Few things as satisfying as going through your belongings, taking stock of it all and getting rid of things you no longer need. Not only does this leave you with tons of extra space, it also helps you get an accurate home inventory. Whether it’s to downsize before a move, to clear out closet space or just to get rid of stuff you no longer need, purging clothes is an increasingly common activity. But what if we told you there’s an easy way to make a few quick bucks by doing this?
There are several ways to earn a little money when getting rid of old clothes. While you can always organize a yard sale, make sure you go through this blog post first, because we’ve narrowed down where to sell clothes for cash online.
Before you get down to looking for websites, what you need to do is organize your piles of clothes. Here’s how you can do that:
3 Steps Of Preparation
- Go through all your clothes. Organize them into piles: one that has everything you’d like to keep, one with things you’d like to sell, and one with clothes that’ll be better off being recycled.
- Once you’ve got your pile of clothes that you want to sell, thoroughly inspect each piece for tears, signs of wear, loose threads and stitching, and other such marks. Discard ones that are too damaged since websites will refuse to sell damaged and visibly old clothes.
- Divide them into types e.g. jeans and pants in one pile, tees in another, formals in a third, etc.
Now that you’re all set up, here are the places where you can give away your old clothes.
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1. ThredUP
You know you’ll be able to get at least a little cash off your clothes when you’re selling on the largest secondhand and consignment store on the internet! ThredUp accepts women and children’s clothes and accessories that have signs of gentle use or are high-quality. Apart from reselling, they also give you options for recycling and donating your clothes. Men, you can look to this site if you want to donate your clothes; there’s no resell option for you.
Head to their site and order for a cleanout kit for which you’ll have to pay $1.99. You’ll be sent a bag for you to fill up, and you send it back to them for free since they send you a prepaid shipping label. It should take between 1-4 weeks for ThredUP to get back to you regarding the worth of your clothes. Their website has a pay structure if you’re keen on knowing more. You can then choose between getting cash via PayPal, spending the money on their site or donating it to charity.
If there are items that they can’t accept, you can have them shipped back to you for a fee of $10.99. Alternatively, ThredUP can responsibly recycle them for you.
2. Poshmark
Poshmark is great for tech-savvy folks with a knack for social media. User-friendly and easy to navigate, you simply download the Poshmark app and set up a profile. Click those Insta-worthy photos of your clothes, and share them on Poshmark. An added bonus is that you can also share it across your social media profiles so you have a better reach.
You’ll also have to be a little good at sales and bargaining since users are on the hunt for good deals. Average sales hover around $15. It also makes sense to scour through the app looking at prices for similar clothes, so you get an idea of the price range you can play around with. When you make a sale, Poshmark will help you out with hassle-free shipping by sending you USPS priority boxes along with prepaid labels. The company takes 20% of the selling price for items that you sell for $15 or more, or a flat fee of $2.95 for any items sold for less than $15.
You’ll need to dedicate a little time to Poshmark since you’ll have to build a following and share other people’s posts to gain a wider audience. This is why it’s one of the best options for people who are fond of having and maintaining a social media presence. One of the best ways to become a successful seller and actually earn a pretty penny off Poshmark is to take good photos, describe your clothing well (including measurements, fabric, condition, styling ideas, etc), and keep up with trends and styling tips.
3. Tradesy
Have a lot of high-quality clothes, and accessories to pair with them? Tradesy is the place to turn to. Tradesy is an online platform for people looking to sell and buy high-end clothes and accessories. This also includes wedding garments, so you finally know what to do with that bridesmaid dress you’ve locked up in your closet.
Simply set up a store on Tradesy for free, click some nice photos of your clothes and accessories, and watch Tradesy enhance things like the brightness and lighting so they look market-ready. You get to determine your own listing prices, and Tradesy will send you a shipping kit when an item sells. You can either accept cash or get a higher payout rate by accepting store credit instead.
For every piece sold for under $50, they take a $7.50 commission, while anything over $50 is charged 19.8%.
