If you're like me, you possibly end up with far too many designer items in your wardrobe and obviously the odd buy that just doesn't suit you, there are a couple of websites online where you can resell your designer items.
I had a massive clear out and have tried most of them, mind you this is just Europe based so for people in the US it might be completely different.
Obviously the 1st one everybody thinks about is Vestaire Collective
Personally I found them frustrating to deal with, you do the resale calculator and you get a shockingly low price, often less than 1/10th of what you bought it for, but you grit your teeth and you list it, then Vestaire decides to give you even less with the tried and tested "Too many similar items on the website" - if you check the items, actually not that many and all listed for a much higher price, so their logic is kinda flawed. The seriously try to gauge you for every Penny and you tend to get offers that are a joke. So you need a lot of patience.
Once the item reaches them, they check it for authenticity and quality, then on the 1st and the 15th of the month they pay out. So it often takes over a month until you see actually your money.
Certain high quality brands they don't accept, like ESCADA, Amay Arzuaga...
The plus side, they issue you with a label, all you need to do is bring it to the post office, you can also use another service, but you call a line where they charge you premium and they try to sell you their service. So I would recommend to go with the post office.
Another one is Rebelle, again hit and miss, first of all also amazing commission, then the same thing you get people sending you really ridiculous offers (selling brand new Saint Laurent boots for €50 which would leave you with about €20 - I don't really think so).
The other problem is their list of designers is far from up to date, so a designer they do not have in their list, the item gets rejected, then they have Topshop in their list (admittedly not a designer but if they list them...) which they do then never accept.
Their verification process is weird, not just my impression also that of a couple of friends, some items go through really quick, others get rejected without giving you a reason. Guess it depends on the checker having a good or a bad day... Since they work mostly with students, Mondays seem to be the most rejected things (again stuff I discussed with a bunch of other fashion fans)
Another problem are the pictures, lately they started only working on the 1st 2 and while they let you upload up to 5, they don't often put all 5 up.
On the plus side, also free label for sending and they pay out once a week.
A relatively new one is VideDressing, their website is unfortunately a bit messy, most of their customers seem to be in France and you have to wait until they confirm receipt, or then remind the Site that the buyer has indeed received it, you have to send tracked and you usually only get part of the postage (€7.80 I think) refunded, the buyer then also has 48 hours to decide if they want to keep it or send it back. A few people told me that the odd buyer uses it as a "I borrow an item and send it back after the event" - so that is quite a risk. A friend got a designer evening gown back soiled and it was totally obvious that the person just ordered it for that, apparently they are cracking down on that now.
There are also a lot of time wasters who try to bargain you down, if you agree to lower the price, you usually never hear from them. They offer a service to verify that an item is authentic, but they charge the seller €30 for that.
Once the sale has gone through, you can request the money from your wallet to be transferred into your bank account, which takes about a week and they keep €1 for their trouble.
On the bright side, they only charge 15%
Then there is HEWI and sorry, they are worst bunch of all, not only totally clueless, but also totally inconsistent, a few friends gave it a try, items that were rejected, they put the same item with the same pictures and description on another account and they were accepted, again consistency?
However, again, massive problem is dealing with them, they claim items get approved within hours, well, often you wait for days and they do not have any idea what is the latest collection. I can only recommend them if you feel like going through a lot of time and effort and don't mind getting an insulting eMail from them "That due to the age and style of an item, it has not been approved" - quite grating if the item is from the actual collection, with the tags still on and the tags showing that it is the actual collection.
They claim to only charge 15% of the sales price, but that is actually a lie, because they also charge you VAT on their commission. As for paying out, be prepared to wait, again most buyers don't mark the item as received, so you wait for your money, and you wait, they might claim they pay within 7 days if it is on the same continent or 14 days if it goes to another continent, and obviously you have to ship tracked, but you will have to chase them for the payment.
