hey guys today I am casually sitting on
the floor with this lovely selection of
plant to talk to you guys about the
whole thrifting and reselling business I
honestly don't remember the last time or
if I even ever done along just sit down
and let me tell you how to do something
type of video because honestly I would
not consider myself an expert in
practically anything in this world but
one thing that I do have a decent amount
of experience with is the thrifting and
reselling business and a lot of you guys
have requested that I talk about it so
heroes' nothing I guess um for those of
you who don't really know what I'm
talking about basically what I do is
I've been running this side business for
a couple years I like to think of it
basically as an online boutique slash
vintage store I go to thrift stores and
estate sales and pick out clothing that
I think is really cool and then I model
it take photos and put it online sell it
for a profit and then ship it out and
hopefully people enjoyed their clothing
that they bought from me obviously I'm
not the first person to do this at all
there are a ton of girls and guys who
run Instagram shops drops of deep hop
and Poshmark
and I think it's actually a fairly
popular business model especially in
cities like LA where I live or New York
I will say I am by no means a pro at
this and there are a ton of people who
do what I'm doing a lot better but I do
make like a decent amount of money a
couple hundred dollars to maybe like
five hundred dollars a month depending
on how much effort I put in based off of
my little reselling business situation
so and also personally I think it's a
really cool way to be part of the
sustainable fashion movement I think the
statistic is somewhere around 90% of
clothes that's donated and thrift stores
never gets old so by buying clothes from
like Goodwill or Salvation Army whether
it's for yourself or for a business
you're not only supporting a charitable
cause but you're also buying clothing
that would likely go into a landfill and
hopefully giving some new life to some
thin ditch pieces at least that's how I
like to think about it I started
reselling clothing online a little over
four years ago I actually didn't start
by selling clothing but I had just
realized that I had way too much crap
that I didn't like to wear in my closet
and my new year's resolution was to
clear it out and kind of refresh my
closet so I've often utley the biggest
reselling app back in what 2014 so I
sold my old clothes online kind of
casually for a couple years but when I
really started getting into it was
actually last summer
basically I've told the story before but
I had never really been into thrifting
before but last summer I got my wisdom
teeth taken out
and for around two weeks afterwards I
was just a miserable chipmunk as human
being my cheeks were so puffy and I was
in so much pain so out of boredom I was
like why don't I distract myself from my
suffering and go to the thrift store and
when I noticed while I was there because
apparently I'm always in hustling mode
even when I'm a chipmunk is that there
were a lot of cool pieces that I could
pick up that weren't necessarily like
perfect for my style or perfect for my
body type but I could probably sell them
to other people also on that summer I
happen to be on a kick of reading books
written by celebrities because I'm a
piece of pop-culture trash like that
they are very easy to read and very
amusing okay so after I went on my
little thrifty contention I picked up
girlboss by Sophia Amoruso she's the
founder of Nasty Gal which i guess is
now kind of defunct but how she started
out her business was actually reselling
thrifted and vintage clothing on ebay
and that's really what made me realize
that I wasn't crazy and a lot of other
people were doing this and it could be a
legitimate business if I wanted to keep
going with it a little bit of a plug
Before we jump into the facts and
figures of the business this video is
brought to you by audible and I didn't
want to say if you guys are interested
in getting into the whole reselling
thing or starting any type of business
this summer but if you're also busy like
working or interning or if you're not
like a pale workaholic hermit like me
and you're actually enjoying the great
outdoors a great way to multi-task what
you do that is to listen to audiobooks
audible has girl boss on audiobook they
also have a bunch of other of my like
favorite celebrity female empowerment
books they have wine on me by Mindy
Kaling and they have Bossypants by Tina
Fey so if you guys are interested in
audible I do have a link below that
gives you a free audiobook and a 30-day
trial
it's audible.com slash best dress and
then also if you're on your phone and
it's more convenient for you you can
also text best dress to five hundred
five hundred and it'll like
automatically guide you through the
process
okay now let's jump into the details of
the business obviously the first step is
actually obtaining the thrifted product
thrift stores are obviously the main
option that's nowhere I do probably like
