We are definitely in tidying mode at the Gavin household – especially when it comes to closets and storage space. Our first baby is due to arrive in July and our 950 square foot house has very limited closet space, which means that all of the things we’ve been tucking into the extra bedroom need to find a new home. I also need to trim down my clothing possessions to make a little closet space for the baby.
If you’re like me and find yourself with more clothes in your closet and dresser than you actually need, you might be looking to cash in some of those higher-value items and thredUP might be one way to go.
Then again, thredUP might not be the gold mine that it sounds like.
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Haven’t heard of thredUp? Well, it’s basically an online consignment shop. According to their website, thredUP is “the easy way to shop and sell secondhand clothes.” I honestly can’t speak to the shopping experience (I currently have $54.65 in unused thredUP credit that I really need to transfer into my PayPal account), but I’ve learned a lot from selling my clothes on the site and it doesn’t always rake in the cash like you might expect.
Here are a few lessons I’ve learned from my own experience selling my clothes on thredUP.
I’m also going to address the elephant in the room and point out that I am most definitely not pregnant in these photos. I actually had these photos taken last July while we were still living in the condo because I wanted to feature thredUP as a unique website that helps you earn a little unexpected cash (the thought of which greatly appealed to my personal finances). My Clean Out experience wasn’t quite what I expected, so I sat on these photos for a very long time while I considered how best to share this information with you. I finally decided it was best to just lay all the information out there and let you decide for yourself whether or not thredUP is the best route for your gently used clothes.
thredUP is a Business
Before you even think of shipping your clothes to thredUP, you need to come to terms with the fact that thredUP is a for-profit business. Which means that they take unused clothes, and sell them for a profit. They have overhead costs like warehouses, employees, shipping supplies, and maintaining an extensive website. Which means that they have to make a profit from the $50 blouse you send their way and the only way to do that is by offering you less money for your blouse than it’s actually worth so that they can resell it at a higher price, pay their bills, and earn a few bucks for themselves. It’s just how business works.
thredUP is a Buyer’s Market
On top of the fact that thredUP is a business and needs turn a profit somehow, there’s another major factor that will impede your ability to make bank on the clothes you send their way: discounts. Every time I visit the thredUP website, I see discount codes that invite me to save 40%. There’s only one way that the company can legitimately afford to knock 40% off their listed prices on a regular basis: by purchasing their merchandise at a very low rate. Which means that the hypothetical $50 blouse in my closet will get an even lower payout than I initially anticipated.
You Have to Pay thredUP to Process Your Clothes
There’s one more thing you need to be aware of before you attempt to sell your clothes on thredUP. You actually have to pay the site to accept your clothes. thredUP keeps track of all incoming clothing to sell through their $10 Clean Out Kits. The kit comes with a large pre-paid shipping pouch, instructions, and tips to maximize your payout.
If you wish do donate your clothes without a payout, the kit is free (but FYI, you don’t get a receipt for tax purposes). Honestly though, if you just plan to donate your clothes, isn’t it simpler to drop them off at your nearest Salvation Army, Goodwill, or other thrift store and collect the tax credit?
How to Get the Most Value from Your Clothes on thredUP
If you’re aware that thredUP won’t generate enough cash to pay for your mortagage (or possibly not even cover dinner for two at decent restaurant), but you want to sell your clothes and give it a try, I have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your $10 Clean Out Kit.
Sort your Unwanted Clothes
Every time I clean out my closet, I sort my clothes and accessories into a few different categories.
High value items – this includes new and like-new items from a known (and higher priced) brand or designer. For me this often includes clothes I’ve purchased from Stitch Fix, items that still have a tag, or popular brands like Kate Spade, J Crew, Gap, or Kendra Scott.
Low value items – clothes and accessories from less expensive stores (such as Kohl’s or Old Navy) or obscure brands that other people won’t recognize. This also includes items that are slightly faded, stretched, or show other signs of wear. thredUP won’t list items that show more than the slightest bit of wear, so spare yourself the disappointment and be very honest with yourself about the quality of your clothes while you sort.
Last summer, I did a major closet clean out after learning about the KonMari method. I resold all of my Stitch Fix clothes on my sale Instagram account: @MariaSellsThings, pulled a stack of non-Stitch Fix clothes that were in top-notch condition to sell on thredUP and donated the rest to the Salvation Army (you can see photos of what we donated in this blog post. It was a lot.).
Here’s the full stack of clothes designated for thredUP.
thredUP decided to keep 6 of the 9 items I shipped in my Clean Out Kit and list them online. In exchange, I received $37.40 in thredUP credit.
I will say that thredUP is pretty transparent about the status of the clothes they keep and list online. Each garment in the list is linked so you can track it’s sale on the site. I added up the value of the five garments that had sold and thredUP earned $99.95 for those items (with one dress yet to sell). They paid me $37.40 (less than half of the money they earned) and they donated three of my items that were not high-quality enough to sell online. It’s worth noting that thredUP still profits from these items, even though they were not listed for sale online. They refer to their earnings as nominal but that’s kind of a vague word, don’t you think?
Ship Seasonally Appropriate Clothes …
thredUP encourages everyone with a Clean Out Kit to send timely and seasonal clothes their way. Which makes sense, because very few people will be shopping for a new winter coat in July. So as you are sorting through your clothes, you’ll want to make sure they are seasonally appropriate. Send any items that fit the current season and set non-season items aside to ship at a later time.
But Be Prepared for a Very Long Processing Time
According to the thredUP website, it takes 1-3 weeks for your Clean Out bag to be processed and have your items listed online. In my experience, it can sometimes take even longer. When I shipped my own Clean Out Bag last summer, I shipped my bag sometime in July, but thredUP never contacted to let me know it was received. I contacted customer support so they could look into it. Somehow, my bag slipped through the cracks even though thredUP had a record of it arriving August 12. One month later, on September 12, the bag still wasn’t processed and I was made aware that it could take an additional 3-4 weeks for my bag to be processed because they were backlogged at the time.
Keep in mind that I had followed all of the instructions that came in my Clean Out Kit and sent summer clothes to thredUP in August. They weren’t processed until sometime after September 12. Lesson learned! If you plan to send your clothes to thredUP, my best advice is to send the clothes at the very beginning of the appropriate season (right when they start to appear in stores).
Is thredUP worth the Trouble?
So after all of that information, the question remains whether or not thredUP is the best way to get the most value out of your old clothes, shoes and accessories. It’s possible that thredUP will yield the best profit with minimal effort, but unfortunately it costs $10 just to find out. And you could get your unlisted items back from thredUP, but that service costs an additional $11 and you have to pay it when you order your Clean Out Kit, which makes the added cost even more of a gamble.
My best advice is to only send thredUP your very best quality unwanted clothes and to wait until you have enough to justify the cost of a $10 Clean Out Kit.
It also wouldn’t hurt for you to consider listing your gently used clothing on Poshmark or Ebay. If you’re like me and find yourself with a surplus of clothes from Stitch Fix that no longer suit your style, I highly recommend selling those items yourself in the Stitch Fix B/S/T Facebook group that has 50,000 members and is completely devoted to the buying, selling, and trading of Stitch Fix clothes.
I recently started selling my higher-value clothes and accessories on Poshmark and I have had far more success. I have had success selling tops and dresses for about $20 each (sometimes more, sometimes less) and have loved how easy Poshmark makes it to ship any items I have sold. You can check out my Poshmark closet to see what I’ve sold and the price I’ve received for each item.
If you have more than just clothes that you are looking to clear out or you want a more complete list of options to turn your gently used items into cash, this blog post about the money hiding in your closet may be just for you!
Have you tried to sell clothes on ThredUP? Did you rake in the cash or walk away from the experience feeling completely deflated? Maybe you have an even better tip to turn your gently used clothes into cold, hard cash. Please share your experience in the comments!
Thanks to Brian from BTW Photography for the great photos in today’s post.
I think your spot on with this post. The $10 clean kit is a new expense that did not exist when I sold to Thredup. I’m kind of over their site/service. It definitely isn’t seller friendly.
in other shocking news, businesses need to make profit. Does anyone actually think they will get rich by selling used clothes? Ha! The way I see it, I can donate & get nothing for it (as I do not itemize taxes & therefore do. It benefit from charitable contributions), or send it into ThredUP and get a little credit toward something else. Also, the cleanout kit was free. I just sent one in last week. My only complaint is that I only got one bag and could have used twelve!
eBay is a total waste of time – I spent all day once carefully photgraphing, writing descriptions, posting, etc. ebay charges listing fees, the shipping amounts eBay suggested that I charge didn’t end up covering the expense at all and most of the items didn’t sell. I lost about $20 and hours and hours of sanity. Let someone else do the work! And they deserve the majority of the profit. They’re doing the work!
Feel free to send them to me, instead, I’ve made very good returns selling thrifted items. ^_^
Lilly,
What is your commission for listing and selling name brand cloyhing on line? I would be very interested in “hiring” you for this service of selling my clothes, my daughters, and the grand children’s.
Thanks for a timely response as I am “cleaning out” this week.
Thanks,
Cathy
I am hesitant about sending my daughter’s clothing & only receive a small amount of money. They are expensive clothes like H&M- OLD NAVY-GAP-CHILDRENS PLACE-ETC. If you are serious and offer the right price I will gladly sToniremlend them your way 😊
Toni, I shop Children’s Place for many years for all 3 kids since 2002. Children’s Place isn’t expensive at all unless your not shopping during their sales, which is hard to do since they always have sales. Their sales usually include 90% of their items. Children’s Place is a great place to buy kids clothes, they’re very affordable. I love their $7.99 jean sale. Only time I won’t shop Children’s Place is when it’s time for people to use their Place Cash. They hardly have anything on sale during that week, making the use of Place Cash completely worthless and I think they do that on purpose. It took me a few times of using Place Cash (thinking I was getting a great deal) to realize it’s not at all a great deal.
Hi Lily,
I’m interested in your comments about successfully selling thrifted items. Would you sell mine? How would that work. I have Vince. woman’s apparel and Calvin Klein men’s.
Ella
@Kim This is an old post but came across this comment –
You do realize many, many sellers make over 100, 200k or more a year selling used clothes, do your research. Thred up barely gives anything compared to other consignment options.
As far as Ebay, you get 100 free listings and even if you went over that and got charged would be cheaper then Thred up charging 10 dollars just to return the items they reject. Unless you listed 100’s and 100’s of items, I highly doubt you lost money listing. You did not sell anything as a lot of clothing items are long tail, they do not sell over night. Takes sometimes a few months or more depending on the items and brands you were trying to sell. The right buyer has to come along, where as Thred up they offer you a dollar or less per item and take it off your hands, you have no idea how long it takes to sell most of the time unless you ride it out with them to try to make a few more cents off it. Most do not want to and want an immediate result. Again do your research before posting and not making much sense.
