some of the hottest sales.

"The exclusivity is what makes it desirable. Sample sale is a buzzword now that makes people pay attention," said Suzanne O'Connor, who runs BargainsLA.com, a listing of mostly Los Angeles-area sample sales updated weekly.

The sales attract trendy 20-something women, who might go once or twice a month with girlfriends and make an outing of it, she said. And they draw 30-somethings: "Serious shoppers who go alone and aren't there for the social piece. They're lean and fit and can afford a baby-sitter."

Everybody goes home a winner from a sample sale, O'Connor said. "You can really save a bundle, 80 percent or more." And manufacturers "make a little profit and get their name out there. It creates a buzz."

For Northwest bargain hunters, O'Connor lists a few of the bigger annual sample sales on her Web site. She also recommends contacting local manufacturers whose products you like to ask whether they ever have public sales. "Sometimes they'll put you on their mailing list that way," she said.

Jolayne Houtz: 206-464-3122 or jhoutz@seattletimes.com