90% of my shopping for stock for my
store and that's definitely the easiest
way to start out pretty much every
single town has like a Goodwill or
Salvation Army the quality of certain
clothing definitely depends on where you
live so you guys in the comments are
like I don't [ __ ] know how you find
this stuff because my thrift store sucks
some places the thrift stores are just
less poppin than others objectively but
if I have any advice
I'd say first try some off-brand thrift
stores I feel like naturally when we go
looking for a thrift store we're gonna
type in Goodwill or Salvation Army or
one of the big chains but actually in my
hometown in Maryland which is this
random ass suburb where you wouldn't
think that there's a lot of high fashion
or like really cool pieces and thrift
stores some of the best and most unique
stuff that I found has just been from
really local stores that aren't huge
nationwide chains another tip is to
basically thrift in the richest area
that you can find you can actually get
on zillow.com like the real estate
website and look up the housing prices
and where the housing is most expensive
is probably the richest area and they
might have some higher quality brands at
their thrift stores sorry that sounds
like a really elitist but that's just
the truth another thing to consider
though and cross-reference with that is
how many people are going to these
thrift stores and how many of them are
also reselling or like kind of looking
for the same type of pieces of you I've
run into this problem in LA through a
lot of the thrift stores in more central
I like there are a lot of like 20 year
old hipster pieces of [ __ ] like me you
are looking for really similar clothing
so sometimes that can make it hard
because the thrift stores are so picked
over and there's so much competition in
order to get those really good pieces
even though I live in the city sometimes
I have found it helpful to go further
out into the suburbs where there's less
competition in the customer base if that
makes sense other than that it is really
hit or miss you really just have to
explore the thrift stores in your area
and go over multiple weeks because the
stock does change so much some of my
favorite thrift stores have had super
shitty weeks and some have had randomly
really good weeks so it's important to
just keep going back and keep trying
also if you can go on the off days or
find when your thrift store does a big
restocking that can be so helpful
because you get to be the first person
to pick through the clothing another
option for where to find clothing is
Estate Sales now this is a little bit
more effort and like a little bit more
extra but basically these are how sales
where somebody has died or they're like
moving into a retirement home and
they're selling off all of this stuff in
their house which is kind of [ __ ] up
and depressing if you think about it too
much but let's ignore that and talk
about how you get some fashion finds
there in order to find estate sales in
your area literally just Google estate
sales and then your city or your zip
code and there are tons of websites
where people list this stuff a lot of
them will also post a description of the
main things that they have and some of
them even have photos all the types
items you can find at the estate sale
definitely look at those carefully and
don't just go to any random estate sale
because a lot of them in my personal
experience have been really focused
around furniture and like guitars and
cameras and rare items like that and not
as much around clothing but if they do
mention in the description that there's
a lot of vintage or designer clothing
it's definitely worth checking it out my
last set of options are all things that
I haven't really explored but I think a
lot of more professional depop and
Instagram sellers use these and those
are vintage wholesale places I'm not
very familiar with them but you can
google it and in a lot of major cities
they'll have these warehouses with just
piles and piles of clothing from like
1930s to 1980s or whatever and you can
buy them by the pound and then other
options are like events or flea markets
or yard sales basically I don't know any
way that you can find cheap clothing
definitely works
although thrift stores are a great place
to start next up a lot of you guys ask
me what I thrift or how do I know what
to buy and what's gonna sell I think
first and foremost is just a matter of
personal taste the best strategy is to
just buy stuff that you would genuinely
wear yourself and you would pay good
money for yourself that way and make
sure that you're picking high-quality
pieces and then an added bonus is that
if you happen to not sell something
online you can just keep them for
yourself and it's like not a total loss
beyond that though another way to think
about it is that each item should have a
selling point especially when you're
starting out it can really help to
either have a good brand name attached
to the piece of clothing you're trying
to sell like Tommy Hilfiger everybody
shits themselves for including me
