NEW NEWS:

• We are BACK! We had an amazing time by the Mediterranean. However, our journey back was a nightmare. Listings are going slow because I am still trying to recover and the school semester has already started.
• I am listing Pre-Fall stuff at the moment which usually means whatever I fancy. I will bring out the heavier stuff like boots and coats in about 2 weeks or so.
• I cannot stop adding to my Pet Peeves. I don't want everyone to think I'm a big curmudgeon but I swear someone finds something to annoy others every second.

OLD NEWS:

• We have decided to revert back to public auctions once again. Many bidders find private auctions fishy and we cannot blame them. However, public auctions have their own share of trouble. Since we made the switch, two of our high bidders have been contacted with unwanted outside offers.
• We decided to open a Fixed Price Store and see how it does. This will be a nice alternative for those of you who do not want to wait around for the auction to end. We will have a variety of items, similar to our online auctions.
• You can always e-mail us with your requests. Even if do not have the item at hand, we will file it in our "Wanted" section and we will be on the lookout.

ALL ABOUT ZEEBOUTIQUE:

How We Got Started: Zeeboutique was founded by Zekiye Selvili in 1999. Zekiye was a second year Ph.D. student when she discovered ebay to expand her designer wardrobe. Soon, she started selling herself with her first designer item being a pair of CHANEL pumps. What started out as a modest hobby, has turned into a part time business. However, Zekiye still manages all of the activities herself and makes sure each customer is satisfied 100%.

Our Philosophy: We are mainly in the business of making other fashionistas satisfied. We love to shop but sadly, we cannot afford to keep everything we buy. Therefore, we are happy to pass the savings on to our bidders. All of our items are 100% authentic, with money back guarantee. We start the bidding at either $0.99 or $9 for most of our items. Zekiye has a Ph.D. in finance and she uses ebay as an experiment to test the efficiency of markets. What that means is our bidders do the deciding: We let our bidders determine the fair price of an item.

When we decided to use this strategy, we were one of the first and few brave ones. Nowadays, you see sellers start their bidding at low prices with no reserves. I guess it can't be a totally bad strategy if other sellers are using it. The bottom line is this is what's best for the buyers.

The only downside of this strategy (other than recording losses for some of our items) is that our authenticity gets questioned A LOT. Unlike other sellers, we don't get offended if this question gets asked (well, maybe a little...) nor do we refuse to answer. Our answer is always the same: YES, EVERYTHING WE SELL IS 100% AUTHENTIC. We buy everything firsthand from department stores, outlets, showrooms and celebrities. We see many, many auctions end without bids at reasonable prices so we decided to pursue the adventurous strategy even if it ends in tragedy. Zekiye still remembers selling her beloved YSL by Tom Ford gypsy skirt for about $200... argh! We can't complain though; overall we still come out ahead and we're pretty happy with our customer base and our profit margins.

Public or Private? That is the question: We kept our auctions private (meaning the identity of the bidder was not seen to anyone but us) for the longest time. Our reasoning was that we wanted our bidders to have full privacy. We had a lot of problems with other sellers contacting our bidders with outside-ebay offers.

Today (September 9, 2007; which is incidentally Grandparents Day), we received an e-mail from another fellow ebayer which made us revisit this issue again. This person asked: "Doesn't all these silent bidders make you skeptical?" We're not really sure who they were addressing or exactly what they meant but it made us think again. 

We have nothing to hide so we're toying with the idea of making our auctions public. We'll work with public auctions starting from today and see how it goes. If you have a preference either way, please do not hesitate to let us know. We would much appreciate the feedback and the guidance; especially since we're unsure about the optimality of our decision. 

How Can We Afford To Keep This Philosophy Up: Fortunately for us, the markets are efficient so the bidders are almost always able to determine the fair price of an item. Of course, sometimes our risky strategy fails us and we have to write a loss. On average, we make enough in sales and profit to continue delivering designer goodies to our loyal customer base. For us, this is more than just a business, it is a way of life.

OUR FAVORITE LINKS:

Yes, Zeeboutique IS the best online store but here is a list of other stores/links we truly enjoy.

1) Demitasse Designs (http://www.demitassedesigns.com): This is our favorite online store. If you are a hat lover or an environmentalist, you HAVE to check this out. The owner makes one-of-a-kind and custom hats from vintage and second hand clothing. It's genius!

2) Ebru Design (http://www.ebrudesign.com): Do you like unique jewelry made with semi-precious stones? Then, you shouldn't miss this site. The creations are mouth-watering and the pricing is very reasonable.

3) Style (http://www.style.com): This is where we get our online fix of runway shows. They are still generous enough to keep the website free. Thank you!

4) Basenotes (http://www.basenotes.net): This is one of favorite perfume reviewing websites. Everyone can review so you get a little bit of everything.

5) Zeebridal (http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=zeebridal): We opened an ebay boutique called Zeebridal in December 2004. Zeebridal has the same philosophy as Zeeboutique. It sells designer bridal gowns at significant discounts so that every bride can enjoy high fashion without emptying the bank account. Zeebridal has not been active for the last six months or so (we don't have the same interest in bridal gowns since Zekiye doesn't need one anymore). We received a lot of queries asking whether we were going to list more items. We decided to hold off on the bridal gowns. No offense to brides-to-be, but we decided the headache was too great. We will, however, continue to list gorgeous bridal shoes so please check back often.

A LITTLE BIT OF PERSONAL LIFE: 

Here is a photograph our our founder Zekiye Selvili-Ozbas (still working on the successeful hyphenation), with her husband Oguzhan Ozbas. This was taken during Thanksgiving 2004 in Las Vegas (one of Zekiye's favorite vacation spots)

Alpaslan: New Addition to the Ozbas Family!

The little guy is here. Our pride and joy Alpaslan Selvili Ozbas finally arrived on September 29, 2006 at 22.22 via an emergency C-section after 10 hours of unfruitful labor. He weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces and was 20 inches tall at birth.

Alp has grown so much. Here is a photograph from March 2007 in which he is wrestling a giant chick (don't ask).

He doesn't smile very often so when he does, it's a huge deal.

And here he is, helping mommy celebrate her b-day on April 7, 2007

Here is a photograph of Zekiye and Alp by the beach taken approximately in November 2007 (p.s. Please note the Gucci Anniversary boots I'm wearing.)

I have been really lazy with the photography. Also, I'm quite vain and can never find photographs I like myself enough in to let everyone see. Here is a couple of recent ones so you can see how much Alp has grown. He started walking around December 2007/January 2008 (My mother-in-law tells me both of her children walked before the age of 1 so it must be my late walker genes.) He is cute as heck and knows it!

I call the following one: "Are you talking to me???"

And this one is called: "Upside down, boy you turn me". Notice how my work is always around (mannequin with a Chanel top in the background)

And this one is Bathtime Fun

Here is one from Father's Day 2008. Unlike his mom, Alp likes to dress in pajamas all day long and sometimes we let him. I also have to point out that Oguz strongly objected to the Bugaboo but I won in the end (It's a great stroller but even I cannot justify the price tag today. I was 8.5 months pregnant when I ordered it. Blame it on the nesting.)