I've Made $4,100 Cleaning Out My Closet This Year. Here’s How To Do It.
The best place to sell, and all my tips and tricks!
Today’s letter was written in partnership with Poshmark! OG’s know how excited I am about today’s partnership—I’ve been shopping and selling on Posh for 6+ years now, and it’s been responsible for SO many of my best finds (and the money I’ve used to buy them!). If you’d like to partner on a future newsletter, drop me a note at priyanka.aribindi@gmail.com.
Shitters! If you’ve been here for a minute, you know I love shopping on resale sites. I’ve found so many of my favorite pieces, vintage finds, wedding guest dresses, old Doen (the best Doen!)—the list goes on and on and on! But what I love arguably even more than shopping on these sites is selling on them.
To me, it’s a two birds situation. I get to clear out the pieces that I’m no longer using (and give them a second life with someone who is excited about them!), and make pretty decent money back doing it. But not all resale sites are created equal!
For the past six years, my favorite place to sell has hands down been Poshmark. In the past year alone, I’ve made thousands of dollars simply from cleaning out my closet and then selling there. That should be enough on its own to entice at least some of you, but as I said, I’ve been at this game for YEARS, and I have some secrets to making the most of the platform!
My Poshmark Selling Secrets
The number one complaint I hear from people about reselling things online is that they get terrible payouts on things that are worth so much more. I’ve been there! $12 in exchange for dresses or shoes I spent hundreds on... still shuddering at the thought. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
Compared to other resale sites, the fees for sellers on Posh are low (and very straightforward!). For a sale under $15, Poshmark takes a flat $2.95 fee, and for ones over $15, the seller keeps 80% of the profits (the best cut of any resale site I’ve ever used). As a seller, you can negotiate directly with buyers, reject offers that are too low, and make sure that if you’re going to part with something, you’re getting an amount of money that you’re actually comfortable with.
I’ll be honest, you do have to put in some legwork listing your pieces in order to make a sale, but to me, the difference in what you make back is worth it (if only to put the money towards your future finds!). After years of selling, these are my tips to maximize your earnings and make it easier:
Do your homework on what to sell. This doesn’t take long—just look up the brand or piece you’re trying to sell on Poshmark before listing. Pretty quickly you’ll understand if people are buying/selling/listing it there, and for how much. Brands that I’ve made the most from reselling on the platform include Doen, Daily Drills, Staud, AGOLDE, and Reformation.
Batch the listing components. I always dedicate a couple hours at the start of the year (sometimes at the end of spring or summer too) to cleaning out my closet, and I find that treating the photographing and listing process the same way is helpful. Yes it takes time, but batching each part (first all the try ons, then all the photos, then all the listings) is an efficient way to knock it all out in one afternoon.
Set your prices strategically. I start with finding the original price and what I spent on an item, looking it up to see what it or other items from the brand have sold for or are listed at on Poshmark and elsewhere, and then checking if anyone else has it listed in the same size/condition, and at what price. In my experience, most users on Poshmark expect to negotiate, so I always price things a bit higher than what I’d want to accept.
Let Posh do the work! I love negotiating with buyers myself (talk about love of the game), but Poshmark has a feature where you can set the lowest price you’d accept and they’ll negotiate with any interested buyers on your behalf. If you don’t have time for all the back and forth, let them do it for you.
Give buyers the 411. Put yourself in a buyer’s shoes—what would make you feel confident buying something secondhand online? For me, it’s information. When I list something on Posh, I start by pulling up my original email receipt of the item so I can run a search on the product name. Even if it’s not sold anymore, you can often find the product info archived online. I copy that product name and description along with the fabric contents and measurement info into the description field on Poshmark so buyers have all of the relevant information in one place. I’ll usually also add a line about the condition or any specific notes (“new with tags!” “no signs of wear,” “small mark on hem, as pictured,” “perfect for a summer wedding!” etc.) to give them as clear of an idea as possible.
P.S. Resale sites have their own language. NWT= new with tags. NWOT= new without tags. TTS= true to size. EUC= excellent used condition. Use these in your listings, or to help you shop!
Put the most effort into your photos. This is what has the highest payoff, IMO. Take pictures in good light (daytime is best), wash the clothes beforehand and take a minute to steam or remove any lint or pills, lay it flat (I prefer these to hanging pictures because you can see all the fabric), and take at least four photos of each piece (the tag with brand and size, front, back, any detail shots, etc.). Again, this takes a little extra time, but put yourself in the buyer’s shoes—more high-quality pictures and information means more confidence and willingness to spend, aka more $ in your pocket.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate back! Even with decent offers from buyers, I tend to negotiate unless the difference in commission is truly marginal. The worst that happens is that the buyer rejects your offer, and in that case, I’ll find their username, tag them in the comments on the product page, and say “I’ll accept your last offer if you make it again.” Easy!
Keep your listed pieces together. Keeping all of the items I’ve listed in one place separate from the rest of my closet makes it easy to find and ship them out as soon as they’re sold (Posh sends sellers free shipping labels once the piece sells, making that process very easy!).
My Poshmark Shopping Secrets
Shopping is more straightforward than selling, but I still have tips to get the best deals on the things you like!
Reuse your earnings!!! Oftentimes when I make a sale, I keep that money in Poshmark instead of transferring it to my bank account, so that the next time I go to buy something on the platform, I can use that credit instead of “real money.” Is that girl math? Definitely. But you know what it’s not—another Chase charge!!!
Always “like” first. Oftentimes sellers will offer buyers a discount in the first few hours after they’ve liked an item, or they’ll make private offers to likers with further discounted prices. It’s always helpful to understand how willing they are to negotiate (and they’ll likely become more flexible on price the longer it’s listed, so I revisit my older likes often!).
Again, negotiate. Most people on Poshmark expect you to make an offer rather than purchase at list price. There’s no harm in starting on the lower end—sellers will either reject it outright (in which case, make a better offer!), or counter (which you are allowed to counter as well!). I only jump to buy something right away when I KNOW it’s a hot commodity/ underpriced.
Take advantage of saved searches. You need to download the Poshmark app to do this, but it’s WELL worth it (and I’m not even an app person). If you’re looking for something specific (a particular dress that’s past season, or even just pieces from a specific brand), type it into the search bar, apply the relevant filters, and then tap the bookmark icon in the upper right corner. This saves the search so you can revisit it easily, and it’s how I’ve found SO many pieces that I’ve hunted down for years!
Double check the photos! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to make an offer on something only to realize that the only pictures in the listing are screenshots from Shopbop or Revolve instead of pictures of the item IRL. Don’t risk it! I go to the comments and ask for real photos. And if they don’t respond or post them, don’t buy!
Train your algorithm. The more you use the platform (with likes, purchases, sales, searches, etc.), the better it gets to know your taste and surface brands and pieces that you like in your feed.
Know that Posh has your back. One time I bought a pair of vintage brand name sunglasses at a waaaay too good to be true price (select luxury items over $500 go through Poshmark's authentication process, but these were under $50). Turns out they were too good to be true—they arrived and were definitively fake! I flagged it to their team and was refunded very quickly. In general, if you have issues with an order—something was off about what you received, a seller isn’t shipping on time, the package got lost in the mail, etc., Poshmark’s Support team is genuinely helpful.
Those are my best tips and tricks, but I want to hear from you! Do you have any Poshmark secrets? Tips of your own? All time favorite finds?! Now you have to tell me!!
And now, a few of my picks for everyone shopping/browsing!
Thanks for the tips - I need to get started !
Need to do this