Weekend NYC holiday sample sales:

Super fabulous Sample Sale shopping, minus the need to throw elbows and wait in ages-long lines... we'll take it! Check out today's amazing Online Sample Sales, on now! Remeber, these sales only last 24-48 hours, and often sell out way before their time runs out.
 
As you can imagine, online sample sales are just as exclusive as the regular old Sample Sales you'd hit up in NYC or LA... you gotta know the right people to get in the door. Don't worry, Stiletto Jungle has you covered. Click on the linked text to score your insta-invitation:
It works for the fashion industry, too, because as the economy slumped, stores deeply cut inventory, which left some designers with excess stock, depending on their production calendars. Some high-end brands view the sites as a place to unload inventory without sullying their image by having their merchandise appear on Overstock.com or on the racks at Filene’s Basement. The members-only Web sites also ensure that search engines will not locate and list the discounted products.

Juliska sells its full-price tableware, like a $625 stoneware soup tureen, at luxury department stores like Neiman Marcus. It sells off-season products on One Kings Lane, Gilt and Rue La La.

Selling those items at T. J. Maxx, as some of Juliska’s competitors do, “is suicide for a luxury brand,” said Dave Gooding, the company’s chief executive. “With flash sales, you have the beauty of it being a one-day sale that is done in a very quick, efficient, tastefully done way, as an alternative to your product sitting on a dusty shelf for six months.”

For shoppers, the sites provide a selection of items, akin to a boutique, so they do not have to wade through the thousands of items on bigger e-commerce sites.

Swirl, a private-sale site that went live on Nov. 19, is betting on the allure of a handpicked collection. It was started by DailyCandy, which publishes e-mail newsletters about fashionable activities in various cities.

The company’s reputation for pointing readers to up-and-coming designers will help differentiate its sample sale site, said Dany Levy, DailyCandy’s founder and editorial director. “They trust us, and they know we’ve done our homework,” she said.

But private-sale sites could run into trouble as manufacturers and stores cut back on inventory. “The universe of what’s overstock is not an infinite universe,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester.