Alrighty guys, for my first “official” post (we all know the intro post isn’t a real post), I wanted to talk about something that I have been getting A LOT of messages about recently: where to start if you are new to reselling. So instead typing out the same answer every time, I can refer y’all to here! Hope everything you read here is helpful 🥰
Tip #1: Start off selling from YOUR OWN closet.
When people start reselling, they always want to run straight to the thrift store and drop all their money of boatloads of clothes to resell, because that’s what all the experienced resellers do, right? Well I’m here to tell you this: that isn’t the best idea. Reselling is a really tricky business, and getting off on the right foot is really important! And the best way to get off on the right foot is to not start by putting yourself in the negative right from the get go! Everything in your closet is yours and already paid for. I personally consider this to be a cost of $0 (some others may say differently), meaning whatever you sell it for is 100% profit! THEN you take THAT money and head to the thrift store! Don’t think you have anything in your closet you can sell? Think again. Even if you truly have 0 items of clothing that you want to get rid of, surely you have things around the house that you could sell on Facebook Marketplace/OfferUp/Letgo. Or maybe have a garage sale. Or see if you have any family members that have clothes they want to get rid of (spouse, kids, siblings, etc.). There really is NO excuse! Starting off in the black is 100% how you want to get started!
Tip #2: Invest in a makeshift “reseller” survival kit
Some other resellers may disagree with me here, but I think it is important to invest in a few handy items before heading into the thrifting/flipping world. Yes, technically, you could absolutely get away with not buying anything, but I personally feel that a small investment will have a much greater gain and lead to more profits than you would have if you just skipped the investment all together (does that make sense?). So here are my favorite “starter” tools!:
- A sweater shaver. The very first one I used was $5 at target! A sweater shaver can transform a gross and pilled sweater to basically brand new! Here is one on Amazon for $10:
- Superglue. I use superglue a lot with shoes. A shoe *may* seem ruined because a strap is coming loose in a place or two, but just use a little superglue to stick it back in place, and again, they’re good as new!
- A steamer. Again, this is something you can get pretty cheap. Here is one on amazon for $ $20! I haven’t personally used this one, but if you are really looking to cut costs, it can’t hurt to start with something like this! https://www.amazon.com/OGHom-Steamer-Clothes-
- Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. These things are like little blocks of gold. They can clean up pretty much any type of shoe with ease!
- Some sort of poster board to take photos on. You can get a white poster board for a few dollars at pretty much any store. Or you can repurpose something you already own! My flat lay board is made up of the backside of two wood signs from my wedding a few years ago!
- Dr. Marten’s Wonder Balsam. Like selling leather shoes? Don’t like it when they are all scuffed up? YOU NEED THIS STUFF. It works wonders!
- A basic sewing kit. You can get one of these at the dollar store. It’s handy in so many ways! Repairing small holes is obviously the biggest. I usually don’t buy items with holes on purpose, but every so often I miss something in the store and come home and find a hole! Being able to repair it is a lot better than tossing it in the corner and not picking it up for 6 months when I decide to re-donate it.
- And last but not least….FREE USPS SHIPPING SUPPLIES. You read that right, free. Free, free, free, free (turbotax, anyone?). My go to stapes are the shoebox, the medium and large flat rate boxes, regional mailbox A, padded flat rate envelope and the tyvek mailing envelope! Everything listed here (+ so much more!) can be bought and shipped to your house for free from the USPS website.
Tip #3: Invest, but don’t OVER invest
Here is what I mean by this. Tip #2 was a whole long list of things I think would be beneficial to buy to start out your business, but on the flip side, there is a whole other list of things you COULD buy to get your business going, but they are really unnecessary, over the top, and will put too much financial strain on your brand new business to be worth it. Here's what I think you DON'T need to spend money on:
- A lighting kit. Yes, taking well lit photos is a must, but buying a $300 lighting set up is not. If you are able to take your photos in the day, natural daylight is really all you need. But, I know all too well that a lot of times, getting all your photos done in the day just isn’t possible, so SOME type of lighting kit would be nice. Want to know what I used for a LONG time? Two lamps with fluorescent bulbs and no lampshade 🤷🏻♀️. It only cost me a few dollars and worked like a charm. Wanna know what I use now? The same thing.
- A sharing service. Yes, sharing services are AMAZING. But when you first start out, you are not going to have a lot of listings, and it’s really not that hard to put in the work and do the shares yourself. This will have you anywhere from $40-100 per month. Once your closet is up and running and you have several hundred active listings and are making daily sales, then I would consider a sharing service. Even then, it may not be necessary!
- Polymailers. Yes, they are super cute. Yes, I use them. But when you’re first starting, you are much better off saving your money and using free supplies. If you really want to use mailers down the road, go for it. Because like I said, they are super cute.
- A dymo/rollo thermal printer. Those things are really super cool, but also really expensive upfront and in the long run (that refiller paper is not cheap!). I use free USPS shipping labels and print from my computer on my normal printer. It costs me next to nothing, and is just as easy to stick on as the dymo stickers.
- And lastly, fancy thank you cards. I personally feel that it is a total waste of money to go drop hundreds of dollars on fancy thank you cards from Vistaprint/shutterfly/whatever that will just run out after 100 sales. A quick handwritten card on stock paper that you bought from the store and cut down to size will suffice, AND it is a wildly more personal note, likely to be better appreciated by your buyers.
Tip #4 Be Smart with your sourcing
Now that you have sold a bunch of stuff from your own closet and are ready to start thrifting, don’t jump off the deep end. There’s A LOT of clothes in the thrift store, and you HAVE TO be picky. Learn how to search comps (comps = comparable listings), and see how much the item you want to buy is worth, and what it is currently selling for on the market. You may think that Free People top is the cutest thing ever, but if you look it up on Poshmark you might find that it isn’t selling for more than $10. And if you are going to be paying $5-10 for that shirt in the thrift store, the minimal profit just isn’t worth it.
Thrifting can be really difficult at first, because you have no idea what you are looking for, and will feel like you don’t find anything ever. Over time though, as you search comps on more and more brands every time you thrift, you will have a much better feel for what is out there, and will have a much easier time finding good brands.
You can also learn a lot about brands from haul posts/videos on instagram or youtube. The caveat with this though is this; just because a successful reseller picks up a brand/specific item of clothing, that does not mean you should go out and always pick up that brand/item of clothing. ALWAYS SEARCH COMPS ON EVERYTHING YOU BUY. Say that again and again until its ingrained in your head!
Tip #5 Be a quick shipper
Shipping when you first start can be hard. You may not have all the tools you need, you may not know what the best post office to drop off at is, or you may just feel like you don’t have time. But trust me on this, you will have happier customers with significantly better ratings if you ship as fast as you can, OR if you communicate with your buyer about when you are going to ship. I typically ship next day, but if for some reason it is going to take me 2-3 days to ship, I always let my buyer know. Open communication leads to much smoother sales and happier customers. It may take a while to get into a good habit and routine with shipping, but it you work hard at it, it’ll come eventually.
Tip #6 Share, share, share and share some more.
Sharing YOUR OWN CLOSET is hands down the single most important thing you can do to make sales, aside from actually listing. Every time you share an item, it bumps to the top of the list on Poshmark, and is more likely to be seen. I try to share my closet 3-5 times per day. It feels like a lot some days, but the benefits greatly outweighs the negatives.
And yes, there is the option to share items from other closets, and yes, I have done it a lot, but at this point in my business, I don’t see the point anymore. Sharing other closets does not push YOUR items to the top of the list, so it doesn’t lead to more sales. Yes, it can lead to that posher sharing your closet, but again, this is not as good as you sharing your own closet. So my advice is this: share others’ closet every so often, but always make your closet sharing the #1 priority.
Tip #7 Persistency and Consistency
One of the hardest parts about reselling is sticking with it even when it’s hard. You need to be constantly listing new items, shipping quickly, taking good photos and etc. You need to be relentlessly persistent in the work you put in. When you start to slack, sales will drop. If that happens, take a step back and look at what is causing the lack of sales; more often that not, YOU are the cause. You aren’t listing or sharing daily, you aren’t picking up items people what to buy, you aren’t shipping quickly. Those are all things you can change in a flash.
Tip #8 Don’t let comparison be the thief of joy.
This is my most important tip. Watching other resellers around you (whether it be on poshmark or instagram/facebook/youtube) can be really demeaning. You may feel like you aren’t doing enough or aren’t selling enough compared to those you see around you. I implore you to remember this: people only post the good. No one wants to post about the week that they made 0 sales and got no work done. People don’t want to admit to their failures. And on another level, you don’t know what that person has done to get their “success”. Maybe they are spending thousands of dollars on inventory and only making a small profit. They look super cool because they are making 10 sales per day, but may not actually be making that much money.
The single worst thing you can do to your business is compare to someone else’s, because each of our businesses are completely different, and there is really no comparison. Take everything you read with a grain of salt. Remember that with every success you see on social media, there was a fail that was not broadcasted.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Do not be a victim.
And there you have it.
My 8 best tips for getting your reselling business up and coming. If you follow these to a T, I feel confident that you will be successful! But just as you can’t promise anything in medicine, you can’t promise it here either. You could try all of these and still fail miserably. Just remember to take everything you learn with a grain of salt. What works for my business may not work for yours. There is no one RIGHT and PERFECT way to run a business. If you are open to changing and adapting with the failures, you will eventually find what works for you, and be successful!
I sincerely hope this was helpful!
Miranda ❤️