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  • Hey guys, today I am casually sitting on the floor with this lowly selection of plant to talk to you guys about the whole thrift ing 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 thrift ing and reselling business.

  • And a lot of you guys have requested that I talk about it.

  • So he rose.

  • Nothing.

  • I guess for those of you 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 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 enjoying their clothing that they bought for me.

  • Obviously, I'm not the first person to do this at all.

  • There are a ton of girls guys who run instagram shop stops on deep pop and posh Mark.

  • And I think it's actually a fairly popular business model, especially in cities like L.

  • A.

  • 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 $100 to maybe like $500 a month, depending on how much effort I put in based off 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 to thrift stores never gets old.

  • So by buying clothes from goodwill or Salvation Army, whether it's for yourself or for a business, you're not only supporting a charitable college, but you're also buying clothing that would likely go into a landfill and hopefully giving some new life to something did 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 drifted 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 bought a posh mark, which was definitely the biggest reselling app back in, what, 2014.

  • So I sold my old clothes online kind of casually for a couple of 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 thrift ing before.

  • But last summer I got my wisdom teeth taken out, and for around two weeks afterwards, I was just a miserable chipmunk asked 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 happened to be on a kick of reading books of written by celebrities.

  • Because I'm a piece of pop culture trash like that.

  • They're very easy to read and very amusing.

  • Okay, so after I went on my little thrifty convincer, I picked up Girl Boss by Sofia Amoroso.

  • 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 drifted 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 go 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 audibles, and I don'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 all so busy, like working or interning for, if you're not like a pale, workaholic hermit like me and you're actually enjoying the great outdoors, a great way to multitask you do.

  • That is to listen to audio books.

  • Audible has grow balls on audiobook.

  • They also have a bunch of other of my like favorite celebrity female empowerment books.

  • They have White on Me, by Mindy Kaling, and they have bossy Pants 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 dot 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 505 100 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 thrift ID product.

  • Thrift stores are obviously main option.

  • That's still where I do probably like 90% off my shopping for socks 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 food clothing definitely depends on where you live.

  • You guys in the comments are like I don't know how you find this stuff because of my thrift store.

  • It sucks.

  • Some places the thrift store is or just less popping 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 asked 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 confined.

  • You can actually get on Zillow dot 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 the thrift store is sorry.

  • That sounds like a really elitist.

  • But that's just the truth and everything 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 time of pieces of you.

  • I run into this problem in L.

  • A.

  • For a lot of this thrift stores in more central L.

  • A.

  • There are a lot of like 20 year old hipster pieces of shit like me, you're looking for really similar clothing, so sometimes that can make it hard, because the threat 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 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 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 could 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 a state sales.

  • Now this is a little bit more effort and like a little bit more extra.

  • 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 the stuff in their house, which is kind of fucked up in 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 a state sales in your area, literally just Google estate sales and then your city or your ZIP code.

  • And there are tons of Web sites 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 of the types of 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 D pop and Instagram sellers, you sleaze and those are vintage wholesale places.

  • I'm not very familiar with them, but you can google it.

  • And then a lot of major cities will have these warehouses with just piles and piles of clothing from like 19 thirties to 19 eighties 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 anywhere you can find cheap clothing definitely works, although thrift stores are a great place to start next up.

  • A lot of you guys asked 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 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, the piece of clothing you're trying to sell, like Tommy Hilfiger.

  • Everybody shits themselves for including me, Campion, Ralph Lauren, Nautica, basically shit that you see at Urban Outfitters or 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 peace.

  • You has no I thrift, an insane amount of soap blouses or silk slip dresses.

  • They're always really popular, and they always sell really fast letters that are 100% cashmere.

  • Also, if you're not super into the hole like vegan life, leather and fur, and Swede can be really good selling point slow.

  • 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 through stories, 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.

  • It's a knit fabric a lot of the time you could get away with not having, ahem it either.

  • If you're lazy like because the fabric isn't gonna unravel anyway.

