As I mentioned in a previous post, a couple of weeks ago, my best friend and I took part in a local clothing resale pop-up market. We have dabbled a bit in thrift reselling in the past, though on this occasion, our merch was primarily our own closet cast-offs. As dedicated thrifters, we get a fair amount of regular closet turnover; we are constantly experimenting with different pieces, upgrading our wardrobes, and culling what doesn’t work. Direct resale is one way to recoup (some of) our costs, as well as extend the lifecyle of the clothing itself; other ways to do that include consignment, donation, and clothing swaps.

The experience of taking part in the pop-up market was an interesting and enlightening one for us – in addition to being a fun (if somewhat exhausting) opportunity to spend time together, and to connect with others. My best friend has a lot of retail experience, but this was my first time selling stuff outside of platforms like Kijiji, Instagram and the like. I’m not as much of a natural at it as I thought I would be, let’s just say. Having my own little secondhand store has been something of a pipe dream of mine for years, but I’m starting to rethink that a bit; the business side of it is definitely not my jam. Personal epiphanies aside, I had a few observations/thoughts gathered over the course of this resale adventure that I wanted to share here.

Your Clothes Aren’t Worth What You Think They’re Worth

I’ve said this before, but it bears saying again: clothes are not an investment. They lose most of their value as soon as you walk them out of the store. There are exceptions and caveats to this, but even a designer item that still has its tags on isn’t worth anywhere close to the full retail value. From experience, I would say that newbie resellers tend to make one of two mistakes: 1) pricing their merch based on how much they paid for it, or 2) pricing it based on how much they like the item. Neither of those things matter to the market. The only value an item has is what someone else is willing to pay for it. And you have to understand the psychology of the parties. All things being equal, a buyer doesn’t have an existing attachment to a piece of clothing, but will place a higher relative value on the money in their pocket. In contrast, a seller will feel a greater sense of investment in the clothing, because they already paid for it (whether for themselves in the first instance, or even purely for resale). There is also an opportunity cost that you cannot ignore; sometimes making a fast sale for a little bit less money is better than sitting on unsold merch for a long time in the hope of a higher profit. Bottom line: a lot of factors play a role in pricing, and pricing is one of the keys to success as a reseller.

Know Your Market

I think I learned a lot from watching other vendors in action. The ones that seemed to have the most customer traffic tended to have merch that was, for lack of a better word, pretty generic – brands popular with Millennials, solid colours (mostly neutrals), and fairly basic pieces. In contrast, the stuff my friend and I were selling reflected our slightly more “niche” aesthetic; we had somewhat fewer people buying from us, but in many cases the ones who did, bought multiple pieces. As casual or hobby resellers, that was enough to make it worth our time at this particular event; but if we were to try to get a proper side (or main) hustle going, we would likely have to re-think our inventory. It’s all fine and good to have a core of devoted customers who appreciate a specific aesthetic, but you have to make sure that it represents a market that can sustain your business. In my case, I don’t think a business model of “buy what I, myself, like” would work in the long term; my personal aesthetic doesn’t appeal to enough people.

Reselling Is A Tough Business

Margins are pretty slim if you are investing any money at all in your inventory – even at thrift prices. (The consignment model is much better from that perspective.) You have to deal in large volumes to make a decent profit, and that can be very time- and effort-intensive. Focusing on designer items can provide higher margins (but it’s not always a given because not all designer labels have equally good resale value) but it comes with its own drawbacks: such inventory is harder to source, and makes you reliant on a smaller pool of customers (with bigger budgets). I follow a few very successful resellers on social media, so I know it can be done, but it’s clear that what they do is no cake-walk.

To illustrate my point, here’s the low-down on our pop-up market experience.

Over the course of 2 days, my friend and I cleared about $1,000 in gross sales. This is a decent amount for what amounted to a kind of garage sale on our part. But everyone knows that gross revenue is not the same thing as profit, right? After deducting our expenses (booth rental, Square card reader, snacks, and miscellaneous supplies), we were left with $835. Of that, $100 went to a friend whose dress I sold for her. So we were left with $735, or about $367 each. [For various reasons, we decided to split the net sales 50-50 rather than based on how much inventory we brought to the table.]

Now, if we stop here, the money still looks pretty good. We spent roughly 14 hours over two days at the market, so we made about $26/hour. Of course, that doesn’t account for the time that went into preparing for the sale itself (steaming all the clothes, checking for flaws, making price tags, etc.). Let’s be conservative with that estimate, and say 3 hours each. We still made $21/hour, which is better than minimum wage.

But this is still an incomplete picture (if you were to look at this as a business rather than 2 people selling their own clothes) because it doesn’t account for the original cost of the clothes themselves. Those add up to $372 (most of the items were thrifted). This would leave $363 in true profit, or $181.50 each, or $10.70/hour. Less than minimum wage.