champion Ralph Lauren Nautica basically
[ __ ] that you see at Urban Outfitters
we're just high-quality contemporary
brands or designer brands that generally
sell for a much higher price point or
another selling point that I look for is
a really good fabric that adds objective
value to the piece you guys know I
thrift an insane amount of soaked
blouses or silk slip dresses they're
always really popular and they always
sell really fast sweater is that are
100% cashmere also if you're not super
into the whole like vegan life leather
and fur and suede can be really good
selling points as well another strategy
is to look for items that you can add
value to through modification this takes
a little bit of a creative Project
Runway mind but when I see stuff in
thrift stores I'm always thinking about
how can I transform this into something
that's a little bit more modern really
easy modifications include cropping
things which I do all the time if it's a
knit fabric
a lot of the time you can get away with
not having to hem it either if you're
lazy like me because the fabric isn't
gonna unravel anyway hemming the skirt
or adding darts simple things like
repairing a hole or replacing a button
moving or replacing the straps on a
dress so that they make a nicer neckline
and then even something as simple as
ironing a piece of clothing can add a
lot of value to it a lot of people will
overlook shirts that have been hanging
out in the thrift store and they're kind
of wriggly but I swear to God ironing
can make the biggest difference and I
can make it look brand new again overall
a really important thing to consider is
what's your profit margin on an item
you'd think that buying stuff from the
thrift store and like reselling it you
can't go wrong cuz stuff from the thrift
store is so cheap that unfortunately is
not always the case so example ideas as
you find some really cute shoes at the
thrift store they're $15 you think
somebody would pay $30 for them so you
feel like you'd be able to make a profit
but depending on the platform you use
with apps and PayPal and taxes combined
that's like a 10 to 20 percent cut and
then shipping can get really expensive
especially for heavy items and that's
something important to consider for
shoes you're looking at shipping costs
around $10 so with all that factored in
if you sold them for $30 total including
shipping you'd actually pretty much just
be breaking even and you wouldn't have
really made any money for all of your
efforts so sorry that was like a little
bit math heavy but that's kind of a
calculation that you have to do in your
head in order to determine whether
something is worth buying
so relating to my last feel about profit
margin next we're gonna talk about
pricing you kind of develop a feel for
it after a couple months of seeing what
sells for certain prices and kind of
being present on these apps but when
you're starting out I would first of all
recommend that you keep a log of
everything that you buy in the price
that it sells for and if you want to be
extra like I am keep track of how long
it takes you to sell that item as well
and that'll help you gather data with
your specific customer base what selling
and what isn't another tip if you don't
know how to price an item is to search
on whatever platform you're selling on
whether that's Depot or Poshmark
and search for similar items for example
if you're selling a fur coat search for
vintage fur coats or if it's a specific
brand like you found a dress from Urban
Outfitters or Reformation search that
brand and see what other people are
pricing similar items for and you can
even in a lot of apps look at the sold
section and see specifically the prices
that people are actually willing to pay
and it can be helpful to honestly ask
yourself how much you would pay for it
if you were the customer I would say
just in general it's great
put yourself in the customers shoes and
finally some other factors to consider
obviously I talked about these earlier
if it's a really good brand like Tommy
Hilfiger if it's a good fabric if it's a
designer brand or super rare item or if
you're really popular as a seller and
you have a really good reputation and a
lot of followers on whatever platform
you use those can all be factors that
help you price your clothing a little
bit more expensive I think I live in the
actual process of you going to the
thrift store and picking out cool stuff
the main thing that adds value to
thrifted clothing is having photos that
show people how to style it how good it
looks and like giving them style
inspiration that's basically like part
of the service you're providing I would
highly highly suggest when you're taking
photos to model your clothing a lot of
people are hesitant to actually get in
front of the camera and model the
clothing but I would as I said before
put yourself in the buyers shoes when
I'm shopping online personally I don't
feel as comfortable buying clothing that
I haven't seen on a model because then
how am I supposed to visualize it in
time I supposed to know that I'm gonna