Plus side - can't really find one, unless you like dealing with a bunch of arrogant but ignorant fools who think they know about fashion. There might be a reason why their office is quite near Primark.
Oh recently HEWI Street started, don't even get me started, doubt there is a worse website, more uncomfortable to use, as for the way they go on about it, see above, arrogant and clueless, unorganized. They are the kind of people who couldn't even organize the proverbial piss up in a brewery, mind you they announced the "sister website" for ages, took them apparently a year to get it up. Gave it one try and decided they can stick it where the sun doesn't shine. All it is is that they try to sell you a subscription and charge you £10 each month to list items they then won't approve. I know it isn't a lot of money, but seriously, for them not doing anything and just sending you insulting messages because the intern can't be bothered to edit, not worth it.
Some people like Depop, I have to say I deleted my account there, it's more for sort of cheaper items, think bling, same with Vinted, it's great if you want to get rid of some really cheap and cheerful things, or buy them, but like eBay the totally wrong market for designer duds.
Now, there is also a website who does auctions, called Catawiki, if there is anything worse than HEWI it is Catawiki think people with beer money but champagne tastes, additionally you are waiting for your money forever, they keep it for 2 to 3 weeks (apparently for security reasons, more like interest free loans) and charge you on the postage, quite a hefty percentage so a double whammy and if you insure your parcel, tough luck, doesn't count as postage but if it is lost you are still responsible. The approval team, I am not kidding you, some brag that their expertise was buying old postcards, so most items don't get approved, they expect you to offer Haute Couture but for H&M prices. I bought there once and was sent a blatantly fake dress, obviously I wasn't pleased and called them, talk about useless, in the end I had to talk to my credit card company to stop the payment as they weren't helping at all. Should you buy from them, please always make sure you use a credit card, as for selling, you might as well give it away to a charity shop.
In case anybody has other venues, let me know, I gladly check them out as I am having a move ahead of me and want to clear out.
Now the best way to sell is to list it on as many webpages as possible and once the item sells, remove it from the others. Would be nice if there was a very good webpage, but hey... Seems most just want to deal with bags and charge you 40 to 50%
I had a massive clear out and have tried most of them, mind you this is just Europe based so for people in the US it might be completely different.
Obviously the 1st one everybody thinks about is Vestaire Collective
Personally I found them frustrating to deal with, you do the resale calculator and you get a shockingly low price, often less than 1/10th of what you bought it for, but you grit your teeth and you list it, then Vestaire decides to give you even less with the tried and tested "Too many similar items on the website" - if you check the items, actually not that many and all listed for a much higher price, so their logic is kinda flawed. The seriously try to gauge you for every Penny and you tend to get offers that are a joke. So you need a lot of patience.
Once the item reaches them, they check it for authenticity and quality, then on the 1st and the 15th of the month they pay out. So it often takes over a month until you see actually your money.
Certain high quality brands they don't accept, like ESCADA, Amay Arzuaga...
The plus side, they issue you with a label, all you need to do is bring it to the post office, you can also use another service, but you call a line where they charge you premium and they try to sell you their service. So I would recommend to go with the post office.
Another one is Rebelle, again hit and miss, first of all also amazing commission, then the same thing you get people sending you really ridiculous offers (selling brand new Saint Laurent boots for €50 which would leave you with about €20 - I don't really think so).
The other problem is their list of designers is far from up to date, so a designer they do not have in their list, the item gets rejected, then they have Topshop in their list (admittedly not a designer but if they list them...) which they do then never accept.
Their verification process is weird, not just my impression also that of a couple of friends, some items go through really quick, others get rejected without giving you a reason. Guess it depends on the checker having a good or a bad day... Since they work mostly with students, Mondays seem to be the most rejected things (again stuff I discussed with a bunch of other fashion fans)
Another problem are the pictures, lately they started only working on the 1st 2 and while they let you upload up to 5, they don't often put all 5 up.
On the plus side, also free label for sending and they pay out once a week.
