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Reselling | Should You Listen to Online Experts? · The Truth About Reselling

• speaker-0: Good morning. Welcome back to the podcast. Hi, Amanda. speaker-1: Hello. Hi, everyone. We're so excited. It's going to be a really fun episode today. speaker-0: Yes, in this episode. So Amanda had this great idea where every other week we're going to have just the two of us talking and then we're going to have a guest on the next week. So you're going to get kind of unfiltered chatting between me and Amanda. And we'll probably have a different topic every week. So this week we're going to be talking about just kind of like, I mean, everything, but also we found this Threat Up Market report on the resale industry. And so we're going to be talking about that today along with a bunch of other stuff. Yeah, so that's kind of how this is gonna go. speaker-1: Yes. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I think there is so much stuff to talk about. Reselling is just like such a massive industry, but it's also niche at the same time. So I think there's a lot that we can dive into. We also want to start taking listener questions. So if you guys want to chime in or if you have something specific you want us to dive into, we would love to do that because we want to talk about what you guys want to hear about or what you want to learn about. And we're not trying to come at it as like experts. We're just sharing our experiences. I've been in it for about four years. I know Sam's been in a little less, but we've learned so much and we've also talked to a lot of people. So I feel like we can just kind of use our collective knowledge to chat about it, to give some hopefully helpful tips, but also just like talk about reselling because it can be kind of a lonely thing to do when it really is like a solo job for so many of us. speaker-0: Yeah, and you don't have an office to go to. know you're doing this around your family. speaker-1: And they don't really get it a lot of the time. speaker-0: Seriously. Yeah, yeah. You know, we were talking offline. I don't know if you're comfortable talking about this online, Amanda, but like parenting and reselling are so similar. And I know not all resellers are parents and you know, that doesn't matter, but it's everybody has their own flavor of doing stuff. And something I've been seeing more and more is people coming online and talking about how they're the experts in this and you can only be successful doing it this one way. And we both don't agree with that at all. And so, speaker-1: Not at all. speaker-0: I think that's something too, like if you are a newer reseller like myself, I love watching TikTok. I love watching YouTube. No, I don't. That's a lie. I love watching TikToks. I will watch YouTubes, but where I can learn and I've learned so much from people, but I think when people start presenting themselves as like the end all expert and if you don't do it this way, you're gonna fail and you're not gonna make money. I think that gets really dangerous. speaker-1: I agree. I think it is so messy when you have just so many opinions and people are acting as an authority figure when it comes to reselling. But the truth is, is that we all do it differently. And there is no one way to be successful. So I would maybe be skeptical of people who are trying to act as an authority figure or like they know everything and they are going to tell you exactly how to be successful just because that's not true. And like Sam said, like we're parents. So we refer a lot to or compare it a lot to motherhood. But it is, it's like everyone has their own opinion on how to be a parent. Everyone has their own opinion on how to be a reseller. And I think the best thing you can do is pick and choose the little things that resonate with you or try out a bunch of different stuff. I feel like that's what I do. I still do that to that to this day, especially with whatnot. I'll be like, ⁓ that strategy worked for this person. Let me try it a couple of times and see if it works. Half the time, not for me. The other half of time, I'm like, wow, like I'm so grateful I get to learn from people that are doing different things than me. But it's like, I am not just trying to watch someone and do like an exact loop around what they're doing because that's just not going to work. speaker-0: Yeah, and it's all based on your audience, your algorithm. And I think a lot of people don't think about like Poshmark and all those. Those are algorithms and it's based on your location. It's based on, and you know, both of us obviously post our stuff everywhere, like we cross list it. And so you're gonna get different audiences in different places. And if you have it open to international and whereas somebody online might only be giving you advice and they don't have it open to international or whatever. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, there's so many variables. speaker-0: Yeah. So I'm curious. This is, I'm thrown in a curve ball. Have you sold anything this week or within the last couple of weeks that you're like, somebody would have categorically told you, don't pick that up. speaker-1: Not recently, only because I am not like listening actively. Yeah, and I have like, I'm literally looking at my Holkin, it's sitting in my bedroom, because this is where I photograph and I'm like, I have some, it's full, it needs to be like photographed and listed. speaker-0: That's true, your palate, yeah. Can you us please? love our Hokans. I need to get another one. speaker-1: I am a- I know, I heard someone say that they got those for teacher gifts. And I was like, that's genius. That is like the best, because they're always lugging stuff in and out of the school. They're not just for resellers, that's so smart. speaker-0: for everyone, I use my grocery shopping. Sorry, I didn't mean to. speaker-1: No, you're good. You're good. But there have been many, many times that I haven't or that I have sold things that people would be like, no, like don't pick that up. And there have been many times where that sells for an insane amount of money. And that is one. And I don't know how you are with this, but I am a huge research person, especially when I was thrifting. I would like if I had like an inkling that something was worth a lot of money, I will do 30 minutes of research on that item. Not this is not for every item because that's just a waste of time. But if I have like a gut feeling that it's worth money, I will do digging to figure out exactly how much I should list it for. And often I find out like these things are way more valuable. You just have to find the right person. Exactly. That happens all the time. Like you and I mean, I just saw someone talking about selling Aerie and I bought an Aerie palette a couple of months ago and I had people on TikTok being like, Aerie doesn't sell, Aerie doesn't sell. I'm like, no, Aerie doesn't really sell that well on. Poshmark, whatever. It's really good for what not because it's a brand people love. There are specific styles of Aerie that will sell for 40 bucks. That's almost as much as they're paying in the store, but there are specific styles that are sought after. again, just can't, blanket statements don't work for reselling. You can't say this brand's off limits, don't pick up this brand