Tops

Woven blouses and knit T-shirts:

how the fabric is made matters more than the name on the listing. A blouse is woven, in cotton poplin, viscose, chiffon or linen, so it has no give and it fits or fails at the shoulders and across the bust. A T-shirt is knitted jersey that stretches and forgives a size either way, which is why knit tops sell easily second-hand and blouses need measurements. Button-front shirts sit with the blouses. A strappy top or a crop top can be either, so read the label. Training tops and sun shirts belong under women’s sportswear, and tops cut for a bump or for nursing under maternity wear.

Fibre, and the gap between the Central Valley and the coast:

the same top gets worn very differently a few hours’ drive apart. In the Central Valley the mornings and evenings are cool, so long sleeves, a heavier cotton knit or a blouse over a T-shirt earn their place most of the year. On the Guanacaste coast or in Limón the tops that get worn are linen, cotton gauze and loose viscose, and polyester chiffon that looks crisp on the hanger is clinging by noon. When a listing calls a top fresh or cool, ask what the label says. All-polyester is neither, however loose the cut.

Used American clothing racks and what a second-hand blouse can ask:

those racks are the floor every second-hand top is measured against. Stores selling used US clothing by the piece have been around for decades, in chains with dozens of branches around the country, and a blouse there goes for a couple of thousand colones. New, a blouse from a local or department-store brand runs about ₡8,000 to ₡18,000, and an international label two or three times that. A worn store-brand top cannot beat the rack, so price it low or sell it in a bundle. What can ask more is a piece with the tag still on, a good linen or silk, or a label the rack rarely carries, and even then the buyer is weighing it against what a new one costs.

Pilling, stretched necklines and copied logo tees:

these separate a fair used top from a rag. Polyester and acrylic knits pill along the sides where a bag strap rubs; hold the top flat to the light and it shows. A knit neckline stretches into a wave after enough washes and does not recover. Dark cotton dried on a sunny line fades across the shoulders first, so compare the front with the inside of a seam. On a button-front shirt, count the buttons and check the spare sewn inside is still there, and run a hand over viscose, which snags on a fingernail. Logo tees and polos from Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren or Lacoste are the tops most worth copying. A real one has even stitching, a print or embroidery with clean edges, and a care label with the fibre content and, on pieces made for the US market, an RN number you can look up to see which company it belongs to.

What a buyer in Grecia or Liberia asks about your top:

the questions rarely change, so answer them in the listing. Lay it flat and give the width from armpit to armpit and the length from the top of the shoulder, because US, Colombian and Asian brands do not agree on what a medium is. Name the fibre and photograph the label itself. Say whether it has been in a dryer, whether there is pilling or a mark, and whether it was altered. Few people will cross the Central Valley for one T-shirt, so tops in the same size travel better together: several as a lot, or a blouse with the skirt it was sold with, which can also go under skirts. Tops with the tag still on, or in a label people search for by name, are the ones worth listing one at a time.