4. Crossroads
Crossroads Trading has a couple of brick-and-mortar stores across America, but they’ve also extended their services online. The services remain the same: send Crossroads all the clothes you want to sell off, after which one of the staff members will look through it all and select what they can sell. You’ll get a bit of the list price as payment, from which you can choose to have 30% in cash or 50% in store credit.
Simply get in touch with them to order a bag along with which you’ll get prepaid shipping. Fill up the bag and send it back to them, and wait for around 2 to 3 weeks to hear from them with your final price. Any items that Crossroads rejects for sale will either be donated or recycled.
However, make sure you check with Crossroads about the items they accept. Apart from only accepting adult’s clothes, they also reject clothing from certain brands, some of which are Old Navy, Target, Forever 21, and Walmart.
5. Depop
Depop caters mostly to teenagers and people in their early 20s, and you’ll need some social media and bargaining skills if you want to successfully sell on here. Depop is perfect if you have vintage clothes and accessories, but you’ll need to click some really good photos to make them look the part. A little understanding of how Instagram works will also go a long way since you need to add relevant hashtags to your posts in order to widen your pool and make it easier for people to find you.
Download the Depop app and set up a store. Once you’ve uploaded your photos (you can take up to 4), add good descriptions and hashtags, and set your price. But you’ll have to negotiate with people who are interested, so make sure you check out similar products to figure out what price range works best for you. This can also help you understand which hashtags to use. Once you make a sale, you’ll be charged a 10% fee from Depop and get the rest of your payment via PayPal.
The good thing is that Depop has a dedicated seller team, ready to provide assistance and understanding on how to best utilize the app. You’ll get a rundown of everything, from the basics to becoming a Top Seller on Depop, so you don’t have to be intimidated by the app.
6. Vinted
Vinted is truly like setting up a mini shop of your own online, except you do it all for free. It’s fairly user-friendly: you just set up an account and list your items for free. Customers will approach you when they’re interested in a product you have up on sale. As a seller, you can make use of some of Vinted’s features that include bundling items together and offering discounts or bonuses. Being able to incentivize will attract more customers, and you can make your moolah effortlessly.
Vinted offers postage, but depending on the size of the package, you may still have to pay for it.
7. Swap
Swap is one of the more elite online thrift stores, as it takes a bit of an effort to become a seller with them. You’ll need to fill out an application called the ‘Premier Seller Application’ and send in a box of your initial samples. Once they go through the process of evaluation, you can become a seller with them. Being a seller on Swap has its benefits as they look after every last detail for you, from pricing to promotions to photos.
Swap places importance on quality control for the sake of their customers, so whatever you send in needs to pass their acceptance criteria first. The most basic of these is for the clothes, shoes or accessories to be in good condition, to not have any signs of wear and tear, to not be damaged or look old, and to not have any missing items or alterations. You’ll get notified when one of your items sells, and you can track your sales each month. The Swap team has a commission structure that can range from 15% to 70% of the sale price per item.
But beware, as mentioned above, Swap takes quality very seriously. As a result, sending in a box with a high number of rejected items can draw a penalty fee from you. You’ll be penalized $5 if 40% to 50% of the things are rejected, and $10 if there are over 50% rejections in a box.
8. Grailed
Unfortunately, a lot of online thrift stores are either restricted to women and children’s clothes or just have a very small population of male buyers and sellers. That’s where Grailed makes all the difference; it specializes in men’s clothing and accessories.
Grailed has a total of 4 marketplaces, each catering to different things. This is what they are in a nutshell:
Grailed: If you own a lot of high-quality items from well-known luxury designers, Grailed is the place for you. The items can be of any time and need to be in wearable condition.
Hype: The latest big drops and new streetwear releases belong on Hype. Think Air Jordans and Yeezys.
Sartorial: High-end menswear, whether clothing or footwear, all go to Sartorial. Think Alden, Tom Ford, and Brunello Cucinelli.
Core: Any clothes that are vintage or from mass-market brands (Levi’s, Uniqlo, H&M) belong in Core.
