Liberty, Interrupted.

The long awaited Liberty of London collaboration with Target finally became available in stores nationwide and online yesterday, and being as in love with prints as I am I obviously wanted my piece of the dream. This morning also happened to be the morning that my cell phone sprang forward while my clocks stayed behind which added a layer of confusion to an already exciting morning.

There was one thing I absolutely wanted: the flower pots.

I don’t remember when I woke up, but by 11 I was awake and making plans for a Zipcar to make a special trek to Target, but I read a post from a San Francisco blogger who had checked out three area stores and didn’t see flowerpots at any of them. So I figured, maybe I’ll just order them online and then go to the store to see the rest of the collection. I combed the Liberty of London for Target site looking for the flower pots and while doing so I noticed that quite a few items sold out. Almost everything was sold out! Including, unfortunately, this super cute dessert tray and teapot.

By 12:30 pm everything I wanted was sold out not just online, but even in stores near me! And I was never able to find the flowerpots online either, which was very strange. I’ve never known Target to *not* list an item online. I couldn’t believe something with so much promise ended so quickly and unfruitfully. But the day didn’t end there. I tweeted about the absence of the flowerpots and someone pointed me to Liberty’s UK website which has them on sale for £25, but not available until the end of March. £25 is roughly $40 and it would cost another £25 ($40) for shipping to the U.S. $80 for a $20 flowerpot? No thanks.

Next I turned to Ebay. I actually found the teapot there and on the Liberty site, but not on Target’s site (again, Target WTF). Since yesterday the teapot has been going for $17.99 with only one bid. The dessert tray I was looking at seems to have gone for at least $30, but I see it listed in a few more auctions – one with a “Buy it now” price of $38. I really like the dessert tray and teapot, but I refuse to participate in a secondary market for items created for a Target collaboration. I don’t want to encourage people who snap up popular items just so they can resell them and make a killing. But on the other hand… I really want those flowerpots!  And that teapot too… On second thought, I might actually bid for that teapot on Ebay.