because there are specific items within probably every single brand that could sell for a decent amount of money and make it worth your time. speaker-0: Depart. Sal's on Depart. Exactly. I don't do a lot of research. I go with my gut because I pick up really like random pieces. When I started, I was doing more research. would like do the Google lens and in the store. And now I've gotten to the point where I like kind of know, but I also price stuff like my vintage sweaters that I sell people would be like, oh yeah, let's stop for $35. I'm like, no, I list it for $250 or more. I've sold vintage sweaters for like $600. Like, and it is some research, but I don't go off of comps and this might be. speaker-1: interesting. I love that though. speaker-0: Yeah, it might be why I have a huge storage unit full. But like when it does sell, sells because you have to, I don't know. And that, I mean, that's a perfect example of, you you do research on certain things where I'm like, I go off of my gut on things and it's more, ⁓ everybody just has their own way to do it because there are people like you in the world and there are people like me in the world who are gonna like want to buy weird stuff. ⁓ Something I've also been seeing is people talking a lot of, junk on kind of the old lady brands, Chico's, J. Jill, Eileen Fisher, all of these. And I'm kind of getting upset about it because they're actually very high quality pieces and they might sit depending on the style, right? Not everything's himself. But like I pick those things up for myself. They're usually silk, linen, wool, cashmere. Yeah. And it feels like people are just like dogging on these old lady brands because they're old lady brands. speaker-1: They're all natural fibers. speaker-0: Right. And it's really upsetting me. Like, I have sold a Chico faux fur jacket to a 6'5 guy who was going to Burning Man. And like, I just feel like people need to get the notion out of their head, like, ⁓ this brand is only for old ladies or this. It's like, no, this is a quality piece. This is nice. They also retail for like hundreds of dollars. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Eileen Fisher, I'm like, that brand is insanely expensive. speaker-0: Dude, Chico's is even expensive. Like their little jackets are like 200 bucks. And Talbot's, and I sell those things all the time. my most, somebody would have told me, don't pick this up. It's a Talbot's skirt. I sell Talbot's all the time. Picked it up. I sold it for $180. You I made what? What is that? But it's not the first time I've done that for like basically that specific skirt. speaker-1: Yeah, that's crazy. And I bet hundreds of other people would have passed that up simply because of the brain. speaker-0: Yeah, and or the size because it's a size six, which is really like a size zero or two, because it was vintage. And I just think you have to be like whatever you're attracted to. And, you know, we're all moving toward more natural fabrics. But I also still wear polyester and I sell polyester. I think there's also like this villainization of polyester and synthetics. And it's like, well, everything has a place like I. speaker-1: There definitely is. speaker-0: I used to work out in cotton, but like cotton poly blend. I just remember being, do you remember that back in like the early 2000s? That's what we're working out in. It was disgusting. speaker-1: Yeah, you're like soaking wet. like holds onto moisture. speaker-0: Yeah, and people are now like, ⁓ we should go back to that and hey, nothing against cotton, but like, ⁓ speaker-1: Go for it. speaker-0: And there's a reason why it's like wicking and all of moisture wicking and all of that. anyway, that was just a rant because it's really been stuck in my craw that people are talking so much junk about how people are running their business or what they're buying. speaker-1: Yeah, I think it's so interesting. I have a question for you. So do you do like style keywords? Are you like heavy on that on your listings? Like, I'm just wondering, because I know like some people, they're really specific, they'll put in like trying to attract the right buyer. So what do you do when you're putting your listings in? Do you put a bunch of keywords? How do you speaker-0: The way I do it, so I started off and this is another controversial thing and I've had to kind of work through it. I use AI to do my listings. And the reason why is I want to get these things in front of people and I don't want them to all go. And so you have to kind of balance it out and working in tech too. So this is another thing. People are going to tell you don't use AI, AI is bad, right? There are reasons for that. But if you look at Salesforce, I've worked at Salesforce, I've worked at Unity, I've worked at really large companies in tech. Us selling. sending like 500 queries in AI a week, they're doing that in like milliseconds all day every day. And so I think you it, my husband, so I went to my MBA is in sustainability. Okay, so I have like a lot of this kind of marketing that has gone into my brain. That's like, no, you have to recycle this, you have to do this. And it's really, this is another controversial take. It's all marketing. And it's like, Yeah, it's putting it on the consumer when it's like, well, what do you think like Clorox is doing? What do you think this brand is doing? What they are doing is so much worse than you could ever do as one person. And I get that if we all band together and we recycle and obviously recycle and I do all of that. But it's really about like, yeah. So anyway, my husband has taught me a little bit more to be like, no, you're being you're being brainwashed. And this is like the greatest marketing scheme. But so I use AI. So initially start off using chat GPT. And I have the paid version of both chat GPT and Claude. ⁓ and I experiment a lot, but you create a project and I can also, if anyone's interested, I can also link my project and like, I'll put that in here. But so I have been doing an experiment and actually when I use Claude, it sells quicker, which is interesting, but you have to create like a, you, you do the paid subscription and you write like very detailed stuff about what you want to do. And then I have it. speaker-1: Absolutely. speaker-0: like create it for me, but you have to know, you have to know like your product in order to make this work, right? You can't just have AI do it. Yeah, you have to be like, hey, because it's going to tell you the wrong price. So AI has always underpriced everything for me. I will always go way up from there and stuff. Like lately I have been pricing it a little bit more as what Claude does just because I want to move stuff. ⁓ speaker-1: something into it. speaker-0: But yeah, I have a whole project in both and then also to make AI images if I need to. That's cool. But most of the stuff that sells for a lot, I don't use AI images for, or even, I just take my own pictures and I'm not great at taking pictures. Same, again, you don't have to, we were talking about this offline though. So Ruthie Rams or Ruth Ramsey, she just hit in February 1.5 million on Poshmark and she's been selling for what, four, three, four? speaker-1: Yeah. I think so, yeah. Not as long as I thought. speaker-0: Yeah, and she only sells on Poshmark. she is selling, you know, this month she is on