be happy with my purchase and especially
if it's a unique or thrifted item it's
so helpful to show people how it hangs
on your body how the fit works and how
you would style it in an outfit the
easiest way to start taking photos and
the thing that everybody can do is to
just take them on self timer on your
phone or if you have like a friend or
roommate who's down you can ask them to
take photos of you too and that probably
makes the process even more efficient
but I get really uncomfortable modeling
around people so I just like to take
them by myself on self timer if you're
taking photos indoors definitely try to
take photos in front of a big window
possibly in a light room so that the
light is kind of ambient and like
bouncing off all of the walls you can
never go wrong with taking photos in
front of a plain white background super
simple and keeps the focus on the
clothing or if you want to get a little
bit more stylistic you can put a couple
of decorations to also kind of frame
yourself in the photo I would just
recommend keeping the decorations
somewhat minimal and keeping them
consistent throughout your photos so
that whatever your feed or your store is
it looks really consistent and
professional if you're taking photos
outside try to shoot during the Golden
Hour which is basically sunrise or
sunset Sun is that a lower angle and it
gives you this really gorgeous like soft
glow and it doesn't look very harsh at
all if you're not available during those
hours and you're trying to take photos
during the daytime it definitely avoid
the direct sunlight it can cast really
harsh shadows and try to find an area
like under a tree or in some light
shadow on a cloudy day so that the
lighting is a little bit diffused
outside you can get super creative with
the backgrounds if you live in like a
house you can use a garage
or you can take photos like on a balcony
in front of random buildings I don't
know you can get creative with it even
if you think you live in like an ugly
town I swear there are a ton of really
cool backgrounds out there if you are
just keeping an eye out in terms of
photo editing I like to keep it pretty
simple what I like to do if I took it on
my phone is to play around with the
lighting a little bit a lot of the times
my photos come out a little bit dark so
I like to turn up the brightness a great
thing to play around with if you have an
iPhone is the brilliance section and
this is a great one to play with the
dynamic between like the foreground in
the background and the shadows I don't
really know how to describe it but
changing the brilliance can honestly
make your photos look so much better if
you are feenin for that aesthetic like
me I like to put my photos through visco
just a little bit like I said I don't
want to filter them too hard because I
still want the colors to be accurate but
especially if they're taken on a phone I
feel like the visco filter helps them
look a little bit more vintage and a
little less crusty and iPhone II after
you have your photos the next thing is
having a description for items this is
pretty obvious but the first thing you
want to do is disclose any flaws or any
like significant where sometimes I think
it's fun to include a little line about
what you would peri item with or what
event it would be perfect for or if you
feel like it's inspired by something
like it's a dress that looks like
Marilyn Monroe would wear it I think
that can add a lot of personality to an
item and help somebody envision how they
would actually use it in their wardrobe
especially if the item is a vintage
clothing piece or it's like a dress or
pants it's super helpful to include the
measurements as we all know women's
clothing sizes are freaking wild in I
don't know who the drunk-ass determined
like what size is what but it varies so
much across brands and especially across
time periods if your clothing is vintage
and then if you are modeling in the
clothing and you're comfortable with it
sometimes it's helpful to provide your
size and your height as reference people
always ask me what height I am in my
videos and like in my reselling business
I think it's just helpful for people to
understand how it would fit their frame
and if you have a similar body type to
your customer it can be so helpful
because then they know exactly how it's
gonna fit them too
ok the last step after you've listed
your item and it's finally sold is
shipping basically the main thing that I
use is USPS first-class mail what a
godsend I'll link the website that I use
to make shipping labels below it's
literally just through PayPal but by
buying the labels online they give you
around 10% off so it's a nice discount
and it could add up and I always like to
make my labels on
because I go insane waiting in lines at
the post office for some reason that
always takes like a [ __ ] hour so like
I said the main service that I've
shipped through is USPS first class it
ships in three to five business days
it's really affordable it'll always cost
you less than five dollars around three
to four dollars for most packages but
