Okay, so after my whole Marie Kondo cleanse I did last year, I am constantly looking through my closet with a “joy” lens.If you are anything like me, you have lots of wonderful, quality clothing that simply doesn’t serve you anymore. You have intentions of taking them to a consignment store but never get around to making an appointment. These clothes are also too nice to give away, so you end up keeping them and your closet looks the same. This is where ThredUP comes in as a great option for you.

ThredUP is an online consignment store, you can download their super user friendly app to shop or shop via desktop. Either works! Although you can buy and sell gently used or new with tag clothing and accessories, this post outlines my consigner experience only as a seller. To date, I haven’t purchased anything on the site but have done quite a bit of “window” shopping. Be aware, it’s pretty addicting! Maybe I’ll do a post on the buying experience—let me know if you’d be interested in the comments below.

Quick Tip! I didn’t realize when I ordered by clean-out bag that ThredUP also takes baby and kids clothes! My next bag will be full of kid’s clothes & I will update this post with the results. Make sure to subscribe to my blog to stay in the know with that!

Why ThredUP?

ThredUP is a convenient, don’t-leave-the-house alternative to schlepping your loot across town only to be told that none of your coveted clothing treasures from yesteryear are unfashionable or not the right size. If you are looking to make a lot of money, I’d look elsewhere, but if you are looking for convenience, this is a great service to try.

After asking Facebook where I should consign locally in Augusta, a friend of mine had sent me a referral link for ThredUP and informed me that it’s a great alternative to conventional consigning.

By the way, they have a great referral program where I get $10 off my first order and my friend also received $10 in credit. All my ThredUP links in this post invite you to the $10 for $10! Of course, I wanted to wait until my clothes were processed so that I can use that credit on my first order. However, my clean-out bag processing time is longer than the $10 credit was valid for, so I missed out on that promotion. I do have a 40% my first time order but having moved overseas, I am unable to use it for now.

How Does Consigning Your Clothing With ThredUP Work?

First, you need to download the app and/or create an account with ThredUP. I simply used my Facebook account.  The first thing you’ll need to do is order a free

(not technically free, I’ll get to that below) “clean-out” bag and stuff it full. You can pretty much cram an entire laundry basket’s worth of stuff in there. After you seal the bag, send it back (leave in your mailbox or drop off at the post office, no shipping label needed, it’s already on the bag), and wait {patiently} to see how much money you’ll get for the loot. The waiting part is what takes the longest and it requires a bit of patience on your end. If you are looking for a quick way to make money, ThredUP is not for you.

What I Put In My ThredUP Clean Out Bag…

 

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I can’t remember everything I put in my bag. Like I said, I crammed a laundry basket full of stuff. I remember there were some higher end BCBG blouses (but there were some minor snags in them), a Juicy Couture blouse purchased from Nordstrom (before Juicy was found in Kohl’s and sold in TJ Maxx), some maternity blouses from my maternity StitchFixes , and some J. Crew sweaters.

Most of the brands included in the bag were J. Crew, Nordstrom/Nordstrom Rack, The Gap, Gap Maternity, Banana Republic, BCBG, Target brands, etc. There were some tiny holes and/or snags I hoped they wouldn’t notice on some of the higher end pieces. They did notice them and consequently, those items were not bought. Sad face.

There were some items I threw in the bag that I was CERTAIN ThredUP wouldn’t consign because they weren’t their recommended name brands or were super out of style (at least to me). I’ll get more to those below.

Cha-Ching!

How Much Did I Make With My Consignment?

I won’t lie, when I got the “Your ThredUP bag has been processed” email, I was SO excited! I had thought maybe nothing sold, that my bag had gone into the abyss, and that the email notification went to a Spam folder. When I opened the email, I was thrilled to see that I made $50.00! I immediately started searching their site to see if I could find anything I loved to start spending that money.

I received an upfront payout for all of my items. I didn’t know there were options but getting an upfront payout is the best. That means they pay you regardless of whether your item sells or not. If they consign it and your item doesn’t sell, you won’t see any of that money.

This is what the email said:

Our specialists have carefully reviewed your bag. After examining each item, we’ve determined that the total upfront payout for the items we will be able to resell is $50.00.

The items they accepted were  (anything with an asterisk indicates a HUGE SURPRISE that they accepted it):

• Kate Hill Casual Skirt
• Gap – Maternity Jeans *
• BCBGMAXAZRIA Casual Dress
• Faconnable Short Sleeve Button Down Shirt
• Wilsons Leather Hat
• Gap – Maternity 3/4 Sleeve Blouse *
• Love on a Hanger Cardigan
• Be Maternity Active Pants
• Lizsport Casual Skirt
• Gap – Maternity Casual Skirt *

My Final Assessment

Pros:

You do not pay any up front costs for the clean-out bag but you do have to provide credit card information. I didn’t know why until…

I will receive a gift card in my PayPal account. That’s great because PayPal is my preferred method of online payment.

Cons:

There’s no such thing as a free lunch! If ThredUP wouldn’t have accepted any of my clothes, they would’ve deducted the cost of the clean-out bag against my credit card, which was $8.99. Since I did sell some items, they deducted the cost of the clean-out bag against my balance, so I only really received $41 and some change.

I sent my bag in and it took almost a month an a half! This wouldn’t normally be an issue but given the fact we are moving overseas, I don’t have time to order anything in time for it to be shipped before I leave.

 

Have you used ThredUP? If so, what was your experience? I know other ThredUP-like companies are popping up and I’d love to try those too. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I may buy a few things with my credit and let you know how that worked out. Until next time