Remember when eBay was the only place on the internet that you could purchase second-hand clothes? One of my first online thrifting memories was with eBay about 10 years ago. I would spend my weekends at the mall trying on clothes in Topshop and then I would get home and search for the items I liked on eBay! Good times.
Today, there are tons of reselling apps and sites out there designed to help one party purge their closet and another party score a deal – all whilst extending the life of our beloved garments!
One of the largest of these online thrift stores is ThredUp. I’ve written about my experience as a shopper with them before but today I’ll share all you need to know when it comes to selling your clothes to ThredUp and how much money you should expect to make.
First things first – How?
- You either order a Clean Out Kit from ThredUp or download a prepaid label
- Load your Clean Out Kit with your preloved items and ship it to their warehouse
- ThredUp inspects your items and decides which ones they are going to “accept”. (This doesn’t necessarily mean this is when you get paid. It just means that they are going to photograph and list these items on the site. You get paid when the item sells, but more on that later)
- ThredUp sends back or donates (your choice) the rejected items and lists the accepted items on their site
- People shop. You get paid
Got it – So, what can I put in my Clean Out Kit?
Before loading your Clean Out Kit with anything and everything, it’s best to understand what kind of items ThredUp tends to “accept”. Below are some tips to ensure that you send in items that ThredUp is likely to purchase and make you money!
- Understand the shopper. And who is a typical ThredUp shopper I hear you ask? According to the ThredUp 2019 consumer statistics, the age range is pretty evenly split between millennials, gen-x, and boomers, with less gen-z shoppers. To me, that means more versatile closet staples and less trendy crop tops.
Another note on style, you’ll notice that ThredUp photographs all their inventory on mannequins. That makes a big difference to how desirable an item appears online and consequently, how well it sells. ThredUp’s top-selling items include leather bags and boots, sweaters, and jumpsuits which makes sense because bags, boots, and sweaters are closet staples and jumpsuits are outfits in themselves so they don’t require a lot of styling to make them appear desirable. - A brand name goes a long way. If you’ve shopped on ThredUp before, you’ll know how large their inventory is. And – sorry ThredUp – how poor their search function is. The best way for a shopper to find what they want is to filter by size and by brand. ThredUp knows this and is, therefore, more likely to list the brand they know people are searching for. The brands they list on their site as best-sellers are FRYE, Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Burberry, Ugg, Anthropologie, Patagonia, Hunter, Lululemon, and Rag & Bone.
- Don’t bother with visibly worn clothes. If you’re planning to purge your closet of heavily worn-out clothes – congratulations! You have evidently made a smart and sustainable purchase and I salute you. However, as much as you loved these pieces, ThredUp is unlikely to list them and perhaps you should consider repairing or donating them.
Now for the answer to the question you all clicked this post for – How much will I get paid?
ThredUp does have a price calculator and a payout guide but when you have 20+ items at different price points and you factor in the return fee, it’s difficult to understand how much money you’ll actually make. But I gotchu, I’ve created a payout calculator in a Google Sheet that will show you exactly how much money you stand to make when you send your clothes into ThredUp.
How the payout calculator works:
- Copy and paste the sheet into your own Google Sheet so you can input your own figures
- Use ThredUp’s price calculator to estimate the listing price for each of the items you wish to sell
- Type the number of items you plan to send in in the green box under the closest estimated list price that you got from the calculator. For example, if you have 5 items that range between $5-$14 then you’d put a ‘5’ in the green box underneath the $10
- Note your total payout estimate, depending on how much you expect ThredUp to purchase and whether you want your items returned to you. Then type this amount in the box across from ‘Input your total’.
- See how much cash you stand to make in either cash or partner store credit
Now you’ve worked out how much you will get paid, the next question is – When will I get paid?
Typically, you get paid at least 14 days after your item sells. This takes into account the 14 days that the buyer has to return the item. If an item is returned, you don’t get paid. And if your item hasn’t sold after 90 days, you don’t get paid either.
ThredUp could buy your items from you before listing them on the site but their website isn’t very clear on when this would happen. Maybe they predict your items will sell in a different season and if they purchased them from you directly now, they wouldn’t have to return them after the 90 days listing time had expired? That’s just a guess.
One scenario that ThredUp does note will result in a pre-list payout is when you’ve opted to get paid in store credit for one of their partner brands instead of cash. In case you missed them earlier, ThredUp’s partner brands are listed here.
The final question – is selling to ThredUp right for me?
In case you haven’t come to a natural conclusion already, it makes sense for me to sell my clothes to ThredUp when:
- I do not want to spend time photographing and listing items myself. ThredUp estimates that this can take up to 12 minutes per item!
- I don’t want to spend time negotiating prices and shipping items individually
- I have already listed items on reselling apps/sites and they’re not selling
- I want to sell name-brand clothes in good condition
- I want to support a sustainable, philanthropic fashion business
There are a lot of good reasons to sell your preloved clothes with ThredUp and if you follow my tips and set realistic expectations with my payout calculator, you’re guaranteed to have a good experience with selling your clothes to ThredUp!
Let me know if you used the price calculator or have any additional tips in the comments!