Thanks for the honesty. I feel like so many of the reviews of using them are sponsored and not telling the whole story. I’d sold with them before, and was happy with the service. Like you, I was picky about what I sent, sent in season items, and (pre-fee) felt like I got some money for clothes I would have donated anyway. Per piece is was certainly not a lot, but it added up and it was no skin off my back. Over 6-8 bags, I earned $200, averaging $20-30 per bag. However, over time the payouts per piece accepted decreased. The addition of the fee means I’ll only get $10/bag (and these are FULL bags). I’d rather just put up on my local buy-nothing group for that. The processing time is also lengthy, and even when I account for 6 weeks I’ve often gotten a delayed processing message, so what was in season when I sent (even accounting for 6 weeks) sometimes isn’t when it finally is processed, which is frustrating.
I get that they are a business, and I appreciate that. I sense that a lot of people send them unsellable clothes, and the fee is to cover the shipping and discourage some of that. However, I feel that a better model would be to waive the $10 if they accept more than 5 items from the bag (or whatever threshold makes sense).
It is really frustrating, isn’t it? I LOVE your idea about having the fee waived or refunded if a certain number of items from the Clean Out Kit are accepted and it would make for a lot more satisfied sellers!
The bag fee is frustrating but if I make money it’s money I wouldn’t have otherwise. The bag I’m about to send is the first where I’ll have to pay the fee and my fourth overall. I think it was added because they got so backed up last summer and a lot of what they receive is apparently not great quality. I ordered a clean out bag last June and it took months to arrive in the fall, and then they tried to charge me the fee that went into effect around August! Luckily I successfully argued to get that fee refunded since I had requested the bag before the new policy took effect.
I have also been disappointed with the low prices I have received. I recently sent a bag with more than 30 items in excellent condition and fewer than half were accepted. I’m with you on sending items in at the beginning of the retail season: I sent corduroy pants in January and was told they were out of season. Hello…it’s still snowing in April in MN!
I also can’t figure out their quality expectations: some of the items they flagged as too worn had been washed once on gentle. Apparently, they expect people not to wear their clothes at all.
I also wondered if Threadup has sold the “unacceptable” items for a good price, not having to pay out. I had 4 jctew items that was not sold, I know they were valuable.
It’s so frustrating, isn’t it?!?
same thing happened to me with a barely-worn Madewell leather jacket. I think they re-sold it after telling me they wouldn’t take it. I’m convinced they’re running a scam.
Oh no! I really hope that ThredUp has more integrity than that.
Definitely deflated for me! I didn’t even have to pay the 10.00 dollars when I did it! I only got under 10.00 dollars for my items. I was so s sorry that I sent what I did. ☹️
I tried Thred Up for the first time last year and was shocked at the items they kept. They accepted all of my Old Navy items. Items that I was just going to donate. My advice would be to stuff that bag full since it’s kind of wacky what they accept and don’t accept.
I was also pleasantly surprised when they accepted a Dooney and Bourke purse from me. It took 4 months, but the purse sold and I got $35 which was impressive considering I had tried selling it on a local swap and no one even wanted it for $5!
Overall, my selling experience was good, but only bc I didn’t have much invested in the clothes to begin with since I am a garage sale shopper. I basically made my $ back on all of the clothes many of which I had worn.
I just had a bag processed recently, and there was an $8.99 fee taken out of the money I had earned. I was less than pleased after sending high quality items and ending up with a whole $3. I won’t ever do it again.
This is disappointig to hear, but thanks for being honest! I have loved buying a lot of clothes from thred up for my kids but haven’t ever sold anything back.
Thanks for your honest blog post. I have been on the fence if I wanted to sell on ThredUp even though I have had a positive experience in buying items. I will admit I was turned off by the price of the kit and the low selling prices. We have a local consignment shop for woman and that is probably a better option for me. I will admit that I was able to find my teenage daughter a couple of dresses including a dress she wore to her mid winter dance. I think I will stick to buying versus selling.
There’s no denying that ThredUP is AMAZING for buyers. I have to agree that a local consignment shop is your best bet if you are looking to sell.
I don’t think it always used to be like that. i think a while ago (a long while ago), the clean out kit was free. I think I’m remembering this correctly, but like I said, it was a while ago. I sent tons of stuff! Because, why not? But then I noticed that they started charging AND I barely got any money for a FULL bag of clothes AND their turnaround time was FOREVER. So, to me, it’s not worth it and I’d rather just donate to good will or someone like that and get the tax write off.
I too had a less than happy experience with thread up and wont be doing it again. I still have a small credit sitting there.
I sell all of my baby/kids clothes on ebay. I have really good luck with them and I always make more money that way then by giving them to a consignment store.
I’ve been super happy as a buyer on ThredUp. I often find items with tags still on it for mostly decent deals. But, yeah, my seller bags have generally had the fee waived, so I don’t know if I’d actually pay to send things over. Also, their QC department is a mixed bag (ha!) as I’ve purchased items that needed more than just a nice washing.
I DO like that they seem to strive toward recycling the products they don’t buy from you. (Or at least that’s what they say.) I know a lot of unused textiles end up in landfills if just donated locally, so I’d rather hope they at least make the effort to recycle them.
Swap.com is another service and it is much more profitable. You pay one price to ship your items to them (a large box can fit a lot of items!) but then you are able to set the prices and ship items back if you change your mind. They keep $1 + a percentage. Today I sold a $15 item and made $11. I have not found a better site and I have already made $900 + in the last few years just selling what we don’t use. They accept women’s, men’s, children’s, baby, and toys, games, etc. I hope this is helpful! You can sign up through this link and I think they give you a coupon and me a referral credit. http://referral.swap.com/339457702340075520
Also it’s a great site for buyers too! With four kids we buy everything we need on there!
