Spring is right around the corner, and while clearing out your closet can be good, making money off your gently used clothes is even better.
With a rising number of sites and stores dedicated to selling your items, it may be difficult to find the right place to get the most money out of your old fashions. Based on student experiences, this list shows you the options in your pursuit to turn a pile of clothes into a handful of money.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is a destination to buy and sell items with people in your area, and several popular UT student groups have Marketplace integrated, allowing students to sell items to other group members.
Through Marketplace, sellers are responsible for meeting the potential buyer to complete the transaction. Sometimes these arrangements never shape into the physical realm, and the seller is ghosted.
Facebook doesn’t make money from sales or payment processing — the service is completely free, avoiding the middleman many fear when selling large amounts of clothing.
Three years ago, health and society junior Zoë Njemanze started selling her items on Facebook Marketplace because she found that she had more freedom to set her prices.
“Thrift stores tend to undercut the worth for multiple items,” Njemanze said. “I have a real opportunity to resell an item for the amount I originally purchased it for through Facebook.”
Njemanze said Marketplace helps her cater to a younger audience, in turn allowing for her to make more money.
“Young adults have a higher appreciation for fast fashion than the thrift shops tend to,”
Njemanze said. “So it makes it easier to sell my items.”
Consignment thrift stores
Radio-television-film major Rho Garcia walked into Buffalo Exchange with high hopes of turning her clothes into cash. Instead, she left disappointed and with little money to show for her former threads.
“They offered me $2 for a tank top,” Garcia said. “With the prices they gave me, it was better to just donate them.”
Thrift stores such as Buffalo Exchange and Uptown Cheapskate will pay for your used clothes, but they set the price based on the item’s desirability, age, condition and original retail value.
Buffalo Exchange will give you 30 percent of the assigned retail price in cash or 50 percent in-store credit on the spot. At Uptown Cheapskate, customers can get cash on the spot or 25 percent more in in-store credit.
Garcia said the key to getting good prices is to have items from higher-end brands, which means you’ll get significantly more money than with something that’s generic or more affordable.
“They’re looking for top brands or unique clothing and your best option is taking store credit,” Garcia said.
A tip if you’re selling to these stores is to make sure your clothes are ready to go directly on the racks. Stores look for clothes in the best condition because they have a higher chance of selling.
Thrift store apps
Depop, as well as Poshmark, are digital e-commerce applications for users to sell their second-hand clothing. These apps reach more people than one can locally, so selling your items in this way is more work.
Corporate communications junior Jourdan Silva had luck selling her items on the app Depop in high school to make extra cash.
“There’s a lot more effort needed to get the hang of selling on there, since you are responsible for packaging, labeling and going to mail it,” Silva said.
For Silva, the work was worth it. She said she once made $80 in less than two days selling her old clothes. Silva believes that the amount of money she makes on these apps is related to her personal freedom on pricing.
“On Depop, you get to value your clothes rather than have someone at the stores tell you,” Silva said. “You can easily bargain, so you are in so much control.”