course to do more than $60,000 in one month on Poshmark. And that's so interesting. She doesn't do measurements. She doesn't do her own pictures. Does she even put the care tags? I don't even think she takes pictures of the care tags and like the material content. And everyone would tell her she's doing it wrong. speaker-1: Yeah. And she's not going to be successful. Yeah. speaker-0: But are they making 60K a month on one platform? and everyone's saying cross-list. She doesn't do that either. She do any of it. she is so successful. speaker-1: No. She blew my mind because I'm just like, all the things they say you have to do this, like the non-negotiables do X, Y, and Z. She doesn't worry about it. And she's just like blowing it out of the water. speaker-0: Yeah, and it's because of her product knowledge and her product. So I started liking some of her, so I went to her closet because I was like, I wanna see what she sells. She has excellent stuff. I don't know if you've looked at it yet. I haven't. I'll send you her link. It's like, I'm like, ⁓ and her photo. I'm like, how do you even find these? speaker-1: Right. Yeah, she probably spends a lot of time finding like the stock photos. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, it's stunning her storefront. I was looking at it. I was like, it looks like Neiman Marcus. Like it truly like, but anyway, that that is the rant of the day where I'm like, do what works best for you. And I'm going be on gut too. But gut plus research plus. Yeah. Yeah. So what's been going on? We haven't talked in a few weeks. How have you been? speaker-1: 100%. No, good, so busy. We are just like in the thick of sports right now. I have four kids in baseball, two kids playing football, and I'm going crazy. So I have been so busy. So I was telling Sam earlier, I'm like, I need to get like back in the reselling groove because I feel like I've just been so overwhelmed. I've been out of town. We've been all over the place. So yeah, so I've just been doing like one what not show a week because that's literally all we can handle right now. speaker-0: And you know what people would say? That's not enough. You need to show up for every hour, it's not just two hours or whatever it is. how is it going in terms of your selling? speaker-1: great. Yeah, it's good. mean, I think it's really fun. Whatnot is like a whole different beast because like you really have to build your community there. But it's like even last night I just did like a $1 start blowout. It was not like amazing stuff. It wasn't amazing brands. It's all new stuff from my palettes, not like, not incredible stuff. Not like my favorite show to run personally. Like it's more just like I have to clear the stuff out. And I had over a hundred people in there in the beginning. Whoa. And it's just like stuff like that. I'm like. I don't show up. I'm not posting on social media right now just because I'm so overwhelmed. I'm not really like actively growing that platform. So it is really fun to see that the work I have done in the past is still propelling me, you know, and I'm like holding steady. Does that make sense? Because like, right now I'm not, I'm not able to dedicate the amount of time that I haven't been able to dedicate, you know, in the past. And it's, and I'm like, but it's so great. And I had a great show last night. I think we sold like, 215 items in two hours. Holy cow. Yeah. So it's like, it's still just an amazing show. I'm, and Ryan was, my husband was telling me this last night. He's like, you're overwhelmed, but you can still show up and you can make a couple thousand dollars, sell 200 items, and then go back to being a mom, you know? And that is like, just the best part of reselling for me because my personality is like, I want to go a hundred percent in all the time, but being a mom really slows me down and it makes me have to like. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: prioritize, but also I'm like, I'm so grateful. Like how lucky am I that I get to do this and I can show up when I can for my job, which it doesn't even feel like a job, but it is. And then I'm like just with my kids and present and I don't ever have to like, so like I normally do my whatnot shows on Wednesdays, but we have been so like my son right now has two baseball games a week. And I'm like, I'll never miss a baseball game for a whatnot show. You know, like I can always move my whatnot show so that I can be there for his baseball games. And I don't know, I just feel really lucky and it's, yeah, it's been good, but mostly moming. speaker-0: Yeah, but I think that's the whole point of this, right? Like, we've all been brainwashed into do more, go faster, build it bigger when it's like when you step back and you're like, wait, why am I doing that? What is the whole point of this? Yeah. And you making a few thousand dollars. I'm sorry. That's incredible, you know, to do like such small work. And I know that you have done so much to build your your whatnot and everything like that. But yeah, I think that's the speaker-1: Exactly. Yeah, like what's the purpose? speaker-0: I don't know how you're doing that because we just have a couple of activities. speaker-1: Yeah, I feel like I'm drowning. Football ends this week and I'm just like so done. I'm like, if I can just focus on baseball, my life is gonna feel so much easier. speaker-0: When are they out of school? Because aren't they like the ones who are in school? speaker-1: Yeah, we have three weeks. So also I feel like May is the most insane month for school. have like fun runs, have fundraisers, we have field trips that I am expected to be at, you know, like, so May is just insane. So, kind of looking forward to it. speaker-0: It's interesting. We have just a couple of weeks left too, but they kind of leave us alone. Other than I accidentally signed my husband and I up for pickleball tournament. so with the faculty, thought I was just like paying 50 bucks, but no, was signing. Yeah, so we're doing that. Yeah, I'm like, ⁓ okay. Well, I've never played, but we're going to go. So, ⁓ but they kind of leave us alone. have a couple of things that we have to do at the end of the year, but. speaker-1: ⁓ that's fun. fun. speaker-0: We just started getting into organized sports and so we're now recruiting people to be on our soccer team because I'm like, hey, come on, moms, come on. And let's hang out. So that's what we did on Mother's Day. ⁓ yeah, how was your Mother's Day? speaker-1: Oh my gosh, it was actually amazing because I was out of town. went, we went to Universal Studios for my sister's 30th birthday. She's a huge Harry Potter fan. Yeah, we just went to the one in LA and she's a huge Harry Potter fan. So we surprised her. We didn't tell her we were going. We were like, we're just going to do like a little overnight thing down where they live. And then we just went to the airport and it was so fun. So then I came back. We came back Saturday night. So then on Sunday, I was like, I just had a break from my kids. I'm like thrilled to see them. I'm in a great mood because I had a little bit of a break. So it was a really good Mother's Day. How was yours? speaker-0: Good, I love Universal Studios by the way. So much better than. speaker-1: It was so fun. I was like 12. Yeah, I was it was such a blast and really like a fun adult trip too