That is SO good to know about! I will certainly look into it
I have never used any of these sites but recently heard about the eBay service where you ship from FedEx for free and they have Sellers post and sell your items for you. I believe it’s clothing/shoes/bags only. This is the issue I’ve run into: I have a Ton of high quality expensive clothes (mostly professional but some play clothes) but 90% are from Ann Taylor. I’ve purchased the majority of my clothes there for 15+ years and apparently the new eBay service doesn’t take AT. ANY SUGGESTIONS that don’t include me doing the photos/postings=I am moving and that’s not an option. THANKS!
After a few people have recommended ThredUp, I’ve decided to give it a try (despite a couple of blog reviews, including yours). I have a question. It is late June, what would you recommend sending to them: summer dresses and tank tops or autumn sweaters and shirts?
Oh boy, that is SUCH a tough question. Based on my experience, I’m inclined to say autumn clothes. I wonder if you could reach out to customer service and ask them what they recommend.
I have used Thredup since August 2014 and have sent in 13 bags and have averaged $58/bag. The fee is a new thing. In the past, I would always have a bag on hand and filled it over time. I also have 2 children so I send their higher end clothes as well. And I only send completely full bags. I could make more money by selling on Facebook or Ebay, but that takes quite a bit of time. To me Thredup is a good balance between getting some money back on clothes that I would otherwise donate/give away.
While it is constantly wonderful to have more choices to buy online, still my best deal is ebay.com. I’ve constantly seem to find the very best bargains for buying and also absolutely get alot more cash selling. Currently, I have the tendency to purchase all of our name brand things on sale/clearance or on ebay or facebook marketing teams, but usually I obtain the 75% or even more back when I market of exactly what I paid for it. Yes, it take a little bit of time to take images and also list, but for the return on investment, it is well worth it in my publications, by doing this I feel like we are not investing a lot on clothes at all, as if we bring something in, we market something and it only set you back a few bucks each time.
I had a similar selling experience to you. I sent my bag toward the end of May, they got it on 6/10, but never notified me. When I finally asked about it, it was 6/18 and they let me know my bag would be processed in 2-3 weeks. I checked back on July 19th and they said another 2-3 weeks. I’m looking at almost 2 months that they have had my bag and not processed it. Luckily, I sold more fall items, but I’m getting a little bugged that it’s taking so long. It was advertised as a no-hassle easy way to make money off your clothes. I wish they had said it would take several months and several follow ups to get that money.
I’m late on getting in on this conversation in know….but… Question? When you send the Thredup bag back with your items, any chance they have a bulk postage since you pay for a kit? Cuz I’m sure that’s pricey too! Are people figuring in what they spend in postage if you send say a purse or shoes with your clothes?
Thank you so much for all your info. So very helpful!!
Laura
It sounds like Thread Up gives you credit, but not a check? I don’t want a credit locked up with that site.
I’m almost certain the do provide cash (I think through PayPal). I just haven’t redeemed mine yet so it’s in the form of credit.
I am super addicted to shopping on thredup, but have been too afraid to try selling. I actually ordered a bag, which costs $5 now I think?- filled it up and it sat in my closet for 8 months until I finally opened it back up. Lol I sell on poshmark now. And so far I have made close to $300 in about 1-2 months time. It is pretty time consuming, so with a 2 year old son I struggle to find time to list my items. I will say It is worth it though. As much as I adore thredup for buying, I sometimes question their code of ethics. I know every business needs to make a profit but I think they could care a little less about being the #1 consignment shop in the world (btw have u ever gotten one of those super narcissistic letters from the owner??- yikes.) and a tiny bit more about their SELLERS who are the entire reason they exist and be a much more wholesome company.
Good post!After a long time I got something fresh and quality content on related topic. I searched a lot for the related material but got almost replica work. Keep it up! It is really very informative.
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I used to love to sell on ThredUp, but recently they have cut back on what they are willing to pay. I recently got $1.25 for a brand new Ann Taylor jacket. This is the last bag I will be sending to them. I would rather sell some items on Poshmark and donate the rest.
This was a great and informative review. Thank you! It seems a few things have changed though. It looks like if you send in high end designer items they pay 55% -80% and up if the item is priced $100.00 – $300.
The bags are also free unless you want your UN-excepted items returned. then you pay 16.00
They apparently are also starting to except MENS items.
There was a area i was able to request to join LUXE. Apparently its a high end list of 300 designers. The ThredUp Luxe bags are also free and anything they don’t want to send back free of charge. Anything they do except that is priced over $300.00 they pay 90% commission on. This is the area that seems to be the way to go.a 90-125 priced Luxe item pays 65-70% 200-299 paid 80%. Since I have a lot of Kate Spade, Michael Kors, and Coach I’m thinking this is the way to go. Some of my items have been sitting on Ebay for months. Would love to hear about other sellers experiences on the ThredUp Luxe site.
Thanks Again for your blog!
That is so interesting about ThredUp Luxe. I’m glad to hear that some things have changed since it really wasn’t a great system for anyone looking to sell their clothes.
I’ve made somewhere around 7K on thredup luxe in one year since they thredup started it. For the first few month sellers received 100% of selling price. Since January 2018 it’s been going downhill with smaller payout percentages being reduced every now and then and now discounts received by buyers being passed onto sellers. Sellers can now opt in to receive a small upfront payout for each item but prices and upfront offers have decreased with every of my processed bag. I’ve sold them items that sat on eBay for 5 years and no one even looked and received more money than what I was asking on eBay. I’m sure once they realize that they can’t get money back on items they buy upfront, the upfront offers will drop more.
I think ThredUp probably provided a TON of incentives at first to build up good word of mouth and high rates of satisfaction, and are now rolling things back in their favor – which is sad.