Make sure you click some good photos; you’ll need at least three for each listing. Grailed takes a 9% commission per sale, plus there’s an applicable PayPal fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents for domestic transactions.
Selling Locally
There are also a couple of options you can look at if you’re interested in selling locally but keeping it online.
1. Craigslist
One of the most convenient options on hand, you can simply turn to Craigslist. Craigslist is a platform to sell and buy practically anything, including clothes of course. Simply head over to the clothing and accessories section on your local Craigslist board and put up a listing for an item you want to sell. Delivery depends on you, and you can choose to ship it across or simply meet up with the buyer.
We understand that Craigslist wasn’t exactly what you had in mind when looking for where to sell clothes for cash online. But it needn‘t be your first option; if you have certain rejects from the other platforms (namely those that are from certain brands) but are still okay to sell, try your hand at Craigslist.
2. VarageSale
VarageSale takes the idea of a yard or a garage sale and moves it to the internet, saving you the hassle of having to coordinate a shipping address to some far-off location. The process involves you signing up, selecting your location, and getting verified. Once that’s done, upload a few photos of whatever you’re selling along with a description. Buyers who are interested will contact you, and you can then set up a location for the exchange.
VarageSale makes sure that both its buyers and sellers are verified and checks people’s identities before verifying them. This makes it a lot safer to use, even safer than Craigslist.
3. Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is another great place to sell clothes online to people around you. If you don’t already have an account, make sure you open one. Once there, click on the Marketplace icon at the bottom of the app. Click on ‘Sell Something’ to start listing your items for free.
You’ll directly connect with the buyers, so try to verify as much about them as possible. Meet your buyers to make the exchange, and then mark the item as sold for it to stop showing up in the search.
Tips To Sell Clothes Online
Take Good Photos
When looking to sell as much as possible online, your photo quality could make or break your success. Taking nice photos of your clothes doesn’t have to mean buying expensive equipment and spending hours for the right shot. Follow basic principles like using bright lighting, preferably natural light, and keeping your background uncluttered and plain so the color of your clothes stands out. Keep the lighting consistent for all your photos for some uniformity, and use a few different angles and close-ups.
Add Informative Descriptions
Adding styling tips and hyping up your clothes for sale is a great thing to do, but don’t overdo it. Instead, make sure you put information about the piece before all the fluff about it, so people know what they’re paying for when they come across your listing. Make sure to include details like the label or brand, color, size, and condition.
Set Realistic Prices
We’d all love to make a little extra money on the side, but overselling your clothes isn’t the way to do it. Remember, you’ve also got a lot of other sellers on every site, and people simply won’t buy your clothes if you’ve set a price that’s too high. An easy way to set prices is to follow the “one-third rule”; set the price at around one-third of the original retail price. We also recommend scoping out the app or platform you’re using to gauge how much other sellers are pricing similar clothes at.
FAQs
Where Can I Sell My Clothes For Cash?
This depends on whether you want to sell your clothes, online or otherwise. All of the places we’ve listed above are great options to sell clothes for cash online, whether it’s on ThreadUp, Tradesy, Grailed or Facebook Marketplace. Several of these also have brick-and-mortar options for you to sell clothes, like Crossroads Trading. You can also consider having a yard sale for your clothes to make a few quick bucks.
How Can I Sell Clothes Fast Online?
Some of the tips to make quick sales online are to use trendy photos, descriptions and hashtags. Additionally, keep up with the latest trends in clothing and fashion. Also promote sales from your Instagram account, from where you can even have auctions for vintage clothes, closing the sale after a certain amount of time to whoever the highest bidder is.
Does Thredup Pay Well?
ThredUp pays you 5 to 80 percent of the anticipated selling price of your clothes; the higher in value, the higher your percentage is. Additionally, the higher the price that it sells for, the lower is ThredUp’s commission from the sale. There are several cases of people making a fair bit of money selling on ThredUp, so you can rest assured they pay well.
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