because like I was like, don't know, my kids would love Mario and Harry Potter, but the other stuff I don't know. speaker-0: that they would really care for. Yeah, I like that you can walk around and it's not as crowded as Disney. ⁓ yeah. We've been wanting, we read, ⁓ what is it? The Mina Lima ⁓ studio, I guess, is the one who did the graphics for Harry Potter and they have a bunch of books that they have kind of condensed. That's cool. And illustrated for kids. And so we have the Harry Potter series for kids and then they have a bunch of other ones, but they've like. Taking some of the scary stuff out, can't really get past book two though for Harry Potter. so we're still on book two, but I'm like so excited for when that happens. But my mother's day was great. son slept in till almost nine. speaker-1: It's just scarier and scarier. ⁓ my gosh, you're like, that's the best present, right? speaker-0: And I was like, but I was like, wait, on the day I don't have to get up with you. You're so right. And then they made me breakfast and it was very low key. We went out to lunch with some school friends and then we did soccer. We, you know, like I recruited people and so it was really low key. My son the next day woke up and he was like, why is there only Mother's Day and Father's Day? I want a day where I can just watch and eat whatever I want to do and do whatever I want. And I was like, okay, we can do that for your birthday. And my husband's like, yeah, he's like, speaker-1: Right. Call that your birthday. speaker-0: he can't eat whatever he wants. like, okay, but he can just watch all day if that's what he wants to do. reason. Within reason. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was really, I feel like I'm at that point in motherhood where I don't, like I wanted to hang out with him. speaker-1: Yes. And isn't that so nice when you finally are like, yeah, I'm here. I want to do this. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. So that was good. But I too have been struggling a little bit with the listing part because I don't think I told you... Did I tell you about this? How there's a funky smell on the floor at my storage unit? Okay. So I pay up for my storage units, as you know. And the reason I do this is I want to climate control. I want it to be close to my house. I want it to be in a certain town. And I don't know what's been going on, but... They had somebody move in and it smelled like cat litter. Luckily that person moved out like two days later. And now it's been smelling for like two weeks, like a dead rat. And finally I went downstairs and I was like, Hey, I have too much vintage, like natural fibers. cannot do this. Yeah. And so they're like, yeah. And then they also were like, I'm like, also my rate went up and they're like, ⁓ we'll just drop your rate back down. I'm like, okay. So that was another thing I learned this week. Just like, speaker-1: It's just gonna absorb all that smell. speaker-0: ask them to drop your rate. And so I've been having to move my storage unit. You'd be very proud of how it looked prior. And then I'm going to send you videos of how it's about to look. I mean, it all worked out perfectly because I couldn't find a couple items. I found them as I was moving everything out. But then last night I went to pick up a couple items that sold last night and because the girl needed it by Saturday. somebody on my other floor moved in a bunch of stuff that smells like cigarettes and that's even worse. And so I'm like, have to, after we hop off this call, I'm going to go and talk to them about having to move out of there. Cause I'm like, cigarette is like non-negotiable. speaker-1: people if you sell them stuff that smells like cigarette they're gonna be pissed. speaker-0: And it's like, so I went there, I'm like, thank gosh, I go so often to my storage units that I know that these smells are happening. And I know that like the people there are great. They're also upset because they're like, we have these rules, you're not supposed to move this stuff in. speaker-1: Yeah. But that's also a nightmare for you to have to keep moving. Like that's a lot of work. speaker-0: So I'm gonna try to figure out, I'm gonna go talk to them and be like, what can we do? Because I can't keep moving. And I mean, I think I know, because I watched these people move in. And again, I am there literally every day, so I'm seeing what's going on. So anyway, that's what's going on for me with reselling. So I've been very focused on like organizing and getting everything together, which means I haven't been listing, which means I haven't been selling as much. speaker-1: No, you can't. Yeah. I know. Isn't it so interesting, like all the different facets of reselling? Like sometimes you have to put your energy into this, which will in turn make you money later when you're more organized and able to move quicker. yeah. speaker-0: Those are the hard parts. I think I am going to hire a summer intern though. Have you thought about that? speaker-1: I have where I run it out of my house. That's where I like run into I'm like do I want people coming into my house? I don't know speaker-0: Do you have older nieces or people in the neighborhood? speaker-1: Not really. My kids are the oldest. Like, I'm the oldest. Ryan's the oldest. My kids are like the oldest cousins and stuff, so we don't really have a lot of that. But we probably, like, I could probably find like a neighbor kid. speaker-0: Yeah, like I was thinking about that. Maybe I'm gonna, maybe I'll ask the kid down the street because I feel like he, yeah. So I gotta find someone, cause I, and I just ordered my first, I haven't opened it yet. Do you have one of these, but it's a light box, like a big one. speaker-1: Help, yeah. don't but that I feel like that is so valuable. Those look so good. speaker-0: Just make sure pictures. Yeah. Mostly for, yeah, pictures, but also my back. So I want a place where it can just be consistent. But then also my back, bending over. Another thing they don't talk about, bending over and measuring and... Yeah, I'm like, I feel so old and I am kind of old. But anyway, that is it for my rants today. Do you want to talk about this thread up report that we found? speaker-1: Yes, it's hard on your body. Yes, I am so excited. I found this so interesting and also it's like really encouraging for resellers. speaker-0: Yes. Well, not mentioned in the report, but resellers get a bad rap, stealing from the poor, taking things from people who can't afford it, pricing it up. Why do we price it up? Well, 92 million tons of textile waste are produced globally each year. And this is the big part. A huge portion is coming from the US. So 11.3 million of those are from the US alone. That's crazy. And this is from United Nations Environmental Program. speaker-1: Wow. Crazy. speaker-0: website. and that's just talking about textile waste. That's not even talking about, you know, all the glass or pottery, or electronic or all of those. So, yeah, so we're doing, we're digging through trash like singles. speaker-1: Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, we're doing some damage. speaker-0: Yeah. But I'm going to share my screen so we can go through this together. And we'll put this on YouTube so you all can see it too. OK, so this is, we'll also link this, but it's the ThreadUp 2026 