They currently do not charge anything for a clean out kit! They also have a payout estimator, so you can see how much they tend to pay for certain brands/items, which is helpful.
Thanks for this post!
Thank you for your review. I wish I had done more research before sending in my first bag. It has not been the worst experience, but not the best either. My processing has not taken as long as what others have posted about. But I did send an email to support with a question about the Return Assurance process, and they haven’t even responded yet.
And it seems confusing on what they will accept and what they won’t. I wasn’t sure what to expect so I just put everything I knew I didn’t want in the bag to see what their response would be. I am surprised to see that they kept some items that might have been a bit worn, but then didn’t accept items that I know I only wore once.
I am also VERY disappointed in the payout amounts. I wasn’t expecting to win the lottery, but I could have gotten more for some of my items at a garage sale. So although I like this site as a buyer, I do not recommend it as a seller. You’ll have much more control over the process at a local consignment shop or on your own on other similar sites. And I won’t be a buyer form them anymore, since I have had a look into how they treat their sellers.
I sent in my first and only bag a few months ago, early 2018 for summer/spring. They sent me an email stating all my items were accepted (16 items). The amount they paid me was $11.43!!! That means I got less than $1 per item. They have made a total of $131 from my items and there are still 5 items that haven’t sold and are still listed. Needless to say, I will never again send in a bag. I sent them an email stating my disappointment and never even received a response.
I have had similar experiences. I too, will never send another bag to ThredUp. I know it is business, I get that–and am all for it, but I am wondering what their profits look like as they are gouging the heck out of those selling.
Thanks for writing this post. I know I am late to the game in terms of when you posted this; however, I believe you are spot on. I’ve been using ThredUp for both buying and selling the last several years and both have gone down hill. The discounts have virtually gone away and the bags are now free, this month, and sometimes I have received bags within a purchase without requesting it (thankfully at those times, I was never charged a fee). The last few bags I sent in garnered more interest from the company, but they have started to put almost everything I send in on consignment, which means you ONLY get paid if the item sells. Now that’s great, but they give a time limit. So, if you are like me and the last time you sent in a bag in July of last year and they also don’t process until September or October, then the pieces are completely out of season, and you are out of luck. I’m trying to sell one more time, but will definitely not do it again if the result is the same. That said, they have sent frequent emails stating the processing time has gotten so much quicker this year, so I will find out what that means.
Ugh, it’s like you honestly have no idea what to expect and the timing can be such a killer! I really really hope your next bag is a success. I’ll cross my fingers for you!
what I think is weird is that I sent in two piece suites, and they divided them. Selling the suit and jacket separately. And a dress with a cute jacket. They are selling the dress without the jacket. And three shirts and pants that I have never worn and were sent in at the same time. One shirt was kept, and the other stuff was not? I also sent back stuff that I bought from Thredup and when I tried them at home didn’t like, but did not send them back. The tags from Thred up were still on the clothes. They didn’t accept them. These were pants that would work for any season.
I too have been a very enthusiastic buyer at Thredup. I have purchased a lot of beautiful clothing, so my shipping has all been free. Also, I don’t believe I have ever paid for a Cleanout bag (if I did, I would never sell there). The first bag I sent in, I asked for expedited processing, and it was done quickly–for about $12. Not so smart. I also asked for Return Assurance, as I am planning on starting a small online shopping service sometime hopefully, and the clothes I sent in were nice–so I wanted them back if they weren’t accepted. That took a bite out of my earnings, but I did OK on the first bag, as I had a Diane Von Furstenburg skirt, and some nice stuff from Anthropologie and some high-end boots.
I do like the overall quality of clothes they sell, but I often wondered how they could sell really nice stuff so cheaply–who would sell their stuff for such low prices? Well, that would be me now, haha! I finally filled 3 giant Cleanout bags, selected Return Assurance for 2 of them, but didn’t on the third one. I sent them in 2 weeks ago, and 2 bags have been processed, so the processing time has improved. I had a Coach bag in one, with a tiny scuff on one side, apparently they didn’t accept it, so I am so glad I paid Return Assurance for that! For one bag, they accepted 9 items, paid me $13 and took $10.00 to ship my items back. Hmmm….that math doesn’t sound appealing. For the second bag, again, they took a few items upfront, and put a bunch on consignment, but this time, I was negative, since my “earnings” didn’t pay for the shipping back. But they took my $7 credit I had in my account, and waived the rest of the fee. Like others who have commented on this forum, the easy factor of sending clothes to them is appealing, but I know people at work who have sold a lot of clothes on Poshmark and kept 50% or more of the sale price. So, I may need to look in that direction. Thanks for all the great comments!
I have used Thredup and Swap.
Swap is currently overwhelmed and appear to be making HUGE mistakes in listing items.
I use these services when I want to get rid of large amounts of clothing, but I never see a huge payout. I guess I figure a little something is better than nothing.
A couple things to note from my experience with Thredup. In late 2016 I sent in a cleanout kit with lots of high end items and earned over $150, which I converted into one of their cash out cards. The next clean out kit that I sent in wasn’t as profitable and I only earned about $10. Since then, I have accumulated more high end items to send in, but when I tried to order a clean out kit, it always indicated that they were unavailable, even though I kept checking over months. Finally, I tried something different, and opened a new account under a different email address, only to find that clean out kits were readily available when I logged in with that account. Obviously, I had been flagged by Thredup, maybe because I never made any purchases, or maybe because they didn’t like the items I most recently sent in. I hope this is helpful information to someone else!
Oh wow, that is so crazy! Maybe they are just trying to reserve clean out bags for new accounts. Either way, it sounds like something is definitely going on!
