Life Fright

I’ve purchased from ThredUp many times and noticed that the items listed would have a good sell rate if they were new with tags and were from well-known brands. I always have clothes that I don’t reach for and some I have just outgrown, but they still have a lot of life left and others could score great items. I have wanted to donate them locally, but I know that I’d rather they go to a place where lots of people have the chance to snag them and extend the life of the clothes I let go of.

Enter selling via ThredUp! I first dabbled with this when I needed to return an item that did not match the listed condition. ThredUp offered me the opportunity to also send in clothes to sell with the return and I took them up on it. I packed up about 20 items and sent them off to be processed and listed. This all happened in about a month and then those items had at least a month to sell (depending on the brand) before ThredUp recouped those items and then decides to either donate them or relist them.

And sure enough within the month my items were listed to sell, the exposure drew in interested thrifters! Of course, they didn’t sell right away and even when they were delivered to the purchaser, some items were returned, but a good majority of the items ended up being sold. Do note that the listed price is much higher than the payout that you will make. For example a $20 listed item, you may get at least a $1 for it depending on the brand. So if you want to make more money from selling your clothes, a consignment shop or personal listings on eBay, DePop, Vinted, Mercari, Poshmark, etc. are the way to go, but keep in mind those sites will also have a service fee attached.

Do note that ThredUp also has a service fee and a processing fee. These extra fees get deducted from your total payout so make sure you send a lot of items that have a high chance of being purchased. Take advantage of when ThredUp offers free clean-out bags and a percentage off their processing fees. I’ve noticed this year these offers happened once near the beginning of January and then later on in April.

Once you have items that have officially sold, it becomes shopping credit that you can use to shop on ThredUp. There’s also an option to cash out and another option to convert that credit to a gift card with another brand. Most times I prefer the brand option since there’s a boosted gift card credit amount in the range of 10-15% more on top of the initial shopping credit.

Overall, don’t think that by selling through ThredUp you can recoup the cost of the items you purchased. I opted to go this route for the increased exposure my items will have to go to people who will hopefully put the items to better use than otherwise sitting unused in my closet. And there’s also the convenience of not having to take photos of my items, write, publish, monitor listings, ship the items out, and deal with customer issues and questions as they arise. ThredUp makes it easy to make a bit of money and not have to deal with the hassle and logistics of sending your items to their new homes.

I hope this post is informative and encourages you to explore these options maybe as a side hustle or to clean out your closet and give your clothes a new lease on life! Check out why buying secondhand is good here.