  • Hemming a 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 I've been hanging out in the thrift store, and they're kind of wrinkly.

  • But I swear to God, ironing can make the biggest difference that I could make it look a brand new again.

  • Overall, a really important thing to consider is What's your profit margin on item?

  • You think that buying stuff from the thrift store and like reselling it you can't go wrong with stuff from the store is so cheap that, unfortunately, is not always.

  • The case, for example, uses you find some really cute shoes at the thrift store there.

  • $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 maps and PayPal and taxes combined, that's like a 10 to 20% 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.

  • With all that factored in.

  • If you sold them for $30 total, including shipping, you actually pretty much just 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 we're leading 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 acts.

  • But when you're starting out, But first of all, I 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 track of how long it takes you to sell that item as well, and that will 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 deep, all posh more 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.

  • A Reformation search that brand and see what other people are pricing similar items for and you can even in a lot of APS, look at the sold section and see specifically, the price is that people are actually willing to pay, and it could be helpful to honestly ask yourself how much you would pay for it.

  • If you're the customer, I would say, just in general, it's right to put yourself in the customer's shoes and finally, some other factors to consider.

  • Obviously, I talked about earlier.

  • If it's a really good brand like Tommy Hilfiger, if it's a good fabric, if it's a designer, rand 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, other than the actual process of you going with restore and picking out cool stuff.

  • The main thing that adds value to thrift ID 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 on the virus shoes when I'm shopping online.

  • Personally, I don't feel it's comfortable buying clothing that I haven't seen on a model.

  • Because then how my sister Visualize and Tom I supposed to know that I'm gonna be happy with my purchase, and especially if it's a unique or thrift it item.

  • It's so helpful to show people how it hangs on your body, how the fit works.

  • How would style it in outfit?

  • The easiest way to start taking photos and thing that everybody can do is to just take them on self timer on your phone.

  • Or if you have, like a friend or a roommate who's down, you can ask them to take photos of you two, 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 Ambien and, like bouncing off the walls, you can never go wrong with taking photos in front of a plain white background super simple and keeps the focus on clothing.

  • Or if you want to get a little bit more stylistic, you put a couple decorations 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.

  • Some is that a lower angle, and it gives you this really gorgeous like soft glow, and it doesn't look very harsh.

  • It'll if you're not available during those hours and you're trying to take photos during the daytime.

  • 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 could get super creative with the background.

  • If you live in like a house, you can use a garage door or you can take photos like on a balcony in front of random buildings.

  • You can get creative with it, even if you think you live in like an ugly town.

  • I swear they're kind 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 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 don't really know how to describe it, but changing the brilliance can honestly make your photos look so much better if you are seen in for the 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 fiscal filter helps them look a little bit more vintage and a little less crusty.

  • And I phony after you have your photos.

  • The next thing is having a description for items 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 had Perry 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 could have 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, woman's clothing sizes are freakin wilden.

  • I don't know who's a 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 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 your customer, it could be so helpful because then they know exactly how it's gonna fit them to.

  • Okay, the last step after you've listed your item and it's finally sold is shipping.

  • Basically, the meaning that I use is USPS first class mail.

  • What a goddess, and I'll link the website that I used 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 can add up and I always like to make my label's online because I go insane, waiting in lines at the post office.

  • For some reason, it always takes like a fucking hour.

  • So, like I said, the main service that I shipped through is USPS first class.

  • It shifts in 3 to 5 business days.

  • It's really affordable.

  • It'll always cost you less than $5 around 3 to $4 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.

  • You could wave 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 to use the USPS priority mail flat rate boxes, usually for outerwear or shoes.

  • I'll end up using a medium blocks, and that is around $13 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 it's cheaper is if your customer actually lives really close to you.

  • USPS.

  • It's a flat rate for anywhere across the United States of 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 L.

  • A.

  • I'm like pretty far away from most people.

  • But if they live in like the suburbs of L.