The other thing to consider is that less than half of the items we brought with us actually sold. I mention this because, unless your track record is 100% (i.e. absolutely everything you source, sells), then there will definitely be unsold inventory for which to account as well. Some inventory takes longer to sell; some doesn’t sell, and you have to count it as a loss. This is a relevant consideration for anyone operating as a business, rather than a hobby reseller/garage seller. And there is another thing: the time professional resellers put into sourcing their inventory, which is separate and apart from the financial cost of the inventory. If I were to apply this kind of analysis to our numbers in this example … well, let’s just say, my friend and I would not look like a profitable business.

This was a good reality check for me and my pipe dreams. I think I’ll be sticking with my day job. And I don’t mean to discourage any aspiring resellers in the audience, but I think being forearmed with knowledge is key to pursuing any new venture. In fact, if I missed some things in my analysis, please add a comment below – I would love to hear your reselling insights.

26 Comments on Some Thoughts on Reselling

  1. Such an interesting post! I dabble with reselling too, mostly through Ebay and Mercari. I have had the same realizations as you – the items I have sold quickly are almost always neutral in color, a brand that has often been paraded around social media lately, and typically not my style. This works pretty well, in the event that I find something at goodwill that I wouldn’t be tempted to keep for myself anyway.
    Also – in terms of what items sell best, I’ve found that jeans and jackets do best for me – I’ve taken a chance on a couple sweaters lately that had $200+ original retail value, and I can’t get them to sell.

    • My friend who sells online says the same thing about jeans – and I can’t ever sell them! Which brings up another good point I forgot to mention: you have to know your (selling) platform as well. Some things sell better on eBay, some on Poshmark, some on Insta etc.

  2. This is a super helpful and honest post! I appreciate the breakdown of your time and costs. Trying to sell a pair of Rothy’s on my local neighborhood site and it’s not going too well, so next step I think would be eBay. Thank you for the tips on pricing!

  3. I think that this is a great post and it really spells out how much hard work it is to make a profit reselling clothes. I mostly thrift for just myself, but occasionally I’ll find a piece that I know will be relatively easy to sell on either a brand-specific Facebook page (mostly Anthropologie) or Poshmark. However, as you say… I won’t be quitting my day job. It gets me a little extra money here and there, but if I weren’t already thrifting for myself it would be WAY too much time spent to find the good items to resell!

  4. Thank you for calling out thinking of clothing as “investments”! I know some people use it to mean “invest in yourself” i.e. an item can affect you in positive ways other than just covering your body from the elements, but that phrase is a major pet peeve of mine because I think it just ends up being used as an enablement mantra.

    I don’t participate much in the local online reselling market anymore, but I remember back in college, I would often see new posters to the university Women’s Clothing buy/sell/trade facebook group slowly re-list all their things with progressively lower prices lol.

    • Haha, I know that tactic! We did a bit of that ourselves at the market – some things we knocked way back for the last hours of the sale.

      What I have found helps me with pricing is to think of what I would get for the item through consignment. I’m pretty familiar with the pricing of my local fave store, so I have a good sense of what most items will be listed at. So, for example, the store might price a dress at $60, but I only make 40% back or $24. If I price it at $35, I can probably sell it more quickly and I’m still ahead, relatively speaking.

  5. This is fascinating to learn about and thanks for the post! I’ve only resold clothing to ThredUp and while I hate that I get next to nothing for the clothes that I send in [if I get anything at all], it does give me some money back.

    • I think for most of us (who are not professional resellers), making a bit of money back is a nice bonus. For me, it helps defray a lot of the upfront costs I put into thrifting, which means that I can continue to experiment with “new” clothes all the time.

      Resale value is a critical point only if we are talking about clothes as an investment – and only to the extent of showing that they’re not an actual investment.

      What I would love to see is a more practical/local version of a clothes rental service. Pay a small fee to wear an item for a period of time, then pass it on to someone else to wear it, and so on. That’s how I look at thrifting, fWiW. I pay $10 for an item that I will use for a few months, then I will redonate it or sell it to extend its lifecycle once I’m tired of it. Most items are still in great condition after I’m done with them (and I’m usually at least the second owner, if not the third, etc.) I’m essentially taking that item on an extended loan and passing it on. Not everyone has the ability or inclination to invest time into thrifting (or a good thrift scene) but I think a lot of people would take advantage of a similar program/service if it was available to them.

      • I wanted to add that I also dislike ThredUp because they do not include pictures of the clothing tag. I love Boden clothing, but I need to see the tag to ensure that I’m buying the correct US size and not the UK size. So, a benefit to using eBay and Poshmark is that if the picture isn’t included, I can ask the seller.