Resale Report. And this I found really interesting, which is why it's their headline. The global secondhand apparel market is projected to reach nearly $400 billion by 2030. it's growing twice as fast. two times faster than the overall apparel market. speaker-1: Wow. No, it's insane. speaker-0: Which is crazy. So if you didn't buy pallets, what happens to those items? Like if pallets weren't being purchased, do you know? speaker-1: So a lot of the pallets that I buy are liquidation, so stores that can't sell it. So if they can't sell it and there's not a liquidation company buying it, it's probably just going in the trash. And then the other portion is recovered freight. So if an item never makes it to its final destination, again, it would probably just end up in the trash if they don't have anywhere to get it. Because at some point, if there is a hiccup in the freight line, then they just either have to throw it away or they're offloading it to companies. speaker-0: Yeah. I've also started noticing because we're seeing a lot of traditional retailers go out of style, not out of style, but like they're going bankrupt. Neiman's, I bet Neiman's is going to close, but like all of these places and boutiques are closing. So I don't know if you've noticed this, but at my thrift stores, there's been tons of new with tags, kind of mid tier brands. You've been seeing that too. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, or like boutique items. know big boutiques are huge on like in this side of the country. I don't know about for like California, but. speaker-0: They are here too, especially like online boutiques. speaker-1: Yes, and we will just see like mass amounts and you'll have like full size runs of the same top with the new tags on and they're just sitting there and then of course the thrift stores trying to charge you 20 bucks for a top because that's a new tag on it. speaker-0: Yeah, that's another thing too. Goodwill and all these thrift stores get really bad wraps for, and I know we talked about this briefly, for pricing things up that they get for free. But they, and there are things to be said about that, but they also give people a chance to have careers who can't be hired elsewhere, which I think often gets overlooked. Absolutely. And you know, they're doing things that other corporations wouldn't, so. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: I know people call it greed will, but people get on them for like putting it online or whatever. it's like, everybody's just trying capitalism is the speaker-1: I know, I know, unfortunately. speaker-0: So this I thought was interesting that the secondhand market and this is all about clothing because it's ThredUp. If you don't know about ThredUp, do you sell on ThredUp? speaker-1: I have never sold on ThreadUp, which is crazy, because I feel like most resellers dabble in it at one point or another, but no, I never have. I have bought stuff off of ThreadUp. speaker-0: Me too. I bought stuff as like a consumer off of there and I just sent in two bags, but then items sold. So they're sending them back to me. ⁓ But I know a lot of people are right now sending in bags to ThreatUp because they're kind of getting to reseller burnout. So that is why I'm looking at this in particular. But it says secondhand represented roughly 10 % of the global apparel spend, which I feel like that is low. So I'll be interested to see in 2026 what that ends up being because I agree it's just exploded. And then if you look at this chart, mean, North America, Asia surprised me that they are ⁓ like how quickly it's growing. But I guess everyone talks about like going to China and Japan for their vintage. speaker-1: Yeah, and generally speaking, Asia is always the blueprint for us. They're always going to be five to 10 years ahead of us. so everyone is always like, that is one thing. know Gary Vee talks a lot about that right now with live selling. They're like, China has been live selling. That is making up such a massive amount of their sales for the past couple of years. So generally, we follow suit in that. speaker-0: That makes sense. Yeah. Well, here is the US market sizing. And so it's expected to reach nearly $80 billion, the second-hand market, in the US by 2030, which is bananas. And most of that, well, not most, but like 40%, they say, going to come from is driving the growth as Gen Z. And 31 % is millennials. But I will say, I am starting to get a lot more buyers who are older. speaker-1: Seda, forecast. speaker-0: which I am loving, but older women in particular have been shopping secondhand more, which I think is amazing. speaker-1: Yeah, no, I totally agree. mean, I think I'm even at that spot. Like if I want something, I will go to Poshmark. I will go to eBay first to see if they have the thing I want. And then if they don't, then I'll buy it new. But it always is like my first stop. speaker-0: Just Yeah, I do that except when I buy something off of TikTok shop because that is very impulse. And I'm like, somebody had a really good tip that I hadn't thought of before. She is also a creator. She was like, if I see something on TikTok shop that I want, like if she's like scrolling or whatever, she'll go and try to find a creator who is selling it rather than just the store so that they'll get the commission, which I thought was a cool tip. speaker-1: Yep. Yeah, that is so nice because that definitely helps the creators. speaker-0: Yeah, but so basically what this is saying is the resale market, I think this whole report is basically it is just exploding and it's going to keep getting bigger. And I think this is interesting. Nearly six, well, 59 % of consumers shop secondhand in 2025, which is up 7%. But I, this is again 2025. So I'm curious to see what it's going to be in 2026. Because I think it's just going to explode. I've also, do you get a lot of, speaker-1: I am too, yeah. speaker-0: recurring customers. speaker-1: Don't. No, I honestly don't see that I do, but I think I sell just such a weird massive range of stuff, you know? speaker-0: I'm curious, I bet if we looked in you would because I didn't know I was getting repeat customers even on Etsy and they were like, yeah, I bought from you before and you shipped quicker before and I'm disappointed that you didn't like ship as quickly. I'm like, ⁓ I didn't even know you had purchased from me before and I'm starting to get it on Depop too. Flag it for you. speaker-1: Interesting. yeah, I know. I feel like I've seen it a couple times on eBay where they'll say like, or returning buyer or repeat buyer or something like that. I'm like anywhere else I haven't noticed. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. And this kind of goes into what you were just saying about ⁓ how you'll look on a secondhand platform first. It's basically reiterating that, where it's like people are going to Poshmark first. And I will say, I feel like Poshmark, at least in the US, is the number one place people go in less than Gen Z. For clothing. Yeah. Gen Z definitely goes to Depop. Depop, yep. Also, Depop buyers are really nice. speaker-1: For clothing, for sure. Yes, yeah, if they'll freaking pay for their stuff. Do you have that issue a lot where they'll send you an offer and never pay? I'm like so over that. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah, so- pro tip, send them a message and be like, hey, I can get this out today or tomorrow once you complete the purchase because I also like a lot of stuff on Depop. So when you like, ⁓ no, I've never sent an offer. I don't send offers on Depop. I like get overwhelmed. So I just buy it. speaker-1: Yeah. I know, I feel like that would be such an easy fix for Depop just to make the payments automatic. I don't know why they haven't done that. speaker-0: Yeah, Bestiary does that too, where it's not automatic. speaker-1: Yeah, eBay used to be that way, but now it is. I feel like 90 % of the time. Every once in a while, I'm like, why didn't they pay? Now it's changed. speaker-0: But yeah, they've all. Have you seen eBay is kind of changing back to more like Depop? So now they have 48 hour. No, now they have four days to buy. So this is. speaker-1: Yeah, I hate that. I feel really frustrating when you're cross-listing and you're like, okay, but it's going to sell somewhere else, you know, especially for like a sawdust or item. speaker-0: Totally, yeah. And that happened once they acquired Depop as they started doing that. So I was like, four days, that's a lot. a really long time. You can delist it. So that is the thing, is even though you accept it, because I was worried about that too. This I thought was interesting in how AI is helping people shop. Yeah. What is, I don't even know what this is. 63 % say they're comfortable with agentic buying. I have no idea what that means, but I think it means. speaker-1: That's a weird. Yeah. don't know what that means either. speaker-0: AI purchasing and I don't believe this because how is AI going to buy my product for me? I will say if they're talking about it where it's the algorithm feeding you things that you're going to like, Depop is incredible at that. Poshmark not so much. Poshmark I feel like is trying to be more like a magazine almost. speaker-1: Yeah, I am not a fan of Poshmark's search engine and all that. I feel like it is very confusing to find exactly what you want. Yeah. like anywhere else you can type in. If you know what you want, you can type it in. It's going to pop up in the first 10 items. Yes. If they have it. Yeah, I feel like Poshmark, you have to dig a little, which I don't know. speaker-0: Yeah. And they also don't feed you, they don't feed me the stuff I like. like, I go on to Depop and it's all like everything that I might like. speaker-1: learned what you like and what you're clicking on, what you're liking. Yeah, don't know why freshman doesn't do that. Yep. speaker-0: So this I think is interesting. I have, unlike Amanda, I am not big on social media. I'm a little baby on social media in terms of like posting because I've always been really scared of it and being judged and like kudos to you because I feel like you just show up and I am trying to. speaker-1: I'm more scared of it now. I feel like it's kind of ruined me. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, I feel like in the beginning I was not that scared because I felt like no one knew me. Okay. I'm like, people are scary. People are mean. Anytime I have a video start to take off my anxiety spikes because I'm like, you just know the trolls will come out. Once my video hits like 500,000 views, I'm just like, ⁓ no. And I get scared to even open my app. ⁓ yeah, because people see me. ⁓ yeah. What? speaker-0: Really? What do they mean about? speaker-1: many things like how you look, you sound, what you're doing. What? My big thing and this will be no surprise to anyone that follows me because I'm so many people are like defending me in the comments which is very kind but people get really pissed that I don't tell people where I buy my palettes and they're like well why do you post about it but they will say things like like they're not just mad they will say just like the worst things about me because I feel like they're offended that I won't give them the answer so then they're trying to cut me you know what I mean? Like Yeah, it's just crazy. So I have filtered my comments a lot and that has helped because now Yeah speaker-0: It's just so weird. Yeah, I think the first comment, we've talked about this before, that I ever left for you was like, where do you get your palettes? And you're like, oh, I'm not gonna give up my source, blah, blah, blah, because it's gonna impact everyone's business. And I'm like, oh, duh, like it didn't even cross my mind. speaker-1: No, and I never want to be mean to people like that. You're not mean. Because I also have asked other people before I was buying pallets, I was like, where do you get your pallets? I didn't understand that there's just kind of like this unwritten rule in the liquidation industry that we don't share that. speaker-0: In any industry though, like you don't want to... And I think I'm starting to learn that where I'm like, oh, I shouldn't be telling people, but it's also like, all that stuff is still, like yours is different, right? Yours is palette so it's different, but like at the Goodwill, everything was just gonna go to the trash. speaker-1: I know. Yeah. And I also feel like, I've struggled with it. We're feeling like, am I like, why am I such a jerk? Why? Because I know, I feel like I put so much free information out on the internet. And I really genuinely feel like I try to be helpful. And I try to help people if they want to do this, like I will, I'm not scared to share that I, it's not a competition. Like even with whatnot, I'm like, anyone that wants to do whatnot, you should do it. Like I don't feel any competition in that way. And the pallets are the only thing that I'm not willing to do. And so sometimes I just want to be like, I share so much other free information and I'm sorry that this is the one thing that pisses you off, but like I'm not going to do that. I don't know. speaker-0: Do your own research. I found palettes in my area within 20 seconds. If you just do a Google search and you have to take the risk to be like, this real? Is this not? I haven't done it yet. speaker-1: of it too. They want me to say this is worth the risk and go here because I've already taken the risk right but like the first time I bought this palette I didn't know anyone else that had bought from this place so I was taking a risk with thousands of dollars you know but they want to say well make it easier for me you know make it make it more worth my while make it work more worth my time I don't know. speaker-0: Yeah, the other thing too is it dries up the source. like somebody posted about this one, and I won't say the name, ⁓ kind of like ⁓ liquidation boxes and you could buy like, non-strom boxes. So I bought a couple and you know, it was fine. It's not been my most lucrative because they send you like two good items and then some. speaker-1: bunch of like house brands. speaker-0: or like use things, like I got a free people body suit that was used and I was like, what is happening? This is all supposed to be new attack. But they no longer do it because so many people were buying them, they no longer have the inventory. So they just do like mall brands now. And so that resource is dried up for people. And it's like, this is the whole thing. But all this to talk about ⁓ is posting on social media, says nearly half of the people who are buying secondhand are actually buying speaker-1: Most ass. speaker-0: finding things on social. ⁓ Which is something I have noticed. ⁓ it's not even my screen is not has I've been like scrolling through and it hasn't been going. speaker-1: See. No, hasn't moved for me now. Ugh! speaker-0: What a bummer. Okay, well, we'll just go ahead and link this. Yeah, I've been scrolling. speaker-1: Definitely check it out because it's worth looking into. speaker-0: Yeah, well then I'm going to stop because... Alright. So, nearly 50 % of people are finding stuff on social, which I actually have experience with this recently. I have been posting like consignment hauls or things that... speaker-1: I love those videos. I'm like I will watch those all day. They're so interesting to me speaker-0: I love them. Yeah, that wasn't was an I posted one and you know, I brought up a political comment because ⁓ and I'm noticing that people are not liking that and I am just political by nature. It's just whatever. People aren't realizing that like I'm getting some heat because they're saying, well, this is just an American flag purse. Why does it have to be Republican? And I'm like, guys, this is like a symbol. It's like Republican is elephant and Democrat is donkey, which whatever. And so it is interesting because it's like, that was the first one I posted where I kind of got a little nervous because I'm like, what if people go and they find my address or whatever? And again, I have everything linked to my PO box. But yes, so I have noticed an uptick in sales when I post on social, especially from new buyers and specifically from older women or people being like, hey, I found you on TikTok and I'm buying. And so that has been new for me because I never thought about TikTok or Instagram. I won't get on Instagram, but TikTok or any of those platforms as a way to increase sales. Like I just thought it was a fun place to go, but now I'm like, ⁓ and like people are DMing me wanting me to consign their stuff or wanting me to sell stuff on TikTok, which I'm not quite comfortable with yet. I don't understand it. ⁓ But have you noticed that when you post a video and when you go viral on like a Have you noticed more people coming to your what not show or more people? Okay. speaker-1: That's the only reason I post them. Yeah, I mean, I also make money. Like I've made $2,000 off of a video before. Yeah, like I had one, it was probably like towards the end of last year, I think it hit almost 2 million views and I made 2000 bucks off of that. So obviously I posted a little bit because I'm making money through the Creator Rewards Program, but people will be like, why are you sharing this if you're not gonna tell us where you get it? Like, what's the point of putting, and I'm like, because this is marketing for my business. speaker-0: Really? Yeah, and I never thought about it like that. speaker-1: I put it out there is because this is how I market because it's very interesting. It's an interesting way for people to see what they could buy from me on whatnot. And so I always put on my video just in like small text because whatnot, TikTok is weird with whatnot and sometimes they just won't show my whatnot videos. And I think it's because there is a little bit of competition there because they are also doing live selling auctions now. But I will always put like all this can be found on my whatnot Amanda common threads or common threads LLC And I always have it linked in my bio But then anytime someone comments like ⁓ how could I buy this or when are you selling the free people or whatever? I'll be like, ⁓ what not show on wednesday and I have had times where i've had 500 people bookmark one of my shows And that is always directly after I have a viral video And so if I can figure out how to have a viral video every week, I would be like making insane amounts of money, you know? And I will say, I will say that does not translate to 500 people coming to my show. And I want to be very clear about that because people will bookmark my show five days before I actually go live and they forget about it or they don't see the, they're not available when I go live. You know what I mean? So I think it is a little different, but yeah, I never thought about it for like driving sales to Poshmark and eBay like you are, which I think is genius. but I definitely look at it for driving sales to whatnot. It's probably my main source of marketing. Like how I'll be able people there. speaker-0: Yeah, definitely in your link tree put all your profiles in there because I'm noticing speaker-1: I don't think I even have my Poshmark in my- No- speaker-0: I don't think you do because I was looking for the other day, but I've noticed a lot of resellers do not have it in there. so when people are like, how do you, and I didn't like have it, like I had it linked, but people don't always click. But yeah, it is interesting. I never would have thought of things like this and that, yeah, but the 500. So when you get people bookmarking it, I imagine that it pushes you higher in the algorithm so that more people will see it would be my guess, cause like they're probably like, this is a popular show. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, I think it does. think it's more like how many people are present in your show once you go live. The higher you rank. They also, on whatnot, they have a thing called premiere shops. So you have to sell $50,000 in a 90-day period. You have to be in good standing. There's a few metrics you have to Wow. So those have their own banner on the search page, which I'm like, that is just exposure right there. Because every time someone scrolls, they're going to see premiere shops that are live. I have not reached that. I don't know. I would have to be doing a lot more shows than once a week to reach premiere shops. speaker-0: So here's the other thing, and y'all are gonna be hearing from some whatnot sellers who have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in one year. They're doing eight hours, nine hour shifts, five days a week. So when you see these little snippets on social media, I think this has been a huge learning for me as a reseller, you're only seeing a snippet, right? Like you're not seeing everything else that they're doing. You're not seeing the hours that they're just sitting online with no one there. So keep that in mind. So this screenshot actually brings us back to the beginning of the conversation where we were talking about brands that- having a comeback way speaker-1: That's crazy. Wow. I'm shocked at a lot of those brands. I am shocked at a lot. speaker-0: Yeah, these are the, okay, if you're listening on audio, I'm gonna tell you the 10 most shot brands on ThredUp. And again, this is ThredUp, so keep that in mind. So we have J.Crew, Zara, Ann Taylor Loft, Old Navy, Gap, Madewell, Banana Republic, Athleta, Lululemon, Ann Taylor. I will tell you, there are people online, all 10 of those they say is garbage. Do not buy those. Every single one, and I buy every single one of those. Every single one of those I buy. speaker-1: Yep. speaker-0: Less lululemon lately just because I don't find it, but. speaker-1: Yeah. I feel like that's one brand you can almost guarantee to be marked up to. Yeah. Everyone loves to mark up Lulu. speaker-0: Yeah, when I do find them leggings are like $29. Yeah, so I'll buy it if it's like cheaper. And then standout