it's only available for items that weigh
less than a pound most clothing fits in
this category but it's important to
check I own this little shipping scale
that I bought on Amazon for like $15 I
definitely recommend getting one of
those so you can weight your packages at
home if your item is over a pound I've
still not found like a super affordable
option but most of the time what I do is
just use the USPS priority mail flat
rate boxes usually for outerwear or
shoes I'll end up using a medium box and
that is around thirteen dollars online
which is kind of pricey but it's
ultimately cheaper than any other option
that I've been able to find you can also
definitely check out UPS in my
experience UPS ground is usually more
expensive the only case that is cheaper
is if your customer actually lives
really close to you
USPS it's a flat rate for anywhere
across the United States so distance
doesn't matter but UPS calculates based
on distance the size of the box and the
weight of the object because I'm in LA
I'm like pretty far away from most
people but if they live in like the
suburbs of LA sometimes it can come out
to a decent price that when I did this
casually and it wasn't like a proper
business I would just reuse random
shipping materials that I got i order
like way too much [ __ ] off Amazon so I
have all of those Amazon Prime boxes I
think it's a great way to reuse packing
materials but unfortunately a lot of
people would think of that as pretty
unprofessional and if you want to take
it more seriously as a business I buy
these little plastic mailers off of
Amazon I think it's around $15 for a
hundred which isn't bad especially
considering that they're so light
sometimes they can help cut down on
shipping costs because the packaging
itself is not that heavy and it's not
Aang wait onto your label I think that's
it for shipping but before I go I wanted
to run through the different platforms
that you can sell on I referenced a
couple times throughout this video that
a lot of factors depend on which
platform you're selling on so I thought
I would break down like the pros and
cons and fees of each one Poshmark like
I said before is the app that I started
selling on platform overall is
definitely more brand focused I think a
lot of people are searching for clothing
by brand and not necessarily for vintage
clothing and the system isn't as like
influencer or follower based if that
makes sense so it doesn't really matter
if you have a big following on polymer
or not I feel like you have a pretty
equal chance of selling your item it's
also a little bit more of an older slash
prep for your crowd like I said I think
it was one of the first bakery selling
apps and I think deep hop has kind of
taken over since then Poshmark takes a
20% cut of your final selling price or
two dollars and ninety five cents
whichever one is more and they're
shipping on all orders is $5.99 flat and
that is Priority Mail kind of shitty for
light items because like I mentioned
earlier through USPS first-class mail
you can ship the same item for like
three to four dollars but it's really
really good for heavy items because the
label ships items up to five pounds
which means for shoes or jackets or like
a really big and bulky items you're
actually getting a super good deal cuz
if you ship that by yourself it would
cost thirteen to eighteen dollars for
the same type of label overall Poshmark
is also more regulated and they have a
more active customer service team I
would say that Poshmark is a good place
to start out if you're selling more
brand focused items if you're finding a
lot of contemporary brands like Urban
Outfitters or Topshop or Zara I think
there's a bigger market there but it
can't be harder to sell genuinely
vintage items if they don't have a good
brand name attached second up is deep
hop it's another app and website and
unlike Poshmark it's available
internationally it's definitely a more
updated and Instagram feel and likewise
I find that selling is a lot more
followers slash influencer based they're
like some people that are super deep hop
famous and they have like thousands of
followers so it's kind of like Instagram
in that way and the customers generally
are a lot more hip and young I think
it's a lot of people in high school and
college and living in big cities and
like hipster ask people like myself D
pop itself takes a 10% cut of your sales
but keep in mind if you're doing your
own shipping on D pop it'll take that
10% fee out of your selling price and
also a 10% fee out of the shipping price
so it like gets a little extra the
action in there epub also uses PayPal
for its payment so there's an additional
two point nine percent cut that PayPal
takes so overall we're looking at around
13% D fob does give you a lot more
flexibility for shipping they have their
own shipping options that are graded by
weight so it's 450 for an item that's up
to half a pound which is not worth it
you should do your own shipping for that
eight dollars for up to two pounds ten
dollars for up to ten pounds those are
when it starts being a good deal or if
