Would you/do you buy used fleece?

I am wearing fleece vest wife bought at Goodwill. Has worked great.

I'm with Jerry, it's been awhile since I purchased fleece somewhere other than a thrift shop. I have a Patagonia Marsupial and an Early Winters ButterFleece that I paid $5 each for at Goodwill.

Cheers

Scott

Fleece is so cheap from discount store and thrift shops where you can inspect it anyways

Used fleece isnt worth much

;)

I've had some fleeces for over 10 years that I've paid no special attention to in terms of laundering care. I think they are more durable than you would otherwise be led to believe. As long as you don't dry one on a really hot setting where the dryer drum actually get's really hot, the fleece should be fine. It might shrink just a bit though.

If the fleece is a good enough deal I might take a chance on it assuming I could see pictures of it. Just my two cents.

I've been burned on eBay. You want some sort of reassurance from the seller that the fleece is soft and lofty, or stick to new with tags. What I've seen used in person varies from excellent to something approaching polyester elephant hide.

Lots of outlets for new and cheap: Lands End, Sierra Trading Post, 6PM.com, REI Outlet, Steep and Cheap, Eddie Bauer clearance, etc.

It's not just the dryer heat one time, which can be bad enough, but do it repeatedly and it will get like sandpaper. Sad.

Ahem, what size? :)

Off topic, but in addition to the Early Winters, I've also acquired a Gerry down jacket at Goodwill, and a Marmot Pocket Gopher on Craigslist. Retro-mountain-hip baby!

I'm wearing a previously loved Synchilla vest that I bought roughly two years ago. I don't use it in the mountains, slightly too bulky and warm, but very very often when in our cold home. It looks only slightly more worn than when I bought it, and certainly better than an Arcteryx thermal pro fleece that started pilling like crazy after two washes (send that in).

So, I guess it depends on the fleece, and the love it got. I would certainly buy second hand fleece more often, but only buy through the web if I got good photos of its condition.

I killed a fleece once without realizing it, sort of. It was still warm but definitely lost loft. I didn't know you COULD melt it in the dryer at that point (I had only been camping a few months).

I sold it on Gear Swap with pictures and the buyer had no complaints, and thanked me for shipping it quick. I guess it depends on the buyer :P

If I were selling a baked fleece today, I would certainly slash my price and mention it in the description.

I bought a Tnf fleece vest from a Bpl member and it looked as new, I got it for casual use as have an r1 vest for backpacking.

Re Goodwill: Sure, you can examine those first. No problem.

Re "Cheap": A fancy Patagonia Synchilla caught my eye on eBay, not so cheap.

Re cooking: I'll bet MOST people send their fleeces through the regular hot cycles, because MOST fleece I see at Goodwill looks like elephant hide.

After reading the responses so far, I'm thinking fleece is an item to either buy in person, or save up and buy new. Don't think I'll risk eBay for this purchase.

I bought a used Snap-T Synchilla on eBay awhile back. It's not super soft but it's plenty warm. It's also a wild print which is something I wanted. I don't use it for Backpacking but I wear it casually when the weather permits.

Adrien