  • A, sometimes it can come out to a decent price act.

  • When I did this casually and it wasn't like a proper business, I would just re use random shipping materials that I got my order like, way too much shit 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 get more seriously as a business, I buy these little plastic mailers off Amazon.

  • I think it's around $15 for 100 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 weight 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 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.

  • Like I said before is the app that I started selling on 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, it doesn't really matter if you have a big following on Paul's work or not.

  • I feel like you have a pretty equal chance of selling.

  • Your item is also a little bit more of an older slash prep your crowd.

  • Like I said, I think it was one of the first big reselling ups, and I think deep pop has kind of taken over since then.

  • Pop star takes a 20% cut of your final selling price, or $2.95.

  • Whichever one is Maur 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 crude USPS first class mail, you can ship the same item for like 3 to $4.

  • But it's really, really good for heavy items because the label ships items up to £5 which means for shoes or jackets, or like a really big and bulky items.

  • Are you actually having a super good deal?

  • Because if you ship that by yourself, it would cost 13 to $18 for the same type of label.

  • Overall, pockmark is also more regulated, and they have a more active customer service team.

  • I would say that 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 Cop Shop for 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 name attached.

  • Second up is deep pop It's another app and website, and unlike posh markets available internationally, it's definitely a more updated and instagram feel.

  • And likewise, I find that selling is a lot more follower slash influencer based.

  • They're like some people that are super deep, all famous, and they have, like, thousands of followers.

  • So it's kind of like Instagram in that way, and the customer is 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.

  • Develop itself takes a 10% cut of your sails.

  • 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 of the shipping price so it gets a little extra.

  • See Action in their people also uses Pay Pal for its payment.

  • So there's an additional 2.9% cut that papal takes.

  • Overall, we're looking at around 13%.

  • D Pop does give you a lot more flexibility for shipping.

  • They have their own shipping options that are rated by weight, so it's 4 50 For an item that up to half a pound, which is not worth it, you could do your own shipping for that $8 for up to £2.10 dollars for up to £10.

  • Those air when it starts being a good deal, or if you'd rather arrange your own trip ain't deep.

  • All Let's see that overall, I would recommend D pop.

  • If you're selling stocks, that's like a little bit more edgy and vintage and unbranded.

  • Our next selling platform.

  • It's Instagram, which I personally never had a shop on myself, but some of my favorite vintage reselling shops or 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 their and everybody over the 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 is 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 her sails through your GM zor through the comment section and get customers to pay PAL you, in which case there is that 3% C or have seen some sellers used, then Bo 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.

  • There's a lot more one on one customer communication through the ends.

  • 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 Venmo you or PayPal you because obviously there's the possibility that they're gonna get scammed.

  • And there's not like a specific market place or AP backing you up saying you will get your product and you will get your shipping label and you're not gonna just Venmo somebody your money and never hear from them again.

  • And obviously on and surround, the shipping is up to you.

  • There's no enforce shipping system, so you just make the label online and then gm your customer.

  • They're 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 deep pop, you want to start out on top and then gain some exposure.

  • And then you can transition to scram 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 Posh Mork and depart for a couple years, I made my own website with Squarespace, but they're a bunch of other website service is as well that you can use.

  • I am not the best at keeping my website stock 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 Apse, where there's kind of a set interface and all you have control 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 in building your own website and potentially having to pay a service like Squarespace monthly to set up your website.

  • Another pro of having a Web site 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're starting a website, there is some legal slash tax stuff you should take into consideration.

  • I am by no means an expert of 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 paid a couple $100.

  • 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 it, then I am free to listen.

  • The girl boss on audible Again.

  • There's my link below audible dot com slash best dress or if you're on your phone, you can also tax the best dressed to 505 100 and free audiobook and 30 day trial.

  • I think that is it for this video.

Hey guys, today I am casually sitting on the floor with this lowly selection of plant to talk to you guys about the whole thrift ing and reselling business.

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