you'd rather arrange your own shipping
depop lets you do that so overall I
would recommend depop
you're selling stuff that's like a
little bit more edgy and vintage and
unbranded our next selling platform is
Instagram which I've personally never
had a shop on myself but some of my
favorite vintage reselling shops are run
through Instagram the main advantage of
Instagram is that it's a really seamless
way to take advantage of any followers
that you already have there and
everybody already owns Instagram and is
scrolling through it like every single
day so nobody has to download a new app
just to go look at your clothing the
disadvantage that goes along with that
though is that there's no direct system
of selling and buying products on
Instagram so you have to redirect your
sales through your DMS or through the
comment section and get customers to
PayPal you in which case there's that 3%
fee or I've seen some sellers use them
though and then obviously that's
completely free and you can avoid fees
altogether it is a little bit more work
for you then because you have to
determine who's made the sale and you
have to designate your items as sold and
there's a lot more one-on-one customer
communication through DMS another thing
to consider is that if you're a new
Instagram shop or you don't have a whole
lot of reviews or followers or repute
yet some people might be hesitant to
Venlo you or PayPal you because
obviously there's the possibility that
they're gonna get scammed and there's
not like a specific marketplace or app
backing you up saying you will get your
product and you will get your shipping
label and you're not gonna just then
know somebody your money and never hear
from them again and obviously on
Instagram the shipping is up to you
there's no enforced shipping system so
you just make the label online and then
DM your customer they are tracking
number to make sure that their product
is on the way to them overall I would
recommend Instagram if you already have
a bunch of Instagram followers or it
could be useful to use in combination
with depop if you want to start out on
depop and then gain some exposure and
then you can transition to Instagram if
you find that easier or if you want to
avoid those fees and that brings me to
my last option which is having your own
website this is definitely something to
look into after you have a little bit
more of an established business and
customers who would want to actually
follow you from one of those platforms
onto your website after selling on
Poshmark and depop for a couple years I
made my own website with Squarespace but
there are a bunch of other website
services as well that you can use I am
NOT the best at keeping my website
stocked because I am in college and
doing YouTube stuff I'm gonna try to be
better at it over the summer but so far
I really liked it I really like that I
have complete control over the store
policies and the aesthetic of my store
unlike apps where there's kind of a set
interface and all you have
over is the photos on a website you can
change everything the colors the
branding the photo size how many photos
like appear in each row but it's also
important to consider that there are
upfront costs with that the cost of
buying a domain paying a web developer
if you want to do that or just the time
investment and building your own website
and potentially having to pay a service
like Squarespace monthly to set up your
website another pro of having a website
is that it just makes your whole
business look a lot more professional
and people can access it from anywhere
from their phone from their computer and
they don't have to go through a specific
app or go through a middleman if you do
get to the point where you starting a
website there is some legal slash tax
stuff you should take into consideration
I am by no means an expert at this I'm
still trying to figure it out legally
you can just have a website under your
own name and you just use your social
security number for tax purposes but I
have heard that in terms of like
avoiding getting sued and getting tax
breaks it's a good idea to incorporate
sometimes would you need a lawyer for or
I think you can do it online if you just
pay a couple hundred dollars I have not
gotten to that point I'm still trying to
figure it out but I would probably
incorporate soon because legally I think
that's a good idea
anyways that brings me to the end of
this very long video I hope that I
covered everything that you guys have
questions about if you have questions
about more stuff feel free to leave a
comment below and I'll try my best to
answer it again if you're interested in
learning more about this business from
like somebody who's much more
accomplished in it than I am
feel free to listen the girlboss on
audible again there's my link below
audible.com slash best dress or if
you're on your phone you can also text
best dress to five hundred five hundred
and get a free audiobook and 30-day
trial um I think that is it for this
video thank you so much for watching as
always and I'll see you guys next week
bye
[Music]