A relatively new one is VideDressing, their website is unfortunately a bit messy, most of their customers seem to be in France and you have to wait until they confirm receipt, or then remind the Site that the buyer has indeed received it, you have to send tracked and you usually only get part of the postage (€7.80 I think) refunded, the buyer then also has 48 hours to decide if they want to keep it or send it back. A few people told me that the odd buyer uses it as a "I borrow an item and send it back after the event" - so that is quite a risk. A friend got a designer evening gown back soiled and it was totally obvious that the person just ordered it for that, apparently they are cracking down on that now.
There are also a lot of time wasters who try to bargain you down, if you agree to lower the price, you usually never hear from them. They offer a service to verify that an item is authentic, but they charge the seller €30 for that.
Once the sale has gone through, you can request the money from your wallet to be transferred into your bank account, which takes about a week and they keep €1 for their trouble.
On the bright side, they only charge 15%
Then there is HEWI and sorry, they are worst bunch of all, not only totally clueless, but also totally inconsistent, a few friends gave it a try, items that were rejected, they put the same item with the same pictures and description on another account and they were accepted, again consistency?
However, again, massive problem is dealing with them, they claim items get approved within hours, well, often you wait for days and they do not have any idea what is the latest collection. I can only recommend them if you feel like going through a lot of time and effort and don't mind getting an insulting eMail from them "That due to the age and style of an item, it has not been approved" - quite grating if the item is from the actual collection, with the tags still on and the tags showing that it is the actual collection.
They claim to only charge 15% of the sales price, but that is actually a lie, because they also charge you VAT on their commission. As for paying out, be prepared to wait, again most buyers don't mark the item as received, so you wait for your money, and you wait, they might claim they pay within 7 days if it is on the same continent or 14 days if it goes to another continent, and obviously you have to ship tracked, but you will have to chase them for the payment.
Plus side - can't really find one, unless you like dealing with a bunch of arrogant but ignorant fools who think they know about fashion. There might be a reason why their office is quite near Primark.
Oh recently HEWI Street started, don't even get me started, doubt there is a worse website, more uncomfortable to use, as for the way they go on about it, see above, arrogant and clueless, unorganized. They are the kind of people who couldn't even organize the proverbial piss up in a brewery, mind you they announced the "sister website" for ages, took them apparently a year to get it up. Gave it one try and decided they can stick it where the sun doesn't shine. All it is is that they try to sell you a subscription and charge you £10 each month to list items they then won't approve. I know it isn't a lot of money, but seriously, for them not doing anything and just sending you insulting messages because the intern can't be bothered to edit, not worth it.
Some people like Depop, I have to say I deleted my account there, it's more for sort of cheaper items, think bling, same with Vinted, it's great if you want to get rid of some really cheap and cheerful things, or buy them, but like eBay the totally wrong market for designer duds.
Now, there is also a website who does auctions, called Catawiki, if there is anything worse than HEWI it is Catawiki think people with beer money but champagne tastes, additionally you are waiting for your money forever, they keep it for 2 to 3 weeks (apparently for security reasons, more like interest free loans) and charge you on the postage, quite a hefty percentage so a double whammy and if you insure your parcel, tough luck, doesn't count as postage but if it is lost you are still responsible. The approval team, I am not kidding you, some brag that their expertise was buying old postcards, so most items don't get approved, they expect you to offer Haute Couture but for H&M prices. I bought there once and was sent a blatantly fake dress, obviously I wasn't pleased and called them, talk about useless, in the end I had to talk to my credit card company to stop the payment as they weren't helping at all. Should you buy from them, please always make sure you use a credit card, as for selling, you might as well give it away to a charity shop.
In case anybody has other venues, let me know, I gladly check them out as I am having a move ahead of me and want to clear out.
Now the best way to sell is to list it on as many webpages as possible and once the item sells, remove it from the others. Would be nice if there was a very good webpage, but hey... Seems most just want to deal with bags and charge you 40 to 50%
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