Hi Maria!
Please check out Swapsociety.co — we are a true swap (no buying or selling) and we give you equal value for your clothes. We keep our fees super small (we are 90% less expensive than buying and selling on ThredUp), and we do all the listing and take all the photos, etc.
xo
Nicole
The blog and comments are extremely helpful. I used to have a college sport apparel line that is now discontinued, and we have hundreds of stock items to get rid of. I requested a clean out kit and got an email on July 12 stating the kit was in transit….I have yet to receive it, and the site is not very user friendly in terms of finding a customer support email to contact to ask where the kit may be, nor a convenient tracking device on their site.
I had not heard of swap.com until I saw it in the comments. I’m going to check them out, and order another kit from Thredup and see which is more timely in actually getting something sold!
Do you have to use the money to buy things from them? I was looking to pay on some bills if i got anything.
Their customer service is non-existing. I did well on 1st bag with high end items, so I sent in a 2nd bag. I tried desperately to get in touch with them. They paid me out-right $8 on a Palm Beach 100% button down cashmere lightweight sweater cost $250. My entire order I received a pittance for which sold on 1st day. I never heard from them. I decided to just use my credit and place an order. I went to use 30% off code when my order automatically cashed out. Again, customer service non-existing. I owned a consignment shop and understand the ins and outs quite well. My opinion, they are gouging and taking advantage of their position. SAD
I made more than 10 times the money through local consignment than I did at Thredup. Plato’s Closet gives you cash on the spot. I had 3 new with tags American Eagle tops exactly the same except different colors. I sent 2 to Thred Up and they didn’t accept. The third I brought to Plato’s Closet and they paid me $6.00. Not a lot, but with Thred Up most of my clothing disapeared. Now I’m thinking they’re in the reject boxes not donated like they originally stated. Locally you can walk away with items they do not want and donate to Goodwill. A lot easier process, I think!
I totally agree! One of the most frustrating aspects of ThredUp is that I just had to hope that they were accepted because I didn’t want to invest in return processing. It would be much better if I could decide whether or not to let ThredUp keep my clothes AFTER I knew what they decided to do with them.
Hello,
I have a few things to inform people about, if you are going to send a new item with a tag never worn (beware). If you do not like the $4.90 they offer you when the tag states $158 and was bought 1 month ago – you are not able to ask them to send it back or give you a higher pay out for it. Literally ridiculous! I will never use this service ever again and I will write about this experience everywhere on the internet – maybe I’m even going to copy the part of the email from the supervisor I asked to talk to who would only email me and stated that he was backed by the founder in stated my dress was now property of ThreadUP. I am like wait I never signed anything and you are offering me something totally ridiculous – moving on. This company is a business and they are scamming people and selling old crap for high dollar just letting you know they will do all the work and give you $4.90! Not cool ThreadUP!
Thank you so much! I am a seller on poshmark that recently ran afoul of them over an absolute nonsense accusation of selling a counterfeit items and am trying to figure out what to do with my inventory. I was very concerned that I would not be able to get my items back, if I wasn’t satisfied with the prices and couldn’t find that information anywhere which was very suspicious. So sorry you lost out so badly but thanks for warning me!
I received an email a few months ago that they were having a warehouse sale at their Vernon Hills IL location. Not sure if this is something new they are doing (bc they get so much stuff). I couldn’t make it to the sale but really would have liked to – was only going on for 2 hours to the public. I have bought ThredUP but never sold anything and I’m trying to get my gf to sell with them. Wondering if you’ve heard of these Warehouse Sales and how that has helped selling items?? Your blog was very helpful and we may pass on sending her items in.
It seems to me that Threadup’s business model is potentially proplematic, without more transparency to it’s sellers. Most people, I’m sure choose not to receive their items back due to added cost. But, there is no real way to verify the process once they receive your items. Obviously, many commenters here are frustrated with the payout return vs. amount Threadup makes on their items, but this complaint is for items Threadup chose to list on their site and link to your account for you to track. But what would prevent them from also list other items you sent? It would be very easy to have employee “sellers” to list items sellers “donate” to the company. Nothing would prevent them from selling “donated” items in their retail locations either. And nothing would prevent them from selling whatever they want to a secondary market at bulk rates to be resold elsewhere. They do not state what they will do specifically with what you do not pay to have returned. They do offer a program for sellers to just give Threadup their items, and they will give $5.00 to a charity of your choice. They state that they have donated $79,351 dollars in 2018 this way, which means nearly 16,000 people in 2018 just gave them their clothes. Which also means that they must have a structure in place to sell those items. On a positive note, I did like the metadata statistics they have available showing trends on their website… “2018 TREND REPORT: SECONDHAND FASHION TRENDS ACROSS THE 50 STATES OF AMERICA”
But seriously, you can write off donations for your clothing in the value which you could get for them at resale, which means that for a lot of people, a years worth of donations is likely enough to get a tax advantage higher than you can get selling stuff just about anyplace.
So, I can speak to this: after having an intense issue with ThreadUP and disagreeing on The prices they determined for my items. I did pay the extra $10.00 to have the items they did not want to keep sent back to me. That was two months ago and I still do not have those items back. I dread contacting them, I email in the most seek to understand type of way and the answers I get back are just plain rude and disrespectful. But I guess at some point I will need to find out where my things are.
Well, $16 for Expedited service (saying it will get processed within 1 week after received). $11 if you want to return the clothes that didn’t get sold. And Thredup claimed that you can earn 5%-90% of the listed price. Brands like Old Navy you get 5%, which on average, is less than $1, for brands like LOFT and J Crew, you get 10%-25%, on average is $1 – $10. You can only get 90% if you want to sell a GUCCI (I don’t know why you want to do that).
