If you’re like me, you’ve already received a few Halloween costume catalogs in the mail from retailers like BuyCostumes.com or Party City. Take a look at them, and you might notice something weird.
The costumes are the same. The photos are the same. I’m no expert on costumes, but It looks like one or two manufacturers are behind 80% of the costumes you see out there. Knowing that will allow you to save big, because although the costumes are the same, the prices are not.
Take the toddler skeleton costume shown here. It’s called Skelebones. The photo top left is from Walmart.com, where it’s $14 (.97 shipping). The image at right (hauntingly familiar, eh?) is from Kohls.com, where the same costume is $29.99. It’s $34.99 at Halloween Express.com, a low $11.49 at Oriental Trading Company ($6.99 shipping), and $29.99 at BuyCostumes.com. Walk into a Target or Kmart and you’ll see the same costumes on the racks.
The lesson? When you see the costume you (or your child) wants, don’t buy it then. Find the brand name (look for something capitalized), Google it, and do some bargain shopping. Many stores are offering discounts of up to 30% right now on costumes and free shipping to boot.
(Of course for the best bargains, there’s still time to shop your favorite second hand sources–kiddie consignment stores, Craigslist, ebay, thrift stores, and even Freepeats.org and Freecycle.)
Does Disney ever put their Halloween costumes on sale? $50 per costume is a bit much for a preschooler and toddler.
They do, but it’s after Halloween, and it’s first come first served online in the outlet… ie, probably what you want won’t be there anymore. But you can find a lot of those from last year on ebay this year! Happy hunting!
This article is from last year, but it completely helped me this year. I was looking for a pirate costume for my daughter and found one on one of the Halloween costume websites for $25. I decided to use a few of your tricks and checked Walmart’s website and it was $13.88 with free shipping to home. That was even cheaper than what they were going for USED on eBay. Unreal! I didn’t even think about checking the big box stores’ websites. Thanks for a great article!