Is It Worth Selling Clothes On Ebay – When I was 16, I swiped my mom’s bankbook so I could set up an eBay account. Despite my stealthy tactics, I had innocent intentions: I wanted to buy anime videos that were only sold through this one eBay seller. I would get money orders from CVS and mail them to the seller, waiting over a week for that sweet padded envelope to arrive.
EBay has changed a lot since then. For one, instant payments with my credit card is how I roll these days. There are also new competitors offering increasingly sexier features, such as free shipping kits and the ease of setting up a listing in “less than 60 seconds.” These days, there’s no shortage of avenues to sell your stuff online: Poshmark, Tradesy, The Real Real, Lit Go, the list goes on. And while these newer sites all display simplicity, eBay, with its clunky, outdated interface, can seem like a dinosaur.
Is It Worth Selling Clothes On Ebay
But, if you sell on eBay, you will be able to keep more of the profits than with many other sites. That’s why it’s my platform of choice for selling branded clothing.
Selling Clothes On Ebay
I have sold clothes, shoes and bags on eBay, Etsy, through Instagram, and on another site of mine. The same sales principles I talk about in this post will apply regardless of the platform.
We live in a world where everything is cheap and fast, so even the strongest can not avoid impulse buys. That’s how we end up with closets filled to the brim with unworn clothes and feeling like we have nothing to wear. But times change. Thanks to the KonMari method, we don’t want the stuff that no longer sparks “joy”, The Minimalists have inspired a cult-like following, and every day there seems to be a new article about how buying experiences, not things , makes us happier.
You need to get good at selling your clothes online because the market is busier than ever. Unless you want to face perishable costs and donate everything for free. Which is totally fine. But I think most of us feel better if we get at least some of our money back, am I right? Then you can use the profit to focus on a better wardrobe that you love.
The other platforms don’t have enough volume or users to be worth it. You know that saying, go where the fish go? Same thing with selling online: Go where your target audience shops.
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Real-life example time. A few years ago I bought a used Delvaux Givry bag off eBay for $500.
It was absolutely beautiful, but made of suede, which is a high maintenance fabric, so I was afraid to use it. Instead, it sat in its dust bag on the top shelf of my closet for months. In other words, I had no business owning that bag. So I decided to throw it back on eBay.
. The pictures didn’t do it justice, the description was full of typos, and I had to ask the seller a million follow-up questions because there wasn’t enough information. Since I was an imaginative buyer, I had very little competition and got the bag for a steal.
For my listing, there were very specific tactics I used to make it appealing to buyers, and I’ll show you my exact strategies below.
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Tactically, this means that you need to stand out in a crowded market by doing the things that other people are not doing. But wait, isn’t it enough to take a few photos and put up a short description? Well, if everyone else is doing that, how can you stand out?
With a $15 item, you might be able to get away with being lazy, but the higher you go in price point, the more the details matter.
I believe that selling online is one of those things where the work you put into it is proportional to what you get out of it. If you do lazy work, you will get lazy results. And lazy results = lower profits.
So, if you really want to excel at selling your stuff online, prepare to actually do the work. Yes,
How To Make Money Selling Clothing On Ebay
The first part is the hardest. Being honest about whether or not your item is worth selling is a critical key to success.
This is where many people, understandably, go wrong. I see a lot of people just buy the clothes they like, put them all on eBay, then get frustrated that none of it sells. After all, if they liked that stuff, wouldn’t other people too?
You see, people are bad at judging the value of their things. It’s called the endowment effect. The idea that something increases in value just because we have it. It’s an irrational way of thinking that keeps us hoarding things that no one else appreciates.
One time my roommate brought 20 of his Calvin Klein shirts to sell to our neighborhood consignment shop. She paid him $6 for all 20 shirts. He was insulted. “They were brand name from T.J. Maxx,” he claimed.
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I can tell just about a dozen stories. The shirts he bought weren’t really designer. You see, Calvin Klein IS a designer. He does have fashion shows. But he has, like, a dozen fashion lines, and the only one that’s really designer is called Calvin Klein Collection. Everything else (Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Sport) is ordinary mass-market stuff. My roommate’s clothes looked designer, but they really weren’t.
If we think objectively, just plain Calvin Klein is not a brand that people search for online.
And I don’t care how cute that dress you got from Hong Kong is. If it’s not a brand name that people recognize, it probably won’t sell.
To determine whether your item is worth selling or not, do your research by searching for similar items on different platforms. Is there a market for your item?
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In my experience, dresses are the easiest to sell and pants are the hardest. I would think twice about selling pants. The fit for pants is so specific that many people are wary of buying them online if they can’t return them. The shoes will have to be worn lightly. Workout clothes and swimwear must be brand new.
The price you set is important. I think most people price their items too high, probably due to the endowment effect! Pay attention to the market, and price your item about the same or slightly higher than similar items. You can price it higher if it’s in great condition, but lower if there are flaws or wear.
In your research you may see some items selling for $3. My personal sales threshold is a minimum of $15. If I don’t think an item will sell for more than that, it’s not worth my time. And the work for a successful listing is not unimportant, so that should also be taken into account whether or not you want to sell online.
Pay attention to the seasons. When it’s 90 degrees out, most people won’t be in the market for a wool sweater. It is better to hold off until it is the right season. A good guideline is to see which stores sell when. If the stores now sell bathing suits, then you have the green light to list you too.
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As I said earlier, your success depends on how well you get the customer to trust you. Remember: by default, online items are missing a key component of how people shop:
And as someone who buys almost everything exclusively online, I still have a ton of fears. Let’s look at the barriers you face. I’m afraid that:
If you want to increase your chances of success, every aspect of your listing must address these barriers.
OK, so you’ve figured out there’s a market for your item and you think you’ll get at least $15 or so. Now it’s time for the photo shoot.
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Most likely your item is folded away in a drawer, so 9 times out of 10 it will be wrinkly as hell and not photo ready. This won’t do, so break out the iron or steamer. Have a pair of scissors nearby in case you see any loose threads. Loose threads are a sign of wear, and you want people to feel that your item is in the freshest possible condition.
As a reminder, I will drop the buyer barriers where necessary because you should always put yourself in their shoes when creating content for your listings.
If you sell something on Etsy, to increase your chances of success, you need to show it on a body. On that platform, folks
People are bad at looking at a flat piece of clothing and connecting it to themselves. So, if you put the item on an actual model, and show a complete look, it is much easier for a potential buyer to imagine how it might look on them. For example, look at these striped chambray pants I got from a thrift store:
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Exactly
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