ThreadUP basically stole my clothes! I sent them 113 baby onesies and outfits, a lot of which still had the tags on them, and they were in the list of accepted brands, but still ThreadUP said they only accepted TWO articles of clothing! I am so upset that I sent them all of those clothes but they said there was nothing I could do to get them back. (I later saw a bunch of the clothes I sent on their website, including a unique looking sweater that wasn’t listed on the site before I sent it).
What?!?! That is such a crazy story and I am so sorry to hear that happened to you. It doesn’t seem like there are very many positive seller stories out there.
I even have pictures of a lot of the clothes I sold showing that they are in perfect condition. I tried to talk to a supervisor in the chat on the app and he basically just sent me “clothes that meet the condition, style, and brand requirements are not guaranteed to be accepted” and then closed the conversation so I couldn’t reply.
I have worked at Thredup for over 1 year now, so this is just my honest insight. My current job as a merchandiser, is to process the bags that people send in. My biggest complaint (well, one of them) is to process baby clothes. Anything 12 months and under have to be in brand new/q1 category or I have to reject. Then it’s sent to be itemized, and 9 times out of 10, the system will reject it. Same goes with jewelry. On the other hand, you wouldn’t believe some of the things that I’ve seen people send in. 🤤
Hi, Maria,
A HUGE THANKS to You and ALL of the great and informative women who responded back and forth to your Blog, I just saved a BUNCH of hard-earned money, hours of useless preparation, endless searches for non-existent answers, and unsuccessful searching for my “unacceptable” items!
I already had a stack of items ready to catalogue and send to ThredUp (I had NOT requested their “clean out” kit yet), and had researched the program and decided that they techniques would help me accumulate a good stack of cash to more than cover all of my research, my shipping of my clothes, shoes and purses, even AFTER they deducted their processing fees, etc.!
It was such a joy to read such honest and down-to-earth comments and stories covering the “red flag” experiences that so many of you had in your dealings with ThredUp,
I yelled out to my boyfriend (in the family room) to come in and read what I was uncovering about my intended source to use for my resale items.! He was flabbergasted!!! SO was I.
Sure am happy to read about other company selections for resale purposes that appear to offer a legitimate long-term business venture for most of us! I hope you see my postings really soon!
You made my day and saved my A*S!!! :-)
You’re absolutely fantastic!!
My name wasn’t captured on my response to you. Please see below. Thank you.
Is it just easier to try to list them on Instagram?
Hi Cheryl! In my experience, no. I used to try and sell clothes on Instagram and had some luck a few years back. The problem is that you need a semi-significant following of people who are interested in buying your clothes and the Instagram algorithm is a really tough nut to crack. Most of your followers aren’t likely to see the clothes you listed. Poshmark is the better option if you want to sell them yourself.
Thank you for this review…I was going back and forth between Poshmark and Thredup…I’ve made my decision!! Thanks again.
I’m glad to hear that it was helpful to you!
I came across this post now, March 2019.
How do you feel about Poshmark now? The same?
I have sold on there for years, and to me it is now at a point of not really worth it any more.
Thank you so much for the advise. I got several things I need to sell. Why don’t you sell on Pinterst?
I think ThredUP is a rip off for anyone selling their clothing. They have cut what they give you by at least a third. I think something is very crooked how they do business.
You can ship for free by sending clothes in your own package. They will email ypu a shipping label.
I should have read this before, thredUP is a joke and will never send them anything to them, I thought I was going to make some money but no, what I got is frustration and disappointment. I will never buy or sell anything on that site.
Oh gosh, I am so glad I found your blog! My sister did a recent clean out of her closet, and I offered to help her sell some of her name brand items (as some still had tags on them!) on Poshmark. I was considering using thredUP, as life is busy, and wanted the ease of it, but now I’m rethinking it… Thanks!
Hi Emily, ThredUp is easy, but so many people who try to sell end up disappointed with the experience. Even though it’s a lot more work, I think you and your sister will be far more pleased with the results if you sell on Poshmark.
I’ve had items listed on Poshmark for about 1.5 years and then Mercari for a year, and now m Depop and I had some items that I was just tired of looking at and they were taking way to much space. After a final trip to Platos closet and now much luck, I tried ThredUP, but I haven’t gotten paid yet. I don’t remember how many items but I remember the bag being about 7lbs and they took 22 items. Selling online can just take TOO LONG although the payout is much better
Thank you so much for your post! I tried to have some of my questions answered by Threadup’s website, but it was not very user friendly and kept encountering problems, and not displaying information properly.
I appreciate that you took the time to explain things, which they obviously did not make clear! And that you remained neutral, letting us readers make our own decision about the company.
Hi Becky, I try very hard to write fair reviews and feedback about companies and products. So glad to hear that this one was helpful to you! And I’m sorry to hear that you had a frustrating experience on their website.
I sent out to thred up a kit .. did not get the 10 dollar kit.. i understand they can purchase your items and give you they say an immediate pay out.. .. i had sent atleast 6 to 7 baby items new like and have no info on what has happened to them or do not have the pay out… do you think they just kept them?
So, this article was posted approx 2 yrs ago as I’m just now coming upon this blog while I was searching the web about thredUP. As of 2019, thredUP does not charge $10 to get a Clean Out kit? They only charge $10.99 if you wish to receive your clothes back that weren’t accepted, Return Assurance. So I have no idea where you are getting that they charge you to just simply receive a Clean Out Kit. There’s no where that says that. Unless in 2017 they were charging & it was changed within the last couple years?
