Apocalypse — Local services in Boulder

I have been selling here on and off for a couple of years, unfortunately the last couple of times I’ve sold it’s been really disappointing. They used to take designer easily and price fairly to the seller. This time around however, I was told they wouldn’t be able to take any of my designer items because they were unable to “authenticate” them, and to bring my items back with authentication. Keep in mind these aren’t pieces people dupe or make fakes of, they were European and Japanese y2k and 90s diffusion brands for the most part, where you might rarely see two of the same item. Have you ever seen fake tricot comme des garçons? No, because it’s hyper specific and also dated on the tag. It’s all also vintage so there’s no way for me to acquire a piece of paper saying it’s real, they should’ve been able to tell regardless, but I digress. I think staff should learn how to authenticate designer without relying so heavily on google reverse image search. If the staff had foundational knowledge about clothing then they would be able to tell by the manufacturer’s tag, material, and stitching that the designer was real. I think the store would benefit from a better training process before allowing people to handle buys.

I brought this up to the manager and asked to see what they even took as the total seemed really low given what I had brought in. The manager informed me that they operate under a pawn shop license which makes them unable to take designer unless their employees can verify it’s real… weird because I’ve never had this problem at any other buy sell trade before. Seems like a real detriment to the shop that they are rejecting high quality pieces, meanwhile fast fashion is all over their racks.

As to me wondering what they took… their organization system for buys is/ has always been lacking. Whereas most buy/sell/trades will set aside what they’re taking until you’ve had a chance to review their offer, and allow you to drop off your items to sell and come back later to review. Apocalypse does not do this and either demands you sit there for 1.5- 2 hours (yes that is their average time to look through 30 items) if you want to have any knowledge or say of what they’re keeping and how they are pricing it. On the other hand if you want to have the freedom to leave the shop you have to forfeit any glimpse into what they’re taking or how they are pricing it, as if you are not there they immediately put it out on the floor with no way to document what they took aside from just the price with no description as the manager showed me. This rudimentary system fails sellers and also allows the store to skirt by with little to no organization of their buying system, and makes selling there extremely time consuming and inconvenient. I understand all of this is likely in their agreement, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a beneficial or good system. I was just unfortunate enough to forget how bad it is after a year of not selling and agree to being disappointed by Apocalypse again… I was willing to give them several chances because their location is convenient and there were nice and knowledgeable employees there in the past, but at this time I feel the need to share my experience to caution other potential sellers and voice my concerns about the direction their buying...

Today I had quite an unenjoyable experience at Apocalypse. My boyfriend and I went in around 3pm with the hopes to sell our clothes. I had been into the store a couple of times prior, loved the vibe, and figured both of our clothing would do well there. This was not the case. When we dropped off our bags, we spoke to an employee named Avery, she was extremely unclear about how the selling process worked, and gave us 3 separate time estimates on when to come back, confusing us even more. We left the store, and returned about an hour later. When we came back, we spoke to a different employee, Yaelaed, who informed us they took a few items from each bag and that we could retrieve the rest from the cubby. We then were notified of the cash they were willing to give us, which was ~$20 each. We asked if they had the correct names, as we brought in $100s of clothes. They did inform us that this was correct, so we declined the offer and asked for our clothing back. Turns out, as per store policy, once you give them your clothes, they have the right to take what they want, offer whatever their "seasoned buyers" can come up with, and immediately put the clothing out for sale. This was not once communicated to us from Avery. Funny thing is, she was right behind us when we came back in, heard us bring up that this was NEVER communicated to us, and coincidentally went on break. Usually, we would just cut our losses, but they decided to take 3 of my items... a Lululemon tank top, a Shein dress (honestly surprised about this one), and a $300 leather jacket... all of which I was supposed to accept $20 for. Yaelaed said it was against store policy to give me back my jacket, I said I was fine with the other stuff but would not accept that for such an expensive jacket. I do understand it is store policy, but once again, this was never told to me, and they did not make me sign anything. My boyfriend then asked if there was a manager we could speak to, in hopes of maybe figuring out a way to undo this. We were directed to Georgia, who said the exact same thing. Both employees basically blamed Avery for not mentioning this policy, but said they could do nothing to help me... I then went to the closest rack, found my jacket, and the employee said she has no proof that I sold it to them. It was at this point where my boyfriend was becoming frustrated, yet he was never rude nor raised his voice. He asked Georgia if there was anything they could do for us, and their response was, "you are causing me a lot of anxiety right now." I get being anxious but we asked a pretty reasonable question and the manager got upset and ran away... what a joke. They also pointed out the store policy which is taped underneath the counter! I genuinely do not know how we were supposed to see that unless it was explicitly pointed out when we first came in, shocker, it was not. In the end, Yaelaed did give me my jacket back and was super nice, which I am grateful for. All in all, I would avoid selling to this place and would never spend a dime here in the future. Maybe sell them Shein though, they...

As a frequent seller; it’s honestly a hit or miss with the buyers. Sometimes you get a good buyer that focuses on their job of buying inventory for your store. On the other hand there’s multiple buyers that seem more interested in having a conversation with their coworker vs paying attention to the item they’re potentially purchasing. Prices will fluctuate by seller also, sometimes you get someone that prices everything very low and the other time you get market prices. I’d like to see more consistency when selling; I understand it may be hard with bringing new staff and properly training them. I love the freedom Madison gives to her employees about not having a dress code but sometimes I feel like I’m walking into a porno. A worker had his bright red thong completely showing while wearing a completely see through shirt with a bra. Not sure if I was walking into a clothing store or an xxx rated video store. Overall you can find really cool items here just wish a few...