        Can you tell that I really don’t like ThredUp? Resellers, I always shop eBay and Poshmark!

        • Gotcha! Unfortunately, ThredUp is the only service (apart from eBay) that currently available in Canada. I haven’t tried it yet because I’ve heard mixed reviews. I wish we had Poshmark, sigh.

  6. Hi – I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts about buying clothing or other items that you don’t want (they don’t fit you or anyone you know, etc.), expressly for the purpose of reselling them. I kind of think it’s really selfish of people to buy things at thrift stores expressly for the purpose of turning around and selling them for more on a different platform. They are denying someone else a thrift find that they actually want, fits them, they’d wear, etc. Anyway, as a super-thrifter, I’d be interested in your thoughts on the subject.

    • Honestly, I know that’s a sensitive subject for some people but I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’ve done it occasionally, though I personally don’t find it worth the time/money investment. I think it’s a good service for other people who want a bargain or to reduce their retail purchases but who don’t have access to good thrifting or don’t have the time to do it themselves. In my area, there is more than enough good stuff to go around so I’ve never felt that resellers were impacting my (personal) thrifting chances. I might feel differently if the thrift scene wasn’t so abundant.

      I sometimes think that some resellers price their thrifted stuff too high, but that’s just my personal opinion and it’s worth nothing if the market disagrees, you know? Like, if there are people who are willing to pay the asking price, then good for those resellers. As I tried to illustrate, it’s not an easy job, so I wouldn’t begrudge them the profit they’re able to make.

  7. We resell on eBay. We don’t make any money, it’s just a way to recoup some of our expenses and keep items out of the landfill. Purses and shoes sell quickly, everything else takes a bit more time. I think it would be hard to make money unless you are in a niche market— one local store does lots of evening wear and designer shoes and bags, and seems to do well.

    • Shoes are the hardest for me to sell, locally at least. I’ve never worked up the nerve to try eBay for selling – it seems tough for sellers and more favourable to buyers.

      • We get 50 free listings a month, and pay 10% (the consumer not professional terms). You can usually pass cost of shopping to the buyer.

        • Ah, that’s not bad. Have you ever had to deal with a problem buyer? Like, false claims about the item or random returns?

          • Chiming in here – I sell on average 2 things per month on eBay. I’ve only had one return request, even though I mark on my listings that I don’t accept returns. I just denied the request, and that was that. The only real headache I’ve had from selling there is when a buyer wins an auction and then doesn’t pay. You have to wait several days until eBay will consider it an “unpaid claim” and then you can relist, and wait for your week-long auction to run again. I guess this only applies if you’re listing your items auction-style instead of strictly listing with Buy it Now pricing.

  8. This was a very interesting post! Since you’ve mentioned having a pretty curated closet in the past, I think it would be interesting (to me at least!) if you posted about that process more. I have a hard time letting go of things! Maybe a “what left my closet lately” feature?

    • I used to do that on IG Stories for a bit, then fell out of the habit. I am constantly editing and tweaking so it’s not a “quarterly big purge” kind of process, which in some ways would make a post easier. But it’s a good suggestion, so I will try to work something around that. Thanks!

  9. Really enjoyed this thoughtful and interesting post, even though I’m probably not likely to do much reselling of my own.

    As an occasional buyer of secondhand goods on eBay, I have a very concrete sense of of what I’m willing to pay for the items I’m looking for (generally very specific, but not especially popular, old items from J.Crew or Madewell, sometimes some general searches of old Ann Taylor things, though I’ve never bought anything secondhand from), and those prices are often lower than the ones a majority of sellers usually set for items in that range. In that particular tier of products, I’d assume that most sellers that price their items a bit too high for my tastes have a bit of trouble moving inventory because they were generally getting undercut by Thredup.

    • I feel the same about a lot of stuff on eBay. Every time I’m tempted to start browsing again, I see the prices and X out quickly. I’m spoiled by our thrift stores so I can’t pay eBay prices anymore except in really really special cases. But I hear of others finding legit amazing deals on eBay and then I think that maybe I’m not looking closely enough 🤷🏼‍♀️

  10. Just dropping by quickly to tell you that I loved this post! I appreciate your honesty and your willingness to share the actual numbers concerning the sale.

  11. Interesting post. I came to the same conclusion as you about reselling—in most cases, not worth the effort, though I have sold a couple of things on eBay and just sent off a box to thredUP. Yep, it has its downsides but I don’t have time to sell things individually, and it’s nice to get a little store credit. I’ve generally found really good things there with a few exceptions (damaged items marked as good condition). Just discovered Poshmark—definitely addictive. I do love being able to ask the seller questions about sizing and care/ fiber labeling.