Hi Astrid, they must have changed things because in 2017 that’s exactly how it worked. It was free for a while, then they charged $10. Now it seems the bags are free again. I’ll need to check out their current policies for a post update.
I sold 4 items out of 15 but there is no $$ in my account. When do I get paid?
To clarify the $37.40 that you received is only a store credit? Can it be transferred into cash?
Also the $10 you spent up front means you made a net profit of $27.40. Did I understand that correctly?
Hi Krisine,
I was able to transfer the $37.40 to cash, which was nice. At the time that I used ThredUP, clean out kits were free so it was a full profit of $37.40, but if someone paid for a kit these days, it would decrease the profit.
Technically, do don’t have to pay $10. that’s only if you want your kit to be processed within a week.
Also, it’s $16 dollars, now, for it to be processed within a week and another $10.99 IF you want your items back if they don’t accept it.
They will send you bag and prepaid label to put your items in or you can use your own box and they will give you a prepaid label to stick on.
I’m aware that this article was written 3 years ago so for the people who are reading this now and looking through the comment this is what it is now. It doesn’t cost any money to send items.
I don’t know what the process was 3 years ago but I just want to let the readers know that you don’t have to pay anything to send items there.
Hi Emma and thank you SO MUCH for the updated information! I might need to look into Thred Up again so I can update the post :)
Agree about Thred up -you won’t be rush anytime soon :) but Poshmark LOL – I got tons of millennials offering 25% -no buys – scammers galore and tons of fakes. I stop listing there because it was a waste of time.
I am just not sure how to start this process. It say clothes have to be within 5 hears. I have a beautiful Burberry jacket it’s a few years older but not sure if I can send it. Help please
Thank you very much for your descriptive advice! I was still in the decision making process but upon registering with ThredUp i realized that they are very vague about the process and was left wandering thru the website with many questions up in the air! So of course, i googled and found your post and im happy i did! Again, ty very much!
Not much has changed since you posted this. I concur with all of your evaluations of ThredUp. Here’s my two cents worth, pun intended for how little I was paid. In 2019 I did try both sides of ThredUp – selling and buying. The selling was underwhelming. Some items sold quickly, like Dress Barn and White House Black Market brands; I got just under 50% of the sale price for those. Some Christopher & Banks and Kohl’s items also sold well, but for very low prices; I got 40c for a sweater, $2.59 for a dress. I did request a few items returned, paid the shipping fee, and received my items smashed in a box and reeking of a Febreeze type smell, which they denied could have happened in their care. The items I bought all had a nasty perfume odor also. I did try to ask for some explanations on the odor problem and only got pre-scripted type apologies but no real explanation nor any remedy except a shipping cost refund and a 15% off code in case I wanted to buy some more perfumed stinky clothing. An item listed as a tank top was actually pajamas; not worth the return fees, of course. After some of my items expired from my listing account and I did not reclaim them, the items remained listed by ThredUP for them to sell and take all the profit. Not a good experience on either side of the transactions. Not thrifty, not fun, and not worth the time.
I am with you
Thank you for your article! I was wondering if the wait time to sell my stuff would be worth it. I have purchased multiple items via ThreadUp and have been 100% pleased with my items. My only complain is the shipping is sometimes really slow compared to buying directly from sellers. I’ve been scammed on Mercari, Ebay, and Facebook with stains, items different than pics and or descriptions, damaged, etc.. but not yet on ThreadUp (or Poshmark for that matter). This being said…. For me, yeah a good deal is great, but I also no longer want to take part in destroying our planet with textile landwaste. It takes 2,700 liters to produce a cotton shirt.. then imagine in 2018 18million tons of clothing in the US alone went into landfill- and yep some of this was ‘donated clothing’. And sadly, millions of items of “donated pieces” are exported to poor countries every week, were they end up in rivers, lakes, landfills… poisoning their people. Companies like ThreadUp, Madewell, The NorthFace, make sure every piece that is sent to them that isn’t sold is recycled, and that costs money. There is a huge invisible value in recycling our clothes…. even though we lose money. Donating is no longer the best option.
I’m like years late to this blog post but you don’t have to pay $10 for a clean out kit. I did it in 2019 and it was free and I’m doing it again and it’s free yet again this time they just have you print the shipping label and use any box 🤷♀️
Hi Jess! I know I’m years late in updating the post! I actually tried ThredUp again a few months ago and noticed that a lot has changed. Honestly, I still don’t love the service and don’t think it’s particularly good for earning any money. But you are correct – clean out kits are free again!
I think ThredUp is great for people like me who do not have the time to take dozens of pictures in different lighting, or to monitor an account to answer multiple questions. I just want to make what I can on my items to put towards new clothes. I’m not in it to make a living. For that, I think ThredUp is pretty good. I do not know of any other sites that do it this way. However, ThredUp has been hit or miss for me when it comes to processing and customer service. They are not very responsive and their processing time is now 12 weeks, but I have even experienced longer processing times. It can be VERY frustrating and my last experience with their processing and service really made me avoid them for a while. But I’m giving them another chance because I really have nothing to lose.
I generally go through my closet seasonally. I donate some and send some to ThredUp. I had pretty good success with luxury items that would not sell on Poshmark or Mercari. They were well used, but I just wanted to get *something* for them and ThredUp seemed to be the only source to deliver on that.
I have never actually purchased anything from ThredUp so I can’t speak to that.
All in all, I do wish there were more sources for this type of service. But for now, ThredUp works for my needs.
You nailed it!! I’m new to poshmark but have already sold 4 listings and it’s very easy to learn! I’m headed there to check out your closet!