performers, Veronica Beer, no surprise, Farm Rio, no surprise, St. John's, Johnny Was, and Fry. Fry is interesting to me because Costco sells Fry, but my guess is this is the boots rather than the shirts because I some unlisted Fry items, but they are sold at Costco now. And then brands having a comeback moment. speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. You're like that. It's a rough night. Are surprised with me? speaker-0: Lilly Pulitzer, which people say don't pick up. Also, fun fact, you know Lilly Pulitzer actually married into the Pulitzer family? Like who does the awards, like the Pulitzer award? Yeah, she married into that family and then created her brand. So that is a fun thing. I always put that if you're, if you are selling that brand, put that fun fact in. So I also try to do that in my listings. I try to put a fun fact about the brand in there because people don't always know that why this is so expensive or why this is so special. speaker-1: Really? speaker-0: It's like, this is, you know, this era of, I don't know, whatever, Donnie was, whatever. ⁓ Everlane having a comeback, Michael Kors. speaker-1: Yeah, feel like Everlane surprises me too because they were at a peak a couple years ago and I have only seen them go down. So I'm a little shocked with that. speaker-0: I will say Everlane sells. Like if you pick up their jeans in the right size and they're in good condition, will, cause they're a very good quality gene. But you know who else makes great quality jeans? Old Navy and Gap. speaker-1: I know, that's true. I love old Navy jeans, like some of my favorite jeans. speaker-0: Yeah, no, me too. I have a pair of barrel jeans that I bought from Old Navy. They're Lands End, this is one I always pick up too. People will tell you don't pick up Lands End. And then my favorite, J. Jill. They also say don't pick up J. Jill. And so again, you can see what the data is showing you here. And then you can see what people are having anecdotally in their own stores. So if somebody is telling you don't pick this up, it doesn't sell, they're telling you more about their business than they are about the market. speaker-1: Yep, I totally agree. And the one caveat to that I would say is if some of this stuff you might buy and it might sit forever. So I would always say if you're on the fence, if you find like a land end item and you want to know if it's going to sell, just check comps really quick. I feel like that is the one way to safeguard yourself from picking up items and ending up with thousands of items that are just sitting because there are items from land end that I have bought that don't move. And then there are items like a down filled puffer vest that is going to sell for a lot of money and it's going to sell really quick. So just check coms quick if you're on the fence. And also the more you do it, the less you're going to have to check coms because you're going to know what sells and what doesn't sell. And I always like to say like, is it a modern style? Like, is it skinny jeans? It might not sell, but is it a wide leg or a boot cut or a barrel? It's probably going to sell. You know, like we also have to understand like what people are buying right now. And I think that plays a big part in it too. speaker-0: Yeah, and if you're finding these, mean, this is on ThreadUp, right? So if you want to experiment with ThreadUp, we'll put this report link in the episode summary so that you can go and click on it. But it might be a good way to experiment and send those items in because if they're selling well, it is not saying how much they're selling for, I think is the other thing to take a caveat for. Is it's not saying, hey, this is the most average, the highest average sale or average sale price per item. speaker-1: Very good point, yeah. speaker-0: It's saying this is just the most popular. ⁓ So I will say keep that in mind. And definitely they also have, I just heard about this online too from, I want to say your name is Nikki or something, has your estimate buyout price, like what you can expect to earn from startups. So we'll also link that. ⁓ But I will say what people are showing you on social media is very different than that calculator. So people are like, ⁓ I made $150 selling these. Lejean's pants and then I go and check on it and I'm like it sold for $55 and it's 150 payout $1 and 50 cents payout and I'm like why that it it cost me more to go to the bins. just social media can be very helpful to help you sell to help you learn but it can also be dangerous if you're taking everything at face value. speaker-1: Yeah. Absolutely. speaker-0: So we have a couple of really cool episodes coming up. So stay tuned next week. We're going to have Ruthie on. She has sold $1.5 million, as we mentioned, on Poshmark alone. We have Kelsey coming on. She has sold $300,000 just in whatnot in six months. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it was like eight months or something. I think she started in April of 2025 or something like that. So an insane amount of money in a very short amount of time. speaker-0: Yeah, we also have somebody, person, a couple more people coming on named Kelsey. One who has 26,000 items in her eBay shop and she started I think in 2020 or 2021. And she's a mom to three little kids. And then we're also, you know, we're gonna have people from all walks of life come on. We also have a vintage reporter and secondhand reporter coming on. I forget her name, but she will be coming on in a few weeks. So stay tuned, we have a lot of people coming on. ⁓ speaker-1: Yep. And if there's anyone you want us to interview that you like from social media you'd like to learn from, you can always shoot me a DM on Instagram or you can message either of us on TikTok. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah, and if you buy from somebody who you're like, ⁓ this would be a really good person, like on Poshmark, on Depop, whatever, because I really want to talk to top sellers in Depop. Yeah. speaker-1: Absolutely. Yeah, that would be really fun, especially because a lot of them like There's a lot of people talking about reselling on social media, but most of the sellers aren't right. Most sellers are not talking about Reselling on social media. They're just doing it like that's their job. They're doing it. So speaker-0: Yep. There's one guy I want to talk to. He just graduated college, but he is the, he's been in the top 10 for a year and like he his whole dorm room and it's just like all jeans. I love it. And it's so interesting to see, I do feel like reselling is a great MBA program, essentially. You're learning how to all the different parts of a business at one go. So stay tuned, make sure that you follow and subscribe to this show so that you get alerted for new episodes. And again, Every other week we're gonna have a guest versus us talking. And that might change up sometime with summer coming up since we are parents. And then we're also hoping if you work at Poshmark, whatnot, any of those, or if you know somebody who does, we wanna have folks from those companies come on. So we'll be doing some outreach to them, but we wanna learn about the company, learn about how the algorithm works, all of that. thank you all for listening. speaker-1: Yes, thank you. We appreciate you all. Bye. speaker-0: and we'll see you next week.