How I Choose What to Leave Behind in the Thrift

Hello hello, my wonderfully amazing interweb friends! Today I was talking with a subscriber about certain things that I usually choose to leave behind in the thrift. I do this for a handful of reasons and would like to go over those in a little more detail. I hope this helps you as well in deciding what to re-invest your profits into! Let’s get started!

Sift Through the Thrift

A lot of times when we’re starting out as resellers, we can get a little antsy about all the things in all the stores. Am I right?

As fun and exciting as this can be, we often find ourselves sitting atop a gigantic death pile just dreading getting those things listed. And you know what happens then? We go out and source some more!

• Related: Looking for Ways to Make Sales from Stale Inventory?

Even though sourcing is by far (at least in my opinion), the most amazing part of being a reseller, you still need to treat it as part of your job, if you plan to use reselling as your business.

When we go out and just go all crazy cat lady on the aisles, we end up with a buggy full of nonsense and a whole lot of missed flaws. Not the best bang for your buck when that happens.

My advice is to ease your way into thrifting. Try mastering just one category first, and even narrow it down if you must.

Start with clothing, but only focus on womens, or kids, you get the picture. Or, if you’ve got more of a preference for books and jewelry, try focusing in on just religious books, or just earrings, etc.

This way, you’ll become more knowledgeable about each and every category, without rushing through things at the same time. Patience is key, and it takes a lot of it at times to be a reseller.

How I Choose What Styles to Leave Behind in the Thrift

If you sell on eBay or if you sell on Poshmark, you may already know that a lot of us resellers use both platforms to extend our reach to both demographics.

• Related: What’s Selling? – From the Perspective of a Full-Time Reseller

I personally love eBay, and it’s been my main source of income for years now. However, Posh is where I got my start, and although I turned my back on it for a while, I’m happy to say that it’s back in my life once again.

The difference between the two platforms couldn’t be any more vast, but I find them both to be my top two favorites of them all.

Poshmark is much more social than eBay, and although they’ve made some great changes over time, they still have no way of reaching the global audience that eBay does.

Since eBay is a more searchable marketplace, I like to use it to house all and every kind of inventory I’m selling. However, Poshmark can have its perks as well, since users can scroll through a constantly refreshed feed of new, cute, date night-worthy items.

I’ll most always list everything on eBay, and then cross-list what I think would sell best on Poshmark, keeping cute and relatable styles in mind for the target audience that Poshmark caters to.

• Bonus Tip! – I also usually decide to leave very black, fuzzy garments behind, since it takes a significant amount of time to lint roll these items in specific, and can often leave a lot of unnoticed holes or other flaws until I’ve already purchased the garment and have brought it home to list. This often results in a lot of unnecessary time consumed, and also a lower ending sale price.

How I Choose What Sizes to Leave Behind in the Thrift

This is a tricky one. It’s hard to not want to pick up all the sizes, every time. Unfortunately, even though there are many people out there that need these sizes as well, they just aren’t as popular and can have the tendency to sit on your shelf for a much longer period of time.

What’s my cutoff? Typically anything that falls into the list below:

• Size 5 in women’s shoes
• Size 6 in men’s
• XXS and XS (in either gender)
• Petites

These sizes can sell, yes, but they often take longer and sell for less. In the end, you’ll want to do what you feel is best for you and your business, but this is just what has helped me to decide on new inventory, based on my past experience in the thrift.

Related: What’s Your Favorite Thing to Resell?

• Side Note! – If there is an amazing brand in these sizes, I may consider picking them up if they are in excellent condition and have exceptional comp prices.
• COMP: Price comparisons that resellers view on different platforms before choosing to pick up an item or not in the thrift.

Do you have anything in particular that you don’t pick up anymore on sourcing trips? Let me know about it in the comment section below so that more resellers in our community can learn from these tips and can become more knowledgeable in their reselling business.

Happy thrifting!

Thank You!

A giant thanks to everyone that has supported me this far into my journey! I greatly appreciate you returning to read my posts hope that you will continue to drop by in the future.

Please feel free to drop any comments below that you would like to add! I am always open to advice, suggestions, or even hearing related stories of your own!

I stay as active as possible in the comment section, therefore I will reply to any questions asap.

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Happy selling friends!

-Shelby

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