For 15 years, Elizabeth Spiridakis Olson used a matte lip pencil in the shade of red known as Dragon Girl. In her view, it was “one of the great reds and perfect consistency.”
Spiridakis Olson, freelance creative director in South Orange, New Jersey, used it almost every day. She placed a Dragon Girl lip pencil in her home office and the other in her handbag. If she misplaced or lost them, that wasn't a big deal. She could always buy more.
Then one day last year, Spiridakis Olson made a calm discovery while shopping at Sephora.
Instead, NARS, the beauty company that created Dragon Girl, was now selling a similar product, the Powermatte High Resenity Long Last Last Lip Pencil. It was different and inferior to Spiridakis Olson's thinking, providing a shade of red and consistency.
“I was in panic,” Spiridakis Olson said.
On the NARS website, she discovered that Dragon Girl is available for what was charged as a final sale. “I bought as much as they could have allowed me,” she recalled.
Her stash should last for years. “It's so pigmented that you haven't reapplied it to the ton,” Spiridakis Olson said. “Now do I know the right way to store this for optimal conditions? No. They're under my sink.”
There is a thriving grey market for out-of-stock lip pencils and other deprecated products. Customers are attacking eBay and other reselling sites to find something like almond dial soap that hasn't been in circulation for years.
They pay the original retail price multiple times for profit from the Hello Flawless Powder Foundation, which was discontinued in 2019. Beauty, an e-commerce site, “continues to connect with your favorite beauty products.”
From clothing to cars, fans of obsolete products gather on message boards to share procurement tips. A loyal user of Jason Powersmile's toothpaste lamented on Reddit that he was unable to purchase tubes after quitting his Dentiferice business in December. Dawn's recent decision to change the scent of dish soap has caused similar gusts of winds online cubech and strategy.
“We all have ours. It's like a security blanket, and when it goes away, we're surprised,” said Manhattan freelance writer Beth Sobol. Ta.
For Sobol, it was a panten nutrient blended miracle moisture boost rose water petal soft hair treatment, a hair fabric softener available at local drug stores, which was incredible despite its low price. In 2023, she found it harder to find. The Panten was replaced with a similarly named conditioner in the tube where Sobor discovered something strange.
She began buying all the bottles in her neighborhood and began to broaden her searches of drug stores in other areas of New York as supplies fell. She then began buying jars through Walmart from eBay, Poshmark and third-party sellers.
These days, the miraculous moisture boost is out of stock everywhere. eBay sellers charge between $25 and $40 for those retailed for around $9. Sobol is still dependent on him every day and couldn't find anything that would work better.
“I found a woman selling it for $16,” she said. “I'm willing to pay that. But will I ship it in addition to $30? I just have the problem of paying that much for the Panten.”
She now has 20 to 4 bottles. If one jar lasts for her three weeks, does that mean she'll be out by spring?
“You make it sound like heroin: 'You'll have to quit one day,'” Sobol said. “I know it's coming. I need to start riding it.”
Michael Williams, who writes the fashion newsletter ACL, worries about the missing accessories. A padded laptop bag made by Filson. He and other styles of writers celebrated it as the perfect travel briefcase that can be attached to cameras and computers and easily hidden under the airplane seat. After Filson dropped the bags from the line, Williams began hunting them everywhere before everyone realized how great they were,” he said.
Alexander Aciman, editor of Wirecutter, owned by the New York Times, finds himself trolling eBay for an old bottle of lavender-scented aftershaves previously made by Crabtree & Evelyn.
It was a favorite of his father, writer Andre Asiman. A few years ago, Alexander found a dusty bottle at a boutique in Connecticut.
“I have very strong memories related to the early morning scents of the 90s that my dad taught in Princeton,” he said. “At the time, he reminded me of his childhood, so he wore that scent. I mainly try to find that it loses its scent and doesn't store some kind of access.”
He added that his grandfather, Henri Asiman, wore a lavender scent made by Yardley London.
For Catherine Pearson, the ambiguous object of desire is a specific car model: the Volvo 240 Station Wagon. She owns three sturdy 16-foot long wagons that were stopped producing in 1993 by the Swedish automaker.
Pearson, Queens set designer and florist, feels it's perfect for transport. The Volvo Wagons later said, “We can't get too much because we can't reduce the box shape over time.”
She bought the current Volvo after a long search in the Facebook market. The odometer has 180,000 miles. “I hope I can continue doing this and be rich enough to convert it into electricity,” Pearson said.
Those trying to supply hard-to-find products may find inspiration from those who drink tabs whose loyalty to diet soda is legendary.
The Coca-Cola company, which has been making soft drinks since 1963, was finally put to an end to the tab in 2020 after years of shortages and rumors of end-of-production. Two members of the Savetabsoda Committee, Adam Burbach and Jenny Boyter, saw that the end was coming and stocked in advance.
Boiter had enough supply in the basement by the time he had a year and a half of the time he drank the tub once a day. Burbach was given an expiration date and bought a pack of 36 animals on Amazon, as many as his online retailer and his decency.
“I was like, “How many tabs do I want in a day and how good are those?” ” he said. “I thought of a year.”
Today, Boiters have been reduced to one 12 pack and six loose cans. She drinks soda on her birthday and holidays. “I had it on New Year's Day,” she said. “Every year, it's great in the tab.”
Mr. Burbach's stash has been reduced to about 10 cans in the fridge in the basement. His joy in having a refreshing tab is tempered by the realization that what he can consume brings him closer to his end.
“I haven't been drunk for months,” he said. “I almost feel bad drinking it.”
Nevertheless, both hope that Coca-Cola will get the tab back, and they walk through the grocery store hopefully and hopefully.
“I went to Kroger today and went down the soda aisle, because that's my fantasy,” Boiter said. “In my